An Assessment of Financial and Editorial Independence in College Newsrooms
A February 2024 report from the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project, made possible by support from the Lumina Foundation
By Jessica Sparks, Lila Greenberg, Abigail Rillo and Ashley Alarcon
College news is a distinct area of community journalism. Journalists in newsrooms based at universities and colleges not only serve their communities by providing timely and hyperlocal information, but they also contribute to the overall efforts to keep government accountable. Specifically, these outlets are best known for their duty to hold institutional administrations accountable. They do this while also serving as training facilities for professional news organizations, providing an educational experience that cannot be replicated in a formal classroom setting.
However, in practice, college news outlets are often placed in difficult predicaments in regard to their roles on campus. As advertising models change and media outlets reach for other ways to pay the bills, these newsrooms often lean on college administration and student governments for financial support. In addition, other practices in college newsrooms can leave student journalists vulnerable to efforts of influence on the work they produce. When administrations threaten to pull financial backing, attempt to remove student and faculty leaders and demand to see content before it’s published, they are chipping away at the students’ First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.
This report and the accompanying map provide a glimpse at the editorial and financial structures most common in college newsrooms. For three years, researchers at the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project have collected data and information about active student newsrooms at all four-year universities and colleges with 5,000 or more students enrolled. Through this endeavor, we show that some structures — such as having faculty advisers or getting money from the associated institution — are extremely common despite their potential to be problematic.
Additionally, our report discusses the potential of the New Voices movement and its importance to protecting college media.
In the map on this page, you can filter outlets by university enrollment size, public/private status, financial independence structures and editorial independence structures. While there are some outlets who might fit more than one category in each of these sections, we aimed to give an accurate picture of what’s happening across the country — with the hope college journalists can find a solution to protect the future of this all-important sector of journalism.
At least at public colleges, a consistent line of First Amendment cases going back more than 50 years continues to limit the authority of college officials to use their “power of the purse” to censor, punish, manipulate or control the content of student media in any way. If you feel you are being directly or indirectly censored for material you have published or intend to publish, please reach out to the Student Press Law Center’s free legal hotline.
If you identify any mistakes or inaccuracies in the information on the map, please contact Jessica Sparks at sparksj@ufl.edu.
