The journalism program at Denison University is dedicated to promoting and practicing journalism that highlights places often neglected in national media conversations. A framework of programs in a variety of mediums is designed to offer support to journalists, and maximize the reach of their audience.

We work to:

  • Train Denison students to become empathetic storytellers in both their campus community and the surrounding area while grounding their training in core tenets of journalistic ethics and practices.
  • Increase community relationships between Denison and Licking County municipalities and beyond. In addition to partnering with local, state, and national organizations, we work to make our students informed members of the communities beyond campus by immersing them in long-form projects that require forethought, sensitivity, and personal engagement.
  • Promote the liberal arts through nonfiction storytelling—being able to engage, understand, and synthesize complex viewpoints from various backgrounds of the people residing in smaller communities in Central Ohio.
  • Become a hub to halt the demise of traditional local journalism outlets by offering displaced journalists, as well as freelancers, and students and faculty a working home to do their work through TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of our program. We seek to fill gaps in local reporting with original stories.

The Journalism program at Denison extends grateful appreciation to:

Sue Douthit O’Donnell ’67

In March of 2018, Sue Douthit O’Donnell ’67 provided an extraordinary gift to Denison that funded extensive renovations for the William Doane Library and Denison’s narrative nonfiction concentration, the forebear of today’s Journalism major and minor.

The Mellon Foundation

In March of 2018, The Mellon Foundation provided a grant of $700,000 for Denison’s “Writing in Place” initiative, which supports the work of Journalism at Denison.

“Writing in Place” brings the practice of narrative writing to classrooms across campus. Assignments send students into the community, linking classroom learning with lived experience and inspiring them to think critically and find common ground. Denison students gather data, make hands-on observations, interview, and survey individuals and groups, as they write about a wide range of topics spanning the disciplines.

The “Writing in Place” initiative builds on Denison’s curricular major or minor in Journalism, a program that teaches students to combine literary storytelling with in-depth, fact-based research. Journalism is designed for students from all majors who want a structured opportunity for hands-on experience along with exposure to potential career paths — from science writing to writing that spotlights the public humanities.

Generous Denison alumni who support the program, including:

  • Hugh Fullerton ‘64
  • Barbara Huestis Jones ‘63
  • Ralph H. Lindeman ’71, who created the Ralph H. Lindeman (Class of 1971) Endowed Fund for Journalism
  • Jean Luce, in memory of her husband and alumnus H. Thomas Luce ‘55
  • Keith McWalter ‘71