SMPA is a pioneering teaching and research leader. Professor Silvio Waisbord is Editor of the International Journal of Press/Politics, an interdisciplinary journal for the analysis and discussion of the role of the press and politics in a globalized world.
Gain access to countless career opportunities
Students at our annual Communications Career Expo network with a CNN recruiter. SMPA helps students pursue rewarding careers in media, journalism, and communications via internships, networking events, and employment workshops.
Collaborate with faculty on research and special projects
Graduate student Rachel Weisel and Professor Kimberly Gross, in partnership with the Project for Excellence in Journalism, studied how the media uses Twitter. Their findings were published in a groundbreaking report that garnered national press coverage.
World-class speakers and events provide invaluable perspective
Students line up outside GW's Lisner Auditorium before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speak at an event hosted by SMPA. The event was broadcast on CNN.
Learn and operate industry-standard broadcasting equipment and software
SMPA Faculty and staff use the flash studio for live and recorded professional programming.
World-class speakers and events provide invaluable perspective
Longtime political reporter and broadcaster Gwen Ifill of The Newshour with Jim Lehrer addresses students.
World-class speakers and events provide invaluable perspective
CNN's Christiane Amanpour and SMPA Director Frank Sesno interview five former U.S. Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Warren Christopher, Henry A. Kissinger and James A. Baker III. The free event was sponsored by SMPA.
Study media in heart of Washington, and the world
SMPA is home to Prime Movers Media, an organization that sends student interns and media professionals to public high schools in Washington, D.C. to teach journalism.
The end of last week marked the biggest and one of the final steps in my GW career as a graduating Political Communication major. I hosted my very first documentary preview screening for my film, "Verge of Existence." The piece, funded by the first ever Manheim-Sterling Undergraduate Research Prize, looks into the lives of LGBTQ homeless youth living in New York City. As I spent hours last week in the edit bays of the 5th floor, I couldn't help but realize that these may be some of the last moments I would edit here. And as the hours ticked by, I felt a strange sense of nostalgia for the many hours I had already spent in SMPA over the last four years.
Sara sat on a panel as a student filmmaker.
While I may have been the kid who knew from the minute I stepped onto GW's campus that I wanted to come here, I couldn't have predicted the amazing opportunities and path I would take as an SMPA student. Thinking I was going to be a political reporter, I pursued my first internship with a local government as their communications intern. Almost as soon as I had signed on, I was ready to be done with this whole government thing. And this experience left me quickly without a dream job.
But with the support of some of the best SMPA faculty and the Internship Database, I began to find my footing right where my heart had been set the entire time. My mini-documentary from Jason Osder's class landed in the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in 2011, and I got to sit on a panel called "Out of the Closet, Onto the Screen" as an 'expert' student filmmaker. I traveled to Chattanooga, TN with Bridgett Lynn to see what made the newest Volkswagen Plant the first LEED Platinum Auto Plant in the world. I did all of this while interning with amazing companies like Prime Movers Media, Planet Forward, Spark Media, Believe Out Loud and National Geographic Society.
Sara at her documentary's preview screening.
But none of these opportunities would have meant anything without having incredible peers in both Political Communication and Journalism who pushed me to be my best. Production partners, classmates, friends and colleagues have been some of my greatest collaborators, toughest critics and most loyal fans that I have grown to respect and admire. By the time you take Senior Seminar, it is no longer just a class but a weekly family gathering.
When the lights went down and the music started playing from my film, I was overwhelmed by how many familiar faces filled my audience. I have felt so much love and support from my classmates and all of the amazing professors that helped me reach my full potential in this program.
I have never felt more proud to be part of a community like SMPA. People always say that SMPA majors have more SMPA pride than GW pride, and I can certainly say that I've felt that last week. There is no place I have been more proud to call home than the School of Media and Public Affairs.
This year, we awarded over $80,000 in scholarships and awards to some of our most well-deserving students.
