Investigation by alums Meg Shutzer and Rachel Lauren Mueller runs on front page of The New York Times following film festival premiere

A newspaper is open to an article titled "Repeated Abuses at Detention Center With Powerful Allies" by Meg Shutzer in The New York Times. The article includes a black-and-white photograph showing a sign that reads "WARE YOUTH CENTER," partially obscured by plants in the foreground.

Two back-to-back suicides at a juvenile detention center in rural Louisiana raise troubling questions about the state’s justice system and exposes a legacy of abuse and neglect. The explosive findings by recent J-School graduates appear in a documentary short and on the front page of the country’s newspaper of record. On Oct. 30, Berkeley Journalism…

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Christa Scharfenberg named project director of $25 million California Local Journalism Fellowship program at Berkeley Journalism

A woman with long, wavy hair and wearing a white blouse smiles at the camera. She is standing in front of a wooden shingle wall, wearing gold geometric-shaped earrings. This new hire is excited to join the team led by the person who runs Berkeley Journalism.

Veteran nonprofit journalism leader Christa Scharfenberg will direct a new $25 million, state-funded fellowship program at Berkeley Journalism to support and strengthen local news reporting in communities throughout the state. Believed to be the largest state-level funding for journalism in the United States, the new Berkeley fellowship program will provide multi-year stipend support for up…

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J-School Faculty and Alumni Honored with News & Documentary Award Nominations

A close-up of several golden Emmy Awards trophies, featuring a winged woman holding an atom. The trophies are arranged in rows, reflecting a soft light that emphasizes their metallic shine. The background is dark, making the awards stand out prominently like stars in a news documentary.

When the 43rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards are presented on Wednesday (Sept. 28) and Thursday (Sept. 29) and by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, 22 Berkeley Journalism alumni and faculty will be among the nominees being honored. We were thrilled to not only see veteran journalists Bill Whitaker (’78/’17) and…

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As online harms surge, Our Better Web initiative advances at UC Berkeley

Bold blue text on a transparent background reads "OUR BETTER WEB." The text, aligned in three lines with "OUR" on the first, "BETTER" on the second, and "WEB" on the third, evokes the clarity and mission-driven essence of Berkeley Journalism.

Our Better Web convenes high-level Berkeley leaders to help guide public policy to support web platforms that are healthy and safe for people, communities and U.S. democracy. With the U.S. midterm elections approaching and political disinformation posing a continued threat to democracy, UC Berkeley’s ambitious new Our Better Web initiative is advancing efforts to study…

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A Note of Gratitude to Professor Jeremy Rue

Prof. Jeremy Rue holding a microphone and smiling.

Dear Berkeley Journalism Community, We don’t do this enough. We don’t remember to thank people who have performed extraordinary service. I want to make sure we do. And so I am writing this note of gratitude to Prof. Jeremy Rue who has returned his focus to teaching after service to the community for the past…

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Alumni Portrait: Documentary Producer/Director Michael Milano

A man in a suit stands on a red carpet with a step-and-repeat backdrop displaying logos for Netflix, Berkeley Journalism, and the IDA (International Documentary Association). A woman holds a sign in the foreground, partially obscuring other individuals. The setting includes bright event lighting.

Michael Milano doesn’t like interviews. It is not that he doesn’t like people — he loves people, and people, generally, love him. But he says everything he wants to say is in his work. He gave very few interviews after his two widely acclaimed films came to light and those were not to the biggest…

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