Kirsten West Savali And Dr. Stacey Patton Define The Purpose Of The Bison One Newsroom
“Journalism education at an HBCU must be both an act of resistance and a practice of liberation.”
Those are the words of Howard Journalism professor, journalist, and author, Dr. Stacey Patton, who said it plainly, and the weight of that statement sits squarely in this moment. Newsrooms across the country are shrinking, corporate consolidations are accelerating, and Black journalists continue to be pushed out of high-profile positions at an alarming rate. The people who have historically documented injustice and held power accountable are now watching power reassert itself inside the newsroom.
Against that backdrop, the Bison ONE Newsroom, a collaboration between Howard University and NewsOne, serves as a lighthouse for the future of diverse, timely, community-oriented journalism. Led by Kirsten West Savali, Vice President of Content at iOne Digital, and Dr. Patton, who oversees Howard’s journalism sequence, the newsroom trains student reporters to work with rigor, political clarity, and a grounding belief that journalism is a public service.
The partnership grew out of the 2024 Bison Election Zone, a campuswide effort in which students produced real-time political coverage during Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic election-night watch party. That night demonstrated that Howard students, when supported by professional editors and a major media platform, could deliver newsroom-quality reporting at scale. Both Savali and Dr. Patton recognized that the collaboration shouldn’t end there. “When Black people build together,” Dr. Patton said, “we create legacy, possibility, and a future that reflects us.”
Since launching, the Bison ONE Newsroom has published stories on issues ranging from SNAP benefits to the experiences of D.C.’s Ethiopian immigrant community. These student-driven stories are filling in the gap left by mainstream media, alongside building necessary skills to report, witness, analyze, and contextualize.
Savali, an NABJ Award winner for Journalistic Excellence who’s been steadily championing Black voices, did not shy away from the urgency of the moment. “Black reporters are being silenced and fired, and some institutions appear far less committed to racial equity than they claimed to be a few years ago,” she said. Dr. Patton emphasized that journalism’s future depends on whose perspectives shape the narrative. When Black journalists are removed from decision-making roles, she said, the public loses access to the full truth. Both pointed to the contradiction that newsrooms say they value objectivity, yet overlook that the truth is shaped by who is allowed to speak.
That is part of what makes the Bison ONE Newsroom significant. Howard has long been a pipeline into the media industry, but also into a specific tradition of journalism—one rooted in history, resistant to erasure, and directly linked to the lineage of the Black press. It is a tradition that traces from Ida B. Wells to the Chicago Defender, from the Afro-American to the Hilltop —Howard’s student newspaper— and to every publication that insisted on telling stories long before mainstream institutions cared to listen. Dr. Patton noted that it is an act of courage for students to commit to truth-telling when truth itself is contested in schools, statehouses, and national discourse. Savali urged students to trust Black media and “publish where your full voice is welcome.”
As the student journalist who conducted this interview, I felt the weight of those expectations while working inside the Bison ONE Newsroom. Entering an industry that is unstable and unpredictable is daunting, but this collaboration makes the path forward clearer. Being edited by Black journalists, reporting alongside peers, and learning from faculty who demand depth, accuracy, and courage reaffirm that journalism is not simply a field of study. It’s a discipline of service that documents the world with care, especially when the world is determined to distort itself.
The broader media landscape may be contracting, but Howard’s newsroom is expanding its reach. It demonstrates what journalism can become when students are trusted with real stories and guided by people who believe in truth as a form of power. HBCU journalists are not waiting for permission to tell these stories. They are already telling them with precision, context, and an unshakable understanding of what is at stake.
“As politicians ban books, silence professors, try to rewrite the curriculum, the Bison ONE newsroom trains students to investigate, verify, and publish the truth without fear and with integrity,” said Dr. Patton.