COLLEGE JOURNALISM 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW · 2019-12-18 · 2 Philip Merrill College of Journalism 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW CONTENTS 1 Dean’s Message 2 The new Howard Center for Investigative

YEAR IN REVIEW20

17-18

PHILIP MERRILLCOLLEGE of JOURNALISM

2 Philip Merrill College of Journalism 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW

CONTENTS 1 Dean’s Message 2 The new Howard Center for

Investigative Journalism 3 More Development News 4 ‘Home Sick’ Wins RFK Journalism

Award 6 Students Help Devise Audience

Strategy 6 WHCA Archive Coming to Maryland 7 Documentary Wins Award, Airs

on MPTV 7 Investigative Bureau Publishes

First Stories 8 The Shirley Povich Center for

Sports Journalism 9 Student News 10 Faculty and Staff News 12 Scholarship and Research 12 Commencement 12 Povich Sports Camp 12 Maryland/D.C. Scholastic Press

Association 13 More College News 15 Enrollment Up Amid Renewed Interest 16 Merrill in Manhattan 16 CNS, Diamondback Alumni Gather 16 Journalism Interactive 16 Face Time with the Pros

Philip Merrill College of Journalism 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW 1

DEAN’S MESSAGEDear Philip Merrill College of Journalism Alumni and Friends,

We see the proof everywhere — in our growing enrollment, in the journalism awards won by our students and faculty and in the people and organizations eager to partner with us. There is a renewed public interest in journalism, and Merrill College is poised to train the next generation.

It was a busy year here, and the pace did not slow over the summer.

Just as classes wound down in May, a Capital News Service project won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, among the most prestigious prizes in college journalism. Days later, we announced a comprehensive rewriting of our undergraduate curriculum that will give students more flexibility to experiment and specialize.

And just weeks ago, we learned Merrill College was selected as one of two schools to host the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, funded by $3 million from the Scripps Howard Foundation.

We’ve had much to celebrate — but tragedy also struck our community this past summer.

Five Capital Gazette employees — Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Rob Hiaasen, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters — were killed when a gunman attacked their newsroom in June. Fischman (’79) and McNamara (’83) were alumni; Hiaasen was an adjunct lecturer here.

Several of our faculty and staff members have spent the summer assisting the Capital Gazette newsroom, and — among other actions — we plan to name an executive seminar room in Knight Hall in memory of the dedicated community journalists who lost their lives.

Democracy depends on the work such journalists do, and the kind of work we do here to prepare our students to enter an increasingly important profession. I’m pleased to share this newsletter, a record of what we accomplished in 2017-18, and a preview of where we’re headed.

Lucy A. Dalglish Dean

“ There is a renewed public

interest in journalism, and

Merrill College is poised to

train the next generation.”


As one of two schools selected to host the new Howard Center for Investigative Journalism — announced by the Scripps Howard Foundation in August — the Merrill College will pour the foundation’s $3 million investment into recruiting diverse classes of standout students and training them in ethical research and reporting methods and compelling multimedia storytelling.

In partnership with news organizations and journalism schools across the country, Merrill College intends to use the interdisplinary Howard Center program to prepare the next generation of watchdog reporters to hold the powerful accountable.

The Howard Center — here and at Arizona State University — honors the legacy of Roy W. Howard, former

chairman of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain and a pioneering news reporter.

“Roy Howard was an entrepreneur whose relentless pursuit of news took him around the world, sourcing his education directly from the lessons of the newsroom,” said Liz Carter, president and CEO of the Scripps Howard Foundation. “That same pursuit led us to establish the Howard Centers – bridging the classroom and the newsroom to ensure tomorrow’s journalists are prepared with the mastery of dogged reporting they need in a world that increasingly demands it.”

The nationally and internationally significant investigations published by the center will complement the work of Capital News Service, the college’s student-staffed nonprofit news organization that has won numerous national and regional journalism awards in its 28 years.

“Our gifted faculty members at Merrill College have done a remarkable job over the years providing challenging investigative and enterprise reporting experiences for our students in partnership with many local and national news organizations,” Dean Lucy A. Dalglish said. The Howard Center, she added, will build on the college’s legacy by fostering even more vibrant opportunities and allowing the college to hire at least two new distinguished journalists.

This year, a project by students in the CNS Data Lab and Baltimore Urban Affairs Reporting classes won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for “Home Sick,” an investigation published in partnership with Kaiser Health News that showed how substandard living conditions can contribute to illnesses such as asthma.

Students guided by Abell Professor in Baltimore Journalism Sandy Banisky interviewed dozens of Baltimore health officials, community leaders and residents as CNS data editor Sean Mussenden’s students spent more than a year analyzing millions of medical records to identify city neighborhoods where living conditions had the worst effects on residents’ health.

