Iron String Press Partners with SUNY-led Reporting Initiative

STAFF REPORT
COOPERSTOWN

An article written by SUNY Oneonta student Tony Savio, published on Thursday, September 26 by Iron String Press, marks the beginning of a partnership that aims to address the problem of declining civic engagement and local “news deserts” throughout New York State.

That story, titled “City Council Approves Stage, Discusses Zoning of Markets,” is the first in a series of articles to be provided by the advanced journalism students of SUNY Oneonta’s Dr. Gayane Torosyan. Thanks to a collaboration between the SUNY system’s Institute for Local News and Iron String Press, these student-written articles will focus on meetings of the City of Oneonta Common Council and will be published in “Hometown Oneonta,” “The Freeman’s Journal” and on AllOtsego.com.

SUNY Oneonta part-time instructor and local media expert Cassandra Miller fact-checked and revised Savio’s story before submitting it to the editor of Iron String Press. Miller offered to help students covering future events by sharing background and contact information related to local news and public affairs.

“I was the youngest person at the City Council meeting,” Savio said, excited to learn that his story was going to be published: “That’s awesome! … And will I write a similar piece for the next meeting with her help as well?”

According to officials, “The Institute for Local News at SUNY engages students in university-led reporting programs with local media partners to bolster local news coverage while giving students real-world learning experiences in multi-media story-telling and communications.”

Torosyan is the ILN lead for SUNY Oneonta. Her role is to guide students in the writing of professional-level news stories in their classes, which are then delivered publication-ready to Iron String Press. Through this partnership, students get a guided internship-like learning experience resulting in published work for their portfolios, while understaffed and resource-strapped local news outlets such as ISP get much-needed original content covering important community issues, officials said. SUNY’s ILN initiative is being developed in coordination with the national Center for Community News at the University of Vermont. SUNY Oneonta Communication and Media faculty member Dr. Andrew Bottomley is a member of ILN’s Faculty Advisory Committee and the program’s coordinator on the SUNY Oneonta campus.

“We ran a pilot for the ILN during the spring 2024 semester and found that the syllabi for our journalism and media production courses needed to be adjusted to match the real-life deadlines of local news outlets. Students wrote interesting stories, but the “shelf life” of their topics required better planning,” Torosyan said.

Both Torosyan and Bottomley were recently honored by the Center for Community News for their efforts in helping to grow SUNY’s ILN. Torosyan and Bottomley were named CCN Faculty Champions last month for developing new journalism-focused programs and collaborations with CCN.

According to a media release, news-academic partnerships have emerged as a critical contributor to the national news landscape and one solution to the crisis facing local news. “As the largest system of higher education in the nation, SUNY’s contribution to the state of local news and information could be profound for underserved regions,” officials said.

“The news coverage that these programs are providing in coordination with their local outlets is helping to meet critical information needs,” said Center for Community News Director Richard Watts. “Most importantly, they offer students a chance to contribute to public life and develop skills that will serve them in journalism and far beyond.”

Approximately 80 million Americans live in news deserts, according to the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. Researchers at the University of North Carolina identified 14 New York counties as being considered news deserts in 2020. Between 2004 and 2018, New York State lost 40 percent of its operating newspapers and saw a 63 percent decrease in newspaper circulation. According to the CCN, researchers have also found links between the lack of local news and lower voter turnout, less choice in political officials running for office, participation in community events and higher levels of municipal funding.

The lack of local news also leads to increased polarization and the spread of non-verifiable and false information, according to those same researchers.

“Dr. Torosyan and I first began talking about a possible partnership in May, when I reached out to SUNY Oneonta Communications and Media faculty members regarding a staff writer job opening here at Iron String Press,” said ISP General Manager/Senior Editor Darla M. Youngs.

“We are delighted to have SUNY Oneonta students covering Oneonta’s Common Council beat. The disappearance of local news is a threat to American democracy—we agree with the Center for Community News that our colleges and universities can play a critical role in both addressing this threat and in shoring up our local news ecosystem,” Youngs said.

“At the same time,” Youngs said, “the focus on university-led reporting programs becomes even more vitally important as we see journalism studies programs deactivated due to lack of interest, as is the case with my alma mater, SUNY Morrisville.”

According to CCN officials, university-led reporting programs have the potential to help forge a sustainable future for local news and civic information. New funding to CCN of $5 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and $2 million in additional matching funds from the MacArthur Foundation and the University of Vermont is expected to triple the number of programs, students and published work over the next five years.

“Some of these student reporters will go on to be journalists; many will not. But they will all be engaged citizens armed with transferrable skills that can be applied broadly in civic life,” Watts said.

“I tell my students that showing up is half the battle,” Torosyan added. “Tony Savio showed up at the City Council meeting after a full day of classes and before his evening shift at a local venue. Even if his future career as a media studies major develops in a different direction from journalism, he will have some professional experience to show for his years at Oneonta.”