Senior News Media major Cooper Townsend is gaining recognition for his work in audio journalism through Alabama Public Radio (APR). Townsend, who currently serves as an intern with the station, recently placed in the national Hearst Audio Awards for his reporting. He tied for 20th out of the record 78 entries entered in the competition.
His audio piece focused on a fundraiser in Huntsville, Alabama, where fans of the tabletop game Heroclix raised awareness and money for Huntington’s disease by playing the game. Participants competed in tournaments, took part in auctions, and joined beginner sessions to support the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, raising more than $60,000 during the most recent event.
Through his internship with APR, Townsend has had the opportunity to develop his reporting skills while contributing stories to the station’s audience across the state. His work often focuses on translating complex topics into stories that are accessible and relevant to listeners.
APR serves as The University of Alabama’s NPR-affiliated station, producing news and cultural programming for listeners across much of the state. For student journalists like Townsend, APR offers the opportunity to report real stories for a professional audience while gaining hands-on newsroom experience.
Much of that work takes place inside the university’s Digital Media Center, located in Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The facility provides students with professional-grade studios and editing suites used for radio, podcasting and other multimedia projects. The center allows APR interns and journalism students to record interviews, produce audio stories and refine their editing skills using the same technology found in professional environments.
Another recent story examined the concept of an AI “collapse,” suggesting AI systems could get worse over time if they are trained mostly on content created by other AI systems instead of humans. While the topic itself is technical, Townsend said the challenge was making the subject understandable for a broad audience.
“I started wanting to do AI because I knew it was very topical as well as different from my other story,” Townsend said. “I knew I also needed to narrow it down, so while doing research I stumbled on a YouTube video of a guy talking about the idea of AI model collapse. I thought it was an interesting topic that I hadn’t seen covered much.”
One of the biggest challenges, he explained, was translating technical language into something listeners could easily grasp.
“Picking quotes from interviews was a challenge because I had to pick ones everyone would understand and didn’t have a lot of that lingo,” Townsend said.
As a reporter for APR, Townsend aims to ground national or global topics in stories that matter locally. In researching the AI story, he looked for ways the issue might affect people and organizations within Alabama.
Through stories like this, Townsend says his work with APR has helped him develop a stronger sense of how to report for a statewide audience while maintaining clear storytelling. His recognition in the Hearst Audio Awards reflects not only his reporting ability but also the opportunities APR provides students at UA to gain real-world journalism experience.