By: Kalyn Jackson
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The School of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Arkansas now has a podcast.
University of Arkansas student, Director of Strategic Media, and The Student Media Podcast host, Heidi Kirk said The Student Media Podcast was created as a means to collaborate with other student media outlets on campus.
“I thought this is a really good way for us to connect and have an open ended discussion in a safe space,” Kirk said, “Around the time when we really started to face racial reckoning around the country I really got inspired for Bridging the Gap which is the series about Black Lives Matter.”
Kirk said the Black at UARK hashtag brought light to something she didn’t really know was going on.
“I was reading those stories and a lot of them really broke my heart honestly,” said Kirk, “I thought this can be a series on the student media platform.”
“I bring people in and we talk about race very bluntly and what it looks like on campus,” said Kirk, “It’s a very free, open and kind conversation.”
Kirk said the idea was to collaborate with student media outlets on campus, but to also target a prevalent conversation that is going on around the country and on campus.
Kirk said the most rewarding part of hosting the podcast is what she has learned from the conversations she has been having.
“Every single episode I have personally taken something away,” said Kirk, “Something I pledged for myself in this time of racial reckoning was to learn and so it’s been a way for me to open my heart to the people I have interviewed and take something away.”
Kirk said, “I can be a better ally every single time that I have one of those hard conversations and then I can pass it along to my friends and then they can pass it along.”
“These conversations are invaluable,” said Kirk, “I want to make sure that these are conversations that we continue to have and that we don’t just leave it in 2020.”
The Student Media Podcast is available now at http://kxua.uark.edu/the-student-media-podcast/ and on Spotify.