By Betsy Model
Timothy McNulty is Co-director, National Security Journalism Initiative, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
Even as SPJ members in New Mexico are being invited to apply for the Medill National Security Journalism Fellowships, we thought a few words from Timothy McNulty, the co-director of the National Security Journalism Initiative at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, was in order.
Detailed information about Medill’s program can be found online at http://medillnsj.org. In short, The Medill School of Journalism, a national leader in journalism education, is now with the assistance of multiple grants expanding that leadership role into building a specialty course of study in areas of national security journalism education.
We asked Tim to elaborate on a few things related to the Initiative and to the Fellowship program:
The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University is “home” to the National Security Journalism Initiative. What exactly is the Initiative and how did your school get involved in it?
The school is providing journalists-in-training and working journalists with the knowledge and skills necessary to report accurately, completely and with context on events and issues related to defense, security and civil liberties. The Initiative aims to expand single courses previously offered on covering conflicts and terrorism and the press and the Pentagon and begin including new classes focused on national security, homeland security and civil liberties. Grant monies are also going towards supporting research and establishing thought leadership on media and journalistic performance on these topics, always with an emphasis on the public interest. The funds will support three research fellows who will each spend six months to produce actionable research on topics of national security, defense and civil liberties that will inform journalistic practice and help increase public engagement in these areas.
Over the past few years Medill has offered single courses – some multiple times – on covering conflicts and terrorism; the press and the Pentagon; and privacy, civil liberties and homeland security. They have been well-attended and are unique items in the Medill curricula leading to the building of a specialty, or a sequence of courses, around these important topics. The school will provide journalists-in-training and working journalists with the knowledge and skills necessary to report accurately, reliably, completely and with context on events, developments and issues related to defense, security and civil liberties.
Medill has maintained a year-round Washington program for many years and both graduate and some undergraduate students take classes in Chicago and in Washington..
When did the program first start and what is the program’s intended lifespan?
It began this year and our grant is for three years. We are coordinating some classes that already exist and adding new ones in National Security and Civil Liberties and an additional fifth quarter for the graduate students to have experiences few students would expect in school.
How is the program and the Initiative being funded?
We have a grant from the McCormick Foundation and an additional grant from the Carnegie Corporation that is funding the fellowship program.
So, in synopsis…
The initiative has four interrelated components. Medill received support from the McCormick Foundation for the first three and from the Carnegie Corp. for the fourth. The four components are:
1. A sequence of courses that equip graduate and undergraduate journalism students with the knowledge and skills to report on national security issues in ways that have relevance and meaning to a
variety of audiences.
2. In-service training for working journalists and others working in the national security/communications field that will connect them with the latest research and expertise and facilitate networking. Medill
will take advantage of its Chicago, Washington and Qatar locations and distance learning technology to enable wide participation.
3. An annual conference or symposium that will bring together experts and journalists in the field; result in published articles, reports and multimedia; and establish the Medill initiative as the leader in teaching and creating new knowledge around national security journalism.
4. Visiting Fellowships of six months’ duration to produce practical and actionable research and creative output on these topics, and to expose students and practitioners to distinguished professionals and scholars in the field.
What is the intended goal or mission statement of the Initiative? Final outcome?
We expect to build a successful program to help journalists-in-training and working professionals learn more about national security issues, have access to policymakers and those who carry out the policies and to help the public understand that national security involves much more than just the military. We want to help people recognize that whether the issue is cybersecurity or food policies, there is a significant impact on U.S. national security.
What are you looking for in Fellowship applicants and what will their role be?
We want the Fellows to be first researching their idea that furthers the understanding of national security and how to report on it. These fellowships are not to write memoirs but to focus on future reporting that might involve some innovative way of learning or it could result in a computer program that will be useful for people to see how money is being spent in their hometowns. We purposely did not put any age, rank, or years in the business as a requirement because the value of the idea is most important and then the applicants ability to complete the project.
