About Xposure

High school students from throughout Kentucky and the region have come to learn and practice journalism at Western Kentucky University’s Xposure Journalism Workshop, which is in its 37th year in 2022.

Students who participate in Xposure show an interest in journalism and come to the workshops from a variety of backgrounds, including those under-represented in U.S. newsrooms. The 12 students selected each year for Xposure stay on campus, and work in the state-of-the-art facilities of WKU Student Publications, the College Heights Herald news organization, Talisman life and culture magazine, Cherry Creative branded content studio and Student Publications Advertising business consultants.

Each year, we work hard to assemble a class that looks like the real world — diverse in just about every way, and with a focus on ensuring groups that are underrepresented in the nation’s news organizations are well represented in Xposure.

There is no cost to students attending, as the workshop is funded through grants from Xposure alumni, news organizations throughout throughout the region and foundations that support journalism. We want to ensure that students who lack financial resources have no barriers to applying for or attending Xposure.

Xposure started its life in 1981 as the Urban Journalism Workshop. It later became the Minority Journalism Workshop and, about two decades ago, Xposure. It has operated continuously except in 1982 and then, due to the global coronavirus pandemic, in 2020 and 2021. While the world has changed immensely, and while journalism has evolved rapidly, Xposure continues to immerse aspiring journalists in the fundamentals of strong journalism — accuracy, fairness and an allegiance to facts and truth — and the important role journalists play in a free society.

Alumni of WKU’s Xposure workshops fill newsrooms throughout the country, from Washington to Florida to New York and places in between. They help ensure that news gatherers at media outlets mirror the diverse communities they serve.

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