Banisky said Merrill College students have an opportunity many professionals do not — to spend a semester or longer diving deep into a subject. Such reporting produces more compelling and impactful stories.

“Researchers long ago established that asthma is more prevalent in less affluent neighborhoods,” Banisky said. “Our reporters could spend a semester in

The New Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

The investigative reporting curriculum at the Merrill College is about to get even stronger.

“ At Merrill College, my students

and I can take risks, and that’s

what investigative journalism

is all about.”

one neighborhood and establish that the trash in the alley was more than unsightly — it actually was the source of asthma triggers.”

Mussenden said data reporting was key to the project and others through the years.

“Our students’ ability to responsibly analyze complex data sets, and use those findings as a foundation on which to build layered investigations … has set the tone for Capital News Service projects over the last decade,” he said.

The news service became even more focused on deep dives this year, when it launched a formal investigative bureau with funding from the Park Foundation.

Associate Professor of Investigative Journalism Deborah Nelson, working with Chicago-based Injustice Watch, led the bureau this year in reporting on people who were wrongly arrested by members of a corrupt Baltimore Police task force. Some who were charged chose to plead guilty rather than face trial and risk a potentially lengthy prison sentence.

“Given that more than 90 percent of convictions nationwide are from guilty pleas, if even a small fraction are innocent, it would be a significant miscarriage of justice,” said Nelson, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner as a reporter and editor. “Because plea

deals are negotiated in the hallways and backrooms of local courthouses, it’s important to have reporters on the scene to watch and listen, to witness and report.”

Meanwhile, the CNS field producing team — led by Eleanor Merrill Distinguished Visiting Fellow Tom Bettag — worked with PBS NewsHour correspondent John Yang to show how the opposite choices made by two brothers wrongfully convicted of the same murder in Chicago dramatically changed their lives. The students did all the shooting and all the editing of a piece that aired on the NewsHour.

Merrill College students, Injustice Watch and a network of investigative teams based at universities across the country are continuing work on the project, “Trading Away Justice.”

Also with assistance from the Park Foundation, Dana Priest — the college’s John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism — sent students to five southern states last semester to report on what’s being done and how people feel about Confederate statues in front of county courthouses. Upcoming investigations by Priest’s classes will look at the fate of an imprisoned journalist overseas and how certain U.S. agencies care for veterans.

“Washington, five metro stops away, is our second classroom,” said Priest, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. “U.S. agencies are our bread and butter.”

Another recent investigation, “Strength and Shame,” was reported and told by CNS’ visual storytelling team, ViewFinder. The documentary-style story about the deadly abuse of heroin, prescription painkillers and other opioids was aired on Maryland Public Television in February.

Lecturer Bethany Swain, who founded ViewFinder at Merrill College, said what started as a semester-long project grew to more than a year once she and her students realized they could tell a story that might not otherwise be told.

“We never imagined when we first started that it would turn into such an in-depth project,” Swain said. “But the stories are so compelling and it’s not unique to our area, which is why it resonated with other audiences.”

Swain’s class, like so many others at Merrill College, had the opportunity to dig deep and produce something special.

Now, the Howard Center — at Maryland and at Arizona State University — will provide students with even more opportunities to tell unique stories.

“At Merrill College, my students and I can take risks, and that’s what investigative journalism is all about,” Priest said. “Lonely digging while everyone else is chasing the same ball.”

MORE DEVELOPMENT NEWSMerrill College alum and Board of Visitors member Ralph Crosby (‘56) and Carlotta Crosby have pledged $100,000 to establish the Crosby Endowment for Graduate Scholarship. The fund from this endowment will support graduate students at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Thanks to Merrill alums, friends, faculty, and staff, the college raised over $50,000 on Giving Day in 2018. Money raised on this day went to the Dean’s Fund and the Olive Reid Keep Me Merrill Fund, which provides need-based, immediate-use student financial aid to undergraduate students at Merrill.

The Park Foundation has donated $90,000 to support Capital News Service’s investigative and data-reporting efforts. CNS, including its new investigative bureau, is using this money to work on investigative and data reporting projects that connect the actions in Washington to their real-life consequences on the front lines of American life.



‘Home Sick’ Wins RFK Journalism Award

A team of Capital News Service student journalists spent more than a year analyzing millions of medical

records and conducting dozens of interviews with Baltimore health officials, community leaders and

residents to show how housing conditions contribute to illness in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Their work was recognized with the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, presented by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. It’s one of the most prestigious prizes in college journalism

Student journalists in the CNS data lab, led by data editor Sean Mussenden (M.J. ’00), reviewed some 10 million cases of inpatient and emergency room admissions in Maryland.

