A blueprint for expanding journalism access in high schools

AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE—Taylor McGraw, Executive Director and co-founder of The Bell and a leader of the NYC Youth Journalism Coalition, has published a new article in the American Press Institute outlining a scalable model to expand journalism access in high schools. In “A blueprint for expanding journalism access in high schools,” McGraw describes the urgent […]

Youth Media and the Future of News

NIEMAN REPORTS—The journalism industry is losing future generations — here’s what we can do In my 16 years building the PBS News Student Reporting Labs (SRL), I’ve never been more anxious about the future. Not only is journalism shedding jobs and desperately searching for new business models while press freedoms melt away, but the majority […]

The Battle for Press Freedom in the Streets

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW—New York media outlets are being proactive about defending their rights as they anticipate the deployment of federal law enforcement. Last month Carroll Bogert, the newly named chief executive of The City, a nonprofit digital news site that covers New York, sent a letter to the local field directors of Immigration and Customs […]

Safeguarding Democracy by Defending Free Speech and Enabling a Vibrant Press

FORUM—Mark Jackson ’85 remembers the framed newspaper article prominently displayed in the house where he grew up. It told the story of his father, a journalist, being “thrown out” of a Long Beach, Long Island city council meeting after he publicly objected to the council going into executive session. Mark’s father, Paul Jackson, cited the […]

Just 90 NYC high schools offer journalism classes. A new movement is trying to change that.

CHALKBEAT NEW YORK—Brooklyn English teacher Sydney Kukoda launched her new journalism elective class last week with an unconventional assignment. She emptied the contents of her wallet onto a desk and asked her students to investigate, take notes, and then write a short biography of her based on facts they had independently verified.  …  The lesson […]

Does Anyone Answer New York’s Unemployment Hotline?

NEW YORK FOCUS—One week in June, only a third of the people who called the Labor Department’s unemployment help line reached a real person. Last December, Kyra Assibey-Bonsu realized that her stream of work as a freelance audio producer was “puttering out.” She went to file for unemployment with the state, only to find that […]

Some NYC Teens Have a New Hobby: The School Paper

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW — When Ally Dolores was in ninth grade at Pace High School, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, her English teacher dropped a print newspaper in her lap. She’d never opened one. “I was like, ‘Where did he get this from?’ I was so confused,” Dolores said. The teacher, David Rohlfing, had witnessed the school’s […]