Degrees are awarded in October, February and May. Every candidate, regardless of graduation date, is invited to participate in the May Commencement ceremony.
In order to be considered for a degree or certificate, you must file an application with the Journalism School.
IMPORTANT: This form CANNOT be submitted electronically. Please type in the required information, print, sign and bring it to the box outside of Dean Huff’s office [207C] marked “Diploma Applications.”
Alternately, you can mail it to:
Dean Huff
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
2950 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
Application Deadlines
Graduating in - Apply by
October - August 1
February - November 1
May - December 1
Please Note The Following:
When a deadline for application falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
Doctoral students must deposit their dissertation at least a week before the conferral date in order to graduate.
TO: Graduating Journalism Students
FROM: Dennis F. Giza, Deputy Publisher
RE: Free One-year Subscription to CJR
DATE: May 13, 2008
Throughout the past year, you have received copies of CJR in your student mailbox. I hope you found each issue interesting, informative and useful.
On behalf of the entire staff of CJR, I would like to offer you a FREE one-year subscription to our magazine.
To accept, please e-mail me your address (referring to this offer) to dfg2 [at] columbia.edu. I recommend, based on past experience, you provide us a temporary or interim address rather than wait until your plans for the coming year are finalized. If, in the next year, you experience problems with your subscription, or change your address, please call 1-888-425-7782 or log on to our site at www.cjr.org and click on “Subscriptions” in the right-hand column.
The one-year subscription will begin with the July/August ’08 issue and end with the May/June ’09. If you take advantage of this offer later than May (and miss some issues) your subscription will still expire with the May/June ’09 issue. Around January next year you will receive a letter saying your subscription is about to expire and asking that you become a paid subscriber; we hope that you opt to do so.
Not our graduation, but Prof. Sig Gissler recommends this short AP story about Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCollough’s commencement address at Boston College:
“Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation.”He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words” such as like, awesome and actually.”
Photo on right: Wednesday, May 21, 12:10 pm - J-schoolers at the main university ceremony, complete with Reuters-branded beach ball. PHOTO: Craig Hettich. See a year’s worth of Student Affairs photos.
The following awards were presented on May 20 and the winners were acknowledged again at the main graduation ceremony on May 21. Here’s an explanation of how the awards are selected.
PULITZER TRAVELING FELLOWSHIPS & EIBEL AWARD for the top six students in the Class of 2008 (another slideshow below):
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP WINNERS:
Eliza Browning - class valedictorian
Lam Thuy Vo
Robert Jacob Corey-Boulet
Ailsa Wei-tan Chang
Molly Anne Birnbaum
David Marcus Eibel Memorial Scholarship: Srividya Rao
The M.A. Program Prize:
Arthur Harris Award for Best M.A. Thesis: Dorian Sanae Merina
runner-up: Don James Duncan
runner-up: Jacques Solomon Menasche
Award & Winner(s):
Baker Award for Bronx Beat: Katherine Santiago & Stephen Beardsley
Baker Award for CNS: Srividya Rao
Baker Award for Magazine Workshops: Alexa Taylor Schirtzinger
Balakian Award for writing about literature: Adam Weinstein
Blood Award for reporting: Carolina Joan Astigarraga
Brown Award for history of journalism: Rachel Clare Rosenthal
runner-up: Robert Jacob Corey-Boulet
runner-up: Daniel Luzer
Criticism Prize: Ronni J. Reich
Documentary Workshop Award: Aleksandra Halina Michalska
Editing Award: Thomas Arthur McCarthy
Greer Award for financial writing: Richard John McRoskey
Hechinger Education Journalism Award : Elizabeth Cristina Berry
Hechinger Education Journalism: Sarah N. Lynch
Horgan Science 1st prize: Daye Kim
Horgan Science 2st prize: Euna Lhee
Horgan Science 3rd prize: Erin M. Carlyle
Horgan Science 3rd prize: Olga Marie Pierce
Joan Konner Award for Best Broadcast Student: Megan Courtney Chuchmach
Louis Winnick Prize for RWI Writing: Anup Kaphle & Sarah Lynch
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Garin K. Hovannisian
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Jennifer Miller
Mencher Award for superior reporting: Stokely Baksh & Renee Feltz
Lars Erik Nelson Award for national affairs: Ailsa Chang
Lars Erik Nelson Award for national affairs: Eliza Cooke Browning
New Media Workshop Award: Lisa M. Biagiotti
New Media Workshop Award: Anup Kaphle
Nightly News Workshop Award: Eliza Cooke Browning & Megan Chuchmach
Radio Workshop Award: Margaret Julia Messick & Ailsa Chang
Robert Harron Award (”nice guy/nice gal” prize): Alexander James Sundby
Sackett Award for Law Class: Adam Edmund Hirsch
Sander Award for social justice reporting: Alexandra Louise Haugen Horowitz
Taylor Award for best international student: Anup Kaphle
TV Magazine Workshop Award: Sharona Sarah Coutts
Weschler for international reporting: Nadja Drost
Weschler for local reporting: Casey O’Connor Lyons
Weschler for national reporting: Renee Kathrine Feltz & Stokely Baksh NOTE: Part-time students Sumi Aggarwal and Margaret Ballantyne, who are graduating this year, won awards last year.
The winners of the two awards presented by the students:
SPJ Teacher of the Year: Bruce Porter
SPJ Student of the Year: Lam Thuy Vo
List of Students Graduating with Honors
Margaret “Coco” Ballantyne
Elizabeth Berry
Molly Birnbaum
Eliza Browning
Erin Carlyle
Ailsa Chang
Megan Chuchmach
Robert Corey-Boulet
Sharona Coutts
Lawrence Delevingne
Michael Gadd
Garin Hovannisian
Jessica Leber
Thomas McCarthy
Margaret Messick
Jennifer Miller
Neilesh Munshi
Alexis Nunes
Nicholas Phillips
Benjamin Protess
Srividya Rao
Linzi Sheldon
Gregory Simmons
Susan Sipprelle
Lam Vo
More photos of our top six students. PHOTOS: Rebecca Castillo
TRANSCRIPT Commencement 2008
Remarks by Dean Nicholas Lemann
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
There are two things everybody knows about what they teach in journalism school. One is the five W’s—who, what, where, when, why—that every story must address, and the other is that if a dog bites a man, that’s not news, but if a man bites a dog, that is news. What we teach at Columbia Journalism School sometimes gets a little more complicated than that, but, nonetheless, the old bromides have a certain timeless appeal.
The graduation-speech version of the dog bites man story is telling students who are about to receive degrees that they represent the future. In deference to journalistic standards, I shouldn’t do it here. But I can’t help myself.
