Marie K. Shanahan, the head of the UConn Journalism Department, spoke about the future of journalism on June 25 at The Westport Library at an event sponsored by the Connecticut Mirror.

Prof. Shanahan, who soon will be teaching a new course on news literacy that will be open to non-journalism majors, said the internet is a free-for-all, so each person has to be sure they are skeptical of the news people are sharing on social media.

"You are responsible for your information diet," she said. "You need to be a good critical thinker."

Professor Shanahan, who soon will be teaching a new course on news literacy that will be open to non-journalism majors, said the internet is a free-for-all, so each person has to be sure they are skeptical of the news people are sharing on social media.

"You are responsible for your information diet," she said. "You need to be a good critical thinker."

Professor Shanahan pointed out a recent study that found that states with a higher concentration of local journalists had a lower level of loneliness among its residents. She said new outlets could respond by writing more human interest feature stories in their communities to connect readers.

"We're all so isolated, looking at our phones..., so maybe that's a good selling point for local news," she said.

The conversation was moderated by John Dankosky, the CT Mirror's director of events, and it featured Richard Tofel, the founding general manager of ProPublica, who served as the news organization’s president from 2013 to 2021.

The CT Mirror and ProPublica recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for their series on predatory towing practices in Connecticut.

The complete discussion, moderated by John Dankosky and sponsored by the Connecticut Mirror, is available to watch on YouTube.

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the unexpected death of UConn Journalism Professor Emeritus Wayne Worcester on July 1. He had been a professor emeritus for the past 13 years and a professor of journalism at UConn from 1987 to 2013. He was 78.

Professor Worcester had an impressive professional career at the Providence Journal, where he was a staff writer, features writer, copy editor and co-editor of the Sunday Journal Magazine. He previously taught journalism part-time at Roger Williams College and the University of Rhode Island. He was an innovative and engaging professor, who lectured on newswriting and managed several hands-on labs in which beginning journalism students wrote stories on deadline. He also taught feature writing, magazine writing, copy editing and literary journalism.

A gifted writer, Professor Worcester was the author of two Sherlock Holmes novels, "The Monster of St. Marylebone" and "The Jewel of Covent Garden." He co-wrote "The Essential Researcher," a comprehensive research guide for journalists and nonfiction writers, with Maureen Croteau, his wife and the longtime head of the UConn Journalism Department.

In Providence, Worcester had reported on the Bonded Vault heist, a 1975 theft of more than $30 million in valuables from safe deposit boxes mostly belonging to the Patriarca crime family. He followed up on the crime for 35 years and detailed it with co-authors Randall Richard and Tim White in the entertaining 2016 nonfiction book, "The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story of The Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast."

In an interview with UConn Today in 2011, he said that while the media landscape had changed dramatically during his career, the essentials of journalism that he taught remained the same. "What needs to be at the center of it all has not changed one iota, and that is, verifiable fact – content that is valid, content that can be relied upon for its accuracy and usefulness in understanding the truth," he said.

The visitation for Professor Worcester will take place on Wednesday, July 8 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Potter Funeral Home at 456 Jackson St. in Windham. A mass will be held on Thursday, July 9 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at 46 North Eagleville Road on the UConn campus in Storrs followed by his burial in nearby Storrs Cemetery.

Obituary: https://www.potterfuneralhome.com/obituaries/wayne-worcester

Here is Professor Worcester’s “Last Lecture,” delivered in April 2013 at the Department of Journalism’s annual scholarship awards ceremony.

The UConn Society of Professional Journalists chapter, led by President Sara Bedigian, Vice President Daniel Stark, Social Media Chair Katie Servas and Treasurer Mikayla Bunnell, hosted nine networking events across different fields of journalism.

Fall 2025 was focused on hosting events about different modes of storytelling. The chapter held a Radio Night in collaboration with UConn’s student radio station, WHUS, and guest speaker Robyn Doyon-Aitken from CT Public. Sports Night in October brought in Adam Giardino and Dom Amore, two prominent Connecticut sport journalists who talked about their respective careers in print and broadcast sports journalism. Sarah Gordon, a multimedia journalist and photographer at The Day in New London, conducted a photojournalism workshop.

The SPJ executive board also attended Media Fest ‘25 journalism conference n Washington, D.C. to represent the UConn Journalism department on a national stage with Kate Farrish, an assistant professor-in-residence.

