Apply for a Knight-Wallace Fellowship

Mosi_call to apply

Applications are open for the 2017-18 Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists, and there has never been a better time to apply. We are adapting how the fellowship works, infusing new ideas into some of the longstanding qualities that have made our program unique. And we are expanding our connections to the larger journalism world, ensuring that our programs and activities are responsive to the changing needs of news organizations and to the needs of journalists who want to build new and deeper skills.

Our goal at Wallace House is simple. We seek to sustain and enrich journalism by sustaining and enriching journalists. We believe that there is a tangible benefit to stepping away from the grind for a period of focused study and collaborative sharing of expertise. And we know that benefit extends far beyond the individual journalists chosen as Fellows. It flows back into the news organizations and broad networks from which our Fellows come.

If you’ve seen images of Wallace House, you may have felt the pull of its quaint, Craftsman charm. It is true; we have a uniquely warm and welcoming home base. But the best part of what happens here is the mischief and boundless possibility we foster inside our walls. Journalists can be creatures of habit. So our program is intentionally structured to shake up routines to challenge assumptions and to nudge people out of professional and personal ruts. We seek to unsettle, and in doing so to empower our Fellows to envision new applications for their talents.

How does it all work? Our magic happens through a mix of academic immersion, Fellowship seminars, adventurous travel and good old-fashioned down time and bonding. An average week could include:

  • An entrepreneurship class with MBA students in the Zell Lurie Institute in the Ross School of Business
  • A course in screenwriting, environmental justice or the history of Hip-Hop music and culture
  • A private workshop on encryption with experts from the School of Information
  • A storytelling seminar with a visiting journalism leader from Vox Media, The New York Times or NPR
  • A family-style dinner for 25 featuring Caribbean rice and peas, Southwestern root vegetable enchiladas or German sauerkraut and beef, all prepared in the Wallace House kitchen by your fellow Fellows.

And that is an average week on campus. On our travel weeks, we work to extend that same dynamic mix of intellectual stimulation to group trips outside of Ann Arbor. We may be exploring the burgeoning business, arts and culture scene in Detroit, or picking apples and hiking in Northern Michigan. In this 2016-17 academic year we are taking our Fellows to South Korea and Brazil where we will meet with journalists, political leaders, business executives, academic experts and cultural influencers.

If it sounds fun, it is! But don’t be fooled into thinking of it as “time off.” Yes, it is time away from your day job. But our schedule and expectations are rigorous. Fellows often find themselves overwhelmed by our plentiful offerings and exhausted by the syncopated rhythm of the days. There is a method to our approach. We believe you can absolutely hit upon a career changing idea working with a preeminent environmental scholar at the Graham Sustainability Institute. But we also believe your ah-ha moment might come while sledding down a bodacious hill with your kids in the depths of a Midwestern February, by meeting a K-Pop impresario in Seoul, or by exploring a contemporary art museum in the Brazilian rainforest.

We believe that awakening the mind and the senses produces sharper, more engaged journalists, and that sharper, more engaged journalists produce better journalism. It’s not rocket science…though our Fellows have access to plenty of those, too, through the university’s world class Aerospace Engineering Department.

Who are we looking for? Fellowship classes — like news organizations — are at their best when they contain a vibrant mix of backgrounds. Our program is designed to help Fellows learn from one another as much as from the academic and journalism experts who work with us. That means we’d like our applicant pool to include: daily reporters and bloggers; narrative and investigative reporters; web, video, audio and social media producers and editors; broadcasters and podcasters; visual and data specialists; designers and developers; engagement editors; and entrepreneurial project and product visionaries. We’re a mid-career fellowship, so you need at least five years of experience working for news organizations or as a freelancer.

If you’ve been thinking of applying, now is the time to do it. Take it seriously. We know you are journalists, and you are hard-wired to procrastinate until painfully close to our deadlines. Our international application period closed on December 1. For U.S. applicants, the deadline is February 1. Don’t wait too long. We only take a small number of Fellows each year, and the process is highly competitive.

Do your reporting. Talk to former Fellows and get working on your study plan. If you can, talk with your editor or manager about a project you could pursue that would benefit your newsroom or help your organization address a pressing challenge.

Don’t fall back on clichés and what you think the selection committee will like. Take some time to really think about your passions, your skills, and something you’d like to achieve in your career. We are enthusiastic about the role our program has to play in the future of journalism, and we are looking for people who want to get their hands in the clay.

There is no place quite like Wallace House and no program quite like the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists.

We welcome you to apply.

Go to the Application »

Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House.

María Elena Salinas and Stella M. Chávez Appointed to the Livingston Awards Judging Panels

María Elena Salinas and Stella M. Chávez

Wallace House is pleased to announce the addition of María Elena Salinas and Stella M. Chávez to the Livingston Awards’ judging panels. Salinas, anchor, Univision News joins the Livingston Awards national judging panel. Chávez, education reporter for KERA, an NPR affiliate in Dallas, joins the Livingston Awards regional judging panel.

Salinas is the co-anchor of Univision Network’s flagship daily newscast “Noticiero Univision,” and weekly newsmagazine “Aquí y Ahora.” Called the “Voice of Hispanic America” by The New York Times, she is the most recognized Hispanic female journalist in the United States. Salinas began her career in broadcast journalism in 1981 as a reporter, anchor and public affairs host for KMEX-34, the Univision affiliate in Los Angeles. Since then she has received many prestigious awards for her work including: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Lifetime Achievement Award; a Peabody Award; a Gracie Award for Outstanding Anchor; seven Emmy Awards; a Walter Cronkite Award; an Edward R. Murrow Award; the “Intrepid Award” from National Organization for Women (NOW); and the 2013 Outstanding Achievement Award in Hispanic Television by Multichannel News and Broadcasting & magazines.