This is my fifth Commencement as dean. In that short time, the mood of our profession has changed profoundly. There are a number of reasons why, but the main one is the manifold effects of the Internet. The Internet has a nearly miraculous power to put the ability to publish, and to receive, journalism into the hands of untold millions of people all over the world. For more sophisticated practitioners like many of the people in this auditorium, it gives journalists a greater variety of means of conveying information than we have ever had before. But at the same time, the Internet has clearly eroded the economic basis of at least the corner of journalism into which this school has traditionally sent the plurality of its graduates, the American big-city daily newspaper.
When Columbia Journalism School opened in 1912, most American cities had several daily papers—certainly New York did—and there was no radio or television journalism. Through the twentieth century the newspapers died one by one, casualties of competition or suburbanization or the arrival of new-media competition, but the net result in most cities was a small number of papers that looked quite secure.
The big American newspaper of the late twentieth century was, it seems now, an odd institution, a kind of museum of all the historical phases of journalism, from partisanship (on the editorial page) to pure entertainment (in the comics and horoscopes) to serious political reporting. It was the most efficient way for people to get a big packet of information in one place. Even today’s graduates will remember the days when, if you wanted to find out who had won a ball game, or when a movie was playing, or by how much someone had won an election, you naturally picked up the newspaper. And, in the realm of business, if you were an auto dealer or a department store owner, or an individual engaged in small-scale commerce, the newspaper was the best means of getting people to buy what you were selling. Remember? And, because of the immense plant, equipment, paper, printing, and delivery costs that publishing a newspaper entailed, people who were already in the business were well protected from new competition.
Well, none of that is true any more. Most of the individual aspects of a traditional newspaper are available on the Internet, for free. Newspapers are still producing great quantities of original information, thanks to the hard work of people like you, but they no longer have local quasi-monopolies as sources of information. Their audiences are now primarily on the Internet—that wasn’t the case just a few years ago. And, even more recently, on the Web the lines between the various originating media have started seriously blurring. On the front pages of newspaper Web sites, you’re starting to find what we would recently have taught as television stories—video and audio presentations a few minutes long. Television sites publish what we teach as newspaper stories—stories made up only of printed words, without images. Magazine sites publish animated cartoons. And so on. The tectonic plates underlying our profession—those traditional categorical divisions by type of news, by news medium, by geography—are palpably, and rapidly, rearranging themselves.
Today, more of you have definite plans that entail paid employment in journalism than had such plans when I first stood at this podium five years ago. How can that be? Much of the credit is due to the great work our Career Services office does, but it’s also that employers want you because you’re energetic, because you have skills that people already in newsrooms don’t have, and perhaps also because you aren’t so wedded to doing things the way they’ve always been done in journalism.
You soon-to-be graduates are a diverse lot. You come from all over the world, work in every news medium, and cover the whole range of complicated subjects–but every one of you is a reporter: You know how to gather information, primarily through in-person interviewing, and to present it accurately, fairly, and engagingly. I would urge you, however, not to take it for granted that the best way to present information is an 800-word, all-text, pyramid-style news story—a method of presentation that grew up in the nineteenth century and dominated our profession for most of the twentieth, but may not in the twenty-first. And, as you’re well advised to be creative about how to present each individual story, the news organizations you work for are going to have to be similarly creative about figuring out, in the aggregate, what package of material they are presenting. It is going to have to be something unobtainable elsewhere—a rich mix of information about a community or a subject that the news organization’s Web site puts together more powerfully and efficiently than anybody else. It is not going to look just like the package of material that populates a newspaper now.
Inventing this is your task. You can’t avoid it—the old way doesn’t work any more—but it’s a far more creative, challenging assignment than what was handed to my generation when we went to journalism. Our job was to improve on the old model. Your job is to create a new model. You shouldn’t be daunted by this: newspapers in particular, and news in general, have been changing in non-incremental ways for three centuries. Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World (the profits from which endowed this school) had almost nothing in common except that they were printed on cheap paper and distributed in cities, and neither had much in common with a big-city newspaper today. On your watch, newspapers will be primarily digital, but the primary task for you is not to switch delivery media, it’s to invent a new social compact with a community around the gathering and presentation of information.
I suppose that qualifies as a man bites dog story—but it’s still contained within a dog bites man story, which is that you are leaders who hold the future of journalism in your hands. Sorry, it’s unavoidable. Have fun with it.
- - -
And here are the remarks Dean Lemann made when he introduced the Journalism students at the main university commencement in front of all the other schools, recipients of honorary degrees, etc - the tradition is to have some fun with this introduction (over the top is the norm from the various deans):
Mr. President, surely you must wish sometimes that everybody believed in free speech as completely as you do.
Well, sir, there is an easy way to achieve that happy state of affairs: Just make sure that the entire public discourse is based on the rock-solid reporting produced by the magnificently well-trained, hard-working, brilliant company of women and men I have the honor to present to you today.
Candidates of the Faculty of Journalism.
They are global. They are Webby. They are intellectually confident. Most, or possibly all, of the world’s problems would disappear overnight if only people would give full attention to their hard-earned facts and well-reasoned interpretations.
And they have completed the nearly insuperable requirements for the degrees of Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy.
I humbly beg you, sir, to grant them this degree along with the rights and privileges thereto attached.
o o o o o
TRANSCRIPT
Remarks by Yian Huang, J2008 Class President
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Dean Lemann, distinguished faculty, treasured guests, … and FELLOW GRADUATES OF THE CLASS OF 2008.
Graduates … Graduates … What an exciting world we are being launched into! There are so many great subjects for us to cover: Painful ones, joyful ones. There are disasters, human stories, war, peace and … perhaps even a scandal or two waiting to be discovered.
We are now a part of the best profession in the world—the one that gives us an excuse to ask people to let us into their lives and their homes; to tell us their intimate stories. And if we ask with “Joyful Entitlement,” as Professor Gissler taught us, people say yes.
We are the next generation of leaders of journalists. Right now, we look at journalists who inspire us, and we think we are merely students, or interns. But you know what, they all look at us, and they expect us to lead.
We have been so honored to have spent the last year at Columbia—the best journalism school in the world. We have reported on the diversity of New York City, a place that many say is the center of the universe.
Ok, that’s the fun bit. Now we’re going to discuss the serious part, which is about WORKING TOGETHER.
Our profession gives us a real opportunity—and thus an obligation—to change the world, by deciding what’s news, as Herbert Gans wrote.
