Academics
Upper School
Journalism
Journalism Collaborative
In the journalism program, students actively engage their curiosity about the world around them, explore the inner and outer layers of that world, and research, interview, fact check, seek alternative viewpoints, and ultimately craft a factual, balanced narrative.
The student journalist provides a lens for the wider community to understand the world more deeply. They strive to celebrate unheard voices, to shine light on injustices, and acknowledge the quiet daily challenges and triumphs of our community members. Students deepen media literacy skills, identify trends, help their peers make sense of bigger news stories in a way that relates to their own community and weave meaningful layers of connection between communities.
Through careful consideration of what is, what was, what will be and what could be, students learn to craft journalistic works and work with a variety of media to share those stories, including industry-standard programs such as Adobe InDesign and Final Cut Pro. Preparing to be 21st century journalists, each student considers whether their story can best be told via web, social media, video, podcast or in a printed newspaper. Often students choose to use several different types of media to more fully convey their storytelling.
In striving to inform, challenge and celebrate our community, the young journalists aim to be powers for good in the world and in the local community. With local journalism initiatives being cut nationwide, the role of student journalism has never been more vital.
Over the course of their time in our journalism classes, students develop a responsibility to report the news with integrity and without bias, develop greater confidence and ease in interviewing and interacting with peers and adults, strengthen writing, photography and design skills, and gain a deeper understanding of media literacy through lived experiences.
Each year, students in the Journalism Collaborative courses attend, and sometimes present at, national scholastic journalism conferences, including ones hosted by National Scholastic Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and The New York Press Association.
Recent accolades
Both Tower and TBN have been named as finalists for the prestigious National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker award, for Gold Medalist and Silver Crown awards with Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and for First Place Overall excellence in Scholastic Journalism by the New York Press Association (NYPA). Tower’s website, tower.mastersny.org, has been recognized as the best website in New York state by NYPA and has earned multi-year recognition as a Distinguished Website by Students Newspaper Online, the premiere scholastic journalism web hosts.
TBN segments have also been recognized by the New York Film and Television Student Alliance and nominated on the National Film and Television Student Alliance level for excellence in Social Justice reporting.
Masters School students have three times been named the New York State Journalist of the Year by the Journalism Educators Association and individual student journalists have been recognized nationally for the caliber of their work.
The Masters School
