“We’re not playing around with what we wish it were like to do journalism, or what we remember it was like to do journalism, but what it really is like to do journalism now.” — Director Heather Chaplin discusses journalism education for the 21st century in an interview with Nieman Lab.
For the fall 2015 semester of Journalism + Design at the New School, doing journalism now means submitting FOIAs, analyzing and presenting data, breaking news in real time, and understanding how to join form with content. Here are some highlights from the new school year:
Benjamen Walker, host of Radiotopia’s Theory of Everything and a participant in last year’s public program, ‘Serial’ and the Podcast Explosion, is back with a class of his own. Students in Podcasting are learning the ins and outs of the industry and working together to create their very own, six-episode podcast. Check back here later in the semester to hear it!
Developer and cartographer Aurelia Moser is teaching Web Coding for Interactive Design, which gives students the technical skills they need to create data and news-driven interactives — the tools digital newsrooms are using today to explore everything from the impact of vaccines to the sinking coast of Louisiana. Check out her syllabus, which was included in a StoryBench roundup of 14 innovative journalism courses to follow this fall.
Francis Tseng is working to reinvent online news communities with the Coral Project, a joint venture between The Washington Post, Knight-Mozilla OpenNews, and The New York Times. His class, Designing Digital Communities, discusses how to build a friendlier and more collaborative internet…without feeding the trolls.
New York Times User Experience Research Leads Emily Goligoski and Matt Diaz are taking their work in the newsroom to the classroom. In Design Research, students are creating their own digital news products, some of which will eventually be put into use by The New School Free Press.