Multimedia Journalism at UC Berkeley

This page houses resources, guides, tutorials, and syllabi for the New Media course sequence at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Current Multimedia Faculty

Jeremy Sanchez Rue

Associate Dean, Associate Professor of Practice in Journalism

Courses teaching: Bootcamp and Master's Project Seminar. Jeremy Rue on Twitter.

Richard Koci Hernandez

Associate Professor

Courses teaching: New Media Boot Camp, Intro to Visual Journalism, Future Storyforms, and Master's Project Seminar.

Jennifer LaFleur

Assistant Professor of Data Journalism

Courses teaching: Covering Inequality with Data, Research Methods

Yolanda Martinez

Full Stack Engineer, Visuals Team Washington Post

Courses teaching: Into to Coding.

Soo Oh

Data Editor, Reveal News

Courses teaching: Into to Coding.

John D. Harden

Data Reporter for the Washington Post

Courses teaching: Multimedia Master's Project Workshop

Former New Media Faculty

Paul Grabowicz

Paul Grabowicz

Former head of the New Media program, Bloomberg Chair and teaching professor. About Paul Grabowicz.

Dana Amihere

Dana Amihere

Code Black Media, former KPCC Data Journalist About Dana Amihere.

Peter Aldhous

Peter Aldhous

Data Journalist for Buzzfeed News About Peter Aldhous.

Lakshmi Sarah

Lakshmi Sarah

KQED About Lakshmi Sarah.

Lo Bénichou

Lo Bénichou

Creative Technologist, Washington Post About Lo Bénichou.

Emmanuel Martinez

Emmanuel Martinez

Data Reporter for Reveal from the Center of Investigative Reporting About Emmanuel Martinez.

T Christian Miller

T Christian Miller

Investigative Reporter for ProPublica. About T Christian Miller.

John Temple

John Temple

Former Adjunct Professor and Managing Editor for the Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program About John Temple.

Lucio Villa

Lucio Villa

Newroom Developer at San Francisco Chronicle About Lucio Villa.

Betsy Rate

Betsy Rate

Senior Producer Tina Brown Live Media About Betsy Rate.

Amanda Hickman

Amanda Hickman

Director of Buzzfeed Labs About Amanda Hickman.

David Cohn

David Cohn

Senior Director for Advanced Digital Innovation Group. About David Cohn.

Dolly Li

Dolly Li

Visual Journalist for AJ+. Taught Advanced Multimedia. About Dolly Li.

Anna Flagg

Anna Flagg

Interactive Reporter for Marshall Project. Taught Advanced Multimedia. About Anna Flagg.

Allison McCartney

Allison McCartney

Associate Program Developer at The Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Taught Advanced Multimedia. About Allison McCartney.

Josh Williams

Josh Williams

Multimedia Editor at New York Times. Taught Interactive News Packages. About Josh Williams.

Kevin Quealy

Kevin Quealy

Graphics Editor at New York Times. Taught Data Visualization. About Kevin Quealy.

Shan Carter

Shan Carter

Google Brain Team. Taught Data Visualization. About Shan Carter.

Avni Nijhawan

Avni Nijhawan

Université Paris IV Sorbonne, owner of Glass Locket Film. Taught New Media Visuals. About Avni Nijhawan.

Jason Jaacks

Jason Jaacks

Founder of Splitframe Media. Taught New Media Visuals. About Jason Jaacks.

Simon Rogers

Simon Rogers

Data Editor at Google. Taught Data Reporting. About Simon Rogers.

Len De Groot

Len De Groot

Director of Data Visualization at LA Times. Taught Data Visualization. About Len De Groot.

Jerri Monti

Jerri Monti

Technology Consultant. Taught Advanced Multimedia About Jerri Monti.

Bill Gannon

Bill Gannon

Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Purch. Taught Advanced Multimedia About Bill Gannon.

Russell Chun

Russell Chun

Assistant Professor of Journalism, Media Studies at Hofstra University. Taught Flash reporting. About Russell Chun.

Andrew DeVigal

Andrew DeVigal

Endowed Chair at University of Oregon School of Journalism. Taught web design. About Andrew DeVigal.

Award Winning Student Work

The clearest demonstration of the success of our program is the achievements of our students, who have won numerous national awards for their multimedia work.

The 2019 Master's Project Dirty Business by Yutao Chen and Francesca Fenzi was awarded the top prize at the 2019 Online Journalism Awards.

The 2019 Master's Project Dirty Business by Yutao Chen and Francesca Fenzi was awarded Silver place at the 74th College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) awards.