Their analysis revealed that residents in one Baltimore ZIP code — a short distance from world-renowned medical institutions — suffer from asthma at more than four times the rate of people in the city’s wealthier areas.

The illness can have a striking effect on low-income citizens — asthma can cause children to miss school, forcing adults to miss work or find care for their child. And there’s little government funding to help pay for asthma treatment.

“I think people look at asthma the way they look at seasonal allergies,” said Sandy Banisky, the college’s Abell Professor in Baltimore Journalism and the project’s editor. “‘Take a Claritin and you’ll be fine,’” they think, but asthma is a much more serious and chronic condition.

The investigation, published as a series of stories called “Home Sick,” was

conducted in partnership with Kaiser Health News. Parts of the project were published by The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun.

Competing against submissions from professional news organizations, the project was a finalist in the community journalism category of the Scripps Howard Awards this year. It won the Online In-Depth Reporting category of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Region 2 Mark of Excellence Awards.

It’s the third time the Philip Merrill College of Journalism has won the award. A WMUC project led by senior lecturer Sue Kopen Katcef (‘76) won in 2009 and CNS won in 2004 for a project by Sarah Schaffer (M.A. ‘03) — now an adjunct lecturer at the college — that was led by former bureau director Steve Crane.

“The RFK awards are among the most prestigious in journalism, and this is the third time Merrill College has won,” Dean Lucy A. Dalglish said. “The impact of this story still resonates, and hopefully will lead to improvements in housing conditions around the country. We’re thrilled for our students.”

Interviews and other research were underpinned by CNS’ analysis of two massive datasets obtained from the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. Working with Kaiser, CNS submitted a Maryland Public Information Act request and


was granted access to a slice of a database the state uses to track medical procedures and their cost. To protect patient privacy, individuals’ identifying information was stripped from the data CNS received.

“Very few journalists get access to this type of information,” said Mussenden, who runs the CNS data lab in College Park. “All of the data querying work was done out of here.”

Daniel Trielli (M.J. ’16) was among the CNS data journalists writing those queries to help “investigate asthma hot spots in Baltimore.”

Naema Ahmed (B.A. ’17) and Helen Lyons (M.J. ’17) — identified the 21223 ZIP code as such a hot spot. The area includes the Southwest Baltimore neighborhood of Carrollton Ridge.

Ahmed, who graduated as a double major in journalism and computer science, said the estimated cost was staggering.

“It put into perspective how much money individuals and insurance are spending to treat asthma instead of preventing it,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed, Trielli and Lyons then worked with Kaiser and Banisky’s Baltimore Urban Affairs Reporting class to develop interactive graphics showing what they learned from the data. Ana Hurler designed the web page.

Abby Mergenmeier (M.J. ’17) was part of a group that included Mark Boyle, Quanny Carr (M.J. ’17), Michael Errigo, Jenna Milliner-Waddell, John Powers, Talia Richman (’17) and Jacob Taylor who reported from Baltimore. She said many Carrollton Ridge residents recognized the environmental conditions that were making them ill — trash in the streets, old mattresses piled high, rats running about.

But those interviewed said they could not afford to move away.

“A good majority of the homes in that neighborhood are vacant, and a lot of the lots are just full of trash,” Mergenmeier said. “It’s become,

unfortunately, a dumping site, which has caused air quality issues in the neighborhood.”

The reporting required persistence; it was often a challenge to find residents willing to speak on the record.

“These students were so game,” Banisky said. “They were knocking on doors and having doors slammed in their faces.”

Carr was among the reporters trying to persuade residents that their story was worth telling.

“These people want to live in healthier homes,” Carr said. “They want their kids to be healthier. … What are we going to do as reporters except tell their truth?”

Carr said reporters in Baltimore and data journalists in College Park worked together seamlessly under Capital News Service, the college’s nonprofit news organization that’s led by professional journalists and fully staffed by undergraduate and master’s students.

For some, the project drove home the professional opportunities their skills provide. “For a long time, I wanted to be a reporter. And I also wanted to get a technical skill while I was paying for college,” said Ahmed, now an interactive news intern at USA TODAY.

“It wasn’t until I worked at CNS that I realized I could use my skill in the reporting field.”

Photo credit: John Powers

“ It wasn’t until I worked at CNS that I realized I could use my skill

in the reporting field.” – Naema Ahmed ’17

Merrill College is partnering with the White House Correspondents’ Association, the University Libraries, the College of Information Studies and the Freedom Forum Institute to produce, preserve and house the White House Correspondents’ Association Pool Reports Collection. Merrill College is proud to have brought this significant

piece of journalism and presidential history to the university. The collection will be available online for journalists, scholars and the public at no charge. The partnership will allow the college to develop educational and scholarly programs around the collection.

