Developing student newsroom leaders

To build a stronger curricular connection with the editorially independent Daily Campus newsroom at Southern Methodist University, I designed a course that teaches leadership skills to student editors and top reporters while they are leading their peers.

Students learn about communication, conflict management, coaching and other leadership skills in the classroom, then immediately put those ideas to work in the newsroom — without editorial interference from a professor-editor. Through regular reflection on their own successes, mistakes and challenges, they learn to evaluate their leadership and adjust along the way.

Co-taught with a colleague who oversees SMU-TV, the course also brings together leaders from print, digital and broadcast mediums. Students learn leadership in the classroom, practice it in the newsroom and reflect on it together — turning the newsroom itself into a leadership laboratory.