Seasoned Journalists Enrich the J-School’s Fall Course Lineup

Fall semester is in full swing with a dynamic group of new, first-time lecturers bringing their journalism expertise to classrooms at North Gate Hall. 

“We are so grateful that we have such an amazing cast of high caliber instructors joining us this academic year. We have an editor from The New York Times, three amazing instructors from The Washington Post, two Wall Street Journal reporters, the Editor at Large and a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, and a panoply of many other amazing folks joining us. This is an incredible treat for our students to learn from practitioners in the industry and connect our students to opportunities beyond our school,” said Jeremy Sanchez Rue, associate dean of academics.

Wall Street Journal tech editor Eric Bellman is teaching about money and power, an intermediate business reporting course that focuses on Silicon Valley and provides foundational tools for covering business. The course “Unmasking Power: Companies, the Economy, and Markets” is taught with fellow Wall Street Journal colleague and tech reporter Preetika Rana and is part of our new Business Journalism program. 

Ashwin Seshagiri, a deputy editor at The New York Times, is co-teaching with Washington Post data reporter John D. Harden the “Multimedia Master’s Project Workshop,” a two-semester class for our multimedia master’s students who want to create a multimedia master’s project in digital media or multimedia reporting. In this class, students will work together to build multifaceted websites that are composed of text, audio, video, graphics and interactive features.

Los Angeles Times editor at large Scott Kraft and northern California-based Los Angeles Times reporter Jessica Garrison take students on a deep dive into election reporting this semester. Garrison has already engaged students in a moderated lunchtime talk with reporters from The Guardian about mis- and dis-information in election coverage.

Dave Jorgenson, senior video journalist and overseeing social video production at The Washington Post, is teaching a mini course: Video for Social Media intended to give students the tools they need to produce vertical videos and other short videos for social media. 

Finally, Padmini Raghunath, an award-winning audio journalist, Nancy DeVille, an editorial project manager at The Atlantic, and Gregory Barber, a former staff reporter at WIRED specializing in science and technology, are all assisting with our core J200 Intro to Reporting courses as Teachers of Special Programs. This is a supporting role that helps to create cohesion among the five J200 sections taught at the school.

Amy Ferraris, a documentary film editor and producer, and Diana Diroy, a documentary filmmaker, cinematographer and editor, are assisting our video and multimedia courses respectively. 

Brian Eule, the managing director for PBS FRONTLINE, is engaged in a research project as a visiting professor.