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Kent State student journalists will continue to report on the aftermath of the Feb. 3 East Palestine train derailment disaster, with support from a grant from Grist and the Center for Rural Strategies. The organizations recently awarded $100,000 to newsrooms and freelance journalists around the country to carry out rural reporting projects, and Kent State’s Collaborative NewsLab was one of 15 recipients.

As a new academic year begins, the School of Media and Journalism is pleased to welcome two new faculty members. Meet Peter Bobkowski and Andrea Lorenz! Bobkowski joins the faculty as the new Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism and Professor. He is an expert on scholastic journalism and most recently was professor at the University of Kansas. He will be teaching Media, Power and Culture during Fall 2023. Lorenz joins as Assistant Professor. She researches interactions between media and democracy.

Kent State junior Anthony Scilla was on his way across campus Dec. 2, 2022, when he followed a cloud of smoke downtown to capture photos of a massive fire that had broken out at Star of the West Milling Co. building on N. Water Street in Kent. The Society of Professional Journalists recently recognized one of his photos from the historic mill fire as the best in the nation for 2022

As television news professionals from the region gathered for the Central Great Lakes Regional Emmy Awards gala over the summer, Kent State Media and Journalism (MDJ) students “ran the show” behind the scenes. MDJ adjunct instructor Sam Angello, who teaches Production Fundamentals and Digital Video Editing, has been involved with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (which produces the Emmys) for many years, and in 2023, trained Kent State students to run the backstage stream of the regional awards gala.