Chávez is a reporter at KERA, the NPR affiliate in Dallas. She covers education and has reported on major news stories, such as the shooting deaths of five police officers in downtown Dallas, the Ebola outbreak in Dallas and the migration of unaccompanied minors to Texas.  She has won several state and national awards, including a Livingston Award in 2007 for her Dallas Morning News’ series, “Yolanda’s Crossing.” The co-authored stories reconstruct the 5,000-mile journey of a young Mexican sexual-abuse victim from a small Oaxacan village to Dallas. For that series, she also received the Dart Award for Excellence in Reporting on Victims of Violence, the APME International Perspective Award and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Print Feature and Online awards.

“We are honored to have these two talented journalists joining our esteemed judges,” said Wallace House director Lynette Clemetson. “The Livingston Awards draws exceptional applicants from all over the country. Having judges with far ranging experience and regional expertise helps us tap into the full breadth of new voices and excellent journalism our awards seek to recognize.”

The regional judges read all qualifying entries and select the finalists in local, national and international reporting categories. In addition to Chávez, the regional judging panel includes: David Greene, host, “Morning Edition,” NPR; Stephen Henderson, editorial and opinion editor, Detroit Free Press; Shirley Leung, columnist, The Boston Globe, Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer, “Frontline,” PBS; and Amy Silverman, managing editor, Phoenix New Times.

The Livingston Awards national judges review all final entries and meet to select the winners in local, national and international reporting. In addition to Salinas, the national judging panel includes: Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent, CNN; Ken Auletta, media and communications writer, The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; John Harris, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Politico; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist; Anna Quindlen, author; and Kara Swisher co-founder and executive editor of Recode.

Regimul zilei. Regimul de somn și de veghe permite într-adevăr organismului clic să se refacă pe deplin. Prin urmare, dacă există probleme cu erecția, trebuie să vă revizuiți programul pentru a avea un somn bun (cel puțin 8 ore pe zi).

Livingston Award Showcase: The Impact of Journalism

Three Livingston Award recipients reflect on the effect their winning work has had on policy and people’s lives.

 

 

Closeup of armed security guard's gun in holster“Hired Guns” Spurs Reform in California Law

By Shoshana Walter, 2015 co-winner for national reporting

When we first began reporting on the armed security guard industry, we hoped the investigation would be eye-opening.

As a nation, we have become increasingly reliant on armed guards. They are often a go-to solution after mass shootings, robberies and street violence. But few people are aware of the poor regulation and oversight of guards with guns – a patchwork system of state laws that require little training and vetting, and too often leave guns in the hands of guards ill-equipped to use them.

The “Hired Guns” project not only opened eyes, it prompted change. In September, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed reforms into law. The new regulations make California’s oversight of the security guard industry one of the strongest in the country.

Among a raft of changes, the law requires armed security guards to pass a mental-health evaluation, a standard for police officers across the country. It also calls for state regulators to take action against an armed guard if he or she is discovered to be mentally unstable, violent or a threat to public safety. Previously, regulators rarely investigated security guard shootings, choosing instead to act only after a criminal conviction. The new regulations also require inspections of firearm training facilities, a move that could eradicate fraudulent programs that allow guards to purchase certificates without actually learning how to use their guns.

We are proud to have received a Livingston Award for this project. The only thing more rewarding is knowing that the stories had an effect on public policy, and will hopefully improve public safety for years to come.

Shoshana Walter and Ryan Gabrielson won the Livingston Award in the national reporting category for the Center for Investigative Reporting series, “Hired Guns,” an investigation of the haphazard system of lax regulation, weak screening standards and little to no training for armed security guards. Walter and Gabrielson compiled data on every state and uncovered cases where violent felons, mentally ill individuals, and former police officers with civil rights violations were able to obtain jobs as armed security guards.

 

 

mobile-home

US Lawmakers React to Mike Baker and Daniel Wagner’s Clayton Homes Investigation 

By Mike Baker, 2016 co-winner for national reporting

After we published our initial Clayton Homes stories in the spring of 2015, lawmakers in Congress cited our work during debate over a plan that would weaken consumer protection laws. The New York Times referred to our investigation in two editorials, using the findings to argue that the protections for mobile-home buyers should remain in place. So far, they have. And the first question Warren Buffett faced at his annual gathering of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders was about our Clayton findings.

After our later coverage exposed how Clayton preys on minority customers, members of Congress called for the Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to investigate. U.S. Representative Maxine Waters said she was “appalled” by the “sleazy and deceptive practices” identified by the article. The CFPB said in February it was “evaluating actions” to take in response. The Justice Department is also reviewing the matter. Lawmakers have since asked the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to examine how Clayton treats its employees and customers.

Mike Baker of The Seattle Times,and Daniel Wagner of The Center for Public Integrity and BuzzFeed News, won the Livingston Award in the national reporting category for “The Mobile-Home Trap,” an investigation into the predatory practices of Warren Buffett’s mobile-home empire. The series revealed how Clayton Homes, a part of the Berkshire-Hathaway conglomerate, and its lending subsidiaries target minority homebuyers and lock them into ruinous high-interest loans.

 

 

St. Petersburg, RussiaKremlin Denies Role in Russian Trolling

By Adrian Chen, 2016 winner for international reporting

The Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) English-language activities appeared to halt immediately after my feature was published. The write-up also forced the Kremlin to publicly address the agency for the first time. At a press conference in June, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin denied any knowledge of, or involvement with, the agency. Since then, Lyudmila Savchuk, one of the subjects of my story, sued IRA for labor violations and was awarded one ruble in damages. It was a symbolic judgement, but a small victory for Savchuk, as it proved the agency’s existence and her employment there.

Adrian Chen won the Livingston Award in the international reporting category for his New York Times Magazine feature, “The Agency,” a story about the Internet Research Agency, a social media trolling organization located in St. Petersburg, Russia that was responsible for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda and manufacturing false stories of environmental disasters in the U.S.

