By: Max Vanderglas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – The University of Arkansas provides its students with many opportunities to get involved with student media on campus.
The university provides several campus courses, as well as student run media outlets such as KXUA Radio where students may have their own radio show or podcast, and UATV where students can produce a newscast and report and anchor live on air.
One example of a course provided at the university is Advanced Radio News and Podcasting. This class is taught by U of A Professor Rick Stockdell and the class focuses on students producing long-form audio stories appropriate for the radio and/or podcasts.
Stockdell said the class has adjusted its course objectives over time to fit modern forms of media as to what’s currently popular.
“It started as Advanced Radio News, and I started teaching it probably 12 or 13 years ago and the idea was to teach students long-form public radio style journalism. And then a few years ago, podcasting became popular so I just expanded it to include podcasting along with the long-form NPR style stuff.”
Students on campus have enjoyed this course and have stuck with the podcast route after the course. Two students, Robert Stewart and Mason Choate, started their podcast surrounding Arkansas Baseball during the 2021 season.
Choate said the podcast started because he and Robert found they would talk in depth about Arkansas baseball for an hour after every single series, so they figured why not record it, edit it and turn it into a podcast so others may listen.
The podcast grew a lot last year during the season, but after taking Stockdell’s Advanced Radio News and Podcasting class in the fall, they decided to bring the podcast back again this season and have seen exponential growth.
“We started off [this season], we had big interviews booked, we had really good interviews for our first few episodes. It’s been growing and we’ve had, I don’t know, 5 or 6 sponsors already and we’re only halfway through the season. Our numbers, I mean, they’ve just skyrocketed.”
Students can get involved in student media on campus in many different ways. For more information on the course Advanced Radio News/Podcasting, email Rick Stockdell at stockde@uark.edu
For information on KXUA or starting your own podcast, visit KXUA@uark.edu.