About
The stories here were reported, written and produced by Northwestern University graduate journalism students in the Washington program of the Medill School. Most also were published or broadcast by media organizations across the country served by Medill Washington’s unique news service, which focuses on how public policy affects people’s lives. Medill Washington also specializes in enterprise reporting, multimedia and online journalism and on accountability, using the power of the computer and the wellspring of the database to uncover misbehavior by people in power.
The Washington program’s reporting has been recognized professionally by numerous awards, including prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Press Foundation and Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Medill Washington students are fully credentialed working journalists getting real-world experience, a hallmark of the Medill School. Combined with their training at Medill’s Evanston campus and in Medill’s Chicago newsroom , the Washington experience has helped launch hundreds of successful careers in print, online and video journalism.
Medill Media Partners
Associated Press
DailyCaller.com
Frederick News-Post
Huntsville Times
Kaiser Health News
KVRR-TV
MarketWatch.com
McClatchy (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Military Times
Nashville Tennessean
National Geographic Online
PoliticsDaily
PBS NewsHour
Religion News Service
San Diego Union-Tribune
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
TV2 (Virgin Islands)
WAMU-FM (Washington’s NPR station)
Waterloo Courier
WhoRunsGov.com (a Washington Post site)
Reaching Medill Washington
You may reach the Medill Washington Program by calling the newsroom at 202.347.8700 or by e-mailing the office manager, Salome Angrand, at s-angrand@northwestern.edu
Medill
1325 G Street NW, Suite 730
Washington, DC, 20005
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About the faculty
A faculty of professionals with broad experience in newspapers, broadcast and online news supervises the work. They also write about how the craft of reporting is evolving with the advent of digital media tools.
Ellen Shearer
Ellen Shearer is the William F. Thomas Professor at Medill and Washington director and bureau chief. She led the “Powertrips” investigative projects in 2004 and 2006, in which Medill DC reporters created databases of privately sponsored congressional travel as part of a series of investigative stories. The project won an Investigative Reporters and Editors award. She was co-director of the 2006 News21 project in which 10 Medill fellows investigated the federal government and privacy in the post-9/11 world.
She is co-author of the book “Nonvoters: America’s No-Shows,” has written chapters in five other books and is a regular contributor to “The American Editor” magazine. Ms. Shearer is on the board of the Washington Press Club Foundation.
Before joining the Medill faculty, she was a senior editor at New York Newsday, a consulting editor at Newhouse News Service, marketing executive at Reuters, and bureau chief and reporter for United Press International.
Contact: 202.661.0102 or shearer@northwestern.edu
Matt Mansfield
Matt Mansfield is an associate professor at Medilll, and he’s the co-director of the Washington program. He is particularly interested in how multimedia and data-rich storytelling can play a greater role in public policy reporting. That’s why he left a career in daily newsroom management for a new challenge in journalism education. And, specifically, it’s why Matt came to Medill, a place uniquely qualified to help lead the way.
Matt had been deputy managing editor for the San Jose Mercury News in California, where he oversaw design, graphics and photography as well as business reporting. In his eight years in Silicon Valley, Matt held just about every editing title at the news organization. He is widely known as one of visual journalism’s top voices, advocating around the world on the power of presentation in engaging audiences in new ways. His championing of the craft has helped visual journalists earn greater legitimacy in newsrooms.
Matt also worked for Knight Ridder on several chain-wide management efforts, reporting directly to the Vice President for News on initiatives from multimedia and design to restructuring of major news organizations.
During Matt’s tenure, the Mercury News was judged a World’s Best-Designed™ Newspaper. The newspaper’s photography was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for images created during the historic recall election that swept Arnold Schwarzenegger to power.
The Mercury’s multimedia site was judged “Best of the Web” by the National Press Photographers Association, and last year the photography staff won an Emmy in multimedia reporting for Uprooted, which examined how land use and redevelopment change the lives of people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Contact: 202.661.0103 or matt@northwestern.edu
Twitter: @mattmansfield