The results were striking. Work by students in Professor Ronald A. Yaros’ research methods course helped persuade the media company — owner of USA TODAY and 109 local news properties across the country — to devote resources at two massive new production hubs toward creating content for a handful of social networks where there’s opportunity to build an audience.

Mackenzie Warren, senior director of news strategy at USA TODAY NETWORK, said it illustrates the potential for more collaboration with the university.

“This has been a big success insofar it has proven that two really big institutions can work together on a really small scale, on something super precise,” Warren said.

In Yaros’ class, students spent weeks reviewing USA TODAY NETWORK data and tailoring posts for Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Reddit users.

Students Help Devise Audience Strategy

Merrill College students spent the spring semester helping the USA TODAY NETWORK, a digitally focused

media organization that reaches more than 125 million unique visitors a month, analyze data critical to

growing its digital audience.

“ These undergrads are being

prepared for the real world.

They’re learning how to adapt

analytics to their journalism.”

The students ultimately narrowed their focus to LinkedIn, and worked with York Daily Record editor James McClure and Pennsylvania issues reporter Joel Shannon to develop an audience engagement strategy.

Shannon said he was surprised to find a LinkedIn post about the six-figure salaries of some Pennsylvania prison guards reached 60 to 70 percent of the users in his network.

“That’s the biggest thing, identifying that opportunity,” Shannon said. “I guess people are on LinkedIn more than I thought.”

The work on that story and others persuaded Warren that it’s worth

targeting LinkedIn and other social networks used less frequently by the company’s journalists.

“This class has directly influenced that strategic decision for our company,” Warren said. “What it’s shown me is that we can be good at this when we build the correct foundation.”

Meanwhile, Merrill College students were exposed to real-time USA TODAY NETWORK analytics that helped them better grasp audience engagement concepts.

“These undergrads are being prepared for the real world,” Yaros said. “They’re learning how to adapt analytics to their journalism.”

Warren said USA TODAY NETWORK’s over 3,500 journalists across the country can benefit from what Yaros and student researchers at Merrill College discover.

“Any good that we do here becomes a lot of good outside of this classroom,” Warren said.

WHCA ARCHIVE COMING TO MARYLAND


“Strength and Shame: Inside Maryland’s Opioid Epidemic,” a project by lecturer Bethany Swain’s ViewFinder visual storytelling team — part of Capital News Service — had students spend a year in Anne Arundel County documenting the deadly abuse of heroin, prescription painkillers and other opioids. The documentary aired on Maryland Public Television in Februrary and won numerous awards, including Best of Festival in the film and video category of the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts,

the Hard News Feature Student category of the national Gracie Awards (presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation) and the Best All-Around Television Newscast category in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Awards. ViewFinder students Emily Kallmyer, Jojo Dominick and Ryan Eskalis also won the Television General News Reporting category of the SPJ contest with a related project, “A Chief ’s Promise.”

Capital News Service, in partnership with Injustice Watch and the PBS NewsHour, published the first stories in “Trading Away Justice,” a national investigative reporting project that explores why some people plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. The NewsHour aired the first story — shot and edited entirely by students — and companion

pieces were published on the CNS and Injustice Watch websites. CNS and its investigative bureau, new this year, pursues national reporting projects thanks to funding from the Park Foundation. Associate Professor of Investigative Journalism Deborah Nelson and Eleanor Merrill Distinguished Visiting Fellow Tom Bettag led the project.

Photo Credit: Bethany Swain

DOCUMENTARY WINS AWARDS, AIRS ON MPTV

INVESTIGATIVE BUREAU PUBLISHES FIRST STORIES



POVICH SYMPOSIUMLongtime broadcaster Bob Costas, USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan and “Pardon the Interruption” hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were panelists in the 15th Shirley Povich Symposium, moderated by Maury Povich. Hundreds attended the evening discussion at Riggs Alumni Center. The annual event, organized by The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism — led by Director George Solomon — honors Povich’s 75-year career at The Washington Post.

POVICH CENTER, ESPNW HOST CONFERENCEThe Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, in conjunction with espnW, hosted the “Women, Sports and Media: Coverage, Careers, Consequences” conference in Knight Hall. The first conference of its kind, the event brought together sports journalists, academic researchers and students to examine the coverage and representation of female athletes and women in sports media. Merrill College was proud to host many well-known academics including Purdue University associate professor Cheryl Cooky and legendary sports journalists such as Claire Smith.

The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism

Povich Symposium


Student NewsThe Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism sent Kyle Melnick ’18 to cover the Super Bowl. He’s now a high school sports reporter at The Washington Post.

