Civics Lesson
Educators prepare future journalists and do what they can to shore up democracy
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On the first day of a writing class that I was teaching at Yale University earlier this year, a student asked about my work as a journalist reporting on President Donald Trump. I had been part of the White House press pool during his first term, working for the BBC.
“Do you have to support the president when you’re working at the White House?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “You’re a journalist. You’re objective.”
If the question had come up before Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, that would have been the end of the matter. But these days, the answer is complicated.
Members of the press pool, those allowed into the Oval Office and other small spaces with the president, are chosen by the White House Correspondents’ Association, an organization made up of journalists. While presidents have long tried to control media access, none have gone as far as Trump, who, in a break with tradition, now decides which reporters are allowed to spend time with him in close quarters and has forced news organizations out of the press pool because of the way they report on his administration. When Associated Press reporters used the term “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America” in their stories, he kicked them out. At the same time, he has welcomed new members, including ZeroHedge, which promotes Kremlin propaganda, according to US intelligence officials.
This is no ordinary time to teach journalism. Across the United States, professors are talking about what, if anything, they should be doing differently today in training the next generation of journalists. Some educators factor political developments into their teaching and speak about the shift in the nation hoping to teach students how to report on a divided country and demonstrate the importance of a free press. Other educators, wary of blowback, avoid the subject.
I believe that professors should encourage students to face political issues head on. When I told students in my 2025 summer class that I wanted to take them to watch a naturalization ceremony in a courtroom, one of the students, an international scholar, said that her lawyer had advised her to avoid courthouses, places where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents congregate. The students and I then had a spirited discussion about the proposed field trip and also about immigration policy and civil rights. Consequently, they became better educated as citizens and journalists.
The challenges for journalism programs are daunting and go beyond Trump’s relationship with the press. About three-quarters of the nation’s newspaper jobs have vanished over the past couple of decades, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and many people now rely only on social media for their news.
Yet despite these disheartening facts, the professors and students I talked to over the past few weeks were optimistic. Many said that teaching journalism now means two things. One is training students in reporting skills. The other is showing them how to become thoughtful consumers of news. The first, lessons in newsgathering, naturally leads to the second, a deeper understanding of the news industry and of the role of the media in a liberal democracy.
These educators and students also emphasized the need for journalism students to have a grounding in the liberal arts. This is also my belief. In my journalism classes, students build on their skills in close reading, which is part of their English literature courses. This makes them nimbler both as writers and reporters as they learn to absorb and process information from a text while doing research.
Journalism students across the country are being encouraged to take classes in history, economics, literature, and other subjects. In programs like those at Arizona State University, Syracuse University, and Northwestern University, journalism students are learning to write leads and do investigations. At Princeton University, the University of Missouri, and other campuses, journalism students are studying how to spot disinformation and recognize threats to political institutions.
Teaching students to be savvy consumers of news, adept at separating “signals from noise,” says Boston College professor Carlo Rotella, the author of What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics, is more important than ever. He said the skills he teaches, such as evaluating evidence and making an argument, help people become better writers and more perceptive. Still, he is realistic about the limits of academic courses.
“I teach the kind of writing that is based on the premise that people are up to all kinds of interesting things. It’s, ‘Go find out what they’re doing and write about that.’ That’s kind of what I teach, rather than, ‘You are a pillar of democracy,’ ” he says. “Now, I think a side effect of teaching people to do their own reporting is that they become better citizens and are better able to perform the role that journalists do in our society.”
Teaching journalism might not save democracy, as he points out. It might not even save journalism. Nevertheless, the professors and students I interviewed all agreed that teaching journalistic skills
is valuable.
Only 15 percent of those who major in the subject go on to become journalists after they graduate, according to a 2022 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce poll. Many end up in law, business, or another field. But they bring the skills they have learned into their postcollege lives and professions, becoming more plugged in about the media and savvier consumers of news. Having spent much of their lives scrolling, my students put away their phones and start to analyze coverage of national events.
The impact of the Trump administration’s divisive policies has been felt on campuses across the country, turning political discussions into highly charged exchanges. Yet many of the journalism educators I spoke with said that their approach to classroom work remains largely the same. They still teach craft, ranging from interviewing to ferreting out documents—“shoe-leather reporting,” says Joel Kaplan, a Syracuse University professor.
At the same time, they have made modifications. Bhumika Tharoor, the managing editor of the Atlantic, says that students in her class at Georgetown University follow current events on social media. “There was an era when opening up the newspaper was a deliberate act, whereas right now it’s such a passive activity. You’re scrolling, you see something on YouTube,” she says. “Part of my goal is making sure people have a higher sense of awareness and to hone skills like interrogating assumptions, tracking things down, things that journalists do.”
At times, says Onnesha Roychoudhuri, an assistant professor at Colby College who teaches nonfiction writing, the news cycle can seem overwhelming. For this reason, she spends time showing students how to follow the news in a thoughtful way. “You’re kind of cracking the code,” she says, describing the analytical tools they use to discuss the media. “You’re able to read more critically.”
Trump has targeted higher education and the media. But educators do not have to cower. They can instead teach people how to see the world as journalists and show how much fun it is to be a reporter. Helping students understand concepts such as freedom of expression and the rule of law, a store of knowledge acquired naturally through the study of journalism, is crucial for democracy. And despite the dismal state of the industry, journalism remains one of the most popular majors for undergraduates, according to a recent survey.
Finally, the learning goals of a journalism class are deceptively modest. As Paul Albergo, who teaches at American University in Washington, DC, says, “I’m trying to help students see the world with a little bit more nuance.” This journalistic work, listening to other people’s views and writing in a clear, lucid manner, teaches students to synthesize information and explain complex ideas—key skills for being engaged citizens and good journalists in a democracy.
Blake Eskin, the chair of the Journalism and Design program at the New School, says that teaching students how to conduct interviews is part of their education—and has benefits. “Going out to talk to people is starting to bring people together,” he says. “That’s civic participation—listening to people. It’s a step toward saving democracy.”
Photo credit: Pool/Abaca/Shutterstock
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