Make a Difference

Journalism at Emory emphasizes writing, reporting and critical thinking. The skills of newspaper and electronic journalism go hand-in-hand with study in the liberal arts and sciences. The result is journalists who make a difference!

Journalism co-majors or minors learn the craft of researching, interviewing, reporting and writing news. They develop an understanding of press issues and build a technical foundation. Students advance and refine that know-how in professional internships.

Journalism at Emory is open to all students. Most Journalism courses fulfill the post-freshman writing requirement.

The Journalism Program also offers the opportunity to study specialty writing and reporting. Interdisciplinary classes in science writing, economics and business reporting, arts criticism, international media, and race and ethnic relations are open to students from all disciplines. These courses focus on writing for the general public.

Emory Launches Investigative Reporting Initiative

The Emory Journalism Program has launched an investigative reporting project designed to immerse students in the practice of in-depth, public-interest journalism. The initiative, dubbed The News Enterprise, got underway this fall as a two-semester course in which a small group of students receive practical, hands-on training in advanced reporting techniques. They are learning to use documents, databases and interviews to probe beneath the surface and report on significant regional and national issues.

Students in the course function as actual investigative reporters, taking on the fundamental journalistic role of serving the public interest by helping ensure accountability in such areas as government, business, education, health and the environment. They will produce articles, podcasts, video features and other multi-media content for a new, dedicated website. To increase its reach, The News Enterprise plans, whenever possible, to produce stories in partnership with outside media outlets.

The News Enterprise comes online at a time when traditional news organizations are struggling to support long-term, resource-intensive reporting projects. With the legacy media pulling back from investigative reporting efforts, new entities have begun springing up to fill the void in recent years, several of them based at universities. The Journalism Program believes The News Enterprise can be one of those leading the way in this area.

Over time, the Journalism Program hopes that The News Enterprise will grow into a year-round investigative newsroom. It would continue to partner with other news outlets but would also take on more ambitious and diverse stories on its own. At that point, in addition to drawing on Emory Journalism faculty, it hopes to bring on professional investigative reporters to oversee projects and guide student efforts.

As it gets underway, The News Enterprise is lead by Senior Lecturer David Armstrong, a longtime investigative reporter and editor.  Armstrong served for seven years as bureau chief of the National Security News Service in Washington, D.C., and before that as editor of the Texas Observer.  Prior to joining the Emory faculty last fall, Armstrong was an assistant professor of journalism in the Washington Semester Program at American University. He has written extensively on national security issues and is the principal author of the book, “America and the Islamic Bomb: The Deadly Compromise,” an inside look at the Pakistani nuclear smuggling network.

The Atlanta Press Club Scholarship

The Atlanta Press Club Scholarship Committee invites journalism students to apply for four (4) $1500 scholarship awards. The scholarships will be presented to outstanding Georgia college or university students who are pursuing careers in journalism.

See this link for more information and a link to the application:

http://www.atlantapressclub.org/scholarships/

The $1500 scholarships will be given four journalism students. To qualify for scholarships, students must be working toward a career in news and aiming to achieve excellence in the field of reporting. Multimedia submissions are encouraged. Students must be attending a Georgia college or university. One of the four scholarships will be designated for a minority applicant, provided that a minority applicant meets the criteria for the award. Anyone who qualifies, including minorities, will be eligible for the other scholarships. Finalists and recipients will receive one-year membership to the Atlanta Press Club. In addition to the $1500 award, recipients will receive a certificate documenting their achievement as well as the prestige of receiving a scholarship from one of the largest press clubs in the country. Presentation of the award will be made at an Atlanta Press Club event to be held in the spring. Prior winners of this award are not eligible.

The Atlanta Press Club Educational Council will judge applicants on the basis of skill, achievement and commitment to journalism. Applications must be submitted/postmarked by February 25, 2011.

