We’ve got a few spots open in the social journalism program starting in August!
Apply now for a last minute spot at the Newmark J School at CUNY
UPDATE: APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSING. BUT IF YOU SEE THIS POST AND ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR NEXT YEAR!
Due to an unexpectedly high number of incoming students deferring their admission to next year, the social journalism MA program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY has a few openings for our incoming class that will begin this fall.
If you are interested in applying, please follow the steps on this page. You can ignore the posted deadlines as we have temporarily re-opened the application.
What *is* social journalism, you may ask? Also known as “engaged journalism,” it is “an inclusive practice that prioritizes the information needs and wants of the community members it serves, creates collaborative space for the audience in all aspects of the journalistic process, and is dedicated to building and preserving trusting relationships between journalists and the public,” as journalism impact researcher Lindsay Green-Barber eloquently put it.
We experiment with a variety of technologies and techniques, from social video to bots to Snapchat to listening posts to old-fashioned zines and events, to engage people in our work and to better listen to and understand diverse perspectives, issues, and needs. Yes, our students still get a strong foundation in core journalistic skills like reporting, writing, and multimedia in our program, but social journalism is designed specifically to prepare you for many current newsroom job openings in engagement. These jobs require an understanding of not only how to grow audiences and design social media strategies, but how to involve the audience as more than passive consumers of news and produce real impact in people’s lives. Here is an FAQ, and you can also see some of the things our current and former students are up to on our Medium page.
Although we currently have enough students for a successful cohort for the class of 2020, I hate to see any space go unused, especially as we head into an exciting election season in which our social journalism students will have the opportunity to participate in a number of interesting projects in partnership with major news organizations that will help them develop social search and verification techniques, working to combat disinformation and other election-related problems.
Social journalism students also have the unique opportunity to work closely with the engagement director of New York’s new nonprofit local newsroom, The City. Terry Parris Jr., previously of ProPublica, co-teaches two of our courses and also oversees a small and, we hope, growing group of engagement interns from the social journalism program.
If you have any questions, you can contact director Carrie Brown at carrie.brown@journalism.cuny.edu or admissions@journalism.cuny.edu
