How COVID-19 has affected college newspapers: A mixed-methods study

Abstract

This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic—with its college closures, business shutdowns, and student enrollment declines—impacted the independence of college media during the pandemic, and how those impacts will continue after the pandemic is over. Using a mixed-methods approach based on the Hierarchical Influences Model framework (Shoemaker & Reese, 2013), this study integrates the results of a survey of 126 student media news outlets with interviews from 15 well-known news organizations from universities with established independent practices, to establish a relationship between revenue sources and student participation with independence measures. Results confirmed a stronger push toward digital products and the use of a wider variety of revenue-generating techniques during the pandemic.