Lynette Clemetson Interviews Molly Ball

lynette-molly

By Lynette Clemetson

 
Molly Ball ’10, has emerged as one of the most prominent political reporters of the 2016 election season. As a staff writer for The Atlantic, her unsparing analysis of the campaigns, keen observations of society and dry wit have made her a must-read for political junkies. They’ve also made her a favorite of cable news programs and Sunday morning political shows. In addition to following her richly textured stories from around the country and her quick takes on the news of the day, Ball’s tens of thousands of social media followers also delight in her frequent selfie posts, where she makes fun of her glamorous TV makeup then notes that it is time, once again, to “Face the Nation.”
And yet, Ball didn’t grow up watching “Face the Nation,” or any of the other political shows on which she is now a regular. Her family didn’t own a TV.

I asked her about that, as well as a few other things, when she visited Wallace House in September to deliver the 31st annual Graham Hovey Lecture. Her topic, of course: Election 2016 – The Great Disruption of American Politics.

Lynette Clemetson: Many people feel they are getting to know you this election cycle through your television appearances, as much as through your writing. And yet you have a very distant relationship with TV. What’s the importance of television for you as a journalist?

Molly Ball: My parents are retired college professors. My mother felt very strongly that television rots children’s brains. So I was the freak in school who didn’t know what any of the television shows were. The downside of that is that to this day I am culturally illiterate. I’ve never seen an episode of “Happy Days” or “Saved by the Bell.” But the upside is that my consciousness of stories and of narrative was formed by reading books.

Television is not my job. I don’t get paid for it. I just want to have interesting conversations with people. I’m just trying to get my head around what’s happening in this country. America is a puzzle that I’m always trying to solve. I do that by flying around the country and talking to people and seeing things happen, by being a witness to events and then trying to tell that story to other people in a way that makes them think or sheds light on things. The medium really doesn’t matter when that’s what you’re trying to achieve. It can be Twitter, it can be TheAtlantic.com, it can be “Meet the Press” or it can be an article in a print magazine. Which does still exist.

Clemetson: Speaking of print, you have different audiences with different habits there, too. Do you approach the print and digital versions of The Atlantic differently?

Ball: I think I write in the same voice in both publications. What I love about The Atlantic is that since it was founded in the 1850s, it’s been the magazine of the American idea. I like stories that are about ideas, not just about personalities or events. Not “This happened and that happened,” but “What does it mean? Why is it happening? What’s the context, the history, and what does it tell us about the bigger picture?”

Inside The Atlantic, we refer to things as “Atlantic-y.” You know it when you see it. It’s that combination of smart and fun, high and low, in a way that is both enlightening and shareable, which has the great virtue of working really well in our current online marketplace. It doesn’t matter if the thing is a listicle or a photo meme or a 300-word blog post or a 3,000-word story. It’s just about having that sensibility.

Clemetson: How did the Knight-Wallace Fellowship help shape your career?

Ball: The fellowship changed my life. I was stuck. Stuck in a newspaper business that no longer had any sort of upward mobility, at least not for me. I had been banging my head against the wall trying to move up for so long. I thought maybe I should take the hint the world was trying to give me and just get out of journalism altogether, which would have been both heartbreaking and difficult, since I didn’t know how to do anything else. This has been the only thing I knew how to do since I was 12 years old and started a newspaper in my neighborhood in Colorado.

The journalism business had been saying no to me for years and years. And suddenly, at Wallace House, I was in this place where the answer to everything was yes. And it absolutely restored my soul and showed me there was a path forward in journalism.

Clemetson: Was that path immediately clear for you?

Ball: I still didn’t know what that path was when I left the fellowship. Nine months after I left Las Vegas and moved to Ann Arbor, I still didn’t have a job anywhere. But the fellowship restored my sense of possibility and my confidence that I belonged.

My husband and I moved to Washington, D.C., in June 2010 with no jobs, an infant, and a small amount of savings. Politico hired me in late September. I was dying to cover the midterms because I knew the Harry Reid race backwards and forwards. The Atlantic hired me a year later.

Clemetson: Has this election cycle revealed anything to you about yourself as a writer, and as an observer of people?

Ball: There have been times in this campaign when I’ve actually felt that my reporting skills were atrophying because to write an amazing story about what’s happening right now in American politics you don’t need any kind of clever angle. All you have to do is point and go, “Holy crap, look at this.” But it’s a great story. And I feel like I’m learning a lot about America – not all of it happy. Those are the best stories, the ones that make you rethink your assumptions and question all you thought you knew about how this thing works. And having the tools and the confidence and the support to just go out and tell the story the way it needs to be told is an incredible privilege at a time like this.

Clemetson: Campaigns can make journalists cynical. You actually seem excited.

Ball: I’m more excited about journalism than I’ve been in a long time because the election is such a great story. There’s so much texture to it. There will be so many aftershocks. There are so many strands to pull out and explore. And they are going to last for so long after this election.

Four years ago, I was trying to find interesting angles on Mitt Romney, which was sometimes a challenge. I was looking ahead to the rest of my career, thinking, “Am I just going to be writing the same stories every four years until I die?”

But no, because it turns out this thing is always changing. And that’s really exciting and cool. The story most people want to read about an election is who’s going to win. But most of the time that’s the least interesting story. The more interesting story is what is happening out there in America. Who are these voters? What are they thinking? What does it reveal about our national character and society? And the extent of the disruption in this campaign makes me think that we are really at a turning point in American political history, and I don’t think any of us know where it’s going to end.

Rio Olympics Medal Moments

Six Knight-Wallace alumni share with us their own gold, silver and bronze moments covering Rio 2016.

