Putting student media in the spotlight
With The Nutgraf, Chatwan Mongkol is trying to give college media the attention it deserves
Photo courtesy of Chatwan Mongkol
Chatwan Mongkol must be easily bored. The former New Haven Register reporter couldn’t seem to find enough to do while working on his master’s in media management at New York’s New School. He’d spent his first year out of college covering higher ed in New Haven, home to five universities including Yale. That kept him on his toes. Classes: Not so much.
“When I started grad school, I had a lot of free time,” he says. “I was so bored.”
Which turned out to be a good thing. After discussing things over with one of his professors, Mongkol decided to start The Nutgraf, a Substack newsletter, last September. At first, it was just a helpful guide to events journalists might find interesting, but it wasn’t scratching the right itch. Then he started thinking about his time in college, working at the Quinnipiac University’s Quinnipiac Chronicle.
“We created conversations on our campus,” Mongkol says. “And we sparked changes on our campus too, but nobody knew about it.”
That’s when he came up with the idea for his focus for The Nutgraf. He decided to showcase the best of college media as well as the issues it’s facing. He’s written about investigative success stories at Texas State University, how students deal with campus shootings at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and caucus coverage at the Daily Iowan at the University of Iowa.
CM: I wanted to shine a spotlight on what they were doing. I know how that makes students feel. When I was a student journalist in Connecticut, Fox 61, our local TV station, mentioned a story of mine on TV. They even mentioned my name. I was so excited.
JMM: But the newsletter seems to be a bit more than just highlighting good work.
CM: Yeah, I kind of want my newsletter to be the go-to resource for student journalists, the place they come and see what their peers are doing in other parts of the country. Because student journalists are in the news. In some places, they are the local news outlets, right? But there's no one place where they can get stories about student journalists from elsewhere.
JMM: You recently highlighted a lawsuit about high school journalists suing the principal of their school for censorship. Why do that if you want to focus on college papers?
CM: It's also an issue that many college journalists face as well. I quoted a professor at the end of that story saying that university administrations like to say that they support free speech and freedom of the press for students until there’s a story that puts them in a negative light. It’s important for student journalists to think about how to navigate those issues.
Mongkol finds these stories the old-fashioned way: he hunts for them. According to Pew Research, there were at one point an estimated 1,600 college newspapers. That was back in 2013. And while there are undoubtedly fewer these days, there are still too many to get a handle on easily. So, Mongkol picks a region, finds the schools in the area, and begins digging through their websites and cold emailing editors.
It’s how he finds stories like his most recent post about student reporters at James Madison University’s paper The Breeze. The student senate violated Virginia’s open-meetings laws when an administrator barred a reporter from what they dubbed “a meeting of senators.” The Breeze pushed back, writing a story about how the student senate ignored Virginia FOIA law. He also uncovered several other examples, including a similar situation at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, where student journalists were kicked out of a meeting where student senators voted on allocating funding.
“That’s why I want to do this. Unless you intentionally look for these stories, student journalists aren’t going to know they are going on elsewhere,” he says. “I think having a place for all those stories from across the country will be helpful.”
But as the stories for The Nutgraf have become more ambitious, Mongkol has run into a new problem: he’s suddenly busy. He was just named as one of the 22 journalism entrepreneurs in the eighth cohort of the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program (EJCP) at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The 100-day program, along with his normal grad schoolwork, will keep him running. But Mongkol hopes that, when it’s all combined, something great will come out of it.
“The reason I’m in this media management program in the first place is because I think it’s sad to see how the industry is dying right now,” he says. “I just wanted to be a part of that group of people who try to find a solution, who find a more sustainable business model for journalism. I hope to open something of my own in the future. I don't know what that's going to be yet. And I don't know if it's going to be in the US or somewhere else. I was originally from Thailand, and Thailand has its own problems with the journalism industry too. I feel like I can do something about it.”
Fingers crossed that he does.