Founded in 1964, the Atlanta Press Club is a professional association of journalists and media professionals. Over half of our members are working journalists. The remainder are public relations professionals, professors, retirees and students. Our mission is to serve the social and professional needs of our journalism community and to foster excellence in journalism; to advance the public's interest in, and understanding of, a free press.

Hong Kong Exchange Open for Journalism Students

Good news for Emory's Journalism students!

Journalism co-majors and minors will have an opportunity to study in Hong Kong for an academic semester or year starting in the Fall of 2012.

Under a new agreement, two Emory Journalism students will be able to study each semester at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), whose prestigious School of Communication provides a wide range of journalism courses in English in a new state-of-the-art multimedia facility.

The Journalism Program's application to the university to engage in the exchange said it will "provide our students the opportunity to learn journalism in a city and nation – Hong Kong and China – that traditionally have approached journalism, freedom of the press, ethics and the business management of the press in polar-opposite ways.

"Hong Kong's press has operated under the open British model," the application continued, "while China's has been state-run, state-controlled and censored. But now that China's takeover of Hong Kong has been underway for 14 years, many barriers between the nations have dropped, students from mainland China are coming into Hong Kong, the pressure on the Communist Party-dominated media to be more independent has intensified, and an Emory student would find herself/himself in the midst of a fascinating media and political environment."

Journalism co-majors and minors interested in applying are encouraged to meet with their advisors, examine the available courses at HKBU, and match their own academic needs and interests with the offerings. The Emory Journalism faculty carefully reviewed the courses taught in English at HKBU and concluded at least nine of them meet Emory's core and elective requirements. Applicants should be second semester undergraduates or higher at the time of the exchange. In principle, students from both institutions shall have at least a 3.0 GPA or equivalent (on a 4.0 scale) in their academic work.

HKBU's courses include broadcast journalism, news video, news and feature reporting, advanced news writing and online journalism. English classes are abundant, both in journalism and other disciplines, which may be attractive to Journalism co-majors who would also be seeking courses in their other area of academic concentration. A student may apply for the full academic year, or for a semester.

Emory's Journalism Program has previously participated in a popular summer internship program in South Africa, but that has come to an end.

Emory's Department of Film and Media Studies also won university approval for an exchange with HKBU.

Hank Klibanoff, the James M. Cox Jr. professor of journalism, has visited the HKBU program twice since the fall of 2009, and came away impressed by its dynamic leadership, its attentive faculty and the rich programming available for journalism students. "The program has a powerful, underlying belief that a free press is essential to democracy, and it is a philosophy I have heard the school's dean, Xinshu Zhao, express time and again. Here, that might sound obvious and ordinary. But there, at this time in history, it carries special meaning. I saw students, many from mainland China, uplifted by that concept."

In between his first and second visits, he added, the School of Communication built an extraordinary new and fully-equipped building that provides a wealth of broadcast and new media technology facilities, including editing, recording and animation studios and digital media centers.

"And, of course, it's Hong Kong," he added, "a beautiful, busy and storied city that provides a never-ending variety of visual experiences."

Every year, the HKBU Journalism Program brings a half-dozen Pulitzer Prize winners to campus to meet its students in and out of classes. The HKBU Thomson-Reuters Financial Journalists' Workshop brings top-flight business journalists to campus for a week. HKBU's International Media Salon brings monthly visits from important journalists, diplomats and business people to meet with the students. Earlier this semester, the school brought four important Chinese journalists to discuss journalistic ethics. It also features a three-week Journalist-in-Residence program that attracts influential Asian journalists to the school for three weeks in the Spring.

Kristi Hubbard, director of Emory's Center for International Programs Abroad, visited HKBU's campus this past summer, saw the dormitories and was impressed that Emory students will have a meaningful and exciting stay in a safe environment. CIPA will also work with Journalism co-majors to help them arrange courses in their other co-major.

For more information or to apply, please go to http://abroad.emory.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=1892

Kenya Casey, associate director of the CIPA office, is available to answer student questions about the logistics of the program, the application process, scholarships, etc. She may be reached at kdcasey@emory.edu or at 404-727-1265.