UC Berkeley's J-School Saves Investigative Reporting

Three winners will receive a three-year long fellowship in investigative reporting, complete with office space, phones, basic expenses and funds for travel. Oh, and a wage of $45,000, more than enough to keep them afloat until they get a job with Pro Publica:

To help develop a new generation of investigative reporters in an era of cutbacks at major news organizations, UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism today announced a call for entries for its second annual competition for three year-long fellowships in investigative reporting.

Funded by the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation, The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, Scott and Jennifer Fearon and Ian and Rita Isaacs, the fellowships will be awarded in May 2008. They are open to all working journalists, but preference will be given to graduates of UC Berkeley’s master’s program in journalism.

Applicants will be chosen based on their qualifications as well as their potential, and on the proposed areas of investigation they intend to pursue during the year-long program. There are no educational prerequisites. Fellowships will be administered by the school’s Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) and the program’s advisory board. The board is comprised of representatives from some of the nation’s top media outlets.

“More than last year, supporting the development and practice of in-depth journalism in the public interest is critical given continuing cutbacks in broadcast and print newsrooms across the country,” says Lowell Bergman, the director of the Investigative Reporting Program. “The IRP’s fellowship program is unique in the country. Our goal is to provide a model for academic and non-profit organizations everywhere who are dedicated to nurturing the kind of critical cutting-edge reporting that makes democracy possible.”

Winners of the 2007-2008 Fellowships were Andrew Becker, a 2005 UC Berkeley graduate; Marton Dunai, a 2004 Berkeley graduate; and Siri Schubert, a freelance business and financial reporter in San Francisco.

One of the projects Becker is working on is scheduled to run as a segment on PBS Frontline/WORLD later this year. “I’ve been given the time, space and resources to pursue stories I would otherwise not be able to do,” says Becker. “It is an amazing and exciting opportunity, to say the least. Being able to work closely with Professor Bergman and draw on his years of reporting has proven invaluable. It’s an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my career.”

Schubert says that her experience has been incredible. “By traveling to Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, I was able to really get inside the issues I was researching by having the time and space to cultivate sources; scientists as well as policy makers,” she says. “Having the opportunity to engage with the former FBI agents, Justice Department prosecutors and federal judges Professor Bergman brings to his weekly seminars will be invaluable for my future. It would take me years to have done so on my own. It’s just a fantastic, stimulating and very rewarding experience.”

Dunai, who is researching the challenges of globalization in the nuclear power industry says “UC Berkeley’s resources, the opportunity to travel as needed, the incredible guidance of Lowell Bergman and his colleagues, and just the sheer power of the environment — producers from PBS Frontline and Frontline/WORLD abuzz around us — has propelled me to push for professional heights I hadn’t known existed.”

The graduate program in investigative reporting in the coming year will focus on corporate corruption, particularly the way some U.S. companies operate overseas.

Entries for the 2008-2009 fellowships are urged to present detailed areas of inquiry within this broad subject area. Proposals could include print and broadcast components as well as multimedia projects for the Internet.

Fellows will be provided with office space, phones, basic expenses and funds for travel. Their base will be the Investigative Reporting Program offices in Berkeley, in space provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation. Proposals should include an estimate for travel expenses to complete a project. No housing or relocation supplements are provided. Fellows are expected to refrain from outside journalistic projects, and use the Berkeley offices as their base of operations during the fellowship.

In addition to regular interaction with the faculty of the journalism school and the instructors in investigative reporting, the fellows will participate in a weekly seminar in investigative reporting taught by Bergman and Robert Gunnison, the journalism school’s director of school affairs.

Fellows will be salaried employees of the University of California with the job classification of staff research associate II and with an annual salary of approximately $45,000, with health benefits. They also will be able to audit UC Berkeley classes and use campus research facilities.

The fellowships have been established to augment an endowment created by the Reva and David Logan Foundation that funds a permanent program in investigative reporting at the journalism school. That endowment and related programs and scholarships are also funded by gifts from Robert Bishop, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund, the Pearson Foundation (UK) and the Gladys P. & Alfredo I. Rodriguez Fund.

The deadline for fellowship applications for the academic year 2008-2009 is April 1. This year’s recipients will be announced on May 17. The fellows’ year-long tenure will begin on Sept. 1. The application can be found here (Job # 008023).

For additional details on the fellowship program, contact IRP Deputy Director Marlena Telvick at (510) 643-1299 or e-mail investigativereportingprogram@berkeley.edu