Student Projects

	New Multimedia Projects Students in the Advanced Multimedia class recently completed projects on the growing problems facing San Francisco taxi drivers , the weak state of the U.S. dollar, and the life of immigrant stable workers at Berkeley's Golden Gate Fields .
	The Black Vote In Oakland The African-American vote has become a major focus during this national election with the presence of the first serious black contender, Barack Obama.
	News 21 News 21 is a collaboration of graduate schools of journalism at Columbia University, Northwestern University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Southern California and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
	Oil, Quake, Fire In the disaster-prone Bay Area, UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism students ask ... are we prepared?
	Perspectives UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism students profile the voices at the forefront of the Bay Area's most difficult discussions.
	Cop Out Students in Susan Rasky's J200 (2007) class look behind the conventional wisdom about cops and crime in Oakland.
	Corcoran Class Blogs First year (Fall 2007) students are producing works in print and multimedia for a range of blogs covering local news in San Francisco, Richmond, Berkeley, Albany and Alameda.
	Remnants of War Colombia is the only place in the Western hemisphere where landmines are planted on a regular basis. Along with Cambodia and Afghanistan, it is one of the three countries in the world with the worst landmine problem. These stories by Pauline Bartolone trace the stages of reintegration of some of the civilian survivors.
	Restoring Faith All 21 of California's missions face a crisis: Not enough money for needed repairs and earthquake retrofitting, and a government that hasn't helped because of concerns about separation between church and state. Graduate Tara Cuslidge examines the state of California's missions.
	Ghana: Golden Anniversary These stories were developed during an African reporting trip graduate Mark Luckie took to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence from Britain. While there he discovered the legal and social persecution gays face, how some men, both gay and straight, are driven to gay prostitution for the money and the Ghanaian government’s failure to address the HIV/AIDS problem in the gay community.
	Isolated by Language At a time when immigration is again front and center in the national debate, and the former INS (now Immigration and Customs Enforcement) deported scores of immigrants working in Midwestern and Mountain State meat-packing plants, students from the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism traveled to Greenfield in the Salinas Valley to report on a population of immigrants twice removed.
	Profile: Bayview-Hunters Point For three weeks, students from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism visited San Francisco's dying black neighborhood, Bayview-Hunters Point, and chronicled the issues facing the community: from gentrification to crime, education to redevelopment. The stories in this 11-part series offer a glimpse of life there and how times are quickly changing. Read the stories, view the slideshows and learn more about this community in flux.
	Covering Asia Covering Asia is an online resource and collection point for Asia-related reporting, projects and events that come out of the school's highly respected Asia reporting program.
	North Gate Radio North Gate Radio is a weekly news magazine show put on by the students in the Intro To Radio Reporting Class each semester. The 30-minute program is run entirely by the students, who rotate through producer, assistant producer, anchor, and reporting duties. Listen to archived programs or subscribe to the podcast.
	Election 2006 Election 2006 was a project of the first-year reporting classes. Students covered local, state and national election races, constantly updating their stories throughout the evening on election night.
	My Blue-Eyed Girl Heather Gehlert, class of 2006, tells the story of her niece, Mindy Stockton, who has been severely brain damaged since birth, and Mindy's mother, Leslie Holzhauer, who could withdraw life-sustaining treatment at any time but chooses not to. The financial toll of that decision has been enormous, the emotional toll profound.
	Pipe to Pump: Pricing California's Gasoline California's gasoline is the cleanest in the world; it's also some of the most expensive in the country. Kim Perry, class of 2006, analyses how oil prices, refineries and taxes determine what customers pay at the pump.
	Sept. 11 - Five Years Later By e-mail and phone, Oakland Tribune readers shared their personal stories in response to a printed notice asking how the 9/11 attacks have changed their lives. Students followed up their messages with in-depth interviews and photos.
	Realeyes The Visual Storytelling class of Spring 2006 compiled a series of photo multimedia projects to produce its annual magazine, Realeyes. Photo students delve into the lives of their subjects and along with audio and text show how these environments exist frozen in the frame of a camera. What can be gained through a still photograph?
	California Dreaming In an attempt to find out what brings Americans together--not just what drives them apart--Catherine Price, class of 2006, explores five Californians' thoughts about the American Dream.
	A State Divided Students in Cynthia Gorney's J200 class take a close look at propositions on the ballot in the Nov. 8 special election. The governor’s campaign spent over $27 million supporting four propositions judged crucial to his agenda.
	Covering North Korea Students in Carolyn Wakeman's Covering North Korea seminar have launched a website, created by Tomo Geron, that features original articles by J-School students and visiting scholars along with events, photographs, film reviews, news sites, and links to NGOs providing aid and information.
	Healthy Forests A century of fire suppression policy has primed the national forests for catastrophic wildfires that threaten communities and wildlife each summer and fall. This project explores the varied and often contentious perspectives about how to manage Healthy Forests. Jeff Nachtigal, class of 2005, produced this project as a senior thesis.
	China Digital Times China Digital Times is a collaborative news Weblog about emerging information and communication technologies and their impact on Chinese society. China Digital Times is created by faculty and students of the Graduate School of Journalism and School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley, under the guidance of Xiao Qiang, who leads the J-School's Berkeley China Internet project.
	The World And Us J-school students are collaborating with contributors from around the world on a weblog called Worldandus that looks at perceptions of the United States from abroad. By examining foreign media and through reports filed from different countries, Worldandus is meant to become a space for dialogue and insight on political and cultural perspectives of transnational relations today.
	North Gate News Online J-School students produce dozens of stories for a variety of different classes each semester. Many of those stories are featured at North Gate News Online, a Web publication of the school.
	CNS-TV News See stories reported and produced by students in the advanced television production laboratory course at the Graduate School of Journalism. We produce several daily news shows with stories from the Bay Area and all over the world.

