UC Berkeley Journalism - Program - International Reporting

The goal of the Graduate School of Journalism is to produce professional print, broadcast, and new media journalists who move on to positions of leadership and influence. The two-year Master of Journalism (M.J.) program provides intensive training in journalism skills and teaches the traditions and principles of the field.

In International Reporting: Courses Faculty Events

International Reporting

As students Chris Raphael, Jason Felch and lecturer Sandy Tolan drifted quietly toward shore in the long "cigar boat" on the Peruvian Amazon, Tolan turned and said in a low voice, "Let's arrive with guns blazing." The "guns" were radio microphones, digital TV cameras, notebooks and pens, and the "target" was an official of a Peruvian natural gas company accused by local indigenous leaders of spilling toxic waste directly into the river.

The official wouldn't admit to what documents later showed—oil spills and a coverup—but Tolan and the students knew that if they hadn't spent 16 hours sliding down slick, perilous mountain roads, and another eight in the "cigar boat" crashing through rapids to reach these indigenous communities, they never would have learned the full story of Peruvian energy: that the benefits for society at large come with huge costs for local communities.

"During my second year at the J-School, North Gate Hall resembled not a school so much as an airport terminal. Writers, photographers and filmmakers crisscrossed in the hallway on their way to far-flung spots. China, Chile, India, Iraq, Thailand. The list goes on. I was bound for South Africa. I took with me 100 pounds of equipment and a year's worth of training in film production. Three weeks later, I returned with a handful of videotapes. Somewhere within all those billions of newly encoded 1s and 0s was the story of a man's life. I clutched the bag of tapes—as precious to me as oxygen—the entire way home."

Dan Krauss, MJ 2004, freelance documentary film director and cameraman

Such overseas reporting classes are one of several key components of the school's growing international reporting program. In recent years, permanent faculty and lecturers—including many seasoned foreign correspondents from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, ABC News, CBS News, and NPR—have led classes to nearly two dozen countries, including Argentina, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Ghana, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kashmir, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Class projects have focused on the new South Africa; Cuba entering the 21st century; the "Al-Aqsa Intifada" in the West Bank; the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; the politics of energy in Latin America; social, cultural and political impact of global warming around the world.

Class work has been published or broadcast by The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times Magazine, "FRONTLINE/World" and NPR. Many of the classes also have substantial photographic and online presence. Admission to international reporting travel courses is generally by application. Some students also receive international travel grants to work on projects with faculty advisors or "FRONTLINE/World" producers. In each case, teaching emphasis is on reporting and on the privilege and responsibility (not the right or entitlement) of working as a journalist overseas. As with all reporting classes at the J-School, international journalism courses emphasize basic skills inherent in any good reporting. Emphasis is also on knowledge of language and culture, ability to work with international partners, and getting the story right, even when a long way from home.

Travel courses, and individual student projects, are part of a larger international focus at the J-School that includes concurrent degree programs in Latin American Studies, Asian Studies and International and Area Studies, which all sponsor regular programs, lectures and conferences. The J-School also offers:

The Asia-Pacific Program that runs the Asia Colloquium, which focuses on political and media issues in Asia, bringing to campus journalists, diplomats and visiting scholars from around the world for presentations and discussions. The school also has an exchange relationship with the Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan that brings a correspondent to campus as a teaching fellow each spring and sends two students to Tokyo as interns each summer.
The Goldman Forum on the Press and Foreign Affairs, which is a series of lectures, public "salon" discussions and dialogues that brings prominent policymakers, correspondents and writers to North Gate Hall to foster discussion and debate about how critical world issues—from terrorism, nuclear proliferation and ethnic violence, to Kashmir, the West Bank and Kosovo—are covered in the American press. The Goldman Forum also includes informal sessions with invited guests and scholarships to support students who show strong promise in covering foreign affairs.
"Covering the World," an annual day of panels and workshops focusing on practical advice about the logistics and challenges of international reporting. Experienced international journalists discuss how to plan and report an overseas project, to protect oneself and one's sources, to report in war zones and remote places, and how to find and research compelling stories abroad.
The China Internet Project runs the J-School's online China portal, China Digital Times.com, which covers the development of China's Internet and sponsors other media- related China courses and events.