Why high school journalism?

High school journalism is in crisis, a trend that threatens the journalism pipeline in the United States and ultimately affects our ability to operate as an informed democracy in a time of growing misinformation and mistrust.

Just under 27% of New York City public high schools have a student news publication, compared with over a decade ago, when 50% of NYC public high schools had a newspaper and/or a journalism program (according to studies by Baruch College Prof. Geanne Belton and Brooklyn College Prof. Jessica Siegel). What’s worse, only 7 of the 100 schools with the highest poverty rates have a student publication. 

At the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, we believe that teaching journalism is an effective way to learn critical thinking and civic engagement, introduce students to a career in journalism and develop a lifelong commitment to news literacy.