Interactive Journalism

Interactive journalism is pushing the boundaries of storytelling. News organizations are exploring ways to tap artificial intelligence to create conversational bots and integrating augmented reality to add experiential context to their pieces.

The Interactive Journalism Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism trains students to produce stories that explore these innovative techniques while also preparing them to uncover new ways to tell news stories.

The program’s core goal is to train students to use computer programming to gather and analyze data or information that can be visualized in unique and customized ways, allowing audiences to explore and interact with that content.

All M.A. in Journalism students are exposed to interactive journalism during the first semester in Fundamentals of Interactive Storytelling.

Students who want to specialize in this area take Craft II: Advanced Interactive Reporting. They can also take two additional media electives.

In the third semester, we offer the most advanced interactive electives, such as Advanced Coding and Bots that Talk.

computer crop

Coding

News web sites too often turn to formulaic digital storytelling, but here at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, we train students to use computer programming to convey the news in unique and customized ways.

Students train to gather information and to build news web applications (or news apps) using programming languages like JavaScript. But it’s not all about the technical aspects of coding — students hone their editorial judgement on how best to use programming to allow viewers to explore and understand the complexity of the issues or to see where they personally fit into the news.

Nearly all students arrive at school with no prior programming experience. Over three semester, however, they acquire the necessary skills to find themselves at the exciting intersection of coding, information design and customized narratives.

Interactive photo

Data

We swim in a world of data – from election results, budgets, and census reports, to Facebook updates and image and video uploads. Journalists need to know how to find stories in data and shape them in compelling ways. It’s good storytelling and it’s good business as legacy media and startup news organizations are actively hiring data storytellers.

At the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, students can specialize in data journalism by taking electives that teach you how to gather and analyze data to find stories and to visualize them as interactive narratives. If you complete the series of progressively more complex electives, you will be well-positioned to succeed in this fast-growing discipline which is at the crossroads of storytelling, statistical analysis and interactive design.

Our Faculty

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Contact Us

Do you have a question about the Interactive Journalism specialty? If so, please contact us.

Sandeep Junnarkar
Director of Interactive Journalism
sandeep.junnarkar@journalism.cuny.edu