Linda Robertson ‘07
Wayne Drehs ‘10
Sarah E.T. Robbins ‘12
Marcelo Barreto ‘99
Vahe Gregorian ‘04
Baris Kuyucu ‘07

 

 

Linda-Robertson

Linda Robertson ’07

Sports Columnist, The Miami Herald

Gold

The Olympics have become so commercialized, bloated and pre-packaged for TV, that the soul of the Games gets lost among the VIPs. One of the highlights for me was reporting from inside Rio’s favelas, home to one third of the population in a city where extreme poverty is juxtaposed with extreme wealth. I watched the opening ceremony at an outdoor pub in Chapeu Mangueira, where residents expressed more enthusiasm for the Games than well-to-do cariocas. I wrote a story on Brazilian athletes who grew up in favelas and, with the help of some teenage street vendors, tracked down the childhood home of a judo gold medalist, Rafaela Silva, in the notorious City of God, where my driver had to declare solidarity with the drug gang that oversees the favela so he wouldn’t be harassed or shot. Silva’s relatives then took us around the neighborhood carrying a poster of her, and their friends offered us grilled kabobs while proudly posing for photos with the poster.

Silver

The media’s depiction of Rio was distorted even before the Games when certain outlets fanned panic about the Zika virus, which helped scare a few golfers away – or enabled them to use Zika as an excuse for not competing. Fear of terrorism has become de rigueur, as we saw before the Athens Olympics, when we were issued gas masks, and the Sochi Olympics, when a Chechen “Black Widow” had supposedly breached the security wall. Yes, Rio is a troubled, polluted city and no, it wasn’t ready for the Games, but things came together adequately. Press coverage became less sensational and more accurate as the Games progressed, even to the point that U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte was roundly criticized for exploiting Rio’s crime-ridden image to turn a drunken episode at a gas station into an armed robbery yarn. After three weeks, I had zero mosquito bites, only to return to Zika hysteria in Miami.

Bronze

Had Dante created another circle of Hell, he might have called it the Mixed Zone. This is the area athletes pass through once they leave the field of play to meet the press, where we actually get to speak to Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Usain Bolt. It’s a gauntlet of TV cameras first, followed by print media. For reporters, the Mixed Zone is akin to a rugby scrum. Lots of jostling and grappling to get in position to ask or shout a question to Neymar or Farah, or to hear the often unenlightening, unquotable answers. In Rio, there was some use of risers and microphones for athletes – which we’ve requested for years so your head doesn’t wind up in another reporter’s armpit and your ribs don’t get bruised by elbows – but alas, it remains an uncivilized way to conduct interviews. For the record, the magnetic Bolt consistently gives the best answers.

(Linda Robertson, sports columnist at The Miami Herald, covered her 13th Olympics, with Lillehammer still ranked Number 1, and Atlanta remaining in last place.)

 

 

Wayne-Drehs

Wayne Drehs ’10

Senior Feature Writer, ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com

Gold

In 16 years of working at ESPN, I’ve never interviewed an athlete more gutted after a defeat than defending Olympic wrestling champion Jordan Burroughs. Rio was supposed to be the Games that catapulted Burroughs to the level of a Michael Phelps or Simone Biles. Instead, he put everything he had into his training and preparation and didn’t even reach the podium. Afterwards, he had every reason to walk past reporters and decline their interview requests. But instead, Burroughs stood there for a good 10 minutes, tears streaming down his cheeks, answering question after question after question, trying to put into words what it felt like to know that he had failed to reach his Olympic goals. His first two words: “I’m sorry.”

Silver

Perhaps no moment of the last year better revealed the transformation that Michael Phelps has undergone outside the water than the fact that he wasn’t with teammate Ryan Lochte on the night of Lochte’s gas station adventure. Four years earlier, Phelps admits, he would have been there. But instead, when Phelps checked out of the Olympic Village late that night, he headed to a hotel where he was fast asleep with his fiancée, Nicole Johnson, and their three-month-old son, Boomer, while Lochte and three other U.S. swimmers were out on the town. “And there was nowhere else I wanted to be,” Phelps said.

Bronze

The fact that a country with a struggling economy and soon-to-be-impeached president could pull off the Olympics without any major catastrophes proves, in many ways, how indestructible the Games truly are. Government corruption, human rights abuses, polluted water, escalating violence – none of it matters. The show must go on. In the end, that’s what the Olympics are – a global reality show. The host city provides the backdrop, consequences be damned. Ultimately, Rio’s legacy in the months and years to come will likely be to reveal how much this needs to change. The question is whether or not anyone will care to listen.

 

 

Sarah-Robbins

Sarah E.T. Robbins ’12

Senior Producer, BBC News

Gold

“Brazil is not for beginners,” they say. The best coverage of the big picture during the Olympics came from journalists who have spent significant time in the region. The South American bureaus of the BBC, The New York Times, and NPR produced crucial reports examining how Rio organizers missed the opportunity to improve the city for all of it’s residents and accounts on the rise in violence in Rio’s poorest neighborhoods, even as the military secured tourist areas.

Silver

Sports reporters have to tighten the screw at the right moment, and sports news isn’t always about sports – although there were plenty of great sporting moments at the Rio Games. Key stories about Rio’s doping lab, an alleged ticket-touting scheme and a deep investigation into the Lochte story uncovered important details that many journalists missed.

Bronze

After Usain Bolt won the 100-meter dash, a photographer told me that he usually shoots fashion in Finland and was “surprised by all the elbows” from colleagues seeking to capture an iconic image of the World’s Fastest Man. Potential lesson for covering future mega-events: send news junkies.

 

 

Marcelo-Barreto

Marcelo Barreto ’99

Chief Editor and Anchor, SporTV News (Brazil)

Gold

Carrying the Olympic torch. I always dreamed of doing it, but could never have imagined it would be like that: in my little hometown, Bicas, surrounded by family and friends. An unforgettable day!

Silver

Sharing the Olympic experience with family and friends. I was living in London during the 2012 Games and attended a few events with my wife and kids, but this time was special. I was almost never alone at the Olympic Park.

Bronze

Interviewing Feyisa Lilesa. The Ethiopian marathoner was hiding in Rio after making a protest gesture against his country’s government at the finish line. I was the first reporter to talk to him.

