For one week, selected student reporters with NPR’s NextGenRadio were tasked with creating a multimedia project that answered the question, “What is the meaning of home?” If the walls could talk at WMFE in Orlando, they would say they had seen it all before, even their worrisome faces on the first day. The reporters were unsure what would happen — all they knew were the expectations, schedule, and deadlines. With the help of their professional journalism mentors, the reporters were responsible for pitching, interviewing, recording, photographing and finally, crafting a non-narrated audio story and many digital components in just five days.

In the newsroom, the audio recording kits are ready to use. The kits, which contain microphones, headphones and other audio equipment, are used by reporters to collect audio during their interviews.

KYRA PARROW / NEXTGENRADIO

The reporters spent time focusing on what “home” meant to their subjects, which guided them throughout the week. They interviewed and photographed their subjects in their not-so-conventional homes: in a restaurant, a dance studio, a historical center, at a cemetery, and at a house in central Florida. 

As the days went by, the student reporters settled into their new home. The radio station’s various rooms became their pop-up newsroom; learning lessons and new skills from their mentors who offered their years of experience. Using paper and pencil, they drew storyboards, wrote rough drafts and stitched audio files together to create a cohesive layout to tell their stories. As the sun went up and back down again, the reporters labored long hours figuring out how to produce a video stand-up and how to write photo captions. While the boot camp took place in person for three out of five of the students, Zoom became all of the reporters’ secondary home. Editors from across the nation guided the students throughout the project. In the last hours, the once not-so-sure reporters transformed into confident journalists, spearheading their stories to the finish line.

In a conference room, mentors and mentees collaborate on the finishing touches on copy edits and audio mixes. The newsroom is hybrid with editors across the U.S. on Zoom meetings to help the student reporters.

KYRA PARROW / NEXTGENRADIO

While many professions offer remote positions, journalists find their home in the newsroom, where there’s still some buzz about the daily headlines or collective relief after troubleshooting an audio piece. Journalists go out into the field to report but the newsroom serves as home base. 

While some people wonder about the future of the journalism industry, in the NPR NextGenRadio Florida newsroom, these student reporters were eager to be of service to their community, to tell the stories of those who would otherwise be unheard. Behind the scenes, seasoned journalists passed the baton to a new generation of reporters.