Traditional newspaper journalists had no need to learn how to operate the printing presses. Or to understand strategies the Marketing and Circulation departments used to promote and distribute their work. Their interactions with readers were one-sided at best, antisocial at worst, and computers were treated as glorified word processors. The Internet blew that world up. [...]

This course provides the foundation for the Graduate Journalism Program curriculum. When approached with imagination and enterprise, a public issues beat becomes an avenue to every type of storytelling. That’s because government affects virtually everything in our lives. The goal is to expand your knowledge of California’s local and state governments, deepen your understanding of [...]

Journalism is changing at warp speed, but there’s something eternal at its core: Humans will always have a need to explain themselves through story. And magazines, whether in print or digital forms, still provide some of our most meaningful, memorable stories. Many of them fit into the genre known as “long form.” This quarter, you will learn to: Appreciate [...]

Last spring, a  former student, Dean Schaffer, asked me to be a “celebrity judge” for an opinion-writing contest he helped organize as community manager and editor in chief of Allvoices, a social news site. I have mixed feelings about citizen journalism, which I’ll save for another post, but think the world of Dean and would do [...]

When it comes to covering big news events, I’m a planning fanatic. Legendary basketball coach John Wooden put it best when he said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” So in getting ready for the November elections, a key lesson I wanted my graduate journalism students to learn was this: The more prepared you [...]

There’s a famous scene in “The Graduate” (see film clip below) in which Benjamin Braddock, the title character played by Dustin Hoffman, gets some unsolicited career advice from one of his parents’ friends. “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word,” the man tells Benjamin. “Are you listening? “Plastics.” If they [...]

Recently I wrote a recommendation letter for a former student, the incomparable Raymond Braun, and it opened with a story that’s worth sharing: My initial encounter with Raymond Braun had all the potential to turn unpleasant. Perhaps voices would be raised as our positions hardened. Surely he wouldn’t like what I had to say. That’s [...]

One of my favorite things about Stanford is the diversity of students. Since arriving on The Farm, I’ve taught young women and men from China, Pakistan, South Korea, India, Italy and England. In addition, thanks to the Stanford-NBC News Fellowship in Media and Global Health, a medical student joins my Public Issues Reporting course and Geri Migielicz’s companion Multimedia [...]

Sherpas who became luxury watchmakers. A woman dubbed “Mother Norway” for opening her Berkeley home to hundreds of visiting Norwegian college students. A scavenger hunt through San Francisco’s hidden dining scene, and a profile of a “freeway farmer” in East Palo Alto. Stories about youthful ambition, the struggles of aging, an immigrant’s triumph and a [...]

When you are starting in journalism, it’s easy to think in terms of a three-step process. You report. You write what you have. Someone else edits it. Drawing upon a book I admire, Samuel G. Freedman’s ”Letters to a Young Journalist,” I encourage 10 steps: 1.) Exploring — This is journalism’s equivalent of the topographical survey. It [...]

First let’s establish my bona fides on the topic: I’ve been to upwards of 50 Bruce Springsteen concerts since high school and can identify any of his songs, even the obscure ones, just by hearing the opening riff. So when David Remnick’s Springsteen profile in The New Yorker arrived in my mailbox this week, I [...]