Earlier J-School Projects

Visiting Scholar Profiles
Asian journalists in the visiting scholars' program shared their insights about China, Myanmar and Indonesia with profile writers in the Covering Asia class. Their feature stories tell us about ethics in a Myanmar newsroom, reporting boundaries for China's journalists, and how one reporter's smoking habit led to an investigation into high-level corruption.

California Sports Journal
J-School students using laptops and advanced cell phone technology are producing an online magazine, the California Sports Journal, as part of new a course on sportswriting taught by Neil Henry and Gregg Bell.

Ghostrider
In January 2003, the Pentagon challenged engineers, students and hobbyists to create by the following year an off-road vehicle that can find its own way across up to 200 miles of rocky desert. Berkeley's Blue Team took the challenge one step further: How do you make a motorcycle that drives itself? Zack Johnson covered this DARPA project for the Advanced Multimedia Reporting class.

The Bay Area's Ethnic Communities
First-year students in Rob Gunnison's Introductory Reporting class spent the semester reporting on the Bay Area's ethnic communities. The reporters went into schools, grocery stores, restaurants, homes and hospitals to learn about the challenges faced by the diverse groups that add to the vitality of the region. Here are some of the stories they uncovered.

Election 2004
Dozens of J-School students spent November 2 covering the 2004 elections as the day unfolded, at both the national and regional levels. Stories were updated throughout the week to cover the post-election wrap-up. See also: The Presidential Reporting Weblog.

The India Reporting Project
Carole-Anne Elliott, MJ '03, created a web site for the India Reporting Project, a course taught each spring by Lydia Chavez and a teaching fellow from one of India's top news organizations. The site contains stories and photographs from the first of five annual reporting trips in which students cover the complexities of India.

J-School projects created 2001-2005

Garbage: East Bay Reporting Project
First-year students spent the fall reporting on how cities in the East Bay deal with garbage, recycling and dumps. They whiffed the odors, breathed the dust and looked into recycling bins to see how homeowners, business and school districts treat their trash. Here is a look at what they found.

Covering Japan: Nagasaki Journal
Nine students traveled to Japan in 2002 to report on the fabric of community in the port city of Nagasaki. The San Jose Mercury News published their stories and photos in a special section called "Nagasaki -- Beyond the Bomb." Three digital TV stories appeared as featured videos on washingtonpost.com

Presidential Reporting Project
Students in the J-School's Presidential Reporting Project blog from New Hampshire, Arizona, Iowa, Washington, D.C., and wherever the 2004 Campaign takes them.

Teenagers: How They Play, Work and Survive
This special report from Lydia Chavez's J200 class explores the lives of Bay Area teens, from privelaged to poor, and calls to attention their shared struggle to maturity despite their differences

On the Other Side of Midnight
It's possible after midnight to find a 24-hour 7-Eleven, Safeway, fitness gym, bus and diner. And, some work is just better done at night--stocks shelved, streets swept and newspaper racks refilled. To see who stays awake to enjoy any of it--our J-200 visited the area's 24-hour establishments.

