Revitalizing Journalism Education

A national initiative led by 12 of America's leading research universities with the support of two major foundations will advance the U.S. news business by helping revitalize schools of journalism.

The universities will take advantage of the riches of their institutions by integrating the schools of journalism more closely with the entire campus in an effort to better teach, challenge and prepare the next generation of news industry leaders for an increasingly complex world. The initiative will experiment with curriculum and hands-on experience with the hope of creating a national conversation with other schools across the country.

The Carnegie-Knight Initiative involves three distinct efforts:

  1. Curriculum Enrichment that will integrate the schools of journalism more deeply into the life of the university.
  2. News21 Incubators: annual national investigative reporting projects overseen by campus professors and distributed nationally through both traditional and innovative media.
  3. The Carnegie-Knight Task Force, focusing on research and creating a platform for educators to speak on policy and journalism education issues.

Participating Universities

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.

For 2010, the deans continue their support of a cross-disciplinary topic, loosely described as “Changing America” and focusing on demographic and investigative reporting. Each of the eight incubator schools determines an aspect of that broad topic, to encourage cross-campus collaboration and to capitalize on each university's strengths through a News21 journalism seminar.

Incubator Universities, selecting 10 fellows each:

Associate Schools

Thirteen fellows from associate schools in the News21 alliance also participated in the incubators.

  • Harvard
    Four fellows, with two working at the Arizona State and one each at North Carolina and Northwestern
  • Missouri
    Three fellows, working at the incubators at Maryland, North Carolina and Southern California
  • Nebraska
    Three fellows, working at the incubators at Berkeley, Columbia and Maryland
  • Texas
    Three fellows, working at the incubators at Berkeley, Northwestern and Syracuse