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
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Associated Press
Barre (VT) Times Argus
DailyCaller.com
Frederick (MD) News-Post
Huntsville (Ala.) Times
KHON-TV (Honolulu)
KVRR-TV (Fargo, ND)
MarketWatch.com
McClatchy (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Military Times
Nashville Tennessean
Rutland (VT) Herald
San Diego Union-Tribune
The Atlantic
TV2 (Virgin Islands)
UPI.com
WAMU-FM (Washington’s NPR station)
Waterloo (IA) Courier
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, Wafaa Hussein, at w-hussein@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 also is co-director of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative. 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 and her students followed up a few years later with “Pentagon Travel,” a similar investigation of privately sponsored Defense Department travel. 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.
Ellen is president of the Washington Press Club Foundation and has coordinated judging for the White House Correspondents’ Assopciation’s annual awards competition for more than 10 years.
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
Tom Hannon
Tom Hannon currently teaches American politics and media at the Johns Hopkins Advanced Academic Program in Washington, DC. He served as a consultant for the exit polling and vote tabulation coverage of the 2008 presidential primaries and general election for the major networks and the Associated Press.
He was Political Director of CNN News Group and led the network’s reporting on national politics from 1988 through 2006. He produced hundreds of hours of network programming and live breaking news coverage of U.S. politics. He planned and directed CNN’s coverage of presidential campaigns.
Mr. Hannon was the senior executive responsible for election night projections on all CNN networks and websites. He produced over 30 nationally televised presidential debates during his career. He managed and produced on-air talent including Ken Bode, Bernie Shaw, Jeffrey Toobin, Judy Woodruff, Jeff Greenfield, Candy Crowley, Robert Novak, David Broder, Jack Germond, Bruce Morton, Bill Schneider, Farai Chadeya, Ron Brownstein, Charlie Cook, Joe Klein and many others.
He helped found and served on the boards of the network and wire service pools that conduct election day exit polls and vote counts. He started the CNN-USA Today-Gallup Poll and has worked with most major polling organizations
He was Executive Producer of CNN’s Washington news operations from 1984 to 1988 before that serving as Senior Producer, CNN Washington, 1981 to 1984. Before joining CNN, he worked as a congressional press secretary and as a radio and TV news reporter, anchor, producer and assignment editor.
He has two daughters and lives in Washington, DC.
Contact: 202.661.0105 or tfhannon@msn.com
Josh Meyer
Josh Meyer spent 20 years with the Los Angeles Times before joining Medill’s new initiative in January.
He was an investigative reporter and national security writer, covering a wide range of issues, including government, politics and law enforcement. Since 2000, he focused on terrorism and related intelligence, law enforcement and national security issues while traveling extensively to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Persian Gulf.
Most recently, Josh has written extensively about the Obama Justice Department, global organized crime, WMDs and trafficking in drugs and humans and contributed to the Times’ prize-winning “Mexico Under Siege’’ series on Mexican drug cartels and the government response to them.
During his two decades at the Times he shared two staff Pulitzer Prizes. He also was recognized four times by the Southern California Press Association for his investigative reporting.
He also was one of several L.A. Time reporters to win more than a dozen awards for a 2002 series entitled “Inside Al Qaeda,” including the Overseas Press Club’s Hal Boyle international reporting award.
Contact: 202.661.0106 or josh@northwestern.edu