Disclaimer: Quotes were edited for length and clarity
Back in the Saddle
First-year students Seth “The Younger” Coughlin and Reno Valentino have relaunched Drake’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter. It’s a great way to build your skills, learn new tactics, and network with professionals. Meetings are being held every Thursday at 5 p.m. in Mere 124C. For more info, reach out to Coughlin at seth.coughlin@drake.edu.
Completely Ethical
Speaking of SPJ, the non-profit is gearing up for Ethics Week, which runs April 15-19. Consider it mental pre-gaming for the Drake Relays. The week will be full of webinars, celebrations, and training sessions, as well as plenty of tips on social with the hashtag #spjethicsweek.
The first session will be essential for anyone covering politics in the fall. The Misinformation and Fact-Checking webinar will help you dig through the internet noise to find the real story. You’ll hear from Lori Robertson, managing editor of FactCheck.org, and Louis Jacobson, senior correspondent at PolitiFact. The free session starts at 12:30 CDT on April 15. Advanced registration is required.
The Rehash: Summer Internships
· American Public Media Group, home of Minnesota Public Radio and Marketplace, has multiple internships for the summer including social media and reporting. All of the gigs are based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Check out all the gigs here.
· Mpls St. Paul magazine is looking for multiple interns for the summer, including digital and editorial positions. You’ll work 20-25 hours per week for one of the best city magazines in the country and make $15 an hour. Apply by April 19.
· SourceBooks books publisher is looking for nine summer interns for its Naperville Illinois, office, including in marketing, editorial, content delivery, and sales. Pay is $15 an hour for 24 hours a week. You must be on site. The 10-week gig runs June 4 to August 9. Apply by April 14 here.
· The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting is looking for a full-time year-long intern. You’ll work with the center’s journalists to cover global stories, post stories to its website, and help create multimedia content. The position can be remote, and it pays $37,440 with benefits and starts June 1. Apply here.
· Strategic America wants a videographer and editor intern, as well as a direct mail intern. It’s a hybrid position based in the Des Moines office from May 13 to Aug. 9. You’d work full-time at $15 an hour.
· The Des Moines Symphony is hiring a full-year intern. You’ll start work this summer and go through the end of the spring semester. The position is 10 hours a week at $15 an hour. You’ll be involved in marketing, PR, and event planning. For more info click here.
· McMillian Publishing is looking for summer interns. The positions can be in New York or remote. Positions include working with editorial, publicity, sales, art, and DEI teams. Other options are also available. Pay is $16 an hour. Click here for more details.
· The American Heart Association is looking for a hybrid marketing and communications intern. Pay is a stellar $23 an hour for 25 hours a week. The internship runs May 20-Aug. 9. Applications are open through April 12. Click here to apply
· The Des Moines Radio Group wants a Special Broadcast and Promotions intern. It’s a year-long position with a salary of $5,000 for the year. You’ll work up to 35 hours a week depending on the time of year. Click here for more info.
· The ASME-award-winning Texas Highways magazine is looking for a summer intern for its Austin office. The position is full-time and pays $18 an hour. You need to apply by March 31. Make sure your cover letter is top-notch for this one. The folks at this pub all have serious writing chops. You can get more info here.
Halloween decorations already?
Well, sorta. Fall registration is (gulp) right around the corner. The mad sprint to get into that class that you absolutely need to graduate but filled up three seconds ago begins on April 8. That means between here and the beginning of Relays pre-gaming you need to meet with Pilcher to get your life squared away—and pick some classes. Email him at timm.pilcher@drake.edu to get that appointment on the books.
Got some hot goss for JMM?
Do you have some essential info or were you just named the 2024 AllRecipes Editorial Fellow like senior Tori Soliz (MBM, DMP)? If so, send it on over to jeff.inman@drake.edu. JMM will treat like the awesome new content on Urban Plains, the Drake SJMC capstone project, including stories about the quietest place on Earth and the capital city’s queen of events, DSM Girl, and tell everyone about it.
Finally, what the hell is the Midwest anyway?
Editor’s Note: JMM will be taking a week off next week to lead students around New York City, meeting with various editors and reporters at some of the country’s biggest publishers. JMM will be back again April 18.