Jacqui Banaszynski retired as the endowed Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2017, is editor at Nieman Storyboard, and a faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for “AIDS in the Heartland,” a series about a gay farm couple facing AIDS, and was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for her account of the sub-Saharan famine.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay is excerpted from a Storyboard newsletter originally published Friday, Feb. 25, 2022 Just one day into the madness being visited upon Ukraine, and already there is no end to heartbreaking images. I study them … Read more
The longer I dwell in the world, the more I believe our greatest values, as human beings and as journalists, come through empathy and listening. Also, alas, our greatest failures. Because the longer I dwell in the world, the … Read more
Earlier this month, we posted a short “One Great Moment” piece on a dazzling line of dialog from the new-this-season Netflix movie “A Boy Called Christmas.” Dame Maggie Smith is telling three fidgety children a story. Read more
It would have been easy but discouraging to spend an entire year of Storyboard featuring stories about homelessness, climate woes and, of course, COVID-19. It would be tempting to identify the stand-outs among those, which are many, in my … Read more
Another year, another trove of excellent journalism — so much that I’ve given up on keeping up. I take some comfort in that as our profession continues to struggle with issues of trust and solvency. The Storyboard mission is … Read more
Hanukkah came early this year. Christmas is on the near horizon, with Kwanzaa a day later. Other cultures have other traditions this time of year, some religious, some that have nothing to do with dogma but can be just … Read more
Bayfield, Wisconsin, is a charming little village, population 500 or so, that sits on the northernmost peninsula of the state, along the southern shore of Lake Superior. It looks out onto a ice-clear body of water called the Chequamegon … Read more
News that the United States now counts 800,000-plus deaths from COVID-19 — more than reported in any country in the world — made headlines earlier this week. The worldwide number of reported deaths was nearing 5.5 … Read more
Many — maybe most — journalists aspire to write a book. Back in the day, more than a few of them had a work-in-progress hidden in the bottom drawer of their desk. Newsroom sightings put the wannabes at the … Read more
You know those pin-dot graphics that the data dudes produce that show how things are both clustered and connected? Things like who uses Twitter, or COVID rates in red- and blue-voting districts. This week I’ve been wondering how cool … Read more
