By Jocelyn Rockhold
In 2021, then 12-year-old Mohsin Siddiqui in Charlotte, North Carolina completed memorizing the entirety of the Quran, a practice known as hifz. While mainstream media has given the tradition little attention, a student journalist at Queens University of Charlotte brought the practice to the spotlight in an article about Siddiqui and his accomplishment. The article, written by student journalist Elvis Menayese and provided by the Queens University News Service, was published through WFAE, the Charlotte-area NPR affiliate. Menayese now works as a reporter for WFAE.
Through the Queens University News Service, student journalists are stepping in to make sure diverse facets of Charlotte, such as community faith groups and other religious topics, receive deserved attention in the news. Charlotte, North Carolina is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country. Historically, Charlotte was largely Christian, though a recent influx of people has seen the opening of over a dozen mosques and other religious centers. Despite these developments, traditional media outlets have less resources to cover topics like community religion.
“There used to be several reporters who would actually cover [religion] full time, and those positions don't exist anymore,” said Bob Page, director of student media at the Knight School of Communication at Queens University. “But there is still a considerable demand for people to learn about what's going on with religion and faith in the community, so that's a place where our students can actually make a contribution that's meaningful.”
Queens University News Service started as an idea from the university president Dan Lugo who found a genuine desire from community media organizations to collaborate with a university such as Queens. Queens University is an education partner of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, a group that brings together leading journalists from the Charlotte area.
“Almost immediately, editors were really receptive to the idea of these stories and began publishing them,” said Page. “There were specific news organizations that really embraced the idea and wanted to support the development of new journalists.”
Student work has been supported by and featured in local publications such as WFAE, The Charlotte Observer, and QCity Metro, amongst others. Queens University News Service contributors are generally students in a variety of journalism courses, ranging from news reporting to video production, though some students outside of these courses volunteer their work to the news service.
Student-produced pieces are typically edited by student leadership and faculty before they are placed on a cloud-based drive; an advisory email is then sent to local media outlets, alerting them the student-produced work is available for inclusion in their publications. This email is sent on a Thursday night, a strategic move that recognizes media outlets may have news gaps on the weekends due to less staff and are more likely to turn to student journalism.
In addition to religion, students cover other topics such as policy, community news, and sports “behind the scenes.” Charlotte is a major sports town, so while other media outlets cover the day-to-day sports scene, students turn to athletes behind the game, covering the social impact of the sport and showing what athletes do outside of the playing field. However, students also cover other important topics; student Sam Carnes highlighted the response times of phone operators and police to 911 calls, with The Charlotte Observer publishing the story on its website and on the front page of its print edition.
“What I find really rewarding is the level, the body language, the change in the behavior and the kind of the disposition of students who are involved in this,” said Page. “They begin to recognize that they can actually make a contribution to the understanding of their community and to generate content that people find valuable. And to cover topics that if they don't do the story, nobody will do that story.”