By Lauren Milideo and Jocelyn Rockhold

When Delta Digital at Arkansas State University came into being in 2016, its purpose was to create an online showcase for the reporting work that journalism students were completing in their classes. The work would be available to local news outlets, as long as students received a byline.

In 2019, multimedia journalism program instructor and Delta Digital News Service advisor Terrance Armstard decided that the service would focus exclusively on off-campus stories. The student newspaper already had campus covered, Armstard reasoned, and the site would be a needed addition to existing student journalism opportunities.

“We had a student newspaper, a radio station and a television station,” Armstard said. “With the creation of the digital news service, it provided a fourth avenue where students could go and complete a news practicum.”

Armstard wanted Delta Digital to form its own niche, with his student journalists reporting local stories that other outlets did not cover. This would prevent competition with local media while increasing the chances that the students’ work would be picked up, he said.

Armstard hoped to form a staff within a journalism lab, but the goal was not easy to meet, he noted. Between the significant demands of required journalism coursework and the fact that most students also held off-campus jobs, many simply lacked the bandwidth to commit significant time to yet another time-consuming role. One solution the program found was to include students from other disciplines.
One student, Rangsiya Faihin, an engineering major, was a fantastic photojournalist. Armstard, himself a former photojournalist, worked with her to learn the craft, and soon, she was adeptly providing award-winning content.
Armstard said he imparted the skills needed to complement her existing photography skills: “how to interact with the police, how to interact with fire, how to listen to broadcast.”

He also taught Faihin which types of events required coverage. “We're going to go to collisions, we're going to go to fires, we're going to go to emergency situations.” And he explained what to do on the scene: “What questions to ask. Creating business cards. Giving them business cards.” He added, “with these skills, she was a complete success. She won a ton of awards in the SPJ Arkansas Pro Chapter Diamond Awards.”

Delta Digital’s current reporter, Avery Jones, has worked there since Fall 2022. She has covered stories ranging from the challenges that formerly incarcerated women have found in securing local housing to the local library’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month festival. An English major, Jones noted that the experience has provided opportunities she would not have had otherwise.

“I think I definitely gained a lot of skills that would be transferable to a lot of careers, including the one that I'm planning,” said Jones, who noted that the Delta Digital editing and reporting role has strengthened her research and writing skills, as well as given her more confidence.

Professor and chair of the multimedia journalism program Lillie Fears notes the confidence boost as a key benefit to student participation in Delta Digital.

“You're going to be working with sources off campus and not just [covering] what the fraternity is doing. You’ve got to go and work with strangers. It's very important. You've got to get out of your comfort zone,” said Fears. “Yes, you're a student, but you've got to be the student who comes across as professionally as possible. And I think that's what Delta Digital does for students.”

Delta Digital pays its students an hourly wage and provides some summer reporting opportunities—Jones has continued reporting during the summer.

Armstard is also finding new ways to ensure that students can pursue their work and receive payment. International students and graduate students often cannot hold other paying jobs beyond their assistantships. But through a university-administered marketplace, the student photography club, which Armstard founded, offers its paid services, and students can receive a one-time check from the club after completing a freelance gig. It’s a way to work with students whose talents could otherwise not be showcased on the Delta Digital site, Armstard noted.

Delta Digital work appears in the RSS feed of local Black-owned radio station KLEK, and occasionally on local NPR affiliate KASU, but the service is hoping to expand.

“I think if we could get the word out for Delta Digital News, it will be a pretty significant service to a lot of the papers because we are in a unique position,” said Fears. “We're at the northeast corner of Arkansas, so we're northwest of Memphis and we're below the boot heel of Missouri. We have the potential to cover our 75-mile radius which covers Missouri, Tennessee, maybe the north of Mississippi and Arkansas.”

Whether the students’ work remains on the Delta Digital or also appears elsewhere in local media, Armstard said, he is satisfied that students are getting the experience of reporting for its own sake. When people ask what he does at Delta Digital, he noted, “I say I provide students with an opportunity. In the end it’s really not about being published, and our content being used for local media. That's a good goal. But guess what? If it's not, that student went out and covered a story, into the community, and that person got their experience. I’m happy once that last period comes down on the page. I'm done. I'm happy.”