CANYON, Texas — A group of West Texas A&M University students are actively battling disinformation as part of a national competition.

Students in the University’s Department of Communication will run a month-long public relations campaign on media literacy as part of their 2023 Bateman Case Study Competition.

The Bateman Case Study Competition, which runs Feb. 6 to March 6, is a national competition sponsored by the Public Relations Student Society of America. The competition allows students to apply their classroom education and internship experiences to create and implement a full public relations campaign.

“Stopping the spread of misinformation is crucial as it allows society to make decisions and understand the world around them based on information that is factual and based in actuality,” said Alea Wittler, a junior digital communication and media major from Vilas, Colorado. “I’m glad to help tackle this issue because I think it is important for people everywhere to have equal access to correct, factual information despite the region they live in or their ethnicity.”

News Literacy Project is the competition sponsor for 2023. Teams nationwide will create a public relations campaign to raise awareness of the News Literacy Project and their mission of promoting news literacy education.

The current Bateman team will co-host events all throughout their month-long campaign with other student organizations. During the week of Feb. 20, the team will host Media Literacy Week at WT and will be tabling in the Jack B. Kelley Student Center. They will be actively posting on their Instagram: @factvsfib.

More than 75 teams enter the competition each year, giving students real-world experience that can translate to résumé additions, portfolio pieces and even jobs. This is the 14th year WT will enter the competition. Campaigns created by WT students have earned national distinction in 2019 and 2022 for being in the top 15 teams from across the country.

Last year’s team earned an honorable mention for their “Every Drop” campaign. The campaign raised awareness of lymphoma in young adults. Other Bateman campaigns have addressed community issues from pediatric cancer to building census participation to increasing college students’ work with Habitat for Humanity and others. The teams always work on the national issue in their own communities.

WT team members also include Deborah Hromas, a junior public relations and advertising major from Muleshoe; Johnny Lawhon, a senior public relations and advertising major from Amarillo; JoLina Lopez, a junior digital journalism major from Abernathy; Brooke Richards, a junior public relations and advertising major from Manistee, Michigan; Kara Villarreal, a senior digital communication and media major from El Paso.

“Bateman is an ideal experience for students and helps them prepare for work in an agency or an organization,” said adviser Kim Bruce, associate lecturer of media communication. “Students get real-world experience while working to help their own college community tackle an issue such as online misinformation in this campaign.”

Offering intellectually challenging, critically reflective and regionally responsive academic programs is the University’s primary mission, as laid out in its long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign. To date, the five-year campaign — which publicly launched in September 2021 — has raised more than $115 million.

Photo: West Texas A&M University’s 2023 Bateman team members are, from left, Deborah Hromas, Alea Wittler, Johnny Lawhon, Kara Villarreal, Brooke Richards and JoLina Lopez.

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