UA Students to Participate in Global News Relay

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama students from the department of journalism and creative media are teaming with 15 universities around the world for the fourth-annual Global News Relay.

Global News Relay is a collaboration of journalism students worldwide who produce news content for a 5-hour block under a set theme each year. This year’s theme is solutions journalism, which focuses on problem solving through reporting on the responses to social problems, rather than only reporting the problems.

Over a dozen UA students volunteered their time producing and recording their solutions journalism pieces. The UA portion of the broadcast will feature stories of West Alabama initiatives that are building homes, planting gardens, distributing food and providing therapy in a variety of contexts.

The stories were produced and directed entirely by UA students inside WVUA 23 studios in the Digitial Media Center.

“With a huge spotlight on journalists and how they cover news this past year, it is refreshing to see how professors and students around the globe are training the future generation of journalists to focus on their communities,” said Dr. Chandra Clark, who oversees the UA Global News Relay team. “Every day people are working to find solutions to everyday problems, and the Global News Relay works to report on those who are trying to make a difference.”

UA’s portion of the Global News Relay will broadcast via livestream from California State University in Fresno between 1 and 2 p.m. March 29. To learn more about the stories featured in this year’s broadcast, see the promo video here.

The Global News Relay was founded in 2014. UA first participated in the event in 2015 and has done so each following year.

The department of journalism and creative media and the digital media center are housed within UA’s College of Communication and Information Sciences.