Spring 2026 was focused on a UConn Journalism alumni speakers series with the UConn Journalism Department, where students enjoyed learning how someone who graduated with the same degree got to where they are today. In February, the chapter welcome foreign correspondent Diego Cupolo from Turkey, a 2006 UConn journalism graduate. The same month, the chapter hosted its annual resume workshop with department head Marie K. Shanahan. The chapter collaborated with Connecticut Foundation for Open Government and the UConn Journalism and Political Science departments to host Katie Sanders, the editor-in-chief of PolitiFact in April. This conversation was centered around fact checking, AI and what to expect in the upcoming election year. Prof. Amanda J. Crawford moderated the discussion.

The alumni speaker series final event featured multimedia editor and graphics journalist Charlie Smart, who discussed his career and experiences traveling globally to report stories at the New York Times. At the department’s annual scholarship night, the chapter co-hosted Jackie Wattles, a space and science reporter at CNN who talked about her career in science journalism after she graduated from UConn Journalism in 2014.

The UConn Journalism Department finished the 2025-2026 academic year with three winners in the prestigious Hearst Journalism Awards contest, including a national Top Five, a national Top Ten winner and a national Top 20 winner.

Karla Perez won fifth place in the nation and a $1,000 award in the Personality/Profile Writing Competition. She was selected from among 130 entries from 82 universities. Karla won for her penetrating profile of Lenie Urbina, a recent UConn graduate who reflected on her experience as a survivor of the Sandy Hook shooting and hopes to become a lawyer to fight against gun violence. Karla began working on the story in Prof. Mike Stanton's Feature Writing class. Karla graduated on May 10 and in August, she will begin her master’s program at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

Read the story here: https://ctcommunitynews.org/2025/07/17/passing-a-milestone-a-sandy-hook-survivor-looks-back-and-ahead/

 

 

Jenna Outcalt, another May 10 graduate with a journalism degree, took 10th place in the Hearst podcast category for a story that she reported, wrote and produced in Prof. Harriet Jones’ podcast class in Fall 2025. The story explores food insecurity in Hartford and what the nonprofit Levo International, Inc. is doing to tackle the problem. Jenna also developed the story as a correspondent for Planet Forward. This summer, she’s working as an environmental reporter for Planet Forward and the Chautauqua Institution.

Listen to the story here: https://lnkd.in/e9gdd4TB
Hear Jenna talking about the story here: https://lnkd.in/eEeyZ8gF

 

 

Kitan Arole, a rising junior Journalism major, tied for 19th in the national Hearst Audio Contest for her podcast story, “Crowned and Proud: more than Hair.” The piece features Black female students at University of Connecticut sharing their experiences with the microaggressions surrounding natural hair and the barriers they face when trying to access proper hair care. Their stories highlight the cultural and personal significance of hair for Black women navigating predominantly white institutions. Kitan also received an honorable mention for the story in the NPR College Podcast Challenge.

Give the story a listen here: https://ctcommunitynews.substack.com/p/crowned-and-proud

Here's a fun and wide-ranging interview of UConn Journalism Department Head Marie Shanahan and another UConn Journalism graduate, Mike Enright, on the state of news and journalism today.

Marie describes the different ways the students are taught to report and cover the news and that they are encouraged to work for The Daily Campus, WHUS Radio, UCTV and UConn Nutmeg Publishing to gain more experience outside of class.

"At UConn, we train our student journalists to be accurate, ethical, and rigorous—to tell the truth. If they’re unsure, it doesn’t go in the story," she said. "And we emphasize practice. Students can get involved in so many ways before they graduate.

Give the episode of the UConn 360 podcast a listen here: https://uconn.edu/uconn360.../episode-165-whats-new-in-news/

 

Since August 2025, more than three dozen stories, photos and videos produced by UConn Journalism students from their classes have been published professionally by CT Community News.

The site on Substack is a news outlet led by UConn Journalism Lecturer Harriet Jones and sponsored by the CT Student Journalism Collaborative. Jones, UConn Journalism Department Head Marie K. Shanahan and professors Julie Serkosky and Kate Farrish co-founded the nonprofit in 2023 with journalism professors around the state to fill a niche. As student internships were declining statewide, the professors wanted to find an outlet to professionally publish their best students’ work.

Jones and other leaders of the collaborative then built partnerships with a number of news outlets, including CT Public, the Hartford Courant, the CT Mirror, WSHU and CTNewsJunkie, that are regularly republishing the student journalism from UConn, CT State-Manchester, Southern Connecticut State University, Central Connecticut State University, and other universities.

