Niemans @ Work

Upending the Journalism We’ve Always Done to Better Serve Communities

Upending the Journalism We’ve Always Done to Better Serve Communities

With URL Media, S. Mitra Kalita, a 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow, seeks to elevate Black and brown media organizations.The June primary to represent my district in the state legislature in…
February 24, 2021
S. Mitra Kalita
Examining the Future of the American Art Critic

Examining the Future of the American Art Critic

With her documentary “Out of the Picture,” Mary Louise Schumacher, NF ’17, hopes to prompt national conversation about art criticism and how meaning gets made in the 21st century:When I…
February 12, 2021
Mary Louise Schumacher
“Change Cannot be Reduced to Storytelling, but Storytelling is Very Often at the Beginning of Change”

“Change Cannot be Reduced to Storytelling, but Storytelling is Very Often at the Beginning of Change”

At Germany’s The New Institute, Georg Diez, NF ‘17, hopes storytelling is the catalyst for societal change.What is the power, urgency, some would say duty of journalism in the face…
November 24, 2020
Georg Diez
Open Canada Covers Foreign Affairs with a Human Touch

Open Canada Covers Foreign Affairs with a Human Touch

Editor Michael Petrou, NF ’18, invites people whose voices aren’t usually heard in foreign policy publications to tell their storiesCanadians haven’t had to worry too much about the rest of…
November 19, 2020
Michael Petrou
Adding Diverse Perspectives to Newsroom Discussions

Adding Diverse Perspectives to Newsroom Discussions

With their Diversifying Journalism project, 2020 Nieman Fellows Ana Campoy, Jasmine Brown, and Selymar Colón are building databases of journalists and experts of color.At the time I was looking for…
November 16, 2020
Ana Campoy
Creating a Podcast About a Challenge That Will Outlast the Pandemic: Climate Change

Creating a Podcast About a Challenge That Will Outlast the Pandemic: Climate Change

With the new CBC podcast “What On Earth,” Laura Lynch, NF ’00, is bringing climate change coverage — and potential solutions — to Canadians.The phone call came in May. The…
November 13, 2020
Laura Lynch
Providing Better Narratives About Africa For—and by—Africans

Providing Better Narratives About Africa For—and by—Africans

Hannane Ferdjani, NF ’20, launched her program “Beyond the Noise” to report on the pandemic’s impact on AfricaProviding better narratives about Africa — it’s been my journalism quest since I…
September 23, 2020
Hannane Ferdjani
A News Startup Focuses on Making a Business out of Reporting on China

A News Startup Focuses on Making a Business out of Reporting on China

David Barboza, NF ’16, is turning information gathered by his journalists into a database for companiesDuring much of my time working as a journalist at The New York Times, I…
September 4, 2020
David Barboza
A Journalist Brings Her Reporting Acumen to American History

A Journalist Brings Her Reporting Acumen to American History

Nieman curator Howard Simons used to tease our class of ’77 about the number of members who abandoned journalism. Mel Goo became a lawyer; Dolly Katz, an epidemiologist. Al Larkin…
August 10, 2020
Paul Solman
Lessons Learned from Investigating Corruption in Peru — and Facing Blowback

Lessons Learned from Investigating Corruption in Peru — and Facing Blowback

A longtime journalist who wrote his first investigation on a sturdy Olivetti typewriter, I, a streetwise dinosaur, 10 years ago teamed up with millenials to launch the very small online,…
May 6, 2020
Gustavo Gorriti