 

 

Vahe-Gegorian

Vahe Gregorian ’04

Sports Columnist, The Kansas City Star

Gold

With the ocean shimmering in the background and thousands shimmying within the venue, the nighttime atmosphere of beach volleyball at Copacabana was the essence of the promise of the Rio Olympics. The scene was an intoxicating reprieve from a series of logistical glitches that threatened to derail the Games – and a snapshot that will remain indelible even as we come to see the consequences of an emerging country in economic crisis hosting an event that has become too enormous for even the most modernized nations to manage.

Silver

The Olympics are an exhilarating, out-of-body experience for reporters to cover and one of the ultimate challenges in the business. I’ll be forever grateful to have had the privilege of attending 10 of them. It’s amazing to bear witness to people shattering the limits of what we think possible – lifting us all “to a better place to be,” as it’s put in one of my favorite movies, “Vision Quest.” But my favorite part of the Games has always been writing about local athletes, people you have the opportunity to really get to know and thus absorb the experience in an entirely different way – and, hopefully, convey.

So I expect what I’ll remember most about Rio was following wrestler J’den Cox of Columbia, Missouri, and his family after he won a bronze medal in dramatic fashion, and watching archery with Robin Garrett, whose son, Zach, won a silver medal in the team event. Zach fulfilled a dream that began when he was four years old on the family farm in Wellington, Missouri, when his father carved him a bow.

Bronze

We in the media often report what could go wrong or might happen. Rio was projected as an impending apocalypse because of the spike in crime in the wake of Brazil’s economic meltdown. Sure, a vast police and military presence made it safer, but we failed to portray the hazards as being similar to any big city: some areas should be avoided, one should generally be alert, etc. Violent crime was improbable in popular areas, yet unnecessary fear kept many, including families of athletes, away. That was a shame.

 

 

Baris

Baris Kuyucu ‘07

Head of International Sports, Anadolu Ajansi (Istanbul)

Gold

I watched every medal moment of our Turkish team – emotions, pride, excitement. I interviewed all of them. One highlight was spending time with the gold medalist wrestler, Taha Akgul, an exceptionally talented and passionate guy. I spoke with him and his lovely family just before he competed. After his gold-winning moment, we just hugged each other – nothing more needed to be said. It was unforgettable!

Silver

Thanks to a previous visit with Knight-Wallace colleagues, I know Rio very well. That is why I was so comfortable there as a journalist. Twenty-one days of working nearly 16 hours a day was tough. I organized every detail of my teams’ program. But it was a nice experience. I met so many wonderful Brazilian people and fellow Knight-Wallace journalists, Vahe (Gregorian ’04) and Linda (Robertson ’07). I am always so proud of being a Knight-Wallace Fellow. Go Blue!

Bronze

Each day, I had only one or two hours of free time, except for five hours of sleep. So I walked every minute, got acquainted with the locals, tasted Brazilian foods, took many pictures, and hung out for midnight dinners with my team and new friends. We talked and shared so many things. This was the first time I reported from the Olympics. It was not easy, but it was so much fun. Rio rocks.

Knight-Wallace Fellows Lead History’s Biggest Journalism Collaboration

obermayer-obermaier
Current Fellow Bastian Obermayer (left) received an
email from “John Doe.” Knight-Wallace classmate
Laurent Richard (right) oversaw Premières Lignes
Télévision’s coverage of the Luxembourg Leaks in 2014.

In the winter of 2015, current Knight-Wallace Fellow Bastian Obermayer, deputy head of the investigative unit at the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, received an anonymous email. “John Doe” offered a massive trove of data from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Obermayer and colleague Frederik Obermaier soon realized that the 2.6 terabytes of data (11.5 million financial and legal records from 214,000 offshore companies) were too much for them to handle alone. They contacted Gerard Ryle ’06, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and asked for support.

Gerard Ryle
Gerard Ryle ’06, organized a global
newsroom and directed the reporting
and publishing around the world.

Through ICIJ, a secret database was established, a secure communication network was set up, and soon Ryle was leading a virtual newsroom. Three hundred seventy-six journalists in 76 countries searched through the files and shared information on who was hiding money. On April 3, 2016, the investigations were published simultaneously around the world as The Panama Papers. The first big revelation led to the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister over his ownership of an offshore company.

ICIJ put together an extensive website with stories, databases, videos, graphics and even an online game to help readers understand how tax havens work. The Süddeutsche Zeitung published a multimedia project in German and English. Obermayer and Obermaier’s book, “The Panama Papers,” was published in English and in 14 other languages as of this writing.

Edouard Perrin
Edouard Perrin ’16, had experience
investigating huge data troves
after receiving the Luxembourg
Leaks. 

In addition to Obermayer and Ryle, one other Knight-Wallace Fellow Edouard Perrin ’16, of Premières Lignes Télévision in Paris worked on The Panama Papers.

Since April, The Panama Papers project has received many awards, including the Online News Association’s Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, the Data Journalism Award in Vienna and the Barlett & Steele Gold Award. Worth magazine ranked Ryle number 55 of the top 100 most powerful people in the global financial world.

You can watch Ryle’s latest TED Talk about the story behind the biggest data leak and the largest international collaboration in the history of investigative journalism.

 

 

2016 Livingston Winners Announced

2016 Livingston winners
2016 Livingston Winners. Front row: Michael LaForgia, Lisa Gartner, Charles Eisendrath, Adrian Chen. Back row: Nathaniel Lash, Daniel Wagner, Mike Baker

 

Stories about re-segregation and the neglect of black students, the predatory practices of Warren Buffet’s mobile-home empire, and the spread of pro-Kremlin propaganda on social media won the 2016 Livingston Awards. The $10,000 prizes for journalists under the age of 35 are the largest all-media, general-reporting prizes in the country.

The Livingston Awards also honor an on-the-job mentor with a $5,000 prize named for the late Richard M. Clurman, former chief of correspondents for Time-Life Service (1960-1969) and originator of the Livingston Awards.

