In April 2024, students set up encampments at universities across Canada and the United States to protest Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Columnists with prestigious outlets wrote condescending op-eds about the protesters. At the Wall Street Journal, they were called “cowardly” and “not compassionate,” with the writer claiming that onlookers were “relieved to see the NYPD come in [and drag] the protesters away.” These writers seemed ready to dismiss the demonstrators and paint them negatively, without really interrogating what was prompting them to set up camp for weeks on end.

Meanwhile, the student press meticulously covered the encampments. They interviewed protesters, carefully constructed timelines of events, and produced near-round-the-clock radio coverage in the case of Columbia University. The student press also fulfilled one of the most important tenets of journalism: making sure those in power were being watched.

In the weeks leading up to the launch of an encampment at the University of Toronto that spring, a group of students staged a sit-in at Simcoe Hall, outside the offices of leadership, including President Meric Gertler. They called on the university to disclose the names of all the companies it invests in, to divest from those providing military resources to the Israeli government, and to end all partnerships with institutions that either operate or support settlements outside Israel’s internationally recognized border.

One student protester told me that the administration initially delayed and avoided meeting with them. However, he said, he saw a look of “shock” on an administrator’s face when he noticed a student journalist from the campus paper, The Varsity, wearing her press badge and reporting on the sit-in. He believes the journalist’s presence pressured the administration into taking action.

Times have never seemed grimmer for the media industry: layoffs, AI-fication, shrinking budgets, misinformation, and an increasing crackdown on press freedom. Then there are the journalists in Gaza, still starving and under siege by the Israeli military. While they have........

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