Journalism Class Provides News For Town Without Newspaper

As the media landscape continues to change across the country, more communities are finding themselves in news deserts, without the coverage where they once had thriving newspapers. Meanwhile, journalism students are looking to learn their craft and gain real-world experience. In Kansas, one community is close enough to campus for the two to partner to provide coverage and lessons in today’s media realities.

University of Kansas students from the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications are providing news coverage for Eudora, a city of roughly 6,300 residents about 10 miles from campus. The project began as a way to give students social media experience with a professional client and has grown into a news site providing coverage of events, local businesses, sports teams, schools and people. While the project is part of a class, students said it’s meant more than turning in an assignment for a grade. Riley Wilson, a reporting student, said the idea of covering Eudora reminded her of her hometown of Wamego.

“I think small towns have a lot of interesting aspects that people don’t know about because there’s not good news circulation, and I think small towns are really interesting and have good stories to tell,” Wilson said. “The experience of writing for the Eudora Times is the first time a story I wrote has been seen by people other than my professor. What I like most about the project is really just talking to the people of Eudora. They’ve all been so excited to talk and tell their story. It really is fun every time I go to Eudora to do a story.”