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support a new emphasis on digital media efforts, the program continues to see an increase in digital submissions, with 21-percent more than in 2015. Since the funding initiative began two years ago, the number of digital entries increased 125 percent. The overall number of entries increased 53 percent.

Livingston judges Dean Baquet of The New York Times, John Harris of POLITICO, Kara Swisher of Recode and Code Conference, and Ken Auletta of The New Yorker introduced the winners at a luncheon in New York City.

“The judges have a remarkable record in singling out for early recognition journalists who go on to leadership, including Thomas Friedman, Christiane Amanpour and David Remnick,” said Charles R. Eisendrath, founding director of the program at the University of Michigan. “Adding a prize for mentors who provide indispensable guidance at critical moments in a developing career help complete an important circle of celebration.”

The 2016 winners for work published in 2015 are:

Local Reporting

Lisa Gartner, 28, Michael LaForgia, 32 and Nathaniel Lash, 24, of Tampa Bay Times, for “Failure Factories,” an investigation into the high failure rates and violence in five Florida elementary schools.

In 2007, the Pinellas County School Board voted to end racial integration and then failed to deliver on promises of more money, staff and resources to re-segregated schools. Analyzing mountains of data and interviewing more than 100 parents, students, teachers and administrators, the reporters found the five elementary schools had more violent incidents than all of Pinellas County’s other 17 high schools combined.

“We wanted to dig deeper into why our black students were failing at the worst rates in the state,” says Gartner, the Times’ education reporter. “The data led us to what the story was: these five schools and the 2007 vote.”

National Reporting

Mike Baker, 31, of The Seattle Times and Daniel Wagner, 34, of The Center for Public Integrity and BuzzFeed News, for “The Mobile-Home Trap,” an investigation into the predatory practices of Warren Buffet’s mobile-home empire. The series revealed how Clayton Homes, a part of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, and its lending subsidiaries target minority homebuyers and lock them into ruinous high-interest loans.

“Our story showed that Clayton had not reinvented and perfected mobile-home lending, but instead had quietly bought up much of the rest of the industry, creating a near monopoly in many markets,” says Daniel Wagner. “In addition, it showed how reverse redlining, a practice typically associated with lending to urban minorities, is a serious problem in rural areas.”

International Reporting

Adrian Chen, 31, of The New York Times Magazine, for “The Agency,” an investigation into an internet trolling organization located in St. Petersburg, Russia, responsible for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda and manufacturing false stories about unrest and disaster in the United States.

“The Russian government has been successful at using the internet to discredit political opposition and spread pro-government propaganda,” says Chen. “We think of the internet as enabling revolutions and protests, but it seems equally useful as a technology of government control.”

On-the-Job Mentoring

Charles R. Eisendrath received the Richard M. Clurman Award for his dedication to mentoring young journalists. A former Time correspondent based in Washington D.C., London, Paris and Buenos Aires, Eisendrath came to the University of Michigan as a Journalism Fellow in 1974. He stayed to join the University faculty and later head the master’s program for journalism. In 1980, Richard Clurman asked Eisendrath to design and direct the Livingston Awards. In 1986, Eisendrath became the third director of the Michigan Journalism Fellowships and transformed a financially strapped sabbatical program into the prestigious, globetrotting Knight-Wallace Fellowships and built a $60 million endowment to maintain them in perpetuity. For four decades, he positively influenced the careers and lives of hundreds of journalists. Eisendrath, who is retiring, will donate his prize money to the Livingston Awards endowment.

In addition to Auletta, Baquet, Harris and Swisher, the Livingston judging panel includes Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and host of “Amanpour;” Ellen Goodman, author and co-founder of The Conversation Project; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist and editorial board member of the Chicago Tribune; and Anna Quindlen, author.

Livingston Awards Finalists Move to Final Round of Judging

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists and the University of Michigan announce the 2016 finalists in local, national and international reporting. The finalists, who represent the top ten percent of entries received, will move to the final round of judging. The awards honor the best professionals under the age of 35 in traditional and new forms of journalism.

2006 Finalists graphicFunded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support a new emphasis on digital media efforts, the program continues to see an increase in digital submissions, with a 20 percent increase in digital entries over last year. Since the funding initiative began three years ago, digital entries increased 170 percent and overall entries increased 65 percent.

The Livingston Awards national judging panel reviews all final entries and meets in person to select the winners in local, national and international reporting. The national judges are Christiane Amanpour, host of CNN International’s “Amanpour” and chief international correspondent for CNN; Ken Auletta, media and communications writer for The New Yorker; Dean Baquet, executive editor, The New York Times; Ellen Goodman, author, co-founder and director of The Conversation Project; John Harris, editor-in-chief, POLITICO; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist; Anna Quindlen, author; and Kara Swisher, executive editor, Re/code, host of Re/code Decode podcast and co-executive producer of Code Conference.

“Being named a finalist signifies high achievement and the promise of more and even better things to come,” said Charles Eisendrath, Livingston Awards founding director. “Each year, the judging process begins with a reading out of the names, titles and subjects of this fine work. Then follows a discussion among the judges that I consider the best seminar of the year about the ingredients of great journalism, no matter in which branch of the media.”

The national judges will introduce the winners on June 8, 2016, at a New York City luncheon.

Following are the 2016 finalists.

