Two University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism students are receiving prominent coverage for their investigative reporting on the country's transportation system and the aging of America, respectively. News21 journalism fellows, both participated in a 10-week summer program funded by the Carnegie Corporation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Charlie Litton, a graduate student from Omaha, spent 10 weeks at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, the national headquarters for the News21 Initiative on Journalism Education. An article he co-wrote with News21 Fellow Tessa Muggeridge was published in The Washington Post. The article is titled "Transportation Safety: Efforts to curb fatigue-related accidents often languish".
Aaron James, a news-editorial student from Lincoln, Neb., participated in the News21 program at Columbia University reporting on the topic "Brave Old World," which focused on aging Americans. The Washington Post published his article, "Researchers Hope to Quell a Surge of Alzheimer's Cases with New Diagnostic Tools", and The New York Times published James' video.
"Student journalists, with the right teachers, are capable of not just producing major investigative stories, but doing them in new, innovative ways," said Eric Newton, vice president of Knight Foundation's journalism program.
"News21 shows that journalism schools have a role in the future of news - that they need not be the caboose of America's news train but instead can be an engine of change."
Matt Buxton of Portland, Ore., and a 2010 UNL journalism graduate, was a News21 fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He and other fellows spent 10 weeks investigating the California prison system. "Behind Bars," examined the country's largest prison population, with nearly 170,000 prisoners, and 70 percent who return to prison. Students interviewed inmates, their families and the officials of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. You can read their stories at http://berkeley.news21.com/behindbars/.
Founded in 2006 the News21 Initiative on Journalism Education is comprised of 12 of the nation's leading journalism colleges, including UNL, which was invited to join the national initiative in 2007. Participating universities are Arizona State University, University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Maryland, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Northwestern University, University of Southern California, Syracuse University and University of Texas at Austin.
For more information about ASU's project, visit "Traveling Dangerously in America".
For more about information about Columbia University's project, visit "The Brave Old World".
For more information about News21, visit http://newsinitiative.org; for more information about the Carnegie Corp. of New York, visit www.carnegie.org; and for more information about the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, visit www.knightfoundation.org.