Sherman Page Allen Scholarship
These awards are given to undergraduates who display a desire to specialize in the field of journalism. They were endowed in 1966 through a bequest from the estate of Violet B. Robinson. Ana Cvetkovic
Sarah Ferris
Audrey Scagnelli
Cory Weinberg
Gridiron Foundation Scholarship
These merit-based scholarships were created in 1975 by the Gridiron, a long-standing organization of Washington-based journalists. Stacey Buell
Zinhle Essamuah
Kevin Frey
Brianna Gurciullo
Chanelle Havey
Sophia Omuemu
Amelia Williams
Schneider-Taylor Scholarship
This scholarship, established by the parents of a recent graduate, provides "need-based" aid to an undergraduate in SMPA. Michelle Cho
Philip L. Graham Fund Scholarship for Diversity
Named for the late publisher of the Washington Post, these awards are given to students from underrepresented groups, including women and individuals of diverse backgrounds. Bryan Almeida
Dorothy and Will Roberts Prize
This prize was created by Professor Steve Roberts in the name of his parents. It is given to graduating seniors who have demonstrated academic achievement, professional promise and community service. Ana Buling
Eugenia Finizio
Ian Gray
Hyacinth Mascarenhas
Sandi Moynihan
Amanda Sawit
Elizabeth Traynor
Hoberman Prize
Created by the family of a recent graduate, this is a merit-based award recognizing an SMPA student who has produced original and meaningful journalism. The prize honors reporting that demonstrates depth, originality and a connection to community. Sara Snyder
Eaton Foundation Scholarship
This merit-based scholarship provides aid for both undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Media and Public Affairs. Doug Remley
Kara Dunford
Freedman Family Scholarship
This award was endowed by Mike Freedman, a former vice president of GW and SMPA professor, who is also the father of an SMPA graduate. It is awarded to a student with financial need who wants to become a professional journalist. Elizabeth Rawson
Larry King Scholarship
Created by the former CNN host who never attended college, this award goes to rising seniors with demonstrated financial need who have superior academic records. Ethan Bursofsky
Jillian Harclerode
Eleanor Klibanoff
Henry Morillo
Ali Mortell
Clara Pak
John Torrisi
Casey Wood
Essary Prize
SMPA's oldest prize, created in 1948 to honor the memory of Jesse Frederick Essary, is awarded to students who have given the promise of sound citizenship and ability in forthright reporting. Sarah Ferris, for her many exclusive investigative stories in the GW Hatchet
Ian Gray, for his contributions to the Huffington Post
Eleanor Klibanoff, for her dispatches from Nicaragua, especially her feature about a criminal-turned-artist
SMPA/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Fellowship
This fellowship awards an undergraduate student up to $4,000 to cover an under-reported international story and to travel to that part of the world to get the facts. Eleanor Klibanoff, who will travel to El Salvador and Nicaragua to report on women's healthcare and the effect of the countries' abortion laws. After abortion was made illegal in 2006, maternal health has declined and the number of mothers under age 15 has risen 48 percent. Klibanoff has interned for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague and for The Nicaragua Dispatch. She is a member of GWU's University Honors Program.
SMPA's Prime Movers Media (PMM) program, Washington, DC's only high school journalist mentoring program, is partnering with the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) for the spring semester.
Prime Movers and WHCA at a recent event.
Through the partnership, WHCA will volunteer with PMM, donate $15,000 to the program and present a $15,000 college scholarship to a PMM high school senior at its annual White House Correspondents' dinner on April 27. WHCA is also partnering with AOL to give a $15,000 scholarship to a second high school senior.
"The involvement of this esteemed association will be exciting for our D.C. high school students," said Dorothy Gilliam, director of Prime Movers Media, an industry pioneer and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists. "It will contribute to our goals of revitalizing media programs, mentoring future journalists and advancing media literacy and civic engagement of youth in urban and diverse high schools."
To find out more about Prime Movers Media, please click here.
It's scholarship and awards time at SMPA! Apply for as many of the opportunities listed below as you feel appropriate. Many of these awards are worth thousands of dollars.
Fill out the online application below and check off as many awards for which you want to be considered. Each application should include the following: a transcript (does not have to be official), a letter outlining your accomplishments, professional goals and an explanation of how you meet the requirements of each award. Where applicable, include a portfolio of published journalistic work. Please read through the application first before beginning it.
All applications should be submitted no later than 8 PM on Friday, March 22.
Larry King Scholarships
Created by the former CNN host who never attended college, this award goes to rising seniors with demonstrated financial need who have superior academic records.
Sherman Page Allen Scholarships
These awards are open to all undergraduate majors if they display a desire to specialize in the field of journalism. They were endowed in 1966 through a bequest from the estate of Violet B. Robinson.
Gridiron Foundation Scholarships
These scholarships were created in 1975 by the Gridiron, a long-standing organization of Washington-based journalists. All undergraduate majors are eligible to apply for these merit-based awards, but consideration will be given to need and minority status.
Schneider-Taylor Scholarship
This scholarship, established by the parents of a recent graduate, provides "need-based" aid to an undergraduate in SMPA.
Eaton Foundation Scholarship
This merit-based scholarship provides aid for both undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Media and Public Affairs.
Philip L. Graham Fund Scholarship for Diversity
Named for the late publisher of the Washington Post, these awards give preference to students from underrepresented groups, including - but not limited to - women and individuals of diverse backgrounds.