Baghdad Journal
In the summer of 2003, three graduate students - Adam Shemper, Brandon Sprague and Imran Vittachi - traveled to Baghdad to see how life has changed in a post- Saddam Hussein Iraq. Their Weblog records their experiences in the war-torn country.

Proposition 54
The controversial voter initiative on the October 7, 2003 ballot has been labeled everything from a racist gag order to a catalyst for a colorblind society. This Bay Area reporting project takes a closer look at some of the public and private institutions that would be directly affected by Proposition 54.

Backpacking Burma
Christine Gralow, class of 2003, did a website for a new media publishing class on the two weeks she spent in summer 2000 backpacking through Burma. Most Burmese locals – though still wary of the junta leadership – are generally at ease with foreign travelers and eager to share stories.

Battle for Barry Bonds' HR Ball
Nick Wilson, class of 2004, created a website based on his profile of San Francisco attorney Mike Lee and the story of the battle for Barry Bonds' record 73rd home run ball.

Donors Wanted
Gina Comparini, class of 2003, did a Web site for her master's thesis about the thousands of people who get a new lease on life each year from organ transplants or tissue donations.

On the Way to a Green L.A.?
Los Angeles, a city with a reputation for smog and pollution, is quietly moving to the forefront of sustainable development. Pamela Reynolds' masters project uses video, audio, text, photos and animation to explore efforts to green L.A., and includes tours of some exemplary projects.

AC Transit
A Fall 2002 first-year class taught by Robert Gunnison looked into the sprawling AC Transit system and how it operates. Each student profiled a bus line and examined an aspect of AC Transit operations, from global positioning technology to cleaning the buses. They rode many buses, visited maintenance yards and dispatch centers, and interviewed dozens of drivers, employees and passengers. These stories are the result of their work.

San Pablo Avenue Times
Ten students in a beginning reporting class are producing a local newspaper, the San Pablo Avenue Times, devoted to life in communities along the East Bay's most historic and vital passage. The Times is published and edited online by second year student Jessi Hempel and Prof. Neil Henry.

Intellectual Property Weblog
Berkeley students from Computer Science, Law, The School of Information Management and Systems, and the J-School have launched bIPlog -- a weblog covering intellectual property issues.

Election 2002
J200 students working under six professors band together for wide-ranging coverage of the 2002 mid-term elections. Beats include national, state, and regional races and results.

Covering China
The students in Jonathan Mirsky's Covering China class last Spring produced a package of stories about communities in China, Hong Kong, India and New York. One goal of the class was to compare wire services in the East and in the West.

Arc of Crisis
A region in turmoil is the subject of the Arc of Crisis web site, created by seven students in a Spring 2002 course. Students examined Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan/Iran/Iraq and India/Pakistan/Kashmir, or about a quarter of humanity, seeking to put a human face on the conflicts by interviewing members of local emigre communities. This site has been partially funded by a grant from the Al-Falah Program of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Co-taught by William Drummond and Jane Ellen Stevens.

The Big Story
The way that media covers a big story can have as much influence as the event itself. Society's understanding of an unfolding drama - as filtered through the media - directly impacts the outcome of that story, and has lasting political and cultural effects. The mission of The Big Story is to serve people passionately involved in media with a journal that analyzes the coverage of one big story that has lingered in the headlines and our thoughts.

Multimedia Storytelling
Students in Jane Stevens' multimedia reporting classes produce stories using video, text, audio, still photos, Flash, and graphics. From a health center in Arcata to robotic flies to massive bra balls, these projects are as varied as the students who created them.

The American South
In 2001, officials in Georgia voted to redesign the state flag, removing controversial symbols of the old Confederacy from it. In response, white leaders in a defiant Georgia town called Trenton this spring took steps to restore the stars and bars as the city's official emblem. In April 2002, a small group of jschool students traveled to northwest Georgia to report on this and other issues.

The Cerrito Theater
Pamela Reynolds explores the past, present, and future of El Cerrito's art deco Cerrito Theater, including interviews with former employees and coverage of the community group that banded together to save the structure.

Four
"Four" is a master's project produced and reported by Television Magazine students Kathleen Rhodes and Mabel Tampinco. Features stories on two Filipina women sold into sexual slavery, a health clinic fighting AIDS, and more. Streaming video.

American Journey
Produced by Kim Bortfeld, Carlos Cruz and Hadas Ragolsky, American Journey represents the hard work of many who drove, flew, swam and jumped to tell the stories of a young Chinese gang member in San Francisco's Chinatown, and more. Streaming video.

