UC Berkeley Journalism - Program - Investigative Reporting

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Investigative Reporting

2007-2008 Fellows Marton Dunai, a 2004 Berkeley graduate, Andrew Becker, 2005 Berkeley graduate and Siri Schubert

The Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, established permanently in 2006, formalizes pioneering work begun in 1991 in the university seminars taught by Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and producer Lowell Bergman, then a CBS investigative reporter and 60 Minutes producer.

Funded almost entirely by private grants and gifts, the program is dedicated to promoting in-depth reporting in the public interest. That commitment includes nurturing and guiding a new generation of investigative reporters. In addition to participating in graduate seminars dedicated to teaching investigative tools and techniques, the faculty, staff and students work together on local, national and international stories for broadcast, print and the Web.

The Investigative Reporting Program’s endowment and general fund provides scholarships, mentoring and logistical support for students pursuing in-depth reporting in the public interest.

Classroom guests are frequent and include private investigators; current and former FBI, DHS and CIA officials and agents; prosecutors; judges; lawyers; and others whose work is key to developing investigative stories. Students learn the legal complexities of using confidential sources, filing FOIA requests, taking depositions, and dealing with libel lawyers and other specialists whose interests often overlap with those of reporters.

Projects
Projects produced by the program have appeared on such national television programs as PBS' Frontline and Frontline/WORLD as well as ABC's Nightline, CBS’ Evening News and 60 Minutes II. In print, stories for which students were the primary authors or contributors have appeared in the pages of The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle as well as a wide variety of magazines and international and local newspapers.

Projects in which the students' roles were acknowledged and credited have received the Pulitzer Prize, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award, Peabody Award, National Press Club Award, George Polk award, the Sidney Hillman Award, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award, the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism, and the Columbia Online Journalism Award as well as the Bloomberg student reporting award.

Fellowships
In 2007, the Investigative Reporting Program established the first postgraduate fellowships in investigative reporting in the nation for promising young journalists. This yearlong program is without peer at any academic institution. It is designed to nurture young journalists who want to pursue in-depth public service reporting by providing them with a salary, benefits and editorial guidance.

Funded by the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation, The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, Scott and Jennifer Fearon, the Gruber Family Foundation and Ian and Rita Isaacs, they are open to all working journalists, but preference is given to graduates of UC Berkeley's master's program in journalism.

In addition to regular interaction with the faculty of the journalism school and the instructors in investigative reporting, the fellows participate in weekly seminars in investigative reporting taught by Lowell Bergman; Robert Gunnison, the journalism school's director of school affairs; and lecturer Tim Reiterman.

Winners of the 2007-2008 fellowships were Andrew Becker, a 2005 UC Berkeley graduate; Marton Dunai, a 2004 Berkeley graduate; and Siri Schubert, a freelance business and financial reporter in San Francisco.

The deadline for fellowship applications for the academic year 2008-2009 was April 1, 2008. This year's recipients will be announced on May 17. The fellows' yearlong tenure will begin on September 1. The search for 2009-2010 fellows will begin in February 2009.