By D. Thompson
Bowie State University communication students recently met with Youthcast Media, an independent media platform that specializes in teaching up-and-coming journalists and media professionals how to develop multimedia content while covering health and social issues that are often underreported in communities of color.
The tandem of Jayne O’Donnell and Cynthia Robinson (‘02) visited with multiple classes at the Martin Luther King Jr. Communication Arts Center earlier this month to expose students to their platform and possibly recruit a few for paid opportunities to work with the media group. Paid opportunities include formal internships or freelance content providers, who will be paid per post.
“The organization is focused on training youth (on) how to produce multimedia journalism,” said Robinson, who serves as the group’s Developments and Partnerships Manager. “(Students) apply for and are selected for bootcamps, workshops and independent study programs. Being on campus reminded me of one of the things I always had an aspiration to do. That was to help students navigate their coursework, what their plans and goals are through graduation and what’s after that.”
O’Donnell, the Co-Founder and CEO, said she and Robinson noticed there was need in journalism to invite different voices and viewpoints to cover the wide range of topics that flow through a newsroom. So, they took their decades of experience working in journalism and branched off to create a platform that could train and add more diverse voices to the industry.
“I wanted to work with young people, and I wanted to make (journalism) more available to young people of color,” said O’Donnell. “I had seen, since USA Today had started internships, that it was the rich, white kids that were getting them. I wanted to level the playing field.”
O’Donell and Robinson also know that students are sometimes faced with the tough prospect of trying to apply for jobs while lacking the prerequisite experience sought by many employers. They hope that Youthcast can fill in that gap and help students build a foundation of experience they can put on their resumes.
“I think it’s such a great thing,” said Jazlynn Stannard, a senior public relations major. “When Youthcast came, it was like an eye-opener. I was like, ‘I can actually get into this. This could be my start.’”
Students appreciated meeting with O’Donnell and Robinson and view joining Youthcast as an opportunity to pick the brains of seasoned media and communications professionals with decades of experience that could help them get their start in a competitive job market.
“I thought that was cool, because not a lot of people get the opportunity to post content and get paid for it,” said senior public relations major Arraja Green, Jr., who hopes to run his own PR firm one day. “That’s a way to start in the industry. I know (they) have experience in communications and shadowing underneath them will allow me to see how things are done.”
