May 4, 2023
The Program in Journalism held its fifth annual Senior Colloquium on May 4, 2023. Nine seniors pursuing the certificate in journalism presented a piece of journalism they have created based on field reporting, or that explores the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary journalism.
The colloquium offered the seniors experience in presenting and gaining valuable feedback on their work. The brief presentations were followed by responses from faculty and distinguished journalists.
SCHEDULE
9:00 a.m. — Opening remarks and introductions
9:15 a.m. — Session I
Edward Tian
The New World of AI Detection
Anna Allport
Re-Evaluating and Re-Inventing Theater Criticism in the Post-Pandemic Era
Evelyn Doskoch
Meet the TikTokers documenting a nation headed ‘toward fascism’
Marissa Hart
The Daily Indignities Female Athletes Encounter at Ivy League Schools
10:30 a.m. — Break
10:40 p.m. — Session II
Alexander Hunter
Dozens of New Jersey Schools and Hundreds of Daycares Fail to Meet Lead Water Reporting Requirements
Auhjanae McGee
While Black: Black Princeton Arts and Hodder Fellows improvise, theorize, and problematize disciplinary boundaries
Tanvi Nibhanupudi
“Do something to fight back”: Post-Roe perspectives from reproductive healthcare clinic escorts
Johnatan Reiss
Moving Hazard
Lydia You
Counter “Cult”-ure: How the Bay Area Commune Is Manufacturing Utopia
11:55 a.m. — Closing remarks
12:00 p.m. — Lunch and celebration
PRESENTERS
Anna Allport (Independent Study)
Re-Evaluating and Re-Inventing Theater Criticism in the Post-Pandemic Era
Theater critics were the original influencers, guiding audience purchasing decisions and writing reviews that could make or break shows. Since the rise of social media and the social justice movements amplified by the pandemic, the power of the theater critic has been destabilized. Many theater artists are concerned about the lack of diversity on newspapers’ arts critic staff. Many audiences prefer to read social media reviews by theater influencers or other audience members. Many critics are strategizing about how their jobs can adapt as the industry emerges post-pandemic. Is theater criticism a dying art form? And should it be saved?
Evelyn Doskoch (Psychology)
Meet the TikTokers documenting a nation headed ‘toward fascism’
As congressional lawmakers question the very existence of TikTok in the U.S., users of the platform are taking on a crucial role disseminating information during a time of increasing censorship and disenfranchisement by governors and state legislatures. Who are the TikTok creators spreading the word about book bannings, anti-transgender legislation, and more, and what drives them to tell these stories?
Marissa Hart (Economics)
The Daily Indignities Female Athletes Encounter at Ivy League Schools
Fifty years after the passage of Title IX, the law designed to bring gender equity to amateur sports, progress is evident throughout the Ivy League. However, female athletes across Ivy League schools continue to endure challenges that male athletes don’t experience. Administrators acknowledge that the conference still falls short in many areas, and in some instances, they remain unaware of some of the daily indignities that female athletes encounter. This podcast dives into personal stories of female athletes, administrators’ responses, and government data demonstrating how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
Alexander Hunter (Public and International Affairs)
Dozens of New Jersey Schools and Hundreds of Daycares Fail to Meet Lead Water Reporting Requirements
Dozens of publicly funded schools and school districts across New Jersey have submitted reports to the Department of Education incorrectly claiming that lead in their drinking water did not exceed state limits. At the same time, hundreds of daycares and numerous other schools have not submitted results at all, despite more than six months passing since the state’s mandatory reporting deadline. An independent investigation of hundreds of lead testing documents has uncovered widespread erroneous and missing lead results in state reporting. The Office of Facilities Planning in the Department of Education, which is tasked with overseeing the testing, has not yet resolved these issues, more than half a year after most tests were submitted. In at least one case, the office was entirely unaware that any false information had been reported.
Auhjanae McGee (English)
While Black: Black Princeton Arts and Hodder Fellows improvise, theorize, and problematize disciplinary boundaries
Every year, Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts invites a small cohort of early-career, practicing artists to campus. This cohort includes recipients of the Hodder Fellowship, which grants artists funding and access to University resources and studio space to work on year-long independent projects. It also includes the Princeton Arts Fellows, who receive funding and resources as well, but they are supported for two years and expected to teach undergraduate courses and integrate themselves into the University community. For my project, I interviewed four Black recipients of these prestigious awards, and sought to understand the importance of awards like these in supporting innovations in Black arts.
Tanvi Nibhanupudi (Economics)
“Do something to fight back”: Post-Roe perspectives from reproductive healthcare clinic escorts
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional right to abortion. Following the decision, reproductive healthcare clinics saw an outpouring of volunteer interest. Interviews with patient escorts and volunteer coordinators across states with dramatically different laws on abortion access — Georgia, Tennessee, and New Jersey — highlight the disconcerting physical and emotional challenges that people face while serving as escorts. Despite the difficulties of the job, clinic escorts across the country have echoed a commitment to fighting for safe access to reproductive health. This project seeks to showcase the enduring work of the patient escorts interviewed amid an unstable political landscape.
Johnatan Reiss (Politics)
Moving Hazard
Soon after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, residents in Deer Park, Texas – over 1,000 miles away – learned that those chemicals were making their way to their backyard. A fleet of trucks carrying over 500,000 gallons of water used to extinguish the fires surrounding the Ohio crash site were traveling to a chemical waste disposal facility in Harris County, just east of Houston. Amid protestations by local officials and residents, the contaminated waters were eventually diverted to a local disposal site in Ohio, but this cross-country transportation of hazardous chemicals is far from abnormal. In this investigation, I study data from multiple state and federal agencies to show how millions of tons of toxic chemical waste routinely traverse the country to reach disposal sites, with cost-effectiveness cited as the primary reason.
Edward Tian (Computer Science)
The New World of AI Detection
On New Year’s Day, I launched an AI detector, and called it GPTZero. In testing the detector, I inputted a milieu of writing from The New Yorker, including Frame of Reference, 2015, by John McPhee. “A sincere mustache, Mr. McPhee, a sincere mustache,” the detector ingested. “Human,” it returned. In this work, I explore the ongoing impacts of artificial intelligence on journalism, in education, writing, disinformation and the rise of AI generated fake news, and how we can safeguard the future of journalism in an AI-filled world.
Lydia You (Computer Science)
Counter “Cult”-ure: How the Bay Area Commune Is Manufacturing Utopia
How did we get from the counterculture of the 70’s to the cyberculture of today? And what does that have to do with the ways in which we relate and socialize with each other amid our modern-day atomization? The commune culture of the Bay Area has long had interesting answers to these questions, with the fundamental idea being that an alternative community of like-minded people could escape the norms of society and create their own utopia with new ways of living and co-existing. This project seeks to document and explore the idea of the ‘commune’, from the anti-capitalist back-to-the-land hippie outposts of 70’s counterculture to the rise of modern tech companies seeking to build new charter cities and third spaces.
RESPONDENTS
Joe Stephens
Director, Program in Journalism
Ferris Professor of Journalism in Residence
Deborah Amos
Ferris Professor of Journalism in Residence
Neil Bedi
Reporter, ProPublica
Ferris Professor of Journalism
Nadja Drost
Magazine writer and documentary filmmaker
Ferris Professor of Journalism
Andrea Elliott
Staff writer, The New York Times, and author
Ferris Professor of Journalism
Pallavi Gogoi
Acting managing editor, National Public Radio
Ferris Professor of Journalism
John McPhee
Staff writer, The New Yorker
Senior Fellow in Journalism
