PBS, Amplify Utah join forces to begin college media collaborative
Dec 13, 2023, 10:00 AM | Updated: 3:15 pm
Kyle Forbush, a student at Salt Lake Community College and a member of the college media collaborative, works on his project. (Marcie Young Cancio/Amplify Utah)
(Marcie Young Cancio/Amplify Utah)
Editor’s note: When originally published, this story referred to the project as a college media collective. It has been updated to reflect the proper title of college media collaborative.
SALT LAKE CITY — PBS Utah and Amplify Utah have announced a college media collaborative.
According to a press release from PBS, students from four colleges will participate in the collaborative. They will focus on producing multimedia stories about guns in schools. Students from each school will be tasked with different story formats during the project.
For example, the University of Utah’s Daily Chronicle will be responsible for audio stories.
The student participants are currently attending the University of Utah, Weber State University, Utah State University, and Salt Lake Community College. Three students from each school were selected to participate in the inaugural college media collaborative.
Kyle Forbush and Sean Stetson are both part of the collaborative. They attend Salt Lake Community College. (Marcie Young Cancio/Amplify Utah)
Students will receive training from PBS Utah and Amplify Utah personnel. During the training, students will learn about “resources and tools for producing content from conceptualization to completion,” according to the press release.
The press release called the multimedia stories “timely as ever.” A report from the Marshall Project stated that mass shootings are at their most frequent.
Supporting the collaborative
Marcie Young Cancio, the executive director of Amplify Utah and an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Utah said, “We’ve seen the impact of quality journalistic collaboration in Utah over the past two years with the award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative.”
Additionally, Young Cancio said that Amplify Utah values bringing news outlets together to cover important stories.
“Offering similar opportunities to student journalists is crucial in fostering this type of work in the future,” said Young Cancio.
According to the press release, PBS Utah was awarded a grant by POV, television’s longest-running showcase for independently made films. “The grant will support the work of this collaborative,” said the release.
“Fact-based and unbiased reporting is crucial as communities battle a barrage of fake news, sensationalism, and opinion pieces disguised as journalism,” said Laura Durham, PBS Utah’s director of programming and community engagement.
Additionally, Durham said that PBS Utah is “thrilled” to join forces with Amplify to present the college media collaborative.
Related: The college enrollment gender gap: What’s it like in Utah?