The students have been thrilled to see their work published, and they often say their extended families are excited to see their work as well.
One of them is Kwasi Osei-Amankwah, a recent UConn journalism graduate, who won a statewide Society of Professional Journalists award for his story on the job prospects and worries of the Class of 2025.

“It was a turning point in my writing career, allowing me to have a story published at a time when I had never imagined it possible,” he said. “I am eternally grateful for this incredible experience.”

Journalism majors in the Spring 2026 Publication Practice course led by Associate Professor in Residence Julie Serkosky worked on a Solutions Journalism Network grant funded project that took a deep dive into aspects of mental health on campus. The advanced course (JOUR 4016) was part of the Solutions Journalism Network’s 2025-26 Student Media Challenge cohort through the nonprofit Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative.

Serkosky, UConn Journalism Department Head Marie K. Shanahan, Assistant Professor Kate Farrish and Adjunct Instructor Harriet Jones are among the co-founders of the collaborative. Jones serves as its editor.

National research shows that the number of young people in the U.S. experiencing serious mental health challenges has been on the rise for more than a decade. Serkosky and her students received training on the rigorous Four Pillars of Solutions Journalism and sought to find campus programs and initiatives that were working to address these challenges. Every story involved discussion and advice from national Solutions Journalism Coordinator Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin.

Mikayla Bunnell, a junior journalism major, focused her reporting on pet therapy, which has grown in popularity at UConn and other universities in recent years. Her story, Dog therapy catches on at UConn, other colleges across the U.S., was published by CT Community News and republished in the Hartford Courant and the CT Examiner.

Bunnell was most excited about the hands-on nature of building a solutions story, attending therapy sessions and observing interactions.

“I spent a lot of my time listening rather than asking questions,” she said. “I got first-hand experience with the solution I was writing about, which I think helped me explain the concept better and benefited my story overall.”

Senior Gianni Salisbury said she had to do extensive research to nail down her story about student bereavement.

“For this story, I had to talk to experts for inspiration first because the solution was not obvious or previously reported on,” Salisbury said. “It was something I had to find and something only people in the field of grief and college policy knew about.” The resulting story, Grief, loss and the college student, explains that up to 44% of college students experience the death of a loved one during any two-year period in school.

The solution highlighted formal student bereavement policies that can guide those who are grieving and help support them as they continue their education.

Senior Sara Bedigian followed these principles in her story on Sandy Hook survivor Audrey Nichols, who is striving to pass gun violence prevention legislation.

“When I conducted the interview with Audrey, it was challenging but I used the narrative techniques we discussed, which helped,” Bedigian said. “I have not interviewed someone before who had experienced the trauma she did. When I told her about the solutions lens and how I am going to focus the story on her advocacy, it made the story easier for me to tell and for her to open up and share.”

By Lily Goldblatt, UConn Journalism
June 4, 2026

As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the country has never been so divided. Polarization and political tensions are at an all-time high, and Americans seem to have lost sight of one another’s humanity. 

Steven G. Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning visual journalist, is disturbed by this trend.  

“Lots of times we can ‘other’ people, and we can think ‘Oh, they’re different than us.’ But the reality is, they’re really not,” Smith said. “In the end, we’re all humans, you know, and I think kindness is overlooked, and I think civility is overlooked, and that’s kind of heartbreaking to me.”

Smith, who won the prestigious Carnegie Fellowship award in April 2025, has announced his retirement from UConn after 13 years as a journalism professor. He plans to continue to work on his long-term documentary photo essay “We the People,” which explores American identity in the 21st century at the nation’ssemiquincentennial. 

Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri. but his family moved to Washington state after his father, a school administrator, took a job there. His mom worked odd jobs but was mostly a homemaker. When Smith was in elementary school, the family moved again, this time to Africa. This would be a formative experience in regard to his future career as a visual journalist. 

“Where we were at was an area that really celebrated the visual arts and storytelling,” Smith said. 

After two years in Africa, the family returned to Washington.  

Smith would meet his wife, Gwyn, while attending Eastern Washington University, which he entered as an engineering major. 

“I had like an internship doing drafting and doing kind of mechanical engineering work,” Smith said. “It just didn’t feel like it was for me.” 

Smith switched his major to photography after taking a photography class that he loved. He then found his college newspaper and took several journalism courses.   

After graduating in the mid 1980s, he worked as a staff photographer for a number of publications. 

