With the 2008 elections dominating the news these days, two programs at the Graduate School of Journalism are helping students make sense of the upcoming elections and their likely implications.
The Political Reporting program, headed by Senior Lecturer Susan Rasky, turns students into reporters who are knowledgeable about government and the electoral process — and who can help educate the public on election issues. “I believe you need to know how to report on the processes of government in order to be any kind of functioning reporter,” she says.
After covering California’s February primary, Rasky’s students are now spending time in Sacramento exploring the legislative process and writing pieces on the state’s June legislative primaries. Some students will likely file stories from Washington or key congressional districts later this year.
Equally exciting, Rasky says, is Berkeley’s participation in News21, a journalism-education consortium funded by the Carnegie and Knight Foundations. A founding member of the initiative, Berkeley is one of four participating schools (along with Columbia, Northwestern, and USC); this summer, its students will generate election coverage for an interactive Web site on the theme of “What’s at Stake.”
Rasky’s teaching made a big impact on Elizabeth Ahlin M.J. ’05, who was sent to South Dakota to cover Sen. Tom Daschle’s unsuccessful reelection bid in 2004.
The experience “helped me understand more about the political landscape and what questions should be asked,” says Ahlin, now a political reporter at the Omaha World-Review. “It gave me a lot of confidence when I left grad school and started covering political races.”
