MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — An assistant professor in Middle Tennessee State University’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media is among the 150 honorees named a “champion” for the Center for Community News, a nonpartisan nonprofit housed at the University of Vermont.

Matthew Leimkuehler, alongside the other CCN faculty champions from throughout academia, was recently recognized for their commitment to forging a sustainable future for local news through university-led reporting programs. CCN’s faculty champion program provides a small stipend to chosen faculty along with a year of coaching, mentoring and networking.

“At the core of all these university-led student reporting programs are innovative and entrepreneurial faculty committed to student success,” said CCN Director Richard Watts. “These programs are a win-win for everyone; students receive high-impact experiences, and communities benefit from more reliable news.”

Leimkuehler said his goal as a champion is to create news-academic partnerships in Middle Tennessee that build editorial relationships and lead to MTSU students producing publish-ready content that news organizations can use online, in print or on social media.

“This aligns with what I want to do here at MTSU with creating real-world experiences and getting out and teaching students how to tell stories and doing boots on the ground journalism,” he said.

To prepare students, Leimkuehler is launching a community news course this fall and has recruited seven students for it.

“The seven are junior- and senior-level students who had taken advanced reporting and have done great work in class,” he explained, adding, “I approached them individually and asked if they would be interested, and then I approached our friends at the Tennessee Press Association, which represents virtually every print news outlet in the state.”

The class, described as a media experiences course, will have students out in the field reporting while occasionally meeting in person throughout the semester to brainstorm, interview, write and edit pieces.

Leimkuehler said each student will produce at least three stories about tourism in Tennessee during the semester.

“It’s exciting because they’ll be able to do business stories, enterprise stories, feature stories about small towns and community news stories so that the students will have all kinds of options,” he said.

By covering tourism, Leimkuehler said students will be able to dig into hard news stories about out-of-state visitors, spending data and industry trends.

“We can also tell off-the-beaten-path feature stories about places worth visiting and sights worth seeing,” he said. “Plus, there’s an opportunity for entertainment features and other formats that will test their skillset beyond general news reporting.”  

The most important goal of the class, Leimkuehler said, is making sure the students tell good stories.

“I want them to get real-world experience, for sure. I want them to get bylines; I want them to grow their resumes. I’m always looking for and hoping to find ways to build newsroom-like experiences in the classroom. This class isn’t going to be exactly like a newsroom, but hopefully it’ll be close.”

And with the opportunities that will come with the class, Leimkuehler said he hopes that when the students reflect on their time at MTSU, the media experience course will be a highlight.

“I had a lot of those experiences through student media and being outside of the classroom in college, and that’s the stuff that really helped shape my interest in media,” he said.

Leimkuehler also teaches feature writing, reporting and advanced reporting and leads a summer class at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, where students get hands-on field experience. Before teaching at MTSU, he covered entertainment news for more than a decade.

— DeAnn Hays ([email protected])