Articles

From Harvard to Hollywood, the improbable journey of “Spotlight” from Boston Globe investigation to Oscar-nominated film

From Harvard to Hollywood, the improbable journey of “Spotlight” from Boston Globe investigation to Oscar-nominated film

The origins of the Oscar-nominated film “Spotlight” can be traced to Harvard, in a 2003 issue of Nieman Reports.Speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School earlier this month, Globe editor-at-large Walter V.…
February 25, 2016
Eryn Carlson
Gabriel Dance of The Marshall Project: "We don't care where you see our content"

Gabriel Dance of The Marshall Project: “We don’t care where you see our content”

For a guy with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s in multimedia journalism, you might think Gabriel Dance wouldn’t be all that enamored of non-fiction prose. But…
February 16, 2016
Gabriel Dance
Bringing Native American Stories to a National Audience

Bringing Native American Stories to a National Audience

On a cold winter’s night, a few minutes after 6 p.m., police in Rapid City, South Dakota were called to a house in the Lakota Community Homes development where Allen…
February 11, 2016
Jon Marcus
Finbarr O'Reilly, NF '13, collaborates with a Marine to drive conversation about war's aftermath

Finbarr O’Reilly, NF ’13, collaborates with a Marine to drive conversation about war’s aftermath

When I met Sgt. Thomas James Brennan at a remote combat outpost in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in 2010, I was an embedded Reuters photographer and he was the leader of…
February 5, 2016
Finbarr O'Reilly
The Guardian's Lee Glendinning: "Publishing is not the end of the story"

The Guardian’s Lee Glendinning: “Publishing is not the end of the story”

The Guardian US, launched in 2011, has posted impressive gains in traffic and revenue over the past year while a signature project, The Counted, did for 2015 what no media…
January 29, 2016
Face to face with a wounded man, Beauregard Tromp, NF ’13, casts off his role as observer and finds a deeper connection

Face to face with a wounded man, Beauregard Tromp, NF ’13, casts off his role as observer and finds a deeper connection

He’s dead. We can’t take him,” the hospital porter said.“Brother! Brother! Wake up brother! Wake up!” I willed the man in the scarlet shirt, sitting lifeless in the bloodied backseat.…
January 29, 2016
Beauregard Tromp
The State-by-State Approach to Getting National Data With FOIA

The State-by-State Approach to Getting National Data With FOIA

In 2014, in collaboration with The Marshall Project, MuckRock published the first nationwide, agency-by-agency breakdown of military equipment distributed for free to police via the 1033 program, which transfers excess…
January 14, 2016
Shawn Musgrave
Culture critic Chris Vognar, NF ’09, discovers new talents in a multimedia cross-disciplinary approach to his beat

Culture critic Chris Vognar, NF ’09, discovers new talents in a multimedia cross-disciplinary approach to his beat

since my return to the Dallas Morning News in 2009 following my fellowship year, I have been a culture critic. Trading in my old title of movie critic formalized my…
January 12, 2016
Chris Vognar

Raquel Rutledge, NF ’12, and her colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigated unfair property tax assessments—and worked to engage readers

Coefficients of dispersion. Chasing the sale. Maintenance years.Three things I knew almost nothing about when I got a tip from a software engineer that something was gravely wrong with the…
January 12, 2016
Raquel Rutledge
Why Journalists Shouldn't Be Blinded by Bad Science

Why Journalists Shouldn’t Be Blinded by Bad Science

Astronomer and longtime professor David J. Helfand has taught scientific habits of mind to generations of undergraduates at Columbia University. His first book, “A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age:…
January 12, 2016
David J. Helfand