Three of the master's projects by class of 2019 were nominated for Online Journalism Awards (OJA). Francesca Fenzi, Yutao Chen, Susie Neilson, Anne Wernikoff, and Simon Campbell were among the nominees in the David Teeuwen Student category.

The Society of Professional Journalists Northern California Chapter awarded students Reis Thebault and Alexandria Fuller, class of 2018, the top award in the student special project category for their project Justice For All. The project was published under the theme of inequality, and settled on stories that surrounded Fresno, California.

The Atlantic published most of the master's projects from the 2018 New Media class. The class focused their storytelling under the theme of inequality, and settled on stories that surrounded Fresno, California. The title of the projects was "Unequal from Birth."

The San Francsico Bay Area NPR member station KQED ran the multimedia package produced by New Media students as part of their master's project on inequality in Fresno, California. The package is titled "Unequal from Birth" and focuses on several sub-topics afflicting the Central California city.

Two of the master's projects by class of 2018 were nominated for an Online Journalism Award (OJA). Misyrelena Egkolfopoulou, Alexandria Fuller, and Reis Thebault were among the nominees in the David Teeuwen Student category.

The master's project by Atia Musazay titled The Mountains Are Ours was run on PBS Newshour. The project was a video short of a women's climbing group in Afghanistan. Atia traveled with fellow student Manjula Varghese, where they were shot at during one of the expeditions.

Two 2017 New Media master's projects — City of Smoke by Peter Bittner, and a Town Divided by Lucas Waldron — were both nominated for Online Journalism Awards at the 2017 Online News Association Banquet. City of Smoke won the top honor in the David Teeuwen Student award. This is eight OJA win for a J-School graduate in nine years.

2016 alumna Gina Pollack's master's project was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival as part of the New York Times' Op-Doc series.

The master's project of 2017 alumna Mariela Patron, about the exodus of doctors from Puerto Rico, was published by NBC News.

Jake Nicol, Alexandra Garreton, Chris Schodt, class of 2015, were all nominated for an Emmy by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their master’s project, Wiped, Flashed, and Rekitted: The International Black Market of Stolen Cell Phones.

The same project also won an student Edward R. Murrow award. The judges said Wiped, Flashed, and Rekitted was innovative in approach, topic and in the use of digital tools for storytelling.

A 2016 New Media master's project titled Chasing Lithium won first place in the The David Teeuwen Student Journalism Award of the Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) by the Online News Association. The project was produced by Rachel Hiles and Nina Zou (class of '16) and covered the arc of Lithium battery production from Bolivia, to the U.S., and lastly China, where it ends as e-waste. Lithium batteries already power most electronic devices are expected to replace gasoline in vehicles in the next decade. This is seventh OJA win for a J-School graduate in eight years.

A 2016 New Media master's project titled The Wait: Inside the Lives of Asylum Seekers in Germany was nominated for an Online Journalism Award (OJA) by the Online News Association. The project used interactive 360 video to capture the stories of refugees. The project was produced by Lakshmi Sarah, Melissa Bosworth, and Fan Fei, (all class of '16).

A 2016 New Media master's project titled Transplanted, about undocumented immigrants' access to organ transplants by Noelia González, Brett Murphy and Jieqian Zhang (all class '16) was nominated for an Online Journalism Award (OJA) by the Online News Association.

This same project was also published by Univision and translated in both English and Spanish.

A master's project by 2016 alumna Gina Pollack titled, "Undue Burden" was picked up by the New York Times Op-Doc series. The film deals with access to abortion services in the state of Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can't create an "undue burden" for women when it comes to abortion access. Pollack charts the hardship women face in driving across the state and several administrative requirements before getting an abortion.

Three students, Jieqian Zhang, Brett Murphy, and Fan Fei, all class 2016, were awarded the Google News Lab Fellowship. Murphy participated in the fellowship at IRE, Fei at ProPublica, and Zhang at Center for Investigative Reporting (Reveal).

Lynne Shallcross, class of 2015, received the national Online News Association’s award for best individual student multimedia story of the year for “Health Apps: for Every Ages and Ouch,” a story that uses animation to show how people can use mobile health apps to help doctors monitor their health from childhood to adulthood, and how effective the different apps are.

"Legalizing Death," a  multimedia story produced by Mara Van Ells, Naomi Nishihara, Nina Yanni Zou and Nadine Sebai, all class of 2016, was published by Univision in October 2015. It included 7 video interviews and told the story of the death of Brittany Maynard that triggered the debate on the legalization of aid-in-dying in the United States.

National Geographic published a multimedia story in September 2015 that included an opening video and numerous data visualizations on the international  black market in stolen of cell phones. Produced by Alexandra Garreton, Jake Nicole and Chris Schodt, all class of 2015, they traveled on a reporting trip to Brazil to document the smuggling of cellphones across the border and into urban stores.

