Journalism Practice (2025)
Authors: Sue Robinson, Margarita Orozco, and Lori Shontz
Abstract: This article analyzes the impact of a conversation facilitation training program for journalism students from six universities across the United States as a so-called “intervention” in applied research to build a new curriculum for journalism schools. We found three areas that demand careful consideration to transform syllabi to be more community-centric: Unlearning extractive reporting techniques, revamping grading expectations, and emphasizing course transparency and topic sensitivity. Also, students learned how to immerse themselves into people’s lived experiences, eschewing objective distance; students learned how to build relationships and thus, trust, with community members quickly; students learned how to make people feel cared for in a way that also resulted in feelings of empowerment; and, finally, students learned how to share informational power with community members, giving sources much more control over how they shared their stories. Recommendations for integrating community sessions into journalism curricula are provided.