The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

On Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, Bill Grueskin, the Columbia Journalism School’s new Dean of Academic Affairs, was interviewed as part of the school’s webcast program. Grueskin, who was, most recently, deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, spoke for an hour with Sree Sreenivasan, the school’s Dean of Student Affairs, about a wide range of topics.

Among them: the role of the WSJ in American journalism; the major changes at the paper since the arrival of Robert Thomson and Rupert Murdoch (including the recent editing layoffs); advice for young journalists; the future of newspapers; how technology has changed the business; how non-techies can learn how to work in the new world; the role of editing in journalism; his career (which included a stint on a paper on a Native American reservation); and more (he also answered questions received via e-mail and chatroom).

You can listen to the hour-long conversation here or via the player below:

See the full archive of Columbia J-school 15+ webcasts with faculty, administrators, alumni and more at http://blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism

These are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal collection. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes, go to “Advanced” within iTunes, then select “Subscribe to podcast” and type in http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

Questions, comments to sree@sree.net

- press release - June 2008 -

COLUMBIA’S GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM NAMES BILL GRUESKIN OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AS NEW ACADEMIC DEAN

New York, NY (June 4, 2008) — Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism announced that Bill Grueskin, the Deputy Managing Editor for News at The Wall Street Journal, will assume the position of Dean of Academic Affairs beginning on September 2, 2008. Mr. Grueskin will also have the academic title of Professor of Professional Practice.
(more…)

Message from Dean Sreenivasan

Dear Students:

We are going to be doing more webcasts in the weeks ahead. Coming soon: Sheila Coronel, who heads our investigative journalism program; Betsy West, who teaches in the broadcast program; Joe Cutbirth, who teaches reporting and writing (and is a PhD candidate himself); Larry Fried, dean of technology and his tech team; LynNell Hancock, who teaches education reporting (and is finishing up her term as interim academic dean); and Bill Grueskin, our new academic dean.

Meanwhile, our next session is later today:
MEET THE J-SCHOOL: Judith Matloff, adjunct professor, author and war correspondent. Her new book, “Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block,” is about her setting up a new life in Harlem.

TODAY, Monday, June 23, 3-4 p.m. NY time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/2nese

Listen live at the link below (or by dialing a NYC number, 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/06/23/MEET-THE-FACULTY-Judith-Matloff

You can send your questions in advance: dos[at]jrn.columbia.edu (subject=webcast) and you can also ask questions via the live chatroom there (another chance to meet some of your new classmates, too).

Judith Matloff has been teaching reporting and writing; covering conflicts and other courses at the J-School for several years. Her latest book: “Home Girl: Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block.” She worked as a staff foreign correspondent for 20 years, specializing in areas of turmoil. She covered a total 62 countries, heading the Africa and Moscow bureaus of The Christian Science Monitor. Previously, Matloff spent a decade at Reuters in various positions in Europe and Africa. She has reported on major world matters including apartheid’s demise, genocide, EU expansion and OPEC.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL OUR PREVIOUS WEBCASTS AND SEE ALL OUR RESOURCES AND FAQS FOR NEW STUDENTS at http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/prepping/

You can also access all the recordings of all our webcasts at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism

These are also available as downloadable MP3 files for your personal
collection. If you want to subscribe to these as podcasts on iTunes,
go to “Advanced” within iTunes, then select “Subscribe to podcast” and
type in http://www.blogtalkradio.com/columbiajournalism/feed and hit OK.

In the fall of 1961, a young man named Bruce Porter came to the Columbia Journalism School as a student. On June 5, 2008, we gathered to say goodbye at his retirement party. In the 47 years in between, he became a successful journalist, author and professor, never wandering too far from the school or NYC before coming here to teach full-time again a dozen years ago.

Here are videos of his remarks at the end of “The Porter Party” which was a combination toast and roast:

Earlier the same day, we hosted a webcast with Prof. Porter, where he talked about his work, his book “Blow” and teaching at the J-school. Incoming student Joel Stonington helped conduct the interview. Listen to the webcast here.

As you know, we have been doing a series of webcasts to introduce the school to incoming students. Our latest was with Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad bureau chief, The Washington Post . The originial announcement is below, but you can listen to the recording here.


AUDIO WEBCAST: Sudarsan Raghavan, Baghdad bureau chief, The Washington Post (bio below)

Friday, May 9, 3-4 p.m. NY time
10 p.m. Baghdad time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/28191

Listen live at the link below (or by dialing 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/05/09/MEET-AN-ALUM-Sudarsan-Raghavan

Columbia Journalism School invites you to meet an award-winning foreign correspondent. He has reported from more than 50 countries and nine war zones in Africa (where he was Knight-Ridder bureau chief), the Middle East, Asia, the former Soviet Union and Central America. Raghavan, who has won several major prizes, including the Polk Award, started his career in 1992 freelancing from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He will discuss the situation in Iraq, his career and what he learned at Columbia. He’ll be calling in from his Baghdad home. You can ask questions via the live chatroom or the listener line, or send them in advance via e-mail to dos[at]jrn.columbia.edu

Read some of his latest stories: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/sudarsan+raghavan/

On April 12, 2007, a couple of weeks after he spoke at Columbia during a brief vacation, he nearly became a victim of one of the countless Iraq bombs we hear about. Here’s how his front-page, first-person story, “In an Instant, a Junkyard of Humanity,” began:

The bomber blew himself up no more than a few yards away. First, a brilliant flash of orange light like a starburst, then a giant popping sound. A gust of debris, flesh and blood threw me from my chair as if I were made of cardboard.
I was lying on a bed of shattered glass on the floor of the cafeteria in the Iraqi parliament building, covered with ashes and dust. Small pieces of flesh clung to my bluejeans. Blood, someone else’s, speckled the left lens of my silver-rimmed glasses. Blood, mine, oozed from my left hand, punctured by a tiny shard of glass.
“Are you okay? Are you okay?” asked Saad al-Izzi, one of The Post’s Iraqi correspondents, standing over me, his face framed by an eerie yellowish glow, his voice distant. I did not reply.
I had always thought about this moment. In Iraq, every journalist does. But I did not expect a bomber to take lives inside the Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi government and its backer, the United States.

Read the whole piece - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202455.html - and listen to a six-minute audio story by him - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/04/12/VI2007041201194.html

Huffington Post’s Eat the Press called the piece “a must-read”: “The pure narrative movement of the piece, full of sudden temporal jumps and shifts in voice, only serves to underscore the nervy panic of the moment and its aftermath as Raghavan struggles to render the disjointed scene into something whole.”

See the transcript of a WashingtonPost.com chat with him the next day:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/12/DI2007041201708.html

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TODAY’S WEBCAST: Listen live at the link below (or by dialing 646-915-9583) or listen to a recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2008/05/09/MEET-AN-ALUM-Sudarsan-Raghavan

Friday, May 9, 3-4 p.m. NY time
See local time in your city here: http://snurl.com/28191 You can ask Raghavan questions via the live chatroom, or send them in advance via e-mail to ss221@columbia.edu

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YOU CAN LISTEN TO ALL OUR PREVIOUS WEBCASTS AND SEE ALL OUR RESOURCES AND FAQS FOR NEW STUDENTS at http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/prepping/

Prof. David Hajdu [DavidHajdu.com], who teaches arts journalism at the school and is a prolific author, was a guest at Google HQ, for one of their Google Talks events. You can watch the 48-minute video below or at this link.


You can also listen to a web radio interview we did with Prof. Hajdu on April 23, 2008 below or at this link.

Send your comments to dh2145[at]columbia.edu