International Reporting:

  • Jake Abrahamson, Sierra Magazine
  • Adrian Chen, The New York Times Magazine
  • Joseph Goldstein, The New York Times
  • Brooke Jarvis, The California Sunday Magazine
  • Azmat Khan, BuzzFeed News
  • Natasha Khan and Hui Li, Bloomberg News
  • Simon Ostrovsky, VICE News
  • Jennifer Percy, The New York Times Magazine
  • J. Weston Phippen, The Atlantic
  • Scott Sayare, Harper’s Magazine
  • Kevin Sieff, The Washington Post
  • Christian Stephen, Freelance Society Productions
  • Alice Su, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and The Atlantic

 

National Reporting:

  • Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker
  • Mike Baker and Daniel Wagner, The Seattle Times, The Center for Public Integrity and BuzzFeed News
  • Caitlin Dickerson, NPR
  • Catherine Dunn, International Business Times
  • Robert Faturechi, ProPublica
  • David Ferry, Mother Jones
  • Alissa Figueroa and Connie Fossi, Fusion
  • Azeen Ghorayshi, BuzzFeed News
  • Dana Goldstein, The Marshall Project in partnership with Slate
  • Michael Grabell and Lena Groeger, ProPublica
  • Lindsey Konkel, Newsweek
  • Jeff Larson, ProPublica
  • Dana Liebelson, The Huffington Post
  • Dan Lieberman, Fusion
  • Rachel Monroe, Matter
  • Tricia L. Nadolny, The Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Anahad O’Connor, The New York Times
  • Steve Reilly, USA Today
  • Alysia Santo, The Marshall Project
  • Eli Saslow, The Washington Post
  • Joseph Walker, The Wall Street Journal

 

Local Reporting:

  • Jonathan Blitzer, The Oxford American
  • Susanne Cervenka, Asbury Park Press
  • Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun
  • Jessica Floum, Sarasota Herald Tribune
  • Gus Garcia-Roberts, Newsday (Long Island, NY)
  • Caitlin Gibson, The Washington Post
  • Mike Hixenbaugh and Jason Paladino, The Virginian-Pilot in partnership with the Investigative Reporting Program and NBC News
  • Mirela Iverac, WNYC Radio
  • Marisa Kashino, Washingtonian
  • Charlotte Keith, Investigative Post
  • Michael LaForgia, Nathaniel Lash and Lisa Gartner, Tampa Bay Times
  • J. David McSwane and Andrew Chavez, Austin American-Statesman
  • Jonah Newman, The Chicago Reporter
  • Cezary Podkul and Marcelo Rochabrun, ProPublica
  • Brian Rosenthal, Houston Chronicle
  • Lindsey Smith, Michigan Radio
  • Halle Stockton and Alexandra Kanik, PublicSource
  • Perla Trevizo, Fernanda Echavarri and Mike Christy, Arizona Daily Star and Arizona Public Media
  • Alexandra Zayas and Kameel Stanley, Tampa Bay Times

 
More on finalists’ work »

About The Livingston Awards:

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists are the most prestigious honor for professional journalists under the age of 35 and are the largest all-media, general reporting prizes in American journalism. Entries from print, broadcast and online journalism are judged against one another as technology blurs distinctions between branches of the traditional platforms. The $10,000 prizes, awarded annually for local, national and international reporting, are sponsored by the University of Michigan, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Indian Trail Charitable Foundation. The Livingston Awards are administered by Wallace House at the University of Michigan, home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists. Learn more at wallacehouse.umich.edu/Livingston-awards. 

 

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation:

Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more information, visit knightfoundation.org.

Knight-Wallace Fellows Class of 2016-2017 Named

Ann Arbor, MI – The Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship program at the University of Michigan has named 13 American and nine international journalists for the academic year 2016-2017. The group is the 43rd to be offered fellowships by the University.

2016-2017 Fellows“There is a 28-year age span between the Fellows in the class of 2017, touching the extremes of what we mean by mid-career fellowship,” Director Charles Eisendrath notes. “But above all we look for capacity for personal and professional growth regardless of age, and the successful candidates share it equally.”

While on leave from regular duties, Knight-Wallace Fellows pursue customized studies and attend twice-weekly seminars. Headquarters of the program is Wallace House, a gift from the late newsman Mike Wallace and his wife, Mary. The program at Wallace House includes training in narrative writing and multi-platform journalism. International news tours to Turkey and Brazil are also an integral part of the program.

Knight-Wallace Fellows receive a stipend of $70,000 for the eight-month academic year plus full tuition and health insurance. The program is entirely funded through endowment gifts by foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to improving the quality of information reaching the public.

Fellows and their study projects are:

Fernando Canzian Da Silva, reporter, Folha de São Paulo (Brazil). Enhancing methods of print journalism with video and graphics

Anna Clark, freelance writer, Detroit, Mich. Common Good: How chronic underfunding of American cities imperil residents

Nicholas Deshais, staff writer and city hall reporter, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington). How driving less will change our cities

Deirdre Falvey, senior features commissioning editor, The Irish Times. Blending oral history and art for long-form journalism

John Goetz, editor and investigator, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, NDR (Berlin). How racism laid the groundwork for establishing the “new” Germany in the early 1990s

Sonya Green, news and public affairs director, 91.3 KBCS (Seattle, Washington). The impact of white privilege on how news is covered

Leana Hosea, reporter and producer, BBC. Clean water issues in the US: Comparing the African American and Native American experience

Dina Ibrahim, senior journalist, Al Arabiya English, (United Arab Emirates). Impact of the rise of the Islamic State on Iraq’s modern state national identity

Michael Kessler, freelance writer, (Los Angeles magazine). Media and police bias in missing-persons cases

Jin Kim, staff writer, Chosun Ilbo (Seoul). The past, present and future of the global automobile industry

Arno Kopecky, freelance writer and author, Vancouver, Canada. Re-imagining growth for a finite planet

Josh Kramer, freelance cartoonist. Creating a style guide for journalistic and nonfiction comics

Amy Maestas, senior editor, The Durango Herald. The future for hyper-local newspapers

Brian Mockenhaupt, contributing editor, Outside Magazine. Veterans’ alienation and the struggle to re-assimilate after war

Bastian Obermayer, deputy head of the investigative unit, Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich). Understanding the global menace from tax havens

Gustavo Patu, business reporter, Folha de São Paulo. Tax systems and budgetary processes in developing countries