Freedman Family Scholarship
This award was endowed by Mike Freedman, a former vice president of GW and SMPA professor, who is also the father of an SMPA graduate. It gives preference to a student with financial need who wants to become a professional journalist.
Essary Prize
SMPA's oldest prize, created in 1948 to honor the memory of Jesse Frederick Essary. It is awarded "to a student who has given promise of sound citizenship and ability in 'forthright reporting.'" This is a writing award, open to all SMPA students, and a portfolio of published or broadcast work outside of class assignments is required.
Hoberman Prize
Created by the family of a recent graduate, this is a merit-based award recognizing an SMPA student who has produced original and meaningful journalism. That work can take any form—print, video, audio, photography or a combination of multimedia platforms. The prize will honor reporting that demonstrates depth, originality and a connection to community—either local or global.
Dorothy and Will Roberts Prize
This prize was created by Professor Steve Roberts in the name of his parents. It is given to graduating seniors who have demonstrated academic achievement, professional promise and community service.
SMPA/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Fellowship
Are you interested in covering an under-reported international story and traveling to that part of the world to get the facts? Apply now for the 2012-2013 School of Media and Public Affairs/Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting International Reporting Fellowship. All SMPA undergraduates (including current seniors) are now eligible to receive up to $4,000 to report on a story of your choice.
Our partner, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, is interested in reporting projects that focus on topics and regions of global importance, with an emphasis on issues that have gone unreported or under-reported in the mainstream American media. They see great value in covering systemic crises like environmental issues and struggles for resources, human rights abuses, post-conflict reconstruction, or brewing ethnic tensions. They are interested in the stories that would typically not make the headlines without the Pulitzer Center's support.
The Pulitzer Center staff will work with the Fellow to further refine the project and to offer distribution avenues via their online platforms. This could be your chance to be published by multiple news outlets. Applicants must be current SMPA undergraduate majors as of February 2013. All travel should be completed by December 31, 2013.
Read the work of last year's Pulitzer Center Fellow, Melissa Turley, who traveled to South Africa to investigate the lives of women who are playing a role in advancing their country. Watch one of her audio slideshows below.
SMPA welcomed GW alum, PR/social media specialist and food blogger Marissa Bialecki on February 23 for a food blogging master class that included PowerPoints of dangerously appealing food blogs and photos, as well as Bialecki's own "10 Food Blogging Commandments." Bialecki began her food blog during her time as a GW student as a creative, and delicious, outlet to her academic classes as a Journalism and Mass Communication major.
Bialecki gives a rundown of the 10 Food Blogging Commandments.
Bialecki began the master class with the warning that a blog name is rarely temporary if one is lucky enough to reach popularity, so I promptly eliminated "I'm Really Hungry and Am Limited By My Lack of Cooking Ability" as my future blog's title.
If you were unable to attend the Conversation Series event with former CIA and NSA Director Michael V. Hayden, you can check it out here: SMPA Conversation Series Webcast
Before becoming Director of the CIA, General Hayden served as the country’s first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and was the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the armed forces. Earlier, he served as Commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, Director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service.
Media Organizations and Audiences, SMPA's first ever online course, will provide an introduction to the American entertainment media industry, specifically with regard to organizations and economic relationships in television and film. Dr. Patricia Phalen will teach the course this summer to both undergraduate and graduate students.
"I'm really looking forward to teaching an online course, though I'm not entirely sure what to expect. The learning curve is still pretty steep, but the folks at the Online Learning Initiative (OLI) have been amazing. I've learned so much from them already," commented Phalen.
Phalen will guide the class through the history of the broadcasting and film industries and discuss the ways both have evolved and are currently structured, particularly with regard to the relationships among and within organizations. The ultimate goal of the course is to develop an understanding of how media industries operate, how media professionals carry out their work and why we have the kinds of movies and television programs we have.
Professor Patricia Phalen
Phalen added, "Online education is a totally different way of planning and teaching courses...there are so many variables to consider. How do you connect with every student? How do you create an environment that feels like a "class" rather than an independent study? What are reasonable expectations when it comes to the time students should spend online? As a professor, you no longer have the instant feedback of the classroom setting. Besides - there will likely be a mix of traditional and non-traditional students, all in different geographical locations. I want to make sure they all have a good experience taking this course. This will certainly be a challenge - one I'm happy to have the opportunity to take on!"
Interested students can register for the course starting on March 1. Class will begin toward the end of May. Course registration numbers for undergraduates are 72515 and 72516. For graduate students, the course registration number is 72517.
This past Thursday, I was fortunate enough to receive tickets to attend the Anderson Cooper 360 Town Hall at a familiar venue, the Jack Morton Auditorium in the School of Media and Public Affairs. An invaluable opportunity to view the taping of such a reputable program, the topic of the town hall was gun control, an issue of importance to me.
