A New Insight on Journalism Education:
Faculty Feature with Marcie Young Cancio

From writing about women’s luxury shoes for Condé Nast to being the first multiplatform managing editor at the Disney-owned ABC station in the San Francisco-Bay Area, Marcie Young Cancio has been navigating and adapting to the changing field of journalism throughout her 20-year career. She now brings her experience and knowledge to the University of Utah’s journalism program housed in the Department of Communication to help students be successful and stay relevant in an ever-changing industry.

As a clinical assistant professor, Young Cancio believes it’s time to step away from the traditional way of teaching journalism and acknowledge and pay attention to the ethics within journalism, focus on what makes good journalism and understand that journalism will never stop changing.

“It’s not like what it [journalism] was before and we have to respect our students enough to help them define what the future of news media looks like,” said Young Cancio. “We need to guide them in a way to help them make the decisions of what the future of journalism looks like.”

Young Cancio encourages her students to part of moving journalism forward and tells them it’s her goal to guide them in doing so, by teaching them to identify the difference between good and bad journalism and by helping them recognize how the industry can and should evolve.

She has been instrumental in revamping some of the courses within the U’s already successful journalism program to better fit the needs of future reporters. To do this, she has concentrated her teaching on community-centered journalism, which focuses on reporting for a community rather than solely on a community through relationship-building and collaboration.

One way she is engaging in community-centered journalism is by reviving Voices of Utah, a hands-on storytelling course created in 2007 by Kim Mangun, professor of communication. Mangun started the course as a way for students to learn about underrepresented communities, to report fairly and accurately on their issues and concerns and to become more civic-minded. Young Cancio has built upon these objectives and partnered with the Great Salt Lake Collaborative – a solutions-focused journalism organization that includes a dozen local news organizations as well as science and education institutions – to incorporate west side voices and Indigenous voices into news stories about the Great Salt Lake.  

“Not only are students learning community engaged reporting, introduction to solutions journalism, but they are also interacting with professional journalists, getting guidance and working on building themselves as professionals as part of this course,” said Young Cancio.

As part of their coursework, students create original articles to better inform and engage the public about how west side and Indigenous communities are impacted by the crisis facing the Great Salt Lake. The students participate in listening sessions, learn from local leaders and experts, and create feature stories by engaging with these affected communities. Their work has the opportunity to be published across the 12 collaborative media outlets.

The Salt Lake Tribune and Amplify Utah, of which Young Cancio founded and is the executive director, were originating members of the Great Salt Lake Collaborative. Through Amplify Utah – funded by the Google News Initiative and in partnership with the Salt Lake Tribune – Young Cancio works to provide students with opportunities to publish their work and get paid. The mission of Amplify Utah is to bolster diverse voices through engaged storytelling. Young Cancio recognizes that universities are diverse spaces with students already writing about diverse topics, and their stories deserve notice. Since spring 2021, more than 60 articles have been published by the Salt Lake Tribune and 30 more have been featured on KRCL 90.9’s RadioActive program through the Amplify Utah project.

Another course Young Cancio has created to give hands-on journalism experience to students is Comm 5800, a special projects course focused on community storytelling for radio and multimedia. In partnership with local radio station, KRCL, and working with The Other Side Academy – a training school for individuals facing incarceration and those seeking a change for a past life to learn pro-social, vocational and life skills – students work on a podcast series features stories from the Salt Lake community.

Students work directly with individuals who have completed the program – many of whom have been incarcerated, experienced homelessness, or struggled with substance abuse – to create the podcast, which will be featured on KRCL’s RadioActive. Not only will the stories be featured later in the spring semester, but students will have the opportunity to take over the show for an entire week to fully explore the topic of their podcast and to gain hands-on experience in running a radio program.

Outside of coursework, emerging journalists involved with student media also have the chance to work in partnership with PBS Utah and Amplify Utah as part of the inaugural College Media Collaborative. The first of its kind in Utah, the collaborative brings U students together with other in-state colleges – Weber State, Utah State and Salt Lake Community College – to work on stories concentrated on a single theme. The teams selected to report about guns on college campuses, with each school presenting their work in a different medium – print, radio/audio, video and social media. All stories will go live in late March to create a complete package to be shared with the Salt Lake Tribune, PBS Utah and other media partners. Their work will be presented as part of a larger, public PBS Utah event on April 3, 2024.

Each of these projects are meant to bolster the practical side of journalism and move the program forward by teaching students how to adapt to an industry that continually changes and shifts. Young Cancio encourages students to rethink ways of doing journalism that’s not necessarily in the traditional form, such as parachute journalism – where an individual reports on a story in which they have little knowledge or experience.

“Communities don’t want journalists coming in and capitalizing on their pain or disaster. Building better connections with communities and learning how to build trust with your audiences is an essential part of the work,” said Young Cancio.

Young Cancio believes students need to build trust, respect their sources and truly understand their audience before writing about them. These courses are helping and preparing future journalists to do just that.

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MEDIA CONTACTS
Jana Cunningham, University of Utah College of Humanities
jana.cunningham@utah.edu | 801-213-0866

Published March 6, 2024