So what do we want to change? What are our big dreams? What if we were the heads of the NY Times or CNN, or what if we had a couple of Pulitzers under our belt? What would we use our voice to say then? Look around this room. Look at the person in the seat next to you, the one in front of you blocking your view. In 20, 30 years, we as a class, we’ll have those things. What then? And then the obvious question is, why wait till then? Use our voices now. Yes, we might have to cover community board meetings starting out, but never lose sight of why we got into this in the first place.
For me, as a conflict photographer I’ve found that documenting—and almost glorifying—violence with my photos might not lead to peace, as I wish it might. News is not just about the conventional “If it bleeds, it leads.” We should strive to uncover the greater complexity of the stories we cover and challenge the established view.
So here’s the “nut” of this speech: To accomplish anything great, we need to harvest the power of the group. As individuals, we can only do so much.
So, stick together. Being unstoppable in the face of the adversities we are certain to face is so much easier with the help of our friends. We are our own best resources:
— We have:… the largest ever PhD graduating class of 6 students, who are our resources in macro trends in media.
— We have Knight Bagehot fellows who have enriched our conversations with their experience, and showed us that learning never stops.
— We have M.A. students who have given up established careers to study with us and cover Arts, Business, Politics.
— And we have the diverse and international M.S. class, who are already trailblazing new ways of telling stories.
Find a collaborator from this group. We can’t do everything ourselves. It’s more effective to work together than be the jack-of-all-trades one-man/woman-mobile-journalist/video/photographer/blogger that the industry seems to want.
Look at how the class came together when Ahmadinejad spoke on this stage last September. We got 30 reporters together to create a blog. We had print pieces, we had video, we had audio slideshows. We killed this story. And we got 165,000 visits in 48 hours.
Look at what we’ve survived together this year: the freezing basement and the horrible experience of the toilets there. We survived not having coffee for an unconscionable amount of time. And don’t get us started on the mythical Argentinean glass that’s being flown in from Paris by way of China. Last I heard, the cafe will be ready in Aug. but that’s what they told us last spring too.
PARENTS IN THE AUDIENCE, so sorry to tell you, that while it is true that this has been a tough year for us, WE ARE NOT DETERRED from this profession. Not in the slightest.
As president of the class, I have the privilege of speaking on behalf of all the students. Dean Lemann, a heartfelt Thank You to you, your faculty and staff, for all your time and teachings that you have imparted to us so very generously. May we be as generous to those coming after us.
Ms. Gross, thank you for coming. It’s a wonderful privilege for us. Since 1973, All You Did Was Ask Questions, if I may paraphrase the title of your book. We would like to ask: If you had only one person left to interview and only one question, who would it be and what would you ask?
A special shout out to adviser Rebecca Castillo and the SPJ Board, the tireless students who labored on behalf of all of us to make it a great experience for one and all. Please stand up and be recognized. Thank you.
Last, and certainly not least, we should all acknowledge our parents. I’m going to ask everyone to stand up, turn around, and show them our appreciation.
When you leave today, find something nice to say to your own parents;
(for me): Dad, for pushing me to do my best always;
and Mum, for teaching me the true meaning of love;
I am only here today because of both of you, so thank you.
sree-NA-th sree-knee-VAH-sun was reading the article below and wanted to
remind all graduating students that he needs help with their names. he’s
walking around with a list of pronunciations, and would like you to say your
name for him at least once between now and wednesday. please catch him in
the hallway or stop by his office. meanwhile, he’s glad he’s not at
macalaster college.
Associated Press
May 8, 2008
Commencement readers cram to prep for tongue-twister names
By JUSTIN POPE
AP Education Writer
PHOTO: Jayne Niemi, second from right, registrar at Macalaster College in
St. Paul, Minn., talks with students, from left, Baitnairamdal Otgonshar,
from Mongolia, Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, from Zimbabwe, and Udochukwu
Chinyere Obodo, from Nigeria, at the campus, Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Niemi is
responsible for pronouncing 450 names correctly at commencement ceremonies
on May 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Janet Hostetter)
A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on
the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Among them: Nokuthula
Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.
Niemi’s job is to read out the graduates’ names without mangling them.
“People invest a lot of time and money and commitment to be here at
Macalester and get this education, and they get one day of celebration in
the end,” says Niemi, a college registrar who will spend several days
studying pronunciation cards submitted by students. “Their families are here
from all over the world. I don’t want to embarrass them or the college.”
Niemi is part of a cadre of deans, professors and even outsourced
professional public speakers that is gearing up to perform one of academia’s
quirkier, and tougher, jobs _ getting every name right, so nobody leaves
campus feeling angry or ungenerous toward his or her alma mater.
Please make note of the following technology items as we approach the end of the academic year:
Equipment and Fines:
All checked out equipment should be returned no later than May 15th.
Equipment fines must by paid by May 16th or you may have a hold placed
on your diploma. If you wish to dispute a fine, please email Craig at
ch2314[at]columbia.edu. (more…)
May 2008
TO: All Students
FROM: Melanie Huff, Assistant Dean of Students
In order to help you plan for Graduation and beyond, we have prepared some documents for you - please make sure you read both carefully.
Journalism Day, the Journalism School graduation ceremony and the University graduation are covered in detail on the graduation page.
Post-graduation use of the building/equipment and alumni benefits/services are covered here.
Please keep in mind that this summer extensive construction work is taking place along with work to repair and prepare the building and equipment for the next academic year. Therefore, it is necessary to establish dates after which graduating students will no longer be able to access and use the facilities. Outlined below is the schedule for the coming summer.
Part of the reason for the tight deadlines is that the two new summer Part-time RWI classes begin on Friday, May 23.
Use of Journalism Building Facilities After May 21
Use of Building:
Members of the Class of 2008 will have access to the building and its facilities through June 30, 2008.
Exceptions include: any area under construction, and any classrooms and computer rooms being used for summer classes or special programs. If you are in one of these rooms when a class is scheduled to begin, please leave immediately. Refusal to cooperate may result in the termination of your access to the building.
Broadcast students may use the broadcast equipment, as available, until June 30. Please remember that scheduled summer school classes and members of the part-time class working on their master’s projects, as well as necessary equipment maintenance upgrades, have priority for equipment and editing rooms.
Please be aware that individual computer rooms will be closed at different times for maintenance and upgrading. Though it is likely, it is not guaranteed that there will always be a computer room or terminal available. Due to maintenance schedules, summer class schedules and the part-time students’ master’s projects, it is possible that you will be unable to use a computer at a specific time.
Student Lockers:
In order to get ready for the construction and the incoming part-time students, all May graduates must empty their lockers by noon, Friday, 23.
