Amplifying Community College Voices Through Podcast Journalism

Abstract

Community college is great if you want to save money or never amount to anything. It's a great affordable option, but so is the Dollar Tree.

Comedian Taylor Tomlinson told this joke, and more like it, in a stand-up routine from 2019. It serves as just one example of the many jokes at the expense of community college that are pervasive in the United States. A study by Krista Tucciarone in 2007 found that community college is often portrayed in the media as an “institution of higher learning that values low achievement, open enrollment, poor instruction, inferior knowledge, and vocational/technical training.” This portrayal in the media creates and sustains a stigma around attending these open access educational institutions. With 41% of all undergraduate students in the U.S. attending community college as of 2021 (Community College Research Center, 2024), we need to do better.