>>>>Bios in brief: Meet the 2009 fellows<<<<

Here is an excerpt from the Carnegie report, Journalism’s Crisis in Confidence: A Challenge for the Next Generation (pdf)

In June 2002, Vartan Gregorian, the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York ,invited the deans of four leading schools of journalism—the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University; the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University; the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley; and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California—as well as the director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University—to begin a dialogue on how to improve journalism education and, in turn, elevate the stature of a profession that plays a vital role in the democratic life of the nation. Fittingly, from the start there was a seat at the table for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has made the education of journalists a signature of its philanthropy for more than a half century, while keeping the foundation’s commitment to bolster civic life in the 26 metropolitan communities where the Knight brothers publish their newspapers.

One aspect of the initative was to unleash smart minds on doing quality journalism with an innovative approach. In the summer of 2006, 44 students were selected as the original News21 fellows. Columbia, Northwestern, Southern California and California-Berkeley were tapped as incubators and funded 10 fellows each; Harvard chose four students as fellows, and they dispersed to the incubators for the 10-week summer session. During the first summer, the incubators focused on national security issues. In 2007, the topic, jointly agreed upon by the deans, was religion in America; and in 2008, the incubators reported on political issues.

Explore the project archive.

In spring 2008, Carnegie and Knight showed their continuing support by expanding their funding for News21 through 2011, allowing the program to grow to eight incubators and four contributing schools.

Incubators, selecting 10 fellows each: Arizona State, California at Berkeley, Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Northwestern, Southern California and Syracuse.
Contributors, selecting three or four fellows: Missouri (3), Nebraska (3), Texas (3) and Harvard (4); fellows from contributing schools participate in the seminar via distance learning and then travel to their assigned incubator for the summer season.

For the summer of 2009, the deans selected a cross-disciplinary topic, loosely described as the American Tapestry: Exploring the Demographics of a Changing Nation. Each of the eight incubator schools determined an aspect of that broad topic, to encourage cross-campus collaboration and to capitalize on each university’s strengths through a News21 journalism seminar.

For 2009, the incubator topics are as follows:

Arizona State: The Latino Experience Across America
California-Berkeley: Urban Reporting, Demographics and the American Tapestry
Columbia: U.S. Charter Schools: Exploring Cultural, Linguistic & Immigrant Challenges
Maryland: The U.S. Political Landscape: Racial Identity and Attitudes
North Carolina: Changing America: Population and Energy Use
Northwestern: Urban Youth and the New America
Southern California: Southwestern Shifts: New Communities and New Realities
Syracuse: Teen America: Technology, Identity and Next-Gen Empowerment

Students deepen their understanding of the seminars by engaging in discussions on the News21 Ning community, where class notes, videos and handouts are posted. The cross-disciplinary nature of the topics also encourages collaboration among the universities in advance of the students’ field reporting and storytelling production.

President-elect Barack Obama selected Nobel laureate Steven Chu to direct the Energy Department today as Medill News21 reporters wrap up their fall coverage. Chu, a physicist who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, supports alternative energy fuels and research as a critical response to global warming. He faces a daunting job. National security risks from global warming and the energy and economic impacts of climate change anchored Medill’s News21 coverage this fall.

Medill reporter Erica Peterson looked at the risks climate change poses to different areas of the world, and created a timeline tracking the development of FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal-fueled power plant proposed for Illinois. 

Stories focus on a climate change conference held in Wisconsin that gathered together leading scientists to discuss the latest research on abrupt and dramatic climate shifts. Kahrin Deines looks at an innovative machine that can capture carbon dioxide from the air, potentially halting global warming. 

A new interactive graphic, “U.S. Climate Science Funding” shows how U.S. government budgets for climate research dropped even as concerns about impacts have been rapidly rising.  