Continuing part-time students and News 21 fellows may keep their lockers. Graduates who will be working on a demo tape or other approved projects during the month of June may also keep their lockers. To request such a locker extension, please send e-mail to cc2964@columbia.edu with your name and the reason for your request.
Graduates’ lockers that have not been vacated by noon on Friday, May 23, will be have their locks removed and contents moved to a storage bin and eventually discarded. All locker questions should be directed to Melanie Huff.
Student Mailboxes:
The mailboxes of graduating students may be used until noon, Friday, May 23 as well. All items remaining in boxes after that date will be discarded. Continuing students (& News 21) will be able to access their mailboxes on the first floor hallway over the summer.
Computers:
Graduating students will retain access to computer resources through June 30, 2008. Afterwards you will be unable to use the computer labs, print, or access your network storage. Please be sure to backup all of your files to external media (CDs, DVDs, flash media, iPods, etc.) before your account is deactivated.
E-mail:
Please see the alumni services/benefits section below for full details.
University Services After May 21
Health Services
Access to Health Services at the University expires on August 31 for all graduating students. For those with major medical health insurance through Columbia (Chickering), coverage ends on July 31 for M.S. students. Coverage for all other students ends on August 31. You do have the option of purchasing an extention on this policy. Please see http://www.health.columbia.edu/index.html for details.
University Libraries
Recent alumni will retain full library privileges, including borrowing privileges and access to licensed electronic databases, for a period of three months beyond the degree conferral date. Access information can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/lio/access/. Library Services for alumni can be found at http://www.alumni.libraries.columbia.edu/
Dodge Physical Fitness Center (aka the Gym)
You may use the gym over the summer with your current CUID. However, you will have to pay the $91 gym use fee. Beginning in September, you will be eligible for alumni gym use. Please see http://alumni.columbia.edu/visit/s5_1.html
A variety of benefits and services are available to Journalism School graduates. This page answers most of your most questions and concerns, from auditing a class at Columbia to updating your address information, from obtaining a transcript of your time here to using Columbia’s recreational facilities - http://snipurl.com/cugsj_alumni
Please note that you will automatically be subscribed to your class list serve using the real world e-mail address supplied in your graduation survey (more details en route from Career Services). Your Columbia e-mail will remain an actual e-mail account through the summer, but then you will have to convert it to an alias to which your e-mail is sent and then forwarded to your real world account. Instructions are available at http://alumni.columbia.edu/access/s2_2.html.
Each graduate receives four tickets for the Journalism School Graduation Ceremony & four for the University Commencement. If you need more tickets, please arrange to trade with other students. Graduates don’t have to use a ticket for themselves.
The survey is used to create a class directory (both your class list serve and the alumni database), employment statistics and a database of employment information indicating the types of position openings in which you are interested. This is very important in determining how we can better help graduates find the best jobs as quickly as possible, and how the school can help make that happen by also collecting feedback on career services.
You willingness to allow career services to circulate your resume is also indicated on the survey.
2. Submit a NEW copy of your resume electronically with the survey. The resume should indicate that you have graduated and include up-to-date contact information. It will be used by the Career Services Office to assist you in your employment search.
You may pick up your tickets from Claudia Castillo in room 2M07A (mezzanine) once you have completed your online graduation survey AND submitted your updated resume. Ms. Castillo will verify receipt of the survey and have you sign for your ticket envelope containing both sets of tickets.
The survey can done 24/7, but Ms. Castillo is available for ticket pick-up/resume submission from 9 am-5 pm only. If you are a part-time student and it is impossible for you to come in, you may contact her (cc2964 or 212-851-0246) about having tickets mailed. Survey receipt verification is still required.
Attn: M.S. Students
From: Dean Huff
Re: Year-end Awards
April 22, 2008
Each year on Journalism Day the school confers awards on several top-performing students. Each prize winner will receive a certificate and some will receive additional cash prizes (this depends on how the awards were originally set up). Below you will find the descriptions of this year’s awards.
These awards are open to any M.S. students graduating in this cycle (May 2008, Feb. 2008 and Oct. 2007). M.A. students are eligible for a separate category, for outstanding thesis, and will receive information from Dean Cornog.
There are two broad categories of awards: those for which students can submit entries that are judged by faculty juries; and those decided by the professors teaching the course for which they are awarded - no submissions are accepted for these.
Please note: There are two awards run and judged by alumni - the Sander and Blood awards, which have already accepted submissions.
Another prize, the Harron Award, is decided by a faculty committee from nominations provided by the J-school community - see separate announcement). All M.S., M.A., Knight Bagehot, and Ph.D. students are eligible.
For juried awards, you may submit applications for no more than two categories (the Blood, Hechinger and Sander awards are not part of the limit), and each application can contain only one story, or segment of a Master’s Project no longer than 3,500 words (or 10-12 minutes of video or audio; for new media projects, submit specific URLs in addition to an overall URL, and printouts of the relevant pages).
The decisions of the faculty judges are final, and their deliberations are confidential.
If you are submitting an application for one of the juried awards, you must submit clean, hard copy (or broadcast materials, if applicable, WITH SCRIPTS, or for new media projects, submit specific URLs in addition to an overall URL, and printouts of the relevant pages) to the boxes in 2M07A (in the Career Services area)between Thursday, April 24, at 10 a.m. and Monday, May 5 at 10 a.m. If you are coming after business hours, please drop off the entries through the slot of the gray box outside of the DOS offices(Huff/Sreenivasan) PLEASE SUBMIT THREE COPIES OF EACH ITEM. (more…)
Attn: Students, Faculty and Staff
From: Harron Award Faculty jury
The Faculty is currently accepting nominations for the ROBERT HARRON AWARD.
The ROBERT HARRON AWARD is presented each year to the student (M.S. [FT or PT]; M.A.; Knight Bagehot; Ph.D.) who has demonstrated excellence in writing and reporting as well as exemplary kindness and courtesy to fellow students. It is popularly known as the “nice guy/gal” award.
The award was established in memory of Robert Harron, a former sportswriter and long-time assistant to the presidents of this university, through gifts from his many friends.
While all members of the School (faculty - full-time and adjucts, staff and students) may submit nominations, only students in the Class of 2008 (part-time and full-time, M.S., M.A., Knight Bagehot, Ph.D.) are eligible for the prize, which will be announced with other awards on Journalism Day (this is a separate prize from SPJ’s “Student of the year” and the other awards determined by the Faculty). (more…)
The Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award will be given to the student who produces the most outstanding journalistic work on the subject of education.
This award was established by the Hechinger Institute on Media Education at Teachers College, in honor of the New York Times’ education editor, Fred Hechinger.
