The Impact and Potential of Inter-university Collaboration in Journalism Experiential Education: A Case Study

Abstract

Since 2009, journalism students from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) and North Carolina Central University (NCCU) have been reporting and writing for a community newspaper, the Voice. This essay provides a case study of experiential learning and inter-university collaboration by focusing on students’ perceptions of their work as reporters and my experience as a faculty adviser to the project. This study contributes to calls for research case studies in student experiential learning in journalism (Brandon, 2002; Feldman, 1995; Mensing, 2010). Additionally, it builds on concern for tracking journalism experiences targeting minority students. In this case, one set of students come from a small program at a public historically black university (NCCU) while the others come from a highly-regarded journalism school (UNC), which helps with understanding how a project like this might operate differently for small programs.