Prof. Trudy Lieberman Hosts Webcasts for Health Journalists

July 2, 2008

A new series of health-related Webcasts for journalists debuts Wednesday, July 9 at noon with a spotlight on the growing problem of the underinsured – those who have insurance but are still at risk for substantial out-of-pocket expenses. "Talking Health" will be presented by the Association of Health Care Journalists, The Commonwealth Fund, and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. More »

Prof. Bernard Stein Sells Award-Winning Community Newspaper

June 5, 2008

Prof. Bernard "Buddy" Stein, who teaches opinion and news service writing at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, is parting with The Riverdale Press, the award-winning Bronx weekly his family has run for 58 years. Prof. Stein, 66, and his brother, Richard Stein, 60, sold the paper on June 4 for an undisclosed sum to Richner Communications, which publishes the Herald community newspapers in Nassau County.

Started in 1950 by David and Celia Stein, parents of the Stein brothers, The Riverdale Press is known for its hard-hitting journalism and outspoken bent. In 1998, Buddy Stein won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. He will continue to write editorials for The Press, and to edit the non-profit Hunts Point Express, staffed by his students at Hunter College, where he also teaches journalism. He hopes to found another South Bronx newspaper, the Mott Haven Herald, at the journalism school in the spring.

"We're proud of our newspaper and our community," Prof. Stein said in The Riverdale Press account of its sale. "Riverdale has been our home and provided our livelihood. Its well-being has been our mission. We hoped to be able to pass the paper on to people who would share that mission, and we think we have."

Prof. Sandeep Junnarkar Awarded Grant for Prisoner Families Project

May 29, 2008
A digital project to help families of prisoners interact with each other and the public has been selected as one of 10 winners of a $17,000 New Voices grant. Spearheaded by Sandeep Junnarkar, an interactive media professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the Family Life Behind Bars project will create a social networking platform that allows people to share information about surviving financially, emotionally, and socially while a relative is incarcerated. The site will also provide a window into their lives so that America’s mainstream can understand the impact of incarceration upon a prisoner’s loved ones. More »

Prof. Paul Moses Writes Book on St. Francis of Assisi

March 19, 2008
Prof. Paul Moses' book, "The Saint and the Sultan," which explores an encounter between Francis of Assisi and the sultan of Egypt during the Crusades and its meaning today, will be published by Doubleday in 2009. He completed it while on a fellowship from the Ethyl R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities. Moses, who teaches urban journalism, is also a regular contributor on religion and politics to dotCommonweal, Commonweal Magazine's blog. Before coming to CUNY, he served as City Hall bureau chief, city editor, and religion writer at Newsday.

Trudy Lieberman Blogs for CJR, Wins Journalism Awards

March 19, 2008
Trudy Lieberman, director of the Health/Medicine Reporting Program, has been writing for the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk blog on how the media are covering health care during the presidential campaign. A recent post, entitled "Socialized Medicine" RIP, posits that the term socialized medicine, tossed out by some Republican candidates early in the campaign, no longer scares Americans the way it once did. Lieberman has also been busy racking up awards for the nursing home watchlist she produced for Consumer Reports last year. The package won both the Jack Newfield Award for Investigative Reporting on long-term care issues, given by the Friends and Relatives of the Institutionalzed Aged; and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for online public service journalism. It was also a finalist in the Online News Association's public service journalism category.

Prof. Ruth Hochberger Turns Blogger for Huffington Post

February 1, 2008
Assoc. Prof. Ruth Hochberger, a lawyer who teaches media law/ethics and journalistic judgment at the CUNY J-School, debuted as a media blogger for the Huffington Post in February. In her first two columns, she chided The New York Times for giving prime space on its editorial page to Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to endorse Barack Obama, and argued that journalists should not be barred from registering and voting in a primary, even if doing so subjects them to charges of unbiased coverage. Her blogs sparked lively online debates on both topics. Hochberger the former editor-in-chief of the New York Law Journal, a daily professional newspaper for lawyers in New York, writes frequently on the intersection of law and journalism.

Prof. Sandeep Junnarkar Elected President of SAJA

January 29, 2008
Sandeep Junnarkar, an associate professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, has been elected president of SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, for 2008. He succeeds Deepti Hajela, a newswoman at the Associated Press. SAJA was founded in 1994 networking group for journalists of South Asian origin in New York City. It has grown into an organization serving more than 1,000 journalists working for leading newspapers, magazines, broadcast networks, and new media outlets in various cities in the US and Canada. The association provides scholarships, fellowships and advanced training for its members and those interested in South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora. The school hosted all-day journalism super workshops during SAJA's annual convention in 2007.

Prof. Jeff Jarvis Named One of 100 Media Leaders Worldwide

January 23-27, 2008
Associate Professor Jeff Jarvis, who directs the Interactive Journalism program at the CUNY J-School, led two discussion sessions at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos in January. He was named one of the 100 media leaders worldwide as part of the WEF's International Media Council. Jarvis was in heavy demand as a speaker and conference participant this fall and winter. He spoke at the Digital Life Design conference run by Burda, the German Publisher, in Munich in January. Jarvis is also speaking at South by Southwest in March and at the Online Publishers Conference in London in May. In late 2007, he contributed the foreword to Craig Silverman's book, Regret the Error. Jarvis, whose Buzzmachine.com blog is a must-read for those interested in the changing media landscape, is recognized as a national expert on citizen journalism and interactive approaches to story telling.

Prof. Frederick Kaufman Talks to NPR About the American Stomach

January 18, 2008, NPR, Station WBUR
On Point: The American Stomach
Assoc. Prof. Frederick Kaufman has written about American culture for Harper's Magazine, the New Yorker, Gourmet, and the New York Times Magazine, among others. His third book, A Short History of the American Stomach, has just been published by Harcourt. On January 18, he was interviewed on NPR's "On Point" show about the book. On February 15, as interest in his topic continued to grow, he appeared on NPR's "Chef Table." It's been a busy month for Kaufman -- his article trailing the path of New York City's waste appeared in the February issue of Harper's.