Campus journalists are our future

We as an industry must champion our student journalists and their professors, teachers and advisers. We are at a democratic crossroad in many ways. Our future journalism depends on these campus warriors.”

Robin Blinder, editor-in-chief, Editor & Publisher

In June 2025, we ran a story entitled “Student journalists rise to the occasion.” That piece, penned by Gretchen A. Peck described the work that college (and increasingly, high school) journalists do to cover their surrounding communities, where the “professional local newsrooms have been diminished or destroyed.” These student newsrooms are sometimes the last bastion of news reporting for the communities they serve.

Like just about everything since this current administration retook office, reporting news on campuses has become much harder. Far from a doomsday piece, this month’s feature by Peck details the current challenges for campus journalism in “Student journalists push back as censorship tightens on campus.”

Indiana University, much celebrated for its national title football team, has in the past year been embroiled in a dispute with the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), including the firing of the IDS adviser, Jim Rodenbush, and a subsequent lawsuit filed by Rodenbush alleging IU violated his right to free speech and due process.

While the University has reversed its decision and has begun a student media task force, Kris Cundiff, a local legal initiative attorney covering Indiana for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, told E&P, “These young journalists are there; they want to do this work. They’re passionate about it. That is important, especially now. I try not to be ‘doom and gloom,’ but it’s a concerning time for people not only working in journalism but those who are considering going into the field.”

A concerning time, indeed. The current Department of Education has targeted universities and colleges with investigations in their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, and many have capitulated to their demands — including some multi-million-dollar payments to the White House.

Academic institutions, long recognized as centers of intellectual progress and social change while promoting social mobility and inclusiveness, have become less so in the last year — embracing censorship and protectionary practices. These are the environments that our future journalists are fighting to work and learn in.

Not all campuses are falling into this approach, and there are still wonderful journalism programs training excellent journalists for a future in news. E&P has reported on many fine programs. However, at a time when news media needs all the support it can get and democracy is challenged at every turn, our student journalists are a critical cog in the wheel of both news reporting and upholding a free press.

We as an industry must champion our student journalists and their professors, teachers and advisers. We are at a democratic crossroad in many ways. Our future journalism depends on these campus warriors.

As always, I welcome your thoughts on this or any other issues. We at E&P are here for you, our readers and audience. You matter; you’re #1 to us. You are why we are here. Keep working to hold power to account and protect democracy and a free press. We can’t take our foot off the accelerator.

Robin Blinder is E&P's editor-in-chief. She has been with E&P for six years. She can be reached at robin@editorandpublisher.com.