Newsroom Development

The Committee of Concerned Journalists and its partners have developed a variety of educational and training resources to help journalists, students, teachers and citizens. These include the Traveling Curriculum [1] - a major training program for newsrooms across the country, citizen-journalist forums [2], and a case study curriculum [3] aimed at journalism schools.

Traveling Curriculum for Journalists
The Traveling Curriculum program [1] has trained thousands of print, broadcast, radio, online, and student journalists around the country since its first workshop in 2001. This unique program, funded by a generous grant from the The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, [4] takes CCJ facilitators to the newsrooms they train and relies heavily on the Socratic method, case studies, small-group exercises, and large-group discussion. While the workshops address issues of craft and provide tools that can sharpen skills, the program is designed first and foremost to help to make participants more reflective, to make their journalism more conscious, and to help them develop a pattern of critical thinking.

An intensive independent three-year assessment of the effects of the training program [5] found a variety of postive impacts on the individuals and organizations that have participated.

Traveling Curriculum Modules
The standard workshop format includes three "modules [6]" taught over the course of a day-and-a-half.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Traveling Curriculum
Have questions about the Traveling Curriculum? We may have your answers in our Traveling Curriculum FAQs [7]section. If you don't find the answer to your question there, email us [8].

CCJ Forums on the State of Journalism
After the Committee of Concerned Journalists was created [9], it embarked on an effort to talk to journalists about the state of journalism much in the way the Commission on Freedom of the Press, chaired by Robert Hutchins, did following WWII. At many of the forums, the public was invited in to share their thoughts. The goal was to tap into the power of journalists to speak out in their own behalf and, like Hutchins, clarify the purpose, values and standards of journalism for a new age. Transcripts of these forums [2] provide invaluable insight into the principles, ideals, and thinking of some of journalism's brightest minds.

A Case Study Curriculum for Journalism Students
Former CCJ Vice-Chairman Tom Rosenstiel and PEJ Deputy Director Amy Mitchell collected and edited a volume of case studies that form a curriculum [3] for teaching journalistic process and practice. These case studies appear in their book, Thinking Clearly: Cases in Journalist Decision-Making. [10]