Stories are accepted in television, new media, radio and print. There is no length restriction. Judges will be looking for insight and excellence in reporting and writing. (more…)
[Most of the information below is for M.S. students only. M.A. students are eligible for a separate award, the Arthur Harris Prize for best Master’s Thesis.]
We received the following question from a student:
Today in RW1 we had a guest speaker whose bio mentioned that she received the “Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, won for graduating first in her class…”
Since we don’t receive grades, I’m wondering how this designation of “first in class” is decided.
The Journalism School has a Pass-Fail system of formal grading. It aims at encouraging students to perform as well as they can, without competing with classmates. In most courses (some electives excepted), students receive written evaluations of their work from the instructors. Copies of these evaluations are kept in the DOS Office.
In RWI, written evaluations are issued at midterm and at the end of the semester. These preliminary evaluations indicate students’ early progress and, if necessary, serve as a warning if any students are in danger of failing. Students who are not doing passing work are placed on probation. If a student’s work is passing at midterm but deteriorates after the midterm evaluation, the instructor will give written notice of possible failure and inform the faculty.
RWI is the most important fall course. The decision to pass or fail a student in that course is determined solely by the instructor(s.) No grades of incomplete are allowed in RWI. Other required courses-such as Journalism, the Law and Society-are important, too. Inattention can result in failure. Students also should note that the “Skills” mini-courses are meant to be taken very seriously. The faculty reserves the right to dismiss a student who fails the same course twice or two courses, regardless of the credit points of the courses.
Deadlines for the Master’s Project drafts are strictly enforced. The Faculty retains the right to fail or place on probation a student who fails to meet deadlines for the Master’s Project.
No student is permitted to graduate while still on probation.
At graduation, the honors list is announced, recognizing approximately 15 percent of the students for superior performance in multiple courses; the faculty determines the honors list by comparing and discussing each student’s complete record. The faculty also awards more than a dozen special prizes at graduation, including five Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for overall performance during the academic year. These decisions are based in part on an informal system of grading, which permits each instructor to designate one or two students as having completed a course “with honors.” Students are informed of the honors designation.
That designation, in the individual classes, is “honors in class,” and you will see it - if you get it - in the written evaluations you receive. If you receive two or more “honors in class” in our six-credit courses (RW1, Master’s Project, seminar, workshop) AND one or more in three-credit elective, you are likely to “graduate with honors.”
Except for a few prizes for which students can submit stories to be judged, the rest of the prizes are decided by faculty, without input from the students.
We hold briefing sessions close to Graduation to explain the procedures.
Part-time students are eligible for the awards and are tracked during their entire academic career here (though the prizes are typically given out the year they graduate).
Please direct all questions to Deans Sreenivasan and Huff.
Attention Graduating (and just graduated) Students:
There are several steps students must take to receive their diplomas and to participate in the graduation ceremonies.
1. Diploma Application Submission (already done for 10/07, 2/08 and 5/08 graduates)
2. Diploma Application Receipt Verification (already done for 10/07 and 2/08 graduates)
3. Graduation Ceremony Registration and Printed Program form
1. Diploma Application Submission: Diploma applications for all May degrees were due on December 3, 2007. If you did not submit one, please follow the submission instructions outlined in item #2.
2. If your name isn’t on the list I sent via e-mail and you are graduating (your name won’t be there if you graduated in October or February; but you will be able to march), you MUST go to the following link, type in the required information, print, sign and return it the Diploma Division in 202 Kent Hall. This form cannot be submitted electronically. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/registrar/docs/forms/app-for-deg-or-cert.html Late forms must be submitted by 5 p.m., Friday, March 7. If you miss the deadline, you will not receive your diploma in time for the ceremony.
Name Spellings:
Your name on your diploma will appear as it is written on that list. The spelling was generated by your official registration with the University. If you want to have it changed, you will have to go to the Registrar’s Office, 202 Kent Hall, before 5 p.m. on March 7.
Dual Degree Students:
Those students in dual degree programs who will finish the Journalism School portion of their studies this May are eligible to march in the Journalism School’s ceremony this year.
You will not, however, receive your Journalism School diploma until you have completed the work for both degrees.
You will need to respond to all DOS emails regarding graduation participation if you want to be part of our ceremony.
3. Graduation Ceremony Registration and Printed Program form: All those graduating in May 2008 and those who graduated in October 2007 and February 2008 are required to complete the graduation program form at http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/gradprogram/. Please note that this includes dual-degree students who are completing the Journalism portion of their degrees. You are eligible to march with your classmates even though you won’t receive your actual diploma until you have finished both degrees.
The Class of 1989 is pleased to announce the Leslie Rachel Sander Social Justice Award, in memory of our classmate who died on her 22nd birthday in June 1989, after a courageous battle with cancer.
We offer a $750 prize to a student at the school whose work carries on the journalism for social justice to which Leslie aspired. The winner will be chosen by some of her former classmates and announced on Journalism Day. All members of the class of 2008 are invited to submit one entry each.
Choice of Subject…
…is yours. Reporting including but not limited to economics, environment, education, health care, housing, politics and transportation may be appropriate. Entries could be a hard-hitting expose or a descriptive feature, an essay or a work of straight reporting. Topics may be local, national or international.
In 2006 the award went to a piece about domestic violence among immigrant Arab women. Past winners have included a story about teenage female criminals falling through the cracks of a criminal justice system designed for an overwhelmingly male population (1997); “One Strike, You’re Out,” a story about a federal immigration law, applied retroactively, that requires the deportation of immigrants who have been
convicted of a felony (1998); our first broadcast winner, “TB: The City’s Silent Killer” (1995); and “Childhood Interrupted,” about children who come to the United States seeking asylum and end up in INS detention (2002).
We leave it to you to define social justice. To Leslie it meant a commitment “to personally make a positive difference in the world around her,” as her father wrote in her obituary. Leslie was special: caring, and compassionate, a good listener and a sharp, critical thinker. The choices she made in her short life–teaching at a multiracial school in Botswana; studying journalism–reflected her ideals.
Entry Requirements
Print pieces should not exceed 3,000 words. Broadcast scripts should be no longer than 10 pages; finished tapes should be no longer than 10 minutes.
Judges, who are members of the class of 1989, will consider choice of subject, originality, reportorial skill and style.
Reporting need not be complete, although it must be more than just computer searches. A work in progress, such as an investigative piece, an unfinished photo essay or a rough edit of a documentary may be submitted if it is far enough along to be judged on its merits. In that case, we hope the award will give a student the finances and encouragement to complete the work so that it may be published or aired.
