“It’s a Lot of Hand-Holding”: Journalism Professors Addressing Local News Gaps Through Curriculum

This study examines how journalism faculty and staff are reorganizing long-standing experiential learning practices into community-facing curricular models that respond to local news gaps. Drawing on interviews with 118 faculty and staff across 101 U.S. higher education institutions, findings show that programs embed community reporting through required courses, capstones, program-wide sequences, interdisciplinary recruitment, and, in many cases, news-academic partnerships with local outlets. These initiatives reflect “journalism teaching hospital” models but rely heavily on faculty and student labor. The study argues that sustainability depends on institutional support, clear partnership structures, and ethical attention to student labor.