News21: About the 2009 Project and the People Involved

News21 is a part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Initiative on the Future of Journalism. The Carnegie site offers background on the News21 element of the broader initiative.

>>>>Bios in brief: Meet the 2009 fellows

Here is an excerpt from the Carnegie report, Journalism’s Crisis in Confidence: A Challenge for the Next Generation (pdf):

In June 2002, Vartan Gregorian, the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, invited the deans of four leading schools of journalism—the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University; the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University; the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley; and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California—as well as the director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University—to begin a dialogue on how to improve journalism education and, in turn, elevate the stature of a profession that plays a vital role in the democratic life of the nation. Fittingly, from the start there was a seat at the table for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has made the education of journalists a signature of its philanthropy for more than a half century, while keeping the foundation’s commitment to bolster civic life in the 26 metropolitan communities where the Knight brothers publish their newspapers.

One aspect of the initative was to unleash smart minds on doing quality journalism with an innovative approach. In the summer of 2006, 44 students were selected as the original News21 fellows. Columbia, Northwestern, Southern California and California-Berkeley were tapped as incubators and funded 10 fellows each; Harvard chose four students as fellows, and they dispersed to the incubators for the 10-week summer session. During the first summer, the incubators focused on national security issues. In 2007, the topic, jointly agreed upon by the deans, was religion in America; and in 2008, the incubators reported on political issues.

Visit NEWS21.com and explore the project archive.

In spring 2008, Carnegie and Knight showed their continuing support by expanding their funding for News21 through 2011, allowing the program to grow to eight incubators and four contributing schools:
INCUBATORS, selecting 10 fellows each: Arizona State, California at Berkeley, Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Northwestern, Southern California and Syracuse.
CONTRIBUTORS, selecting three or four fellows: Missouri (3), Nebraska (3), Texas (3) and Harvard (4); fellows from contributing schools participate in the seminar via distance learning and then travel to their assigned incubator for the summer season.

For the summer of 2009, the deans selected a cross-disciplinary topic, loosely described as the American Tapestry: Exploring the Demographics of a Changing Nation. Each of the eight incubator schools determined an aspect of that broad topic, to encourage cross-campus collaboration and to capitalize on each university’s strengths through a News21 journalism seminar.

For 2009, the incubator topics are as follows:

Arizona State: The Latino Experience Across America
California-Berkeley: Urban Reporting, Demographics and the American Tapestry
Columbia: U.S. Charter Schools: Exploring Cultural, Linguistic & Immigrant Challenges
Maryland: The U.S. Political Landscape: Racial Identity and Attitudes
North Carolina: Changing America: Population and Energy Use
Northwestern: Urban Youth and the New America
Southern California: Southwestern Shifts: New Communities and New Realities
Syracuse: Teen America: Technology, Identity and Next-Gen Empowerment

Students deepen their understanding of the seminars by engaging in discussions on the News21 Ning community, where class notes, videos and handouts are posted. The cross-disciplinary nature of the topics also encourages collaboration among the universities in advance of the students’ field reporting and storytelling production.