This January, 10 Ithaca College journalism students traveled to Washington, D.C., to help chronicle a historic occasion—the inauguration of president-elect Donald J. Trump—for PBS NewsHour. James Rada, associate professor in the Department of Journalism, and Anthony Adornato, an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism, worked alongside their students in these efforts.

The students also spent Saturday morning covering part of the Women’s March on Washington for the campus media, class projects, and hometown media outlets with which they’re affiliated.

“We [were] not in the press section as ‘student journalists.’ We [were] there as reporters for PBS NewsHour,” said Elena Piech ’19, an emerging media major. “I, along with the other IC students attending, understand that we must produce extremely high-quality content. The photos, videos, and packages that we create have the possibility to air live or will be featured on the website of PBS NewsHour.”

For Erin McClory ’17, a television-radio major, remaining objective requires research and understanding of different opinions, perspectives, and personalities.

“But more than that, it’s about opening my mind and knowing that no matter how much research I do, I will meet someone who makes me reevaluate what I thought I knew or believed,” she said. “It is important to share these viewpoints, regardless of if they coincide with my beliefs or not, because every viewpoint is an important piece of this puzzle.”

The pieces of this particular puzzle will be dissected for years to come, and media coverage, including from PBS NewsHour, will help provide documentation for much of that analysis.

“Not only is this inauguration going to be in history books, but the way media covered this election and inauguration may very well be in history books, and I get to be part of that,” McClory said.