September 15, 2025 Update 9/19/2025: Pictured above: Professor Brant Houston, left, is honored with awardees Lea Thompson and James B. Steele (far right), with host Scott Pelley, correspondent for 60 Minutes. (Photo by Nathalie Schueller.) The Investigative Reporters and Editors 50th Anniversary Gala raised $1.5 million for journalism training. See more photos from the event. […]
May 21, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood Stephanie Lulay’s (BS ’08, journalism) start-up venture, Block Club Chicago—whose mission is to deliver reliable, nonpartisan, and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods—has become a news staple for readers throughout the city since its founding in 2018. Lulay serves as executive editor and co-founder of the award-winning newsroom, which […]
July 18, 2024 | University of Vermont If you pick up the 2023 book Changing Models for Journalism by Brant Houston, Knight Chair Professor in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting in the Department of Journalism, you would read about the collapse of traditional media and the changes in the news landscape over the past decade, written by […]
January 26, 2024 Several journalism students wrote investigative pieces that were recently featured in The News-Gazette. Students in JOUR 315: Advanced Public Affairs Reporting and JOUR 483: Investigative Reporting classes, taught in Fall 2023 by Professor Brant Houston, Knight Chair Professor in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting, had work originally published in CU-CitizenAccess, an online newsroom devoted to community and […]
September 8, 2023 “I on the Media” is a series from the University of Illinois College of Media in which faculty, staff, and students at the college address current issues and research. It began in 2020 to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on media-related issues. Hear from our experts 9/8/2023 In this Q&A, Professor Brant Houston, Knight Chair of […]
September 8, 2023 | Holly Rushakoff About the Media Expert Professor Brant Houston is Knight Chair of Investigative and Enterprise Reporting in the Department of Journalism. He is the author of Changing Models for Journalism: Reinventing the Newsroom, co-author of the Investigative Reporter’s Handbook, among other books. In addition to teaching, Brant Houston oversees the online newsroom CU-CitizenAccess.org, devoted to […]
The University of Illinois Archives has acquired and is preserving the website of FairWarning.org, a nonprofit investigative news organization founded and edited by Myron Levin. Brant Houston (pictured at right), Knight Chair Professor of Investigative Reporting in the Department of Journalism, helped arrange the archiving of FairWarning’s content. FairWarning produced and published the work of staff writers […]
Journalism alumni Johnathan Hettinger (BS ’15) and Pam Dempsey (MS ’09), and Professor Brant Houston, Knight Chair of Investigative Reporting in the Department of Journalism, were part of a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting team that won first place in a national environmental journalism contest for investigative reporting by a small newsroom. First place for the Society […]
On May 21, Tribune Publishing Co. confirmed that its shareholders approved a buyout offer by Alden Global Capital LLC. The vote gives Alden – an entity with a reputation for aggressive cost-cutting – control over the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the New York Daily News, along with a smattering of smaller papers. […]