Environmental concerns played a vital role in the election, both on the national and state levels.  To measure the election’s meaning for the environment, Medill reporters Ryan Mark and Brian Boyer created an enviroVOTE green meter.  The green meter followed the results of nearly 500 gubernatorial and Congressional races in real time on election eve to show a 19 percent increase in eco-friendly lawmakers.

A corps of Medill reporters also contributed to Medill’s News21 election night coverage with blogs, describing the celebrations that ensued in Chicago’s Grant Park as Barack Obama’s supporters celebrated his election with peaceful elation.  

To see our new fall stories, check out the new section on Medill’s News21 site called “Post-election – Changing Visions.”

Within the dual themes of “New Voters” and “Old Fears,” we tracked the increasing power and rising visibility of immigrant voters, along with the backlash against them in places as far-flung as Hazleton, Pa. and Farmers Branch, Tex. In the fall, we also began to see the impact the economic crisis was having on immigrants and immigration. We followed several close campaigns, and we watched Barack Obama’s election as our next president, with the help of immigrant voters in states like New Mexico and Virginia.

While News 21 is moving on the a new set of topics in 2009, immigration will continue to be a major issue in the U.S., just as it always has. While it might not take center stage in the next Congress, the issue will continue to provoke strong opinions. Will comprehensive immigration reform pass under the new administration? Will ICE change its tactics, leading to a decline in raids? Will states and municipalities continue passing anti-immigration legislation? Will the flood of illegal immigrants be controlled?

It is also important to remember that immigration is not only an issue to be debated; the millions of us who are immigrants have changed the fabric of America. New Americans are becoming voters, and in some cases they are swinging elections. We are also seeing immigrants and their children rise to powerful positions– in a way, our next president counts as one of them.

It’s been a big year for immigration. Stay tuned for another round of fascinating and important topics next year.

MSNBC offers a practice test, which many Americans would probably fail. Arguably, knowing who said “Give me liberty or give me death” has little bearing on whether someone is fit to become American, but going to the trouble to study these details likely shows that potential citizens are serious about it.

Give it a try here.

El Salvador will be especially hard-hit by the economic crisis in the United States. (Miami Herald video)

A series of stories in the Miami Herald has been following the effect the economic crisis is having on immigrants. Immigrants, especially those working in construction or service jobs, have been hard hit, and the impact is apparent on their home countries as well. Remittances, or monetary transfers, are down, and immigrants who can’t find work are returning home.

Officials predict that U.S. businesses, especially farms and nurseries, will see a labor shortage that will worsen after the economy regains its footing. The Pew Hispanic Center is already recording a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants arriving each year.

Meanwhile, Latin American towns that had depended for years on monetary transfers from immigrants in the United States are seeing that source of funding begin to dry up. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank say that overall remittances have stayed flat this year. In some countries, remittances have fallen precipitously– in Mexico, the decline was 12 percent. This will effect Latin American economies, especially El Salvador, where remittances make up 18 percent of the GDP.

Even legal immigrants are feeling the effects of the economy. The Washington Post interviewed several local immigrants and found that an economic ripple effect was damaging immigrant-centered micro-economies. Ethiopian cab drivers, for example, are less likely to eat lunch at Ethiopian restaurants.

It all goes to show how connected the global economy is these days. What began with a subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. is now affecting some of the least fortunate among us.

Like illegal Latin American immigrants in the United States, illegal African immigrants have caused contraversy in Europe. Recently, the European Union’s member states agreed on a pact that would curb illegal immigration, limit unskilled immigrants and refugees, and promote the immigration of skilled workers. The E.U. is trying to get African leaders to sign on to the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, but so far, the Africans have yet to be persuaded.

African leaders are suspicious of the E.U. pact, noting that it does not work in Africa’s favor: the pact would encourage the exodus of skilled professionals while leaving behind the unskilled and the desperate. From the AFP story:

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade this month used the historic win of Barack Obama, the first African American in the White House, to take a swipe at the EU’s new immigration pact.

“Why did they do that? They did it to close the doors to black people except for officials, managers, engineers, doctors: the people they need. There the racism disappears,” he said.