The Povich Center sent three students — Julia Karron, Chloe Pavlech, and Joe Malandruccolo — to Eilat, Israel, to cover the Friendship Games thanks to financial support from Ed Peskowitz.

Professors Sandy Banisky and Deborah Nelson led a winter-term program to Slovakia to research how journalists are combating fake news and propaganda in the region. Merrill College students Tom Hart, Justin Fitzgerald, Sam Luckert, Gabrielle Hernandez, Chiamaka Ofulue, Liza Noskova and Lindsay Huth made the trip.

Competing against professional news organizations across the region, six projects by University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism students won Best in Show awards and the college’s nonprofit Capital News Service was named online-only News Organization of the Year by the MDDC Press Association.

Additionally, 20 student submissions won their categories and 15 more won second place in the association’s annual Editorial, Design and Revenue Contest. A full list of the winners in this contest and in others is available on the college’s website, merrill.umd.edu.

Two Merrill College broadcast journalists swept the student television category of the national Gracie Awards, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation. Senior Megan Smedley, a reporter and producer for CNS-TV’s nightly Maryland Newsline broadcast, won for On-Air Talent-Student in the Television Local-Student category. “Dragon Boat Club,” by CNS’ Becca King, won for Soft News Feature-Student in the Television Local-Student category. The CNS broadcast bureau is directed by Senior Lecturer Sue Kopen Katcef.

Stanton Paddock (Ph.D. ’17) won the Ray Hiebert History of Journalism Endowed Award, given annually by the college for the best work of journalism history. Paddock won for his doctoral dissertation, “The Institutionalization

of Photojournalism Education: Bringing the Blue-Apron Ghetto to American Schools of Journalism.” The award, named for the journalism college’s founding dean, reflects Hiebert’s interest in the historic role of journalism in American life, politics, government and culture. The prize includes a $1,000 honorarium.

Ph.D. student Brooke Auxier (M.A. ’12) earned an i3 Ph.D. Teaching Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. As a fellow, Auxier co-taught a two-week module to undergraduate students selected for i3, a program that prepares students from underrepresented populations for graduate study and information science careers.

Ph.D. student Andrew Otis’ book on the creation of South Asia’s first printed newspaper, “Hicky’s Bengal Gazette: The Untold Story of India’s First Newspaper,” was published in India on May 27. It’s also available on Kindle in the United States.

Winter-term program trip to Slovakia University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s nonprofit Capital News Service


Faculty and Staff NewsSTEINER WINS INTERNATIONAL AWARD

Professor Linda Steiner won an international award recognizing her significant contributions to feminist scholarship.

The Teresa Award for the Advancement of Feminist Scholarship is presented by the International Communication Association’s Feminist Scholarship Division. Steiner was presented with the award at the ICA conference in Prague.

Steiner studies how and when gender matters in news and newsrooms and how feminists use media. Her research areas include media ethics, journalism history and citizen journalism.

Marian Meyers, co-chair of the award committee, said Steiner’s selection signifies her “significant impact” in feminist media studies through her “scholarship at the intersection of gender, war, and journalism, which extends from pioneering works to engaging with some of the gravest issues of contemporary times.

“This, combined with your distinctive leadership in editorial roles, as well as foundational interest group and division involvement, attests to your impact in developing infrastructures and institutionalizing feminist scholarship so that it has become more visible in communication and media studies,” said Meyers, a professor in the Department of Communication and Institute of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University, of Steiner.

Steiner said she was honored to receive the award.

“For me, being a feminist researcher is an aspirational description: It’s something I continue to see as a goal, as an ideal, as something I want to do,” Steiner said. “So, I look forward to continuing to work on this aspiration — in partnership with colleagues and students at Merrill, at UMD, and with former colleagues and students who are across the globe.

“Meanwhile, it’s enormously affirming that people think I’ve made a contribution.”

Dafna Lemish, professor and associate dean for programs at the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, nominated Steiner for the award.

“This award is so overdue,” Lemish said. “Linda Steiner is a central force in feminist media studies, a colleague,

mentor and scholar who is so deserving of this award. I am delighted to have had a role in bringing this to fruition.”

Stine Eckert, a student and dissertation advisee of Steiner while a Merrill College Ph.D. candidate, said Steiner “is still among my most trusted advisors.”

The pair continues to work together, co-authoring papers, co-organizing panels and co-founding the Wikid GRRLS project, which seeks “to encourage and help middle school-aged girls to think of themselves as tech-savvy and smart, and to give them the confidence and skills to contribute to online knowledge projects.”

