Five professors from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, plan to accompany 16 students to Paris to report on the 2024 Summer Olympics.
To prepare, students took advanced reporting and writing courses and studied introductory French. They’ve been covering other bases, too.
“Some people are buying new wardrobes for themselves to take pictures,” said Kelsea Frobes, 20, a double-major in journalism and international affairs from Dayton. “A lot of people are renting cameras from the school. I personally have been working my butt of to afford it.”
UNR will pay for an Airbnb and tickets to the games. Airfare, food and other travel expenses are on the students.
The trip is part of the department’s new undergraduate emphasis in sports media, but for some students, the context around the Olympics will be just as important as the games themselves. Frobes said it’s possible she’ll spend more time in Paris streets and cafes than in stadiums. While she’s open to covering sports directly, her main interest regards how the games will affect the local community.
“I want to talk about maybe if people are displaced because of the Olympics or things that—real-world problems that affect real people,” she said.
The student reporters weren’t able to secure media passes to the Olympic games, but Frobes, who already has a professional journalism resume—she’s been a morning traffic reporter for KOH radio, and she’s an intern for The Nevada Independent—is unfazed.
“A lot of the reporting that we’re having to do is basically on our own—finding people, reaching out to the Olympians, seeing if hopefully they’ll respond, that kind of thing,” Frobes said. “I think that a lot of us are really kind of throwing everything out there and hoping something sticks, and hoping we can find the story—as is much of journalism.”
The group plans to depart Reno on July 23.