Anderson Cooper with several of the town hall guests.
Cooper introduced a series of prominent guests, including Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign, and Sandy Froman, a National Rifle Association board member. The Brady campaign is a nonprofit organization with the mission to create a gun-free America; there was noticeable tension on stage between Gross and Froman. I additionally enjoyed listening to Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting and a documentarian.
However, to me Cooper’s most interesting guests included the diverse voices sitting in the audience. It is easy enough to discuss policymaking toward gun control, but the people who have been directly affected by the issue offer a significant perspective.
Liza Long, the writer of an influential blog post, "I am Adam Lanza’s Mother," written shortly after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, exposed an underlying outlook on incidents of gun violence – mental health. It is widely known that a disposition toward aggressive behavior has linked each one of the public shootings in recent years. Yet, Long's article pointed out the lack of resources for parents who see the signs of a violent child.
"I just feel like there's no transitional space between that acute care facility and jail. And that's certainly been the case with my son. He's 13 years old. He's already been in juvenile detention four times," said Long.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, agreed and stated that unfortunately most family members of the individuals who commit these horrible crimes did try to seek help for their conditions. It seems that a discussion of the stigmatization of mental health is finally gaining attention, however as a society, we are still unsure of how to deal with the issue itself.
The discussion was broadcast live on C-SPAN television and online.
I had the opportunity to attend the SMPA and Face the Facts USA event, "Out of Time: An American Crisis," at the Jack Morton Auditorium yesterday evening. The event featured experts tackling fictional scenarios of American crisis in a panel moderated by award-winning journalist and SMPA Director Frank Sesno. I felt that this was a classic example of an "only at GW" experience, because how many college students can say they were in the audience of a vibrant political discussion which was broadcast and streamed live to C-SPAN and The Huffington Post, respectively? I was honored to be a small part of such an historic event.
A sample of the topics discussed over the course of the evening includes the potential shutdown of a large factory and the subsequent loss of jobs, as well as a devastating bridge collapse. Business, political and media professionals came together in a dynamic panel to confront these problems and the broader issue of America's future. It was fantastic to see a variety of perspectives represented, including those of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. I was pleased that the panel of guests was well rounded, including not only individuals with political experience but also those with careers in business and journalism. In my opinion, this helped the discussion become a stimulating conversation rather than an ordinary political debate.
I must admit that I was particularly excited to see one woman's name in the program, Ms. Farai Chideya. Chideya is a popular journalist, blogger and author. As a Journalism and Mass Communication major, I was very interested to see how Ms. Chideya would respond to the questions posed during the event. I am glad to report that she did not disappoint.
Sesno questions Iorio on her ideas.
I was delighted to see that every detail of the hypothetical crises had been thought out. For example, after Mr. Sesno mentioned certain scenarios, he played a fictional news clip from GNN, short for "Global News Network." I thought this was very creative, and it certainly went above and beyond what I was expecting. In addition, Mr. Sesno placed facts alongside the imaginary situations in order to convey the message that these fictional crises are not implausible in today's environment. The juxtaposition of fact and fiction helped me place the "political theater" background into a real-world context.
The participants were very passionate and dedicated not only to portraying their respective roles in each scenario but also to contributing their best responses to each question. I particularly enjoyed listening to former U.S. Senator Bob Bennett, who stood by his convictions and maintained a sense of humor. I loved his response to one question in which he stated that he would "call Frank Sesno" and get himself on television to have a discussion centered on the facts. This kind of inventive response kept me smiling and interested to hear what the panelists had to say.
The first annual Manheim-Sterling Undergraduate Research Prizes have been awarded to Sara Snyder and Sarah Ferris.
Sara Snyder (a senior) and Sarah Ferris (a junior).
Snyder, a Political Communication major, will travel to New York City through an alternative spring break program to conduct interviews, film and produce a short video documentary focusing on the lives of homeless LGBTQ youth. Professor Jason Osder will serve as her mentor.
"This is exactly the kind of award that gives me the opportunity to launch right into the media career I've dreamed of," Snyder said. "My film will challenge me in ways I can't really imagine sitting here in January, and I couldn't be more excited about it."
Ferris, a Journalism major, will continue an independent study project overseen by Professor Steven Livingston on how non-state actors use information technologies - like mobile phones - to enable social action. She will go on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya this summer.
"Spending time meeting local partners in Kenya, like Ushahidi and Sisi Ni Amani, will help me understand how these tools can be further developed elsewhere," Ferris said. "What do we need to do to make this work in other parts of the world?"
Through the newly established Manheim-Sterling Awards, Snyder and Ferris will have the funds necessary to produce amazing work that will surely help jumpstart their careers.
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