One of his first major stories involved documenting the reintroduction of the gray wolf into Yellow Stone National Park in the mid-1990s for the Billings Gazette, a controversial event due to concerns about the ecosystem in the area. 

“I was able to photograph when they first brought the wolf back in and, you know, where they actually kept the wolf in a captive pen for the first winter,” Smith said. 

In 2002 Smith photographed wildfires in Colorado for Rocky Mountain News and won a Pulitzer as part of the newspaper’s team.  

In addition to his own photojournalism, Smith has also enjoyed teaching photography.  

“My father was a teacher, and I had siblings in education, so it was always potentially at the back of my mind,” Smith said. “I enjoyed sharing and was passionate about what I was doing.” 

In 2013, Smith became a journalism professor at the University of Connecticut, along with fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Mike Stanton. In 2018, the two published a story following a retirement home fan club for the UConn women’s basketball team as they attended a game at Gampel Pavillion. Stanton wrote while Smith took pictures. 

“He’s very diligent,” Stanton said of Smith. “People that don’t understand photojournalism, you know, think that you just take the camera and point and shoot. But it’s really about building relationships and building trust.” 

That same year, Smith published his book “Under the Dark Sky: Life in the Thames River Basin,” which chronicled the communities in Connecticut and Massachusetts in what has been coined the “Quiet Corner.” It’s considered to be one of the last places where the dark night sky can be viewed on the East Coast. 

Smith described the idea for the book as somewhat selfish in that it originated from his desire to know the community better.  

“There’s no better way to get to know the community than to do a broad reaching story like that,” he said.  

Kate Farrish, an assistant professor in residence in UConn’s journalism department, helped edit captions and provide suggestions for Smith’s book. 

“It was great fun to work with him on it because, I mean, he’s so talented,” Farrish said. “His photography is so beautiful. I just wanted to try to get the words to match.” 

Being a native to Northeastern Connecticut, Farrish was able to provide some institutional knowledge about the area. 

She recalled a conversation with Smith where he asked about the birds in New England and asked why they were tweeting so early in the morning.  

He revealed that out West, the birds didn’t do this.  

“I’ve only lived here and he’s lived all over the place. It was something he’d noticed that I’d never really noticed,” Farrish said.  

In 2022, Smith released a documentary “The Long Goodbye,” which followed a daughter caring for her father with Alzheimer’s.  

The film, which was screened at the Cannes World Film Festival, involved gaining an intimate level of access into the daily life of this family in order to tell their story of dealing with this debilitating illness as accurately as possible.  

“You can always do stories in ways that are just, you know, interviews, talking heads, but those stories rarely have a great deal of impact,” Smith said. “It’s far more impacting, the opportunity to show what this caregiver is going through, and this is particularly true from the visual side of journalism.” 

In 2025, Smith received the Carnegie Fellowship for research focusing on subjects related to political polarization for his photo essay “We the People.” 

“He was chosen among his peers at UConn and then, you know, among his broader peers nationally to get this. It’s a pretty big deal,” Stanton said.  

With his grant of $200,000 from the fellowship, Smith has embarked on a journey across the United States to explore all facets of American cultural identity and life.  

Through the project, he hopes to show Americans what lies outside of their corner of the country during this divisive time.  

“I travel, I photograph, I meet a lot of people, right? And I hear the polarization and it’s disturbing to me,” Smith said. “I guess the idea and the concept is, you know, ‘Hey, this is our country, this is the people that live here.’”  

So far, he’s visited about 38 states and has been working almost non-stop. In a single week he’ll visit up to 10 events to photograph. 

“I’ve been a traveling fool, and I am exhausted right now,” Smith said. 

Recently, he was in Louisiana for five days, where he photographed everything from festivals to beauty pageants. 

“Those community festivals can be very interesting because they really take on very specific cultural things from a particular area,” he said.  

One event involved a tomato festival and a pageant to crown “Miss Tomato.” 

He explained that lots of times, festivals, such as the tomato festival in Louisiana, are tied to the agricultural roots of the community.   

“I like the history part of it,” Smith said. “Like, oh, I didn’t know they grew tomatoes in that part of Louisiana. And it’s like oh, that makes sense. I mean there’splenty of hot weather.”  

Smith recently announced his retirement from teaching to work on his project and move back West to be closer to his family. 

“I love teaching, you know, impacting the future of your field. I think that’s quite an opportunity,” Smith said. “I certainly enjoy my field a great deal so it’s a funny Catch 22 for me because I enjoy doing both.” 