Africans are concerned about what they refer to as “Fortress Europe,” a continent where a focus on security and new nationalist movements may create a hostile environment for non-natives.

Last week, for example, the U.K. began a controversial program to issue biometric ID cards to foreign residents. The British government is starting with foreign students and spouses of permanent residents, and will gradually expand to include all legal foreigners, then all residents. It has attracted outcry from immigrants and civil libertarians.

While the United States has long seen conflicts over immigration, this is, as the cliche goes, a nation of immigrants, and we have always been multi-ethnic. Europe, however, is struggling with what it means to be French, German or British in a united Europe. Can Turkish-born Germans or Moroccan-born Frenchmen be German or French? Europe has to figure this out.

Meanwhile, African immigrants are suffering and dying to get a shot at opportunity in Europe. On the island of Crete, 15 Africans are on a hunger strike, hoping to gain the legal status in Greece. And in the waters off Senegal hundreds of West Africans pack into wooden fishing boats, hoping to reach the Spanish-owned Canary Islands. They die regularly in the attempt.

Now, the Virginia Commission on Immigration has recommended a softer approach. More English classes, in-state tuition, looser Medicaid requirements and an immigration assistance office should replace an enforcement-oriented approach, said the panel, created by Governor Tim Kaine (D) last year. Though some hardliner commissioners disagreed with the final report, they say that immigration has to be a federal issue.

Gov. Tim Kaine (Wikipedia photo)
The Washington Post reports:

Virginia officials have spent years addressing the issue of immigration, taking whatever actions they could within the confines of state and federal law. More recently, immigration turned out to be a less popular election issue than some lawmakers had hoped. As a result, state officials appear to be shifting their focus from fighting illegal immigration to assimilating the ever-growing population of legal immigrants.

Looking at past polls, the Post also notes that fewer voters this year named immigration as an important issue.

Both sides of the immigration debate have called for a reform of our legal immigration process, which can be Byzantine and choked with red tape, and which often seems unfair. Here’s an illustrative example.

CBS News’ 60 Minutes took a look at the plight of immigrant widows, whose marriages to U.S. citizens were not vetted by immigration authorities before their husbands died. According to 60 Minutes, the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is ordering hundreds of widows and widowers to leave the country because their spouses died before their official immigration interviews.

Writing in Slate today, former Arizona Republic reporter Tom Zoellner suggests the tough part, at least, is accurate, judging by Napolitano’s relationship with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

Perhaps the most notorious figure in Arizona politics, Arpaio is known for such stunts as conducting ICE-style raids on local businesses, operating chain gangs, housing prisoners in a “tent city,” and, most recently, raiding Mesa’s city hall in search of illegal immigrants. He is also known for the harsh conditions in his county jail, for which has been repeatedly sued.

Napolitano has been “was in a position to help curb Arpaio’s excesses,” Zoellner says:

As a U.S. attorney in 1995, she was put in charge of a Justice Department investigation into atrocious conditions in Arpaio’s “tent city.” Napolitano carried out her task with what can best be described as reluctance, going out of her way to protect Arpaio from flak almost before the probe had started. “We’re doing this with the complete cooperation of the sheriff,” she told the Associated Press. “We run a strict jail but a safe jail, and I haven’t heard from anyone who thinks that this is a bad thing.”

Napolitano did little to check Arpaio as governor either, though that is easy to explain: he supported her 2002 bid for the office, even appearing in a campaign ad. Arpaio is one of Arizona’s most popular politicians, and this is a very conservative state, so courting the Republican sheriff was a politically necessity for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and governor.

Political necessities aside, Napolitano did veto a bill earlier this year that would have required local law enforcement to act as border agents, a role that Arpaio is already acting out. In general, she has been a moderate voice on immigration, if not on law enforcement. But the association with Arpaio will likely come up at Napolitano’s confirmation hearings. Arpaio, a genius of self-promotion, will likely be pleased.