“Apart from showing me the ropes of the publishing process, she also pointed me to the literature that I needed to develop my research as a feminist scholar. Linda has been one of my most dedicated supporters, pointing me toward conference and publication opportunities, giving me frank advice

and pushing me to bring my research and theorizing to the next level,” said Eckert, now an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Wayne State University.

“The Teresa Award is a perfect occasion for the feminist scholarship community to give back to her and have all her good work, knowledge and contributions to feminist media scholarship acknowledged as well as her relentless support for emerging scholars.”

“ Linda Steiner is a central force in feminist media studies.”


Adam Marton, an award-winning journalist and graphic designer, joined the Merrill College faculty as a lecturer in digital design in February. Marton worked at The Baltimore Sun for more than a decade, most recently as the senior editor of graphics and data. In 2015, Marton developed The Sun’s interactive presentation for “The 45-Minute Mystery of Freddie Gray’s Death.” The project was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He’s teaching digital design courses and working on projects with students in the Capital News Service data bureau in College Park.

Sandy Banisky and Leslie Walker were promoted to senior lecturer this summer.

After 25 years at Merrill College, Olive Reid retired as associate dean for student affairs in December. Joshua Madden, previously the college’s director of student services,

PERSONNEL UPDATES

FACULTY AND STAFF NEWSAssociate Professor Ira Chinoy, director of The Future of Information Alliance at the University of Maryland, organized a program at The Phillips Collection in Washington in which journalists and researchers explored assaults on truth and the future of facts.

Lecturer Josh Davidsburg won $25,000 from the National Association of Broadcasters’ PILOT Innovation Challenge, awarded in partnership with the Knight Foundation, to help pay for the development of NewsBIN Vlog. NewsBIN combines broadcast journalism with vlogging — a cross between a personal blog and video popularized by YouTube users.

Associate Professor of Investigative Journalism Deborah Nelson, Reuters health care reporter and Merrill alumna Yasmeen Abutaleb ’14 and Reuters reporter Ryan McNeill won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for their investigative series, “The Uncounted, ” a series that exposed government agencies’ failure to

track the tens of thousands of deaths caused each year by superbugs.

Professor and Senior Scholar Sarah Oates was appointed a research fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington for the 2018-2019 academic year. She’ll spend the year studying Russian disinformation.

Dana Priest, the John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism, continues to run “Press Uncuffed,” an effort with her students to report on press freedom in the United States and abroad — including raising awareness and money to assist imprisoned journalists.

Lecturer Bethany Swain, who teaches the ViewFinder visual storytelling course, led students to numerous journalism awards, including in the White House News Photographers Association’s 2018 Eyes of History Student Contest, Gracie Awards, the Northern Short Course in Photojournalism contest and the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts.

was named assistant dean for undergraduate studies in February.

Professor Carl Sessions Stepp retired at the end of this past school year. Stepp had taught at Merrill College for 35 years.

Marty Kaiser, who led the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to three Pulitzer Prizes, was named the first Howard Distinguished Visiting Fellow. He will help launch the new Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and work with the college’s award-winning Capital News Service.

Katie Aune, who most recently was development director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, was named assistant dean for external relations in September. Aune steps in following the June departure of Lele LeVay Ashworth, who spent four outstanding years as Merrill College’s development officer.

Ira Chinoy

Carl Sessions Stepp

Olive Reid

Sarah Oates

Scholarship and ResearchFACULTY RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS OR ARTICLES

Research plays an integral role in the life of Merrill College. In addition to creating knowledge that will

benefit journalism and society, Merrill’s research faculty teach and mentor doctoral students who will

move on to other universities and enhance the college’s international reputation.

Professor and Senior Scholar Sarah Oates spoke on Russian disinformation in the U.S. elections at the Norwegian Institute of Public Affairs in Oslo in December. Additionally, Oates won the University of Maryland Research Communicator Impact Award for “How Russian ‘kompromat’ destroys political opponents, no facts required,” an op-ed published in January by The Washington Post and won a Winston Family Honors Writing Award as faculty mentor for a research paper written by an undergraduate. She also completed her UM Ventures Seed

Grant for innovation, working with a computer science graduate student to build a software application that measures propaganda narratives and how they spread.

Mark Feldstein, the Richard Eaton Chair of Broadcast Journalism, was a frequently sought-after source for reporters covering media industry scandals, the Trump administration and the changing media industry. He also authored an op-ed published by The Washington Post that decried Sinclair Broadcasting forcing local anchors to read a script about fake news.

Associate Professor Ron Yaros presented his research on mobile journalism and mobile audiences during the #UMDsocial: The University of Maryland Social Media Conference in August.

More than a dozen students, faculty and alumni of the college presented during the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference in Washington in August. A full schedule of their presentations is available at the college’s website, merrill.umd.edu.

