Journalism Case Studies

What is the Initiative?

The Knight Case Studies Initiative was launched in February 2007 with a grant from the Knight Foundation. The program aims to enhance the way journalism is taught by giving teachers powerful new tools for the classroom. The goal is to train students to think like newsroom managers and news industry leaders.

Case-based courses develop students’ analytic, decision making, management and leadership skills. Through class discussion, students have the opportunity to examine in depth a wide range of editorial, ethical and economic issues.

Some cases are relevant to news organizations in general, while others highlight the special concerns of print, broadcast, online and radio news outlets. The majority of cases feature U.S. news gathering organizations; a significant number also examine the challenges facing non-American publications and broadcasters. Click here to review our case study collection…

What do students learn?

Students are asked to put themselves in the shoes of editors, publishers, reporters and other news personnel. In class, they engage in guided discussions about the issues confronting news organizations in the era of transition to multimedia journalism, including hybrid print/Web newspapers, broadcast/Web programs and Web exclusive publications.

There are also opportunities to debate time-honored journalistic quandaries, such as when or whether to use anonymous sources, how to report from a war zone or how to approach the sensitive subjects of gender and race. Most of our cases are presented online with multimedia elements that improve the learning experience of each student.

At the Graduate School of Journalism, case studies have been used across a wide spectrum of courses, from Decision Making in the Newsroom (a course created around cases) to Critical Issues in Journalism (for all MS students); Evidence and Inference (for all MA students); Covering Religion; Covering Education; Science Journalism Seminar; and the school’s signature course—Reporting & Writing 1 (RW1). Click here to review our case study collection…

Partners in the Initiative

Case studies represent a collaboration between the Journalism School and the news organizations that are the case subjects. The subjects believe the challenges they have faced in the editorial, technological or business realms will be instructive to others in the field, and have agreed to participate in this process as a contribution to the training of future journalists and media executives.

As with all academic research, Columbia University retains editorial control over the final product.

Copyright © 2009 The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. No part of this publication may be reproduced, revised, translated, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the written permission of the Case Studies Initiative.