KPU journalism collaborates with Black Press Media to highlight disaster preparedness in B.C.

Editor’s note: Jordan Riley, who was interviewed for this article, is a writer for The Runner. The Runner acknowledges and has taken steps to prevent conflicts of interest or potential bias from influencing the article.

Last semester, Kwantlen Polytechnic University journalism instructor Chad Skelton’s JRNL 4270 Advanced Storytelling class collaborated with the Black Press Media company to shed light on disaster preparedness in the province. 

Students in Skelton’s class got an opportunity to have their projects edited and reviewed by Black Press editors. The projects, which were then published in local community newspapers, enabled students to practise and refine their reporting skills, while also providing coverage of topics that were meaningful to communities across the province. 

Black Press Media has a range of local newspaper hubs across the province, making it one of the largest media companies in Canada. 

Skelton reached out to the company a year before the course started in spring 2025. One of the reasons he decided to collaborate with the media company is that many KPU journalism graduates have been hired by it recently, Skelton says, so a connection was already in place. 

He adds the collaboration comes with the desire to get students’ stories published beyond the classroom. 

“It would be great for the students, but also for the public, if the cool work our students are doing got to be seen by other people,” Skelton says.

Students received one-on-one editing assistance from Black Press Media editors and two rounds of editing from Skelton. He says students learned valuable skills during the course of the class, which will help take them beyond their studies at KPU.

“The whole heart of journalism is telling stories to the public, so the public can be better informed about their community,” Skelton says. “I’m hoping for the students, the fact … real people were reading their stories, made it all feel more real and was more rewarding for them.” 

Jordan Riley, a journalism student who took Skelton’s class, says the collaboration with Black Press Media allowed his confidence to grow in his writing process throughout the semester. He adds that the inclusion of Black Press Media editors in the classroom greatly helped with refining his story. 

Riley wrote his story on earthquake preparedness in the province. 

“It’s nice to have a set of professional eyes on something you wrote,” he says. “We had sent off our stories to [Black Press Media] … and then the two [editors] came and each had edited one story …. They walked us through any changes they would make or any ways we could expand on our story.”

Riley’s story can be found on multiple news websites, including Victoria News. He is excited to have his work published on an authentic news outlet. 

“It was a great class,” Riley says. “I got a lot of experience [and] a story that I can point to so that people can see what I’ve written on a professional site.”

With the first collaboration under his belt, Skelton says he is committed to teaming up with Black Press Media and other news organizations in the future.

He adds that students should consider taking the Advanced Storytelling class to have an opportunity to get their stories published on a bigger platform. 

“The idea that thousands of British Columbians have read our students’ work is neat,” Skelton says. “[Their stories] had an audience and actually informed people. All that hard work [they] did researching the story and interviewing people … led to something more than just a good mark.”

To read the students’ stories on emergency management, visit www.bit.ly/AdvancedStorytelling2025.