COMMENCEMENTMore than 120 students were recognized during the college’s May commencement ceremony at Ritchie Coliseum. Merrill College Dean Lucy A. Dalglish and Professor Carl Sessions Stepp — participating in his final Merrill College commencement before retiring after 35 years of teaching — made brief remarks. New graduate Alexander Flum was voted student speaker by his peers. Jemele Hill, a former chief correspondent and senior columnist for ESPN’s The Undefeated, gave the commencement address.

POVICH SPORTS CAMPDozens of high school students from across the region attended a week-long summer sports journalism camp hosted by The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and supported by Alan Bubes, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer. Students heard from professionals around the region, attended and covered a Washington Mystics basketball game, toured the Xfinity Center and more. Professor of the Practice George Solomon, the Povich Center’s director, and center assistant Kate Yanchulis organized the program.

MARYLAND/D.C. SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATIONMerrill College is partnering with the Maryland-D.C. Scholastic Press Association to help support and grow scholastic journalism programs in the area. As part of an agreement reached in spring 2018, the college and association plan to co-host educational programs for high school students and advisers on campus throughout the year.



The revision, which goes into effect this fall, was approved by the university after more than two years of study and discussion by Merrill College’s curriculum committee and after numerous conversations with alumni and industry leaders. It honors and preserves the college’s long history of teaching ethical public affairs reporting and emphasizes core journalism values.

The new curriculum allows students more flexibility to take elective courses across publishing platforms by reducing the number of specifically required courses and by collapsing two previous degree tracks — broadcast journalism and multiplatform journalism — into a single journalism degree.

Students may still choose to specialize in broadcast, sports or investigative journalism by selecting from a menu of courses in those areas. They will also have more flexibility to experiment or focus on data and data visualization, visual journalism, product development and more.

“We expect this new curriculum will serve students well in the ongoing digital media transformation,” said Chris Harvey (’80), the college’s director of assessments, senior lecturer and chair of the curriculum committee.

Incoming freshmen in 2018 will take courses under the new curriculum. Most current Merrill College students

will take courses under the previous curriculum.

Two new required courses were created.

The first is a one-credit hybrid course titled “Storytelling with Code,” where students will be introduced to journalism jobs in data mining and data visualization. Students also will learn basic HTML and CSS coding skills. The course is taught online and in the classroom.

The second combines the college’s complementary law and ethics courses into one. To ensure journalism ethics are taught more comprehensively, a faculty committee is developing ethics modules that will be inserted into every core course. Modules on inclusion and diversity also will be created for core courses.

The revision allows the college to grow its award-winning nonprofit news organization, Capital News Service, by bringing more capstone courses under its umbrella and increasing the number of credits students can receive for enrolling in CNS.

With fewer required courses in the curriculum, students will have the opportunity to take more capstone courses, giving them more varied experience in a professional setting.

The college took its cues from its students, many of whom cram multiple skills courses, capstone experiences and internships into their overloaded schedules. With guidance from the college’s first-rate advising staff, students will now be able to tailor a

significant part of their journalism education, allowing them to better prepare for an increasingly dynamic news industry.

Dean Lucy A. Dalglish praised the college’s faculty for unanimously agreeing to such significant changes.

“Changing a curriculum is difficult. I want to thank Chris Harvey, Associate Dean Rafael Lorente and the members of the curriculum committee who worked tirelessly on this,” Dalglish said. “Our new curriculum places us among the most flexible and innovative journalism schools in the country.”

“ Our new curriculum places us among the most flexible and innovative

journalism schools in the country.”

More College NewsNEW CURRICULUM MEANS MORE FLEXIBILITY

The Merrill College has revamped its undergraduate curriculum, giving students more flexibility to

experiment and specialize while allowing the college to be nimble in the face of news industry changes.


Enrollment Up Amid Renewed Interest

Freshman enrollment at the Merrill College increased 51 percent this fall, and the incoming master’s cohort

includes accomplished professionals and new graduates from some of the top universities in the world.

About 130 freshmen and 30 new master’s students began classes in August, when they started to learn the skills and ethics required to work in a rapidly changing field.

“This increase shows that interest in public affairs journalism is very strong and that our comprehensive and flexible program is offering students what they need to excel,” said Lucy A. Dalglish, dean of the Merrill College. “It’s also a great testament to our dedicated staff and university administration, who ensure students have the resources, information and guidance they need to choose Maryland.”

As one of eight Limited Enrollment Programs at the University of Maryland, the college’s undergraduate admissions standards are higher than the university’s. The average GPA of incoming freshmen is above 4.0.

Joshua W. Madden, assistant dean for undergraduate studies, said the incoming freshmen come from 21 states and China.

