Columbia project Berkeley project USC project Columbia project

Highlights

Items with this logo are especially multimedia-rich and innovative.

MEDILL

One Vote Under God Is an interactive database of the viewpoints of every major Presidential candidate on such issues as abortion, gay rights and religion in the classroom. (Flash application)

What Role Does Faith Play In Our Life? View a large collection of video answers to this question -- or add your own. (interactive video presentation)

Obeying Allah Behind Bars is a collection of letters from incarcerated Muslim converts. (interactive map with downloadable letters)

Even As Islam Blooms, Its Many Faces Can Deter Converts focuses on the cultural challenges faced by Hispanic Muslims in the United States. (text story with video)

Holy Profits looks at a Christian commune in Chicago. (text story)

The Sacred Public Space is a report on the religiosity of Mount Rushmore. (audio recording)

Salvation Vacation is a visit to the anti-evolution Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY. (text story with audio slideshow)

Christian Tattoo: The Needle for the Nail is an interactive exhibit of the body art of concertgoers at a Christian rock festival. (Flash multimedia presentation)

COLUMBIA

Theocracy & Democracy is a look at Persian minority religions in Iran and America.

New Guest at the Opry, a profile of a Muslim country singer. (text, video)

An Ancient Religion Endangered by Iraq War, a report on Mandaean refugees. (video)

Utica, NY -- The Refugee City.

One in a Million; Hispanic Clergy in the US (two-part video package)

Minorities Representing Majorities; immigrants and religious minorities in public office.

Glimpses of Faith; minority religious rituals in New York City.

UC BERKELEY

Data Road Trip; a guide to morality across the country.

Moral Compass; how different religions condemn or condone various sexual practices.

Faces of Faith in Second Life; a report from UC Berkeley's panel in the virtual world of Second Life.

USC

Spiritual Tourism; choosing enlightenment over a day at the beach (audio, video).

Indigo Children; unique spiritual gifts or attention-deficit disorder?

Schizophrenia: Talking to God; how spirituality relates to mental illness.

Consciousness as Reality; four scientists question what is real. (video)

Pointing Down to Heaven, a profile of the Tongva tribe. (text)

Energy Healing; power and profit by PayPal. (video)

Latest News

November 11, 2007 — Medill Fellow Mrinalini Reddy's article on the TV series "Aliens in America" runs in The New York Times.

September 17 — Harvard Fellow Nik Steinberg's piece on the Catholic town of Ave Maria runs in the Miami Herald.

September 12 — MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Public Journalism Network's Leonard Witt review News21.

August 20 — Read the News21 Press Release.

August 8 — KCET, the Public Television station in Los Angeles, airs USC's "Magical Mystery Tour of California" this week. Their evening news program, "Life and Times," aired "Self-Realization Lake Shrine" on Monday, "Salvation Mountain" on Tuesday, "Integatron" airs Wednesday, "Ojai" on Thursday and "Mt. Shasta" on Friday.

August 5 — UC Berkeley fellow Pauline Bartolone's story on polygamy among African-American Muslims runs in the San Francisco Chronicle.

August 4 — News21 receives a glowing review from BoingBoing, one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. "These student presentations are better than anything I've seen from "real" news agencies and could serve as a model for the future of interactive/online journalism," writes Cory Doctorow.

August 3 — Harvard Fellow Nik Steinberg's radio piece on the Catholic town of Ave Maria airs on LatinoUSA.

July 26 — USC's Chantal Allan reports on The Yin and Yang of Positive Thinking for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

July 25 — USC Fellow Nick Street publishes an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times on transcendental meditation being taught in schools.

July 22 — Columbia fellow John Soltes's A New Homeland in New York, about tensions surrounding Nigerian Catholics in a Brooklyn church, is published in the New York Times.

July 13 — USC fellow Nick Street's "Full Metal Lotus," about using meditation to help traumatized veterans, appears in the July 13-19, 2007 L.A. Weekly.

June 24 — Columbia fellow Tania Haas's story on Buddhists in Staten Island appears in the New York Times.

This site is a product of News21, a project sponsored by the Carnegie and Knight Foundations in which specially selected journalism-school graduates produce challenging stories in ways that push the boundaries of the form. We include ten Fellows each from Berkeley, USC, Columbia and Medill, as well as four Fellows from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a support team of academics and professional journalists.

Our topic this year is "Faces of Faith in America." Join us as we explore the changing role of religion and spirituality in the United States.