Submission Process
If you do not follow these instructions your entry may be disqualified.
Submissions must be e-mailed as Word attachments to karyncolombo@yahoo.com by noon Friday, April 4, 2008. Please also include a copy of the entry as text within the e-mail in case there are any problems opening the attachment.
For New Media submissions, please e-mail the URL to karyncolombo@yahoo.com by noon Friday, April 4, 2008.
Entries, which will be judged anonymously, may be sent any time until the deadline; late submissions will not be accepted.
Audio and videotapes must be postmarked by Friday, April 4, and mailed to:
Karyn Colombo
News Desk
The Palm Beach Post
2751 S. Dixie Highway
West Palm Beach, Fla. 33405-1233
Please note that e-mailed transcripts of the tape also must be received by the noon deadline or the tape will not be considered.
Questions? Please contact Karyn Colombo at karyncolombo@yahoo.com or at (561) 659-9880.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Richard J. Blood Award For Excellence in Reporting
DEADLINE: Noon, Monday, March 31
Seeking an unpublished investigative, hard-news or news feature story of publishable quality.
Please, no profiles.
Submit one article of no more than 1,500 words. Please double-space entries, and note the word count alongside the headline.
A winning entry will overflow with voices, specifics and solid attribution. Less is more: Leave in only the details that move the story forward. Make your copy lean, your prose sing and soar.
Particular attention will be given to rigorously reported stories that have the potential to improve social conditions – stories that alert the community to a danger, explain human behavior, entertain, inform and educate.
You are strongly encouraged to review the article with your instructor, incorporate any reporting/editing suggestions and rewrite it before submission.
The award is $700
Please submit SIX COPIES of your article to Claudia Castillo, Student Services Coordinator, Room 2m07A, by Noon, March 31.
Please note that the competition is for unpublished work, but that articles that have run on the ColumbiaJournalist.org ARE eligible.
We will announce the winner on Journalism Day
*This award is administered by the Class of 1995 Blood Award committee: Stephanie Argy, Raney Aronson, Ellen Butler Bikales, Maria Sanminiatelli and Erin Texeira
The faculty invites students to nominate names for two graduation-related speakers. The final decision is made by the faculty, but they would like to see your suggestions.
THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM AWARD is the school’s highest honor and is a “lifetime achievement” prize. This person is, in effect, your main graduation speaker (and will be addressing you in front of your parents and guests). Recent winners: Jim Amoss, David Halberstam, Seymour Hersh, Paul Steiger, Joseph Lelyveld, Pete Hammill, Carl Rowan, Joan Didion, Walter Cronkite, Ben Bradlee (see full list on awards wall outside glass door in front of Deans Suite on seventh floor).
THE PRINGLE LECTURE is typically given by a journalist covering national affairs. The lecture is given at one of the smaller graduation-related ceremonies and is ONLY to students and faculty, with no guests. Recent lecturers: Farnaz Fassihi, Michael Kinsley, Molly Ivins, Mary McGrory, Jay Harris, Tom Bettag, Cokie Roberts, Dana Priest . A Washington connection is preferable, but not necessary (eg, Jay Harris, Farnaz Fassihi).
FORM: To give your suggestions, fill in the 30-second form here (all fields are optional):
DEADLINE: Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 - 10 p.m.
Please remember: This is NOT a vote. The faculty just wants to get a sense of what names are proposed.
[ Another in our “Notes From…” series - short notes by volunteers summarizing various events around the school, to help those of us who didn’t/couldn’t attend. Watch for several other “Notes From…” throughout the year. If you have one, send it in! Or let us know in advance that you’d like to do one; or after the event, too. ]
Below, notes from the 2007 graduation speech by Ben Bradlee of The Washington Post. Many thanks to volunteer notes-taker Phil Wahba, who is a Part-Time student graduating in 2008.
Feel free to drop him note or post a comment below (free, one-time registration required).
Notes From… Ben Bradlee’s Graduation Speech, Columbia Journalism School By Phil Wahba
E-mail: pw2158[at]columbia.edu
LERNER HALL, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, MAY 16, 2007: “Love your job, and work harder than the guy next to you.” With those words, former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee imparted his advice to the latest batch of Columbia University Journalism School grads setting out into the world of journalism. He is this year’s recipient of the Columbia Journalism Award, the J-school’s highest honor (a recent previous winner was David Halberstam - read his 2005 speech).
After an effusive introduction by Dean Nick Lemann at the school’s graduation ceremony, Mr. Bradlee regaled the audience of graduates and their families and friends with tales from his illustrious career, everything from having President Kennedy for a source to nearly getting deported from France while on assignment
for Newsweek magazine. As he spoke, many of the parents and students in the hall started taking photos of him, their camera flashes going off again and again from all over the room.
His talk also included cautionary tales. Recalling that he was the editor who allowed the publication of Janet Cooke’s 1981 Pulitzer-winning article about heroin addiction that turned out to be a complete fabrication, Mr. Bradlee advised the newly-minted journalists, “When you make a mistake, eat it.” And he cautioned the aspiring journalists that sometimes they won’t get to write the stories they find.
From the outset of his remarks, Mr. Bradlee, 86, made clear his optimism for the profession upon which the 250 or so grads were embarking. “I am flat-out sick of dire predictions for the future of journalism,” he told the audience. “We are the latest of the breed, not the last.” And, he said, people will always want to know
the truth.
He firmly believes that good stories will always be in demand and urged the graduates to be patient when working on a story, because the truth emerges eventually.
The gravel-voiced Mr. Bradlee ended his address by quoting his father’s advice for succeeding. “Nose down, ass up and go.”
2007 Graduation Awards
The following awards were presented on May 15 and the winners will be acknowledged again on May 16.