Sarah McClure, class of 2014, had a portion of her masters project on immigrants use of mobile apps and social media published in by Agence France Presse in February 2015..

Zainab  Khan, class of 2016,  launched Mozzified, a cultural site for Muslims in America. NPR did a story and an interview with Zainab about it.

Jeremy C.F. Lin, class of 2016, was selected for a prestigious Google Journalism Fellowship. Only 11 students from nearly 1,400 applicants nationwide were chosen for this year’s Google Journalism Fellowship.

Brittany Schell, won the Online News Association 2013 national award for the best individual student multimedia project for her “The Pulse of Oakland” (http://thepulseofoakland.com/) master’s project on health disparities in Oakland neighborhoods. Our students have won this ONA award four out of the last five years, and this year our students are two of the three finalists for the 2014 ONA award.

The Online News Association this year selected Beatrice Katcher as one of two students nationwide to be awarded a $7,500 AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship to promising students working at the intersection of new media and computer science. Beatrice won the scholarship with a proposal to develop a web and mobile application to teach children the value of journalism in a visual, interactive and engaging way. We are the only journalism school to win one of these AP-Google scholarship awards each of the three years the program has been in existence.

Three of our new media students – Chelsi Moy, Jessi Hammel and Erik Reyna - won an honorable mention in a hackathon contest sponsored by Yahoo! News and the Global Editors Network in November 2013, in which they were the only student team competing against professional news organizations to develop a mobile application.

Another new media student, Jason Jaacks, was invited to the Tribeca Film Institute's Racontr Hackathon in New York in December 2013 to do a presentation on his master’s project, a multimedia website called “Return to Elwa”, about a project to destroy a dam in Washington and restore a river to its natural state. Jason also won UC Berkeley’s prestigious Dorothea Lange award for outstanding photographic work in 2014. This is the second year in a row that one of our new media students has won the Dorothea Lange award.

Another new media student, Avni Nijhawan, whose master’s project, “Fearless," is an interactive documentary that explores the problem of sexual harassment in India, was invited in January 2014 to give a presentation on her project to the Smart Fip@ / Fipa Industry Festival Intl de Programmes Audiovisuels in France. Her project includes an online game in which a person tries to use public transit to traverse New Delhi and avoid being the victim of harassment.

Avni financed her reporting trip to India, which included using Google Glass to film her experiences, with a successful $5,500 Kickstarter campaign. Her project won her a fellowship teaching at the Université Paris-Sorbonne this year.

John Osborn, class of 2013, won a prestigious $20,000 AP-Google Journalism and Technology scholarship, the first year it was offered.

Class of 2013's Brittany Schell won the 2013 Online Journalism Award for her master's project, “The Pulse of Oakland.” The project is about health inequities in conjoining neighborhoods of Oakland, where life expectancy can vary greatly between communities just a few blocks apart.

Class of 2012's Jessica Lum won the 2012 Online Journalism Award for her master's project, “Slab City Stories.” The project is about a Southern California community of Slab City, where people live off the grid without electricity or running water.

Class of 2010's Martin Ricard won the 2010 Online Journalism Award for his master's project, “A Seed is Forever.” The project is about agriculture in Sierra Leone.

Class of 2009's Lisa Pickoff-White won the 2009 Online Journalism Award for her master's project “It Happens at Midnight.” The project is about a subculture of movie buffs who screen old cult b-movies, usually at midnight, throughout the country.

Our new media students are in high demand at news publications

Graduates of our program are currently working at the digital operations of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNET, the Center for Investigative Reporting, Agence France Press, Mother Jones, Al Jazeera and National Public Radio, as well as numerous regional news organizations and public radio and television stations around the world.

See all of the places recent alumni work (updated yearly).

History of Pioneering New Media Curriculum

We were one of the first journalism schools to teach web publishing back in 1995, and since then we have pioneered the creation of innovative courses in digital media that other schools have followed. We launched classes in:

  • entrepreneurial journalism and the business of online publishing, offered jointly with the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business in 1999
  • multimedia reporting in 2000
  • weblogs to publish news stories in 2002
  • mobile reporting to cover elections in 2004
  • video games and virtual reality for storytelling, a collaboration with the UC Berkeley Architecture Department in 2006
  • databases and map mashups for news stories in 2007
  • flash journalism in 2008
  • coding for journalists in 2011
  • data visualization and data journalism in 2012
  • virtual reality and 360 video projects in 2015
  • drone footage, interactive documentaries in 2016