Ripple 9|11
Produced by Yunji de Nies, Kerry Eleveld, Vanessa Kaneshiro, Sasha Khokha, this program looks at some of the unexpected efffects of the biggest story of 2001. Streaming video. Listen to people you haven't already heard from talk about how September 11 continues to impact their lives.

First World, Upside Down
Angel Gonzalez, Class of 2002, takes a multimedia look at the decline of Argentina's economy, politics and culture. The country defaulted on its debt, the economy shrunk by 15 percent, and six governments collapsed in less than four months.

The New World
A news reporting class examines repercussions of Sept. 11 on American society in a special project, The New World: America's Borders in an Age of Terrorism. This web magazine examines this new era in which scientists, government leaders, immigrants, and ordinary citizens are grappling with sudden change in American life.

Advanced Documentary Photo Project
Students in the advanced photo documentary project class at the Journalism School chose a long-term subject that they could photograph. Done over the course of the Spring 2001 semester, the common thread was to look at a community in the Bay Area.

Cubans 2001
Students in Lydia Chavez's international reporting class and Freshman Seminar Program traveled to Cuba in Spring 2001 to write a series of stories about the profound changes that have taken place in recent years on the island.

Reporting On Asia
Indian film, Starbucks in Beijing, images of Hong Kong - these are just some of the stories students wrote about for the school's Asia Pacific Project Web site.

How The Tech Revolution Is Changing Your Life
Students in an introductory reporting class and a new media publishing class in 2000-2001 collaborated on Bay Area Tech Reports, a Web site on technology's impact on society.

Covering The Border
Students in Sandy Tolan's "Reporting the Border" class in Fall 2000 traveled the U.S.-Mexico line from San Diego to Matamoros, examining pressures on land and resources. Their series of stories was published in the San Jose Mercury News, La Opinion, and High Country News, and are also featured here at the J-School.

Transforming Oakland
Students in Prof. Cynthia Gorney's Fall 2000 introductory reporting class wrote a series of articles exploring the changing social, cultural and economic landscape of the city of Oakland.

Election Night 2000
Students at the Graduate School of Journalism covered the November 2000 general election and published their stories on a special Web site

Streaming Internet Art
Watch "Net Art," a short news documentary that presents the emerging medium of Internet art to the general public. Produced by Jason Spingarn-Koff in the Spring 2000 Television News class.

Proposition 22: "Pro-Family" or "Anti-Gay"?
In March 2000, Californians were called upon to vote on an initiative that would recognize "only marriage between a man an a woman as valid in California." Lydia Chavez' reporting class explored different aspects of this intiative.

Lebanon Today
Now more than ever, the tiny Middle Eastern country of Lebanon sits squarely in the midst of a heated international debate. J-School students Anne Senges and Jessie Deeter were in Beirut in summer 1999 to capture the stories of a nation in flux.

What We Drink
A special report from a first-year class in Fall 1999 takes you on a tour of all things swilled, guzzled, quaffed, and imbibed -- from smoothies, to almond milk, to the liquor of the homeless. Read about the sorority girls who are for temperance and the women who hawk Bud to the lonely.

Who Killed Lisa Norrell?
In 1998, a 15 year-old girl disappeared from a party. Eight days later, her body was found in her hometown of Pittsburg. A Fall 1999 reporting class examined the murder, still unsolved one year later.

Inside Oakland
Learn about jazz in Oakland, an art-teacher-turned-actor, the city's tumultuous politics, and much more in this student-produced newspaper produced in Fall 1999 about the East Bay city that does have a there there.

Hong Kong: From Victoria Peak to the Golden Gate
Immigrants from Hong Kong and southern China have had a profound influence on the Bay Area. Read about it in The Pacific, produced by students in a Spring 1999 class on reporting on Hong Kong.

South Africa In Transition
Professor Neil Henry writes, "It's late March and we are nearing the end of a 12-day reporting trip to South Africa -- eight graduate students from UC Berkeley School of Journalism, Newsweek's Jeff Bartholet, and I -- and for all of us the experience has been breathtaking..." These stories chronicle the class' journey to South Africa in Spring 1999.

Election Night '98
Late returns from state and local elections, put together by students in an introductory reporting class in Fall 1998.

Tobacco Road
Students helped put up a Web page for Frontline's "Inside the Tobacco Deal" documentary, aired in May 1998.

Juvenile Violence
Before dawn on Monday April 21, 1997, a single bullet fired from a handgun tore into the lower back of Juan, a young Latino man, as he walked along a downtown Oakland street. He was the victim of an apparent random shooting. Professor Neil Henry's students report.