Campus Media in Quarantine

From 6 to 6,000 feet, Twin Cities campus media endures.

BY COURTENAY PARKER

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA STUDENTS DIDN’T COME BACK

to campus after spring break. That meant campus media employees had to think quick so coverage remained consistent. The students of Radio K, the Wake and the Minnesota Daily didn’t miss a beat, or a story, during the pandemic.

Hubbard School student Cleo Krejci was the editorin-chief and co-publisher at the Minnesota Daily. She said that despite the easy transition to online-only content, social distancing made communication with staff more of a challenge.

“As journalists, we have to be in constant contact with one another, and before all of this happened it was easy to catch up in the office or in class,” she said. “We had to be hyper-aware of who we updated on which stories, and who else we had to update.” With much of the country operating on Zoom, Slack and Skype, internet connections were stressed and communications were slowed.

In the midst of COVID-19, depression and anxiety are likely to spike in the United States, according to ABC News. The Daily’s newsroom stopped publishing on Fridays and Saturdays to combat the effects of seclusion.

For then Minnesota Daily Multimedia Editor Jack Rogers, the documentation of this time was paramount, as future generations will look back on the media to learn about life during the health crisis. Sending out photographers, however, could be seen as irresponsible or even dangerous.

“Great stories are told by taking a step into people’s lives to see the world from their perspective,” he said. “Yet that same community that is counting on our transmission of information is also kept safer by as much limited contact with the outside world as possible.”

The Wake, a fortnightly magazine, didn’t have much to change when print editions of the publication were suspended, having already released them on the issuu digital platform. And since they formerly depended on pitch meetings to find writers for each issue, in-person pitches turned into a Google form.

“Ultimately, as a platform that allows all students to share their voice, our content is decided by the student body,” said Tala Alfoqaha, The Wake editor-in-chief. Volume 19, issue 10 of The Wake was heavily devoted to COVID-19. “Our editors pitched stories that approached the unique circumstances presented by COVID-19 in a variety of different ways, yet also pitched unrelated articles such as reviews of TV shows and music. Many students wanted to process their situation, and chose to write stories related to COVID-19.”

Radio K, as Director Sara Miller puts it, “will never change.” The student-run station, which started broadcasting in 1912, has endured many crises over the last century. It even continued to broadcast while students were stuck at home during the polio epidemic in the late ’40s.

“It is this personal connection that provides a connection to “Great stories are told by a wider world; people can still taking a step into people’s turn to 100.7 lives to see the world from FM or 104.5 FM or 770 AM or their perspective. Yet that stream online, to hear new same community that is music, just like counting on our transmission we did before the world changed,” of information is also kept Miller said. “That safer by as much limited is emotionally powerful for a lot contact with the outside world of folks.” as possible.”

Although there are no —Jack Rodgers longer DJs in the studio, Radio K’s music is still curated by students, and every day their inbox is flooded with comments from listeners on how the crisis has been made easier by tuning in to their station. And even in a time of furloughs and unemployment, the station still sees generous donations during their Pledge Drive.