PULITZER TRAVELING FELLOWSHIPS & EIBEL for the top six students in the Class of 2007:
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP: Vidya Ram (designated as the top student in the class)
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP: Daniel Louis Charnas
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP: Susan Donaldson James
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP: Dorian Sanae Merina
PULITZER FELLOWSHIP: Emily Elizabeth Voigt
David Marcus Eibel Memoria Scholarship: Karen Christie Nicholson
AWARDS & WINNER
Literary Criticism Award: Megan Maria Garber
Richard Blood Scholarship Award: Lisa Marie Desai & Andrea De Marco
Leslie Rachel Sander Social Justice Award: Lily Roxanna Jamali, Mary Catherine Brouder & Kate Elizabeth McCarthy
James A. Wechsler Memorial Awards
International: Clinton Martin Hendler
National: Daniel Weiss
Local: Betty Yu
Richard T. Baker Bronx Beat Award: Charis Hagyard Anderson
Richard T. Baker Magazine Award: Ayub Nuri
Richard T. Baker Columbia News Service Award: Christopher Jude Twarowski
Nona Balakian Award in Literary Criticism: Rafael Enrique Valero
Photojournalism Award: Amanda Katharine Rivkin
Philip Greer Business Writing Award: Jason Anthony Del Rey
Robert Harron Award (nice guy/nice gal prize): David Lee Ressel
Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award: Angela Renee Hokanson & Justin David Nobel
Horgan Prizes for Excellence in Science Writing:
Emily Elizabeth Voigt
Margaret Ballantyne
Domenico Montanaro
Ann Marie Venesky
Horgan Prize for Excellence in Science Writing: Lora Kristina Wallace
Lars Erik Nelson for national reporting: Christine Cecile Brouwer
Christopher Light Editing Prize: Annie Correal
Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing: Lauren Marie McSherry & Daniel Louis Charnas
Melvin Mencher Reporting Award: Sarah Selene Brown
New Media Workshop Award: Ahmed Rakan Shihab-Eldin & Paul Saksith Suwan
Nightly News Workshop Award: Mary Catherine Brouder
Nightly News Workshop Award: Nicholas Emmanuel Meidanis
Radio Workshop Award: Jennifer Carissa Collins
Television News Magazine Award: Kate Elizabeth McCarthy
Sackett Graduate Award: Daniel Louis Charnas
Henry N. Taylor Award for international students: Archie Bland & Lorenzo Morales
Louis Winnick Prize for RWI: Gregory Steven Beyer
Sevellon Brown Award: Julia Charlotte Mead
Documentary Television Workshop Award: Smriti Aggarwal & Shahar Smooha
Master of Arts Award for Best Thesis: Julia Charlotte Mead
MA Thesis Finalists: Thomas Scott Dodd & Justine Juliet Sharrock
STUDENTS GRADUATING WITH HONORS
(see explanation of how these are determined)
Andres Amerikaner
Archie Bland
Dorian Emily Block
Christine Cecile Brouwer
Daniel Louis Charnas
Jennifer Carissa Collins
Coleman MacDonalson Cowan
Jason Anthony Del Rey
Brett Taylor Elliott
Paige Ferrari
Anne Gehris
Jessica Joy Heasley
Susan Donaldson James
Laura Shannon Legere
Aimee Anne Levitt
Kevin Joseph Livelli
Aili Mary McConnon
Dorian Sanae Merina
Karen Christie Nicholson
Vidya Ram
Courtney Christine Reimer
Beth Anne Rotatori
Ahmed Rakan Shihab-Eldin
Samuel Irving Stein
Emily Elizabeth Voigt
Robert Thomas Wagner
Daniel Weiss
Joshua Marc Yaffa
Congratulations to all our graduates!
Below: One of the photos by Amanda Rivkin (it’s of a woman having her eyebrows threaded), winner of the 2007 Photojournalism Award:
See 2008 Graduation Awards.
A friendly reminder that as part of Journalism Day on Tuesday, May 15, we
will be having presentations of all the video, radio and new media Master’s
Projects - across three rooms in the building.
Spend the afternoon watching the work of the Class of 2007 (also presenting:
The Covering Religion of India website).
NO RSVP; just float among the different sessions; meet the students, and, in
some cases, the subjects of these stories.
As you know, each graduating student receives four tix for the CU commencement Wednesday morning and four tix for the J-school Graduation Wednesday afternoon. The students themselves do not need tickets, so they can bring up to four guests for each ceremony. These are two kinds of tickets for the morning and the afternoon.
Each year, we set up a paper-based ticket swap system. This year, we are doing a web-based ticket swap. If you have tickets to offer or need extra tickets, just post below. If you want to get or give tickets, as appropriate, please contact the relevant folks below.
TO SEE ALL THE TICKET REQUESTS & OFFERS: Just scroll down to the comments section (no registration required).
TO POST A REQUEST OR AN OFFER: please follow these instructions carefully:
If you haven’t registered on this site earlier, follow these instructions to post a comment - in this case, your interest in attending. If you have already registered, just go ahead and log in and indicate your interest, using your full name and Columbia e-mail address.
1. To register for this blog (you only have to do this once for all future comments), go to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/wp-register.php (once you are registered - includes a password being sent to you via e-mail), go to step 2.
2. Click on the “Comments” at the bottom of this post and fill in your FULL NAME - first and last - and Columbia e-mail address (just fill it in once, typing in just “N/A” in the URL section if you don’t have a site).
Include information about the number of tickets and which set of events and include e-mail, cell and other contact information. And, of course, put your full name into comments field, so people will know who you are. [NOTE: Several of you have posted WITHOUT your full name! We have updated the names we know. Please use your full name!]
Once you have posted your listing as a comment, the DOS office has to approve it, which might take a few minutes or a few hours. We will work to approve these as fast as we can. Please be patient. Once approved, the listing will show up in the comments section.
PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY (reading all the way across the page).
If you want to make changes, please notify Melanie Huff ASAP.
If your name is marked in blue, it means that I still need the program form from you (http://fs8.formsite.com/cjdos/gradprogram/). If you have already tried to submit the form, please just forward the confirmation e-mail to me so that I can get the information.
If the diploma box is yellow, it means that the University didn’t have a diploma application from you by March 27. If you have since then submitted a diploma application, you needn’t do anything further. If not, please notify me ASAP.
********************
Many thanks for your input for this year’s Graduation speakers. Two
distinguished journalists will be speaking to you at graduation (it’s just a
coincidence that they are from the same newsroom).
ON TUESDAY, MAY 15, the Pringle Lecture will be delivered by DANA PRIEST,
national security correspondent of The Washington Post, where she has worked
for 20 years. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for beat reporting (in part
for her revelation on secret prisons run by the CIA). That was the third
year in a row that she had a Pulitzer connection. In 2005, she was a
finalist in two categories - beat reporting, for her coverage of
intelligence agencies; and national reporting, as part of the Post team that
covered the Abu Ghraib abuses). In 2004, her book, “The Mission: Waging War
and Keeping Peace With America’s Military,” was a Pulitzer finalist in
general non-fiction.
Most recently, she helped reveal the crises at Walter Reed Hospital earlier
this year. Read more about her extraordinary work (and watch some of her
appearances as a guest panelist on “Washinton Week with Gwen Ifill” on PBS)
at the Dana Priest Fan Site: http://www.danapriestfansite.com/
ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, the winner of the school’s highest honor, the Columbia
Journalism Award (and therefore, the main graduation speaker for you and
your guests) is BEN BRADLEE, the legendary editor of The Washington Post.
