9# - College Media

College newspapers exist in a difficult time, print is very quickly becoming entirely irrelevant and most news is consumed from online sources. The problem of where the funding will come from has become a priority at many institutions of student journalism. This was the case at the Southern Methodist Universities The Daily Campus who was closing due to funding problems and after providing ninety years of service. Its closing and the student backlash at the university acted as a catalyst for other student news outlets to take notice of their situation. 

Image from collegemediamatters.com

That is where Melissa Gomez, the editor in chief at the The Independent Florida Alligator comes in. Gomez along with other managing editors have decided have created the #SaveStudentNewrooms hashtag as a call to arms of other student media outlets for Support Student Journalism Day. A media blitz of editorials on the importance of student news outlets, videos, best stories produced by said outlet, testimonials of alumni, and how they can donate to their outlet all occurring on April 25th. Now while this might be successful this time in helping some college media outlets stay afloat a more permanent solution is needed. So, Gomez has formed a private Facebook group along with other heads of student media outlets so that they better understand the issues they face and offer support to each other. This group is not purely for their own benefit as the group wants to expand the platform to as many outlets as possible in the hope that this will allow for better understanding of the issues with one of it founders Catilin Ostroff saying, "We hope to have the people who have the answers start talking to each other. These issues are going to be very real in the next 10-15 years. Aggressive and accountable coverage of these insinuations is going to be so important". 

Link the article covering the #SaveStudentNewsrooms here.