Austin Ramzy, Asia correspondent, International New York Times. Myanmar’s dramatic democratization in an increasingly authoritarian Southeast Asia

Laurent Richard, investigative reporter, Premières Lignes Télévision (Paris). Defeating censorship with collaborative journalism

Stephen Sawchuk, associate editor, Education Week. How policy contributes to K-12 educational inequality

Delece Smith-Barrow, reporter, U.S. News &World Report. Why few underrepresented minorities thrive as professors

Erica Westly, freelance writer and author (Reuters). The history of swimming instruction and drowning prevention

James Wright, deputy editor for metro and business news, The Las Vegas Review-Journal. How mega-donors in U.S. politics influence U.S. foreign policy

The selection committee included outgoing Director Charles Eisendrath ‘75 and incoming Director Lynette Clemetson ‘10, John Costa ‘93 (president, Western Communications, and editor-in-chief, The Bulletin, Bend, ORE.), Ford Fessenden ‘90 (graphics editor, The New York Times), Kate Linebaugh ‘08 (reporter, The Wall Street Journal), Bobbi Low (professor, UM), Birgit Rieck (associate director, KWF), Carl Simon (professor, UM), Yvonne Simons ‘03 (assistant news director at CBS 13, Sacramento), and Doug Tribou ‘16, (reporter and producer at “Only a Game,” NPR/WBUR).

NPR’s Lynette Clemetson named next director of Wallace House

Contact: William Foreman, 734-330-0474, [email protected]
U-M has a satellite uplink TV studio and an ISDN radio line for interviews.

 

Read the announcement in Spanish.

ANN ARBOR – Lynette Clemetson will be the new director of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships and Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan – two of the nation’s most prestigious programs for journalists.

Clemetson, senior director of strategy and content initiatives at NPR, begins her new position on July 1. She will succeed Charles R. Eisendrath, who will retire after three decades. He founded the Livingston Awards and led a $60 million endowment drive to permanently establish the fellowships. Last year, the programs were rebranded as Wallace House.

“Lynette Clemetson will further strengthen the University of Michigan’s engagement with modern journalism,” U-M President Mark Schlissel said. “The Knight-Wallace Fellowships and the Livingston Awards recognize and support journalists who are helping us gain a deeper understanding of the most complex issues facing our world.”

Lynette Clemetson

Clemetson’s news career has been as wide ranging as it has been distinguished. Her experiences include reporting about Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule for Newsweek, covering politics and demographics for The New York Times, launching the website TheRoot for the Washington Post Company and guiding multi-platform projects for NPR.

“The programs of Wallace House are vital to journalism, even more so in today’s complex media world,” said Clemetson, a Knight-Wallace fellow in 2009-10.

“It is an honor to build on Charles Eisendrath’s strong legacy, the program’s international focus and its connection to the University of Michigan,” she added. “I look forward to expanding Wallace House’s role in supporting media innovation and experimentation and being a prominent force for good in sustaining journalists of all sorts in their mission, passion and craft.”

Eisendrath said, “I came to know Lynette as a Knight-Wallace fellow after having been impressed with her application credentials. By the time she left, I realized that the most impressive thing about her wasn’t the credentials, it was the personal qualities that had earned them.”

Since its founding in 1973, the Knight-Wallace Fellowship program has enabled a total 677 mid-career journalists from 35 countries to step away from their deadline pressures and spend an academic year at U-M, enjoying the freedom to take any courses that interest them.

The fellows – selected for their exceptional work, leadership and potential – explore new subjects and deepen their understanding of issues they have been covering. They enrich the campus by mixing with students and faculty, contributing immeasurably to U-M’s educational and research milieu. Numerous fellows have gone on to write notable books, win awards, develop and run journalism projects and bring distinction to their news organizations.

The program is also the only journalism fellowship that involves study tours abroad. In recent years, the fellows have traveled to Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Argentina and Canada.

“As a journalist and a news executive, Lynette Clemetson has brought passion and a commitment to strategic innovation to her work. She is the right person to lead Wallace House as a new generation of journalists seeks the opportunities for learning and engagement that it provides,” said Martha Pollack, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

The Livingston Awards, the largest all-media, general reporting prize in the U.S., are often called the “Pulitzer for the young.” The program offers $10,000 prizes to journalists under the age of 35 for local, national and international reporting.

“At the annual Livingston Awards luncheon in New York, 200 or so leaders of journalism attend. They come not for the chilled salmon but to be reminded that journalism is a noble calling. Many struggle to escape depression. It’s a tough time in the business,” said Ken Auletta, an author and media and communications writer for The New Yorker.

“Yet after watching young journalists humbly step to the winners podium and glancing at their work, the sun shines,” added Auletta, who has been a Livingston judge for three decades. “Beneficiaries of both Michigan’s distinguished programs become part of a journalistic community that pumps oxygen into a profession so vital to a healthy democracy.”

The fellowship program was founded in 1973 by Ben Yablonky, a journalist, labor activist and educator. It was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and called the Michigan Journalism Fellows program.

The program’s second director was Graham Hovey, a former New York Times journalist who served in 1980-86.

When the federal funding ended and threatened the program’s existence in 1985, a team of prominent newspaper editors gathered a coalition of donors, led by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Eisendrath, a fellow in the program in 1974-75, was as a TIME correspondent in Washington, London, Paris and bureau chief in Buenos Aires. He joined U-M’s journalism faculty in 1975 and directed its master’s program in journalism for a decade. He became the founding director of the Livingston Awards in 1981 and took over the fellowship program in 1986.

In 1992, a gift from 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace and his wife, Mary, a former TV producer, allowed for the purchase of the program’s current headquarters. Wallace House is an arts-and-crafts-style home near campus. The fellowship program was renamed the Knight-Wallace Fellows at Michigan.

Subsequent gifts have established fellowships in business, legal, medical, sports, investigative, international and educational reporting, broadening the scope of the fellowship.

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