The UM Legislative News Service will once again be providing broadcasters, including KGVO, with daily updates from the legislative session that gets underway on Monday, January 7.

Courtney Cowgill, Media Coordinator and Associate Professor at the UM School of Journalism, said the school will be sending two students to cover the daily activities at the Montana Legislature.

“It’s a partnership between the school at the Montana Broadcasters Association as well as the Greater Montana Foundation,” said Cowgill. “These students will provide professional level coverage to any broadcaster in the state who wants to bring this kind of news to their audience.”

Cowgill said the two student reporters will be embedded with the legislature for the full 90 day session.

“They will provide daily coverage,” she said. “Sometimes that’s a wrap-up of the day, and sometimes it’s a big topic like Medicaid expansion or tax reform or budgetary concerns, or it could be coverage of one particular bill, one specific legislator and a big bill that legislators are debating.”

Cowgill said there will be additional coverage for print journalism.

“This year we have two reporters offering two programs,” she said. “One is the Legislative News Service for broadcasters and the other is called the Community News Service, providing a weekly print and photo coverage to newspapers and publishers throughout the state.”

Cowgill said the reporters will stay neutral on all topics and not promote any agenda to the left or right of the political spectrum.

The two reporters this session will be Shaylee Ragar and Timothy Pierce, both of whom are experienced in print and electronic journalism.

KGVO will air the legislative updates during the multi-award winning Montana Morning news program from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. on weekdays.

 

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