During his years as executive editor of the Post from 1965-1991, he helped
transform the paper from a local daily into an internationally-recognized,
world-class news operation. Among the stories he was intimately involved
with: the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. Adjunct professor Betsy West told
me just last night how how great a big-event speaker Bradlee is and that we
are all in for a treat. More on Bradlee at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bradlee and http://www.gtnspeakers.com/speakers/speakers.php?speakerid=302
The student speaker will be AKISA OMULEPU, your class president - no
introduction required.
Commencement regalia is for sale through the Columbia bookstore.
There you can purchase your souvenir cap, gown, and tassle. The cost is $50.00.
Caps and gowns will remain available for sale up until commencement in May. However, the deadline to purchase them at the $50 price is April 6. After that date, there will be a $20 late fee. Also, as time gets closer to graduation day, size availability cannot be guaranteed.
Regalia is not available for rent, only for purchase.
Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s 2006 international students prepared a 6-minute video for the incoming international students in the Class of 2007. There’s plenty of useful stuff for our American students as well. [That’s Heamakarn Sricharatchanya from Bangkok, Thailand, in the freeze frame below.]
Many thanks to Prof. Josh Friedman, director of the International Program; student producers Dan Fishel (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Scott Willyerd; student photographers Rebecca Castillo and Kathryn Maier; and all the international students in the Class of 2006.
When you play the video below, you will need to let about 20 seconds pass, as the first pictures don’t start until then.
To : J Class of 2006
Subject : MEMO: Access to J-school extended through July 10.
—– Message Text —–
Dear J2006:
In order to accommodate requests from some of you and some technical
issues we have been having, we are extending your access to the J-school’s
computers and building through 10 a.m. on Monday, July 10, 2006 (instead of 5 p.m. today).
Please make sure you take care of whatever you need to computer-wise
by then. All other parts of the Year-End Manual still apply.
2006 Graduation Remarks by Dean Nicholas Lemann
May 17, 2006
Every year at our graduation ceremony I am permitted to pontificate for a few minutes, as long as I keep it brief. So, before we get to the part of the event that you all came for, I will offer just a few minutes of thoughts.
First, congratulations on graduating and good luck in your careers in journalism. This school is a curiously intense place, and, besides its educational benefits, that creates a strong emotional bond that tends to last. As soon as you come up here, cross this stage, and get your diplomas, you will be alumni. Please think of that as just a new a longer-lasting phase in your relationship with the school. In the short run, our career services office plans to be very much a part of your lives, if you need its ministrations, and in the long run I promise we will think of lots of ways to keep you connected to the Journalism School. To paraphrase what the hunky hero of my favorite reality TV show, “The Millionaire,” said in the final episode, we want to continue the journey.
Shortly after our school, which was founded in 1912, was reconstituted as a graduate school in 1934, the large room on the third floor that you all know as the Lecture Hall was made into a newsroom, and it remained so for two decades. The school then, according to James Boylan’s history, Pulitzer’s School, unhesitatingly saw itself as a training ground for newspaper reporters, and the newsroom was meant to replicate as precisely as possible the atmosphere in which the students would be working the following year.
After a long newspaper-only period, the Journalism School serially launched distinguished programs in other forms of journalism — television, radio, photography, magazines, books, online — but today, the more fundamental truth is that we of the faculty don’t know exactly what you, our new graduates, will wind up doing during your careers as journalists. Today the plurality of you enter the school saying you want to be magazine journalists; this time next year, the plurality of you will probably be working for newspapers. But as all of you know, newspaper circulation is gradually slipping, and the consensus in the profession is that the social function we perform is moving to the Internet.
Even in the short three years I have been dean here, it has been striking how much the school has moved in the direction of Internet journalism. I came here during an Internet bust, and now we are clearly entering another Internet boom. We have created a web site for student work, called The Columbia Journalist. We are now filling a newly created position called Assistant Dean for Technology. More and more of our classes, including the class I taught this year, are producing their journalistic work in digital form. Columbia Journalism Review now publishes daily on the Internet, as well as six times a year in magazine form. I doubt there is any news organization that does not have an Internet version of itself, in addition to the original version in whatever medium. The lines are blurring between the different categories of journalism around which our school organizes itself.
For you, our graduates, I would guess that producing journalism for delivery through the Internet will be a much larger part of your professional lives than it has been in the professional lives of most of us on the faculty. For the Journalism School, that raises the question of how we should change in response to the rise of Internet journalism. I am sure that every day for all of the time I am dean here, we will be thinking about that question in some way. I don’t think the answer is as easy as it might appear to be — which is to say that I won’t think the answer is that we should simply teach something called “Internet journalism,” or “convergence journalism,” to all our students.
We don’t really know yet what those terms mean. Journalism has only begun to tap the incredibly rich potential of this new medium, which can employ printed and spoken words, still and moving images, and raw and finished material, all at the same time, which can interact in real time with its audience, which can react more instantaneously, and also be less constrained by the news cycle, than other news media. On the Internet we can get news out more quickly, update it more easily, and keep it out longer, than anywhere else. Simply to teach people the technical skills associated with putting journalism up on a web site is to sell the Internet much too short.
Generally, over the next few years, we should be undertaking two somewhat contradictory missions with respect to the Internet. We should be exploring as fully as we can the overarching principles of great journalism — the things that transcend any medium of transmission. These would include ethics, a sense of the history of our profession (which seems much more relevant at moments when journalistic history is unfolding before our eyes), the most powerful and most penetrating ways of gathering and assessing information, even when it is difficult and technical, and clear, engaging, accurate means of presentation. At the same time, we should be thinking of Internet journalism in particular not so much in terms of basic technological skills — those are only the beginning — but as an enormous untapped opportunity to expand the limits of what is possible in our profession. As a school, we have the luxury of functioning as an experimental laboratory, and the Internet, with its low barriers to entry, provides an ideal occasion for us to do this. Finally, we should be using our fortunate position as one of the main places in the world where thinking about the state of journalism goes on to conduct an ongoing conversation about how what we teach here — reporting — can establish itself as strongly as possible on the Internet, even as that medium also enables a historic flowering of individual, non-professional political and cultural commentary.
We will have fun working on all this at the school, but you will have more fun doing it out in the world. Please don’t be afraid of the changes coming in journalism. If you remain loyal to the core values and skills you have learned here — honesty, curiosity, fairness, clarity, thoroughness — you will be doing something all societies desperately needs, and that is also as consistently challenging and stimulating as any professional endeavor. You are off on a great adventure: enjoy it.
