‘Trump’s Trade War’ airs Tuesday

President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese imports has captured headlines for the past year, most recently with Chinese negotiators set to arrive in Washington next week for trade talks. But what’s behind the conflict, and how does it affect American and Chinese industry? Those questions are at the heart of “Trump’s …

Summer internships

Summer internship applications are closed for 2019. Please check back for other opportunities. The Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit news organization based at the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C., is looking for smart, engaged college students and recent graduates from around the country for internships in the summer of 2019. Positions include …

Student work moves beyond the classroom

Master’s student Courtney Rozen looked into efforts by U.S. travel agencies and major cities to attract Chinese tourists for her semester-long assignment in an international-investigative class with Charles Lewis, IRW’s executive editor and a full professor at American University. Over the course of three months, she ended up focusing on the District of Columbia, where …

Watching, listening: All part of the journalistic process

A student recently told me how much she learned by watching and listening to a reporter she was working with over several months. She said the reporter was patient and understanding during interviews. The reporter’s manner was a revelation, the student said, because these were characteristics others had warned her were not assets in journalism. …

Both sides use immigration as election tactic

Candidates from both parties in the upcoming midterm elections are using immigration to fire up their bases or paint negative images of their opponents. This is a marked change from the last midterm elections in 2014 when immigration wasn’t considered a top issue for the GOP. Some Democrats have pushed to abolish U.S. Immigration and …

What Woodward’s reporting style can teach young journalists

Coming of age as a young journalist is challenging during any time period, but it feels especially fraught in 2018. Some of the profession’s most respected names, from New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet to Washington Post Editor Marty Baron, have lamented the lack of trust in the mainstream news media and the “out …