Columbia University radio station WKCR praised for live broadcast of college protests
As NYPD raided Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters camped inside, many onlookers turned to WKCR for updates.
As the New York Police Department raided Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters camped inside, there was one outlet that many onlookers turned to for live updates: WKCR.
Listenership of WKCR was so high that night that its website crashed. The website was still experiencing intermittent outages as of Wednesday afternoon.
The radio station is one of several student news outlets across the country — including The Columbia Daily Spectator, UCLA’s The Daily Bruin, USC’s The Daily Trojan and UT Austin’s The Daily Texan — that have become go-to sources for information about protests at college campuses.
On Tuesday, reporters from mainstream media outlets had their access restricted by Columbia, so student journalists used their unique positions as members of the community to report on the event. Elsewhere across the U.S., journalists at national and local outlets have also said they’ve been turned away from some campuses if they didn’t have college IDs.
As a result, many following along online have turned to students — many who are juggling classes or finals and reporting nonstop amid a barrage of breaking news impacting their communities.
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