UH Journalism Students Are Back On The Legislative Beat
University of Hawaii students are getting on the job training by reporting on the Legislature.
Readers may notice some new bylines on legislative stories being published on Civil Beat in coming weeks.
For the third year in a row, Civil Beat is partnering with the University of Hawaii’s journalism program and providing the opportunity for the student journalists to publish their work on a more far-reaching platform.
More than two dozen UH Manoa students will be gaining practical experience in reporting on proposed laws and public policy in the halls of power at the Capitol as part of a capstone class led by Professor Brett Oppegaard. They’ll cover other issues, too, with beats such as the environment, Indigenous affairs, tourism, the economy and others.
They鈥檒l have to meet tight deadlines and undergo an editing process by their journalism instructors as well as learn how to deal with reluctant sources and other challenges.
In exchange, the goal is for them to come away with published work to add to their portfolios and to be better prepared to enter the professional world.
Most are seniors and Oppegaard said it鈥檚 the largest group of graduating journalism majors in at least a decade. Many also are studying political science.
Last year, their stories ranged from a fun look at a self-driving car class at UH that competed in a race in Italy to the more serious topics of corruption and efforts to repatriate Iwi Kupuna.
Civil Beat will publish their stories in a special section called UH Beat and some will make our homepage as well. They also will appear in the Ka Leo O Hawaii, the journalism program’s and social media platforms.
“This class collaboration gives us an opportunity to test our curriculum and training to see in real time and in real ways if we are reaching our marks,鈥 Oppegaard said. 鈥淭his is how journalism students work in our kind of lab, in real situations with real audiences.鈥