According to Stanton, Smith has enriched the department through his experience in the field.  

“The thing about when you’re a professor and you’re in the classroom, but then you’re out in the field doing your work, the two don’t seem connected, but they are because you know, you bring your experiences into the classroom and vice versa,” Stanton said.  

Farrish, who’s known Smith since he joined the department, said while she’s happy for him and his family, she’s sad to see him go and knows it will be a big loss for the UConn journalism department. 

“He’s such a talented journalist, he’s such an extraordinary photographer, but he’s also a wonderful colleague,” Farrish said.  

By Sam Calhoun, UConn Journalism May 21, 2026

The story of New England’s abolitionists is often told in fragments — names, dates, movements — but rarely in full. That is what Gail Braccidiferro MacDonald set out to change with her new book, which focuses on Black abolitionists.

“I just think these people are so inspiring,” she said. “We don’t really learn about the Black abolitionists, except for Frederick Douglass, perhaps.”

MacDonald, a local historian and retired University of Connecticut journalism professor in residence, released her third book, “Abolitionists of the Northeast: Black Leaders in the Antislavery Movement,” on May 5.

“These are people whose stories haven’t really been told; they’re not as famous, so it’s nice that she’s bringing them to life,” said UConn journalism professor Mike Stanton, MacDonald’s former colleague who has also written books based in New England.

MacDonald said the research for the book uncovered many stories that were new to her.

“I never realized that there were strong Black leaders as early as the late 1700s in this country, because we just don’t learn about them,” MacDonald said.

She used the book to highlight Black abolitionists who faced significant challenges but made significant contributions.

“Andrew Harris, who was the first Black person to graduate from the University of Vermont, spent four years at the University of Vermont basically in total isolation, because no other student would accept him,” MacDonald said.

Another abolitionist who fascinated MacDonald was Charlotte Forten, a young woman who was socially isolated at a school in Salem, Mass.

“She was a teenager just wanting to have fun, and she wrote in her journals about how sad it was that people wouldn’t talk to her; people wouldn’t have anything to do with her,” she said.

Although figures like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are widely recognized, many Black abolitionists from the same era remain largely unknown.

“It was very heartbreaking to me to know that so many people were shunned and cast aside in this country for so long for no reason except they had a different skin color,” MacDonald said. “They were smart; they were strong. They acted respectfully; they tried to do everything right, and the mainstream society still pushed them aside.”

A Connecticut native, MacDonald attended UConn and then worked as a reporter for The Day. That’s where she met her husband, Bruce, who was also a journalist. The two married in July 1986, and later had a daughter, Cara, who now lives in Middletown.

She worked briefly in public relations and freelance for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, before deciding to get her master’s degree with the intention of teaching at the college level. She earned her master’s in public affairs journalism from American University in Washington, D.C. and taught at several universities before joining UConn’s faculty in 2008. She retired from teaching at the end of 2024.

“The thing that struck me most about Gail was her constant interest in what was going on,” said Timothy Kenny, a former UConn journalism instructor and close friend. “That sort of spark she had for journalism — she passed that on to her students. I sat in on a couple of her classes... You could see it. She really engaged and enjoyed teaching.”

Throughout her journalism career, MacDonald said she was always drawn to writing about history.

“I always found ways that I could do feature stories on history or historic places or events,” MacDonald said. “I just [was] fascinated in making connections between the past and the present.”

MacDonald published her first book “Morton F. Plant and the Connecticut Shoreline: Philanthropy in the Gilded Age” in 2017. Her second book, “Hidden History of Mystic & Stonington,” came out in 2020. Both were published by The History Press.

MacDonald’s husband, Bruce, died in 2022. In the years since, MacDonald has kept herself busy with teaching, finishing her new book and community service. In June, she will be installed as the president of the Rotary Club of New London. She also recently started a new tour business with her friend and former New London events planner Barbara Neff. “Uncovering New London” offers walking and small bus tours that reveal the rich history, fascinating stories, hidden gems and special moments that define the city.

“I can’t imagine any kind of greater purpose than being able to bring that information to the public,” MacDonald said. “That’s kind of what I’ve done my whole life as a journalist —bring important information that people should know about to the public, and hopefully people agree with me when they read the book.”

“Abolitionists of the Northeast: Black Leaders in the Antislavery Movement” was released May 5 by Globe Pequot.