“We are incredibly excited and encouraged,” Madden said. “A number of factors, including a targeted recruitment strategy, the approval of a new curriculum and a renewed focus on the value of journalism have resulted in an enthusiastic and dedicated class.”

AVERAGE TUITION AND HOUSING COSTS FOR 2018-19

UNDERGRADUATE In-state tuition: $10,595 Out-of-state tuition: $35,216Room & board: $12,429

GRADUATE (Can pay by credit hour) In-state tuition (full load of 12 credits): $18,828 Out-of-state (full load): $38,772

The freshmen will be the first class of students to take courses under Merrill College’s revised curriculum, approved by the university this spring.

The revision allows students more flexibility to take elective courses across publishing platforms by reducing the number of specifically required courses

and by collapsing two previous degree tracks — broadcast journalism and multiplatform journalism — into a single journalism degree.

Students can choose to specialize in broadcast, sports or investigative journalism by selecting from a menu of courses in those areas. They will also have more flexibility to experiment or focus on data and data visualization, visual journalism, product development and more.

The incoming master’s students hold degrees from Cornell University, Harvard University, Penn State University and numerous other prestigious public and private institutions.

“This was the most competitive applicant pool in years, and the quality of the incoming cohort is among the best in recent memory,” said Rafael Lorente (M.A. ‘98), associate dean for academic affairs and director of the master’s program. “We’re really excited about what these terrific students are going to do in the coming years.”

“ This increase shows that interest in public affairs journalism is very

strong and that our comprehensive and flexible program is offering

students what they need to excel.”

CNS, DIAMONDBACK ALUMNI GATHERAbout 200 alumni of The Diamondback and the University of Maryland Capital News Service gathered at Knight Hall in December for a reunion hosted by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The event invited alums to gather in support of the University of Maryland Archives’ effort to digitize Diamondback issues going back to 1910. A fundraiser is ongoing. Speakers included Associated Press reporter Tom LoBianco (’04); author, journalist and TV writer and producer David Simon (’83); and Maryland Media Inc. general manager Arnie Applebaum (business, ’79).

MERRILL IN MANHATTANAbout 100 University of Maryland alumni attended a panel discussion convened by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and hosted by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism and University of Maryland Alumni Association at Bleacher Report headquarters in New York. The panelists — Jermaine Spradley, executive editor at Bleacher Report; Frank Isola (’87), former sportswriter at New York Daily News; Kevin Merida, editor-in-chief at ESPN’s The Undefeated and Merrill College Board of Visitors member; Tina Cervasio (’96), lead sports anchor at Fox5 NY; Rachel McNair (M.J. ’16), broadcast associate for CBS Sports; Drew Rauso (’14), creative producer for The Players’ Tribune; and Brittany Cheng (’16), social media producer for SB Nation — noted that athletes’ ability to communicate directly with fans through social media has dramatically changed the way journalists do their jobs.

FACE TIME WITH THE PROSDozens of students from high schools and universities from across the region attended a day of seminars, hands-on experiences and face-to-face time with broadcast professionals from throughout Maryland, Washington and Virginia at the Merrill College. The annual event was organized by Senior Lecturer and Capital News Service broadcast director Sue Kopen Katcef.

JOURNALISM INTERACTIVEMerrill College hosted the Journalism Interactive Conference in October. More than 50 speakers from news outlets and universities — including CBS News, Google, ESPN, The Washington Post, Pro Publica, ABC News and BBC News North America — participated in the two-day conference, which explored the challenges of “fake news” and the evolution of digital storytelling, including virtual reality, 360 video and more. The college hosted the conference along with two partner journalism schools at the University of Missouri and the University of Florida. The three schools share hosting responsibilities for the annual conference, which was founded at the University of Maryland in 2011. Senior Lecturer Leslie Walker and Associate Professor Kalyani Chadha served as co-chairs of the organizing committee. About half of the college’s faculty helped plan, made presentations or led discussions at the conference.

LEFT: Merrill in Manhattan (Photo: Mason Levinson ’92)RIGHT: CNS, Diamondback Alumni Gather


CONNECT WITH US

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Alexander A. PylesCommunication [email protected]

7765 Alumni Drive2200 Knight HallCollege Park, MD 20742merrill.umd.edu merrill.umd.edu/get-involved/donate/

PHILIP MERRILLCOLLEGE of JOURNALISM

7765 Alumni Drive2200 Knight HallCollege Park, MD 20742

Documents

COLLEGE JOURNALISM 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW · 2019-12-18 · 2 Philip Merrill College of Journalism 2017-18 YEAR IN REVIEW CONTENTS 1 Dean’s Message 2 The new Howard Center for Investigative