By Emily Sheftman
As regular reporters have disappeared from covering the Indiana Statehouse, Franklin College’s Statehouse File has taken on increased importance.
Every semester around three to seven students join veteran reporter and faculty leader Colleen Steffen for an immersive experience in the Statehouse news room. Students produce work year-round, Steffen said, with 35 news outlets around the state taking the copy.
While many statehouse programs are run by large universities, including Maryland, Michigan and Missouri, Franklin’s 900 students are having a mighty impact. What started as a once a year, one-month initiative is now both semesters, a special January term and a few students in the summer.
And the stories can be challenging. One project that student reporters and Steffen have underway, is investigating lawmakers’ purported social media support for extremist groups. The program is also creating an online database making legislators’ financial disclosure statements easier for the public to access. More recently, the student reporters examined the growth in the use of TikTok by legislators.
The program is an immersive experience required of all journalism majors at Franklin. Students commute directly from their homes, which are often in the area, or travel the 25 miles to Indianapolis from Franklin, Steffen said. Students work out of the windowless press office in the former horse stable in the basement of the Statehouse.
“Right now I've got a staff of three, and we're together all day long,” Steffen said. “Today they covered a study committee meeting about maternal mortality. There was something about the criminal codes being updated. We covered Indiana’s abortion ban this summer—there were two weeks of protests at the Statehouse. So we've had some dramatic days with the students, and other days that were more enterprise reporting or even features. Every day is different and has something to teach.”
Steffen edits al stories in collaboration with the students and ensures the copy is acceptable before submitting it to the partner outlets (including radio and papers) and The Indiana Citizen news website. The Citizen editor, Kevin Morgan, worked at the Indianapolis Star for many years and helps mentor the students. And students take a lot out of the experience.
“Doing stories that are different or that we haven't seen has been really cool because we have the freedom to write about anything that's going on in or around the Statehouse,” said Sydney Byerly, a Statehouse File reporter in the fall of 2022.
And writing stories that other people see has cemented Byerly’s interest in reporting.
“The experience has made me remember why I love journalism and got into doing this in the first place: to tell cool stories and provide people with information,” the junior said. “I can really see how much I've grown as a reporter and honestly as a person because my confidence has grown tremendously and I'm just a much better writer now.”
Often the program is focused on the stories that the other news organizations don’t have the time to follow, Steffen said.
“The big stuff tends to get covered. But smaller things that may emerge from side conversations tend to get ignored. I do feel like that's the way that we've been able to be more competitive, is by chasing some stories that other folks don't have time to chase.”
Students spend the semester working full time as a member of the state press corps, sharing an office with the other reporters and spending 40 hours a week in the Statehouse while not taking any other classes. Additionally, students who have completed the full semester immersion program often return and continue working for the Statehouse File in a less structured setting, Steffen said. Students that are part of the program, whether it be as a full-time reporter or a returning freelancer, are eligible to receive a stipend to offset any costs associated with travel, buying new clothes or any other expenses.
Franklin College offers a short month-long January term during which students can try out the program for a shorter amount of time. This can draw as many as 15 students, Steffen said.
“We get more experimenters in January, and that's cool because we've had a lot of graduates go into media, of course, but we've also had a lot going to state government and other fields,” Steffen said.
Moving forward Steffen and The Statehouse File hope to continue to grow and expand their program. There is hope that they can form more partnerships with local media outlets to not only allow student work to be showcased by more organizations, but to continue to provide the residents of Indiana with more coverage of the events occurring in the Statehouse.
For more information:
Colleen Steffen, Executive editor / TheStatehouseFile.com
