Award-winning journalists join Stanford Journalism Program faculty

Three distinguished journalists will join the Stanford Journalism Program, bringing with them decades of experience from some of the world’s leading newsrooms.

As new technologies continue to disrupt  the journalism industry, Alice Li, Laura Holson and Connie Guglielmo say they are eager to be part of the program’s mission to guide the next generation of journalists in informing communities and holding institutions accountable through high-impact multimedia storytelling and compelling narrative journalism.

“Stanford journalism courses give our students the skills to find stories others don’t see and tell them in distinctly engaging ways. Our new faculty have excelled in helping millions of readers and viewers better understand the world through compelling stories,” said Jay Hamilton, Hearst Professor of Communication and Director of the Stanford Journalism Program.  “They’re excited about joining colleagues committed to lifelong mentoring and continuous instruction in the standards of rigorous, effective reporting.”

Li is a former Washington Post video journalist who has received some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Pulitzer Prize, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, and a national Edward R. Murrow Award. At Stanford, Li will teach Multimedia Journalism and Advanced Digital Media Production, courses that help students learn to produce deadline-driven multimedia stories using video, still images, audio and graphics.

At the Washington Post, Li covered a wide range of topics, from natural disasters and civil unrest to the opioid epidemic and Earth’s climate crisis. Through her classes, Li says she hopes to impart to students the importance of ethical, airtight reporting, especially in the age of misinformation and disinformation.​

“Even though I'm teaching [students] about different forms of storytelling, at the end of the day, it's about how to be a good reporter,” says Li. “What does it mean to ask a good question, how to be an active listener, and then how to be a responsible reporter.  I just want [students] to come away knowing how to do the work in a way that's responsible, ethical and also making sure that they're using the best possible tools to tell the story in the best possible way.”

​For decades, Holson, a former writer for the New York Times and other national magazines, has written about the biggest power players in Hollywood and Silicon Valley. She has profiled notable figures including George Clooney, Donald Trump Jr., Steven Spielberg and Brad Pitt. Holson was a recipient of the National Magazine Award for public service and later founded a creative gathering series called The Box Sessions, which brings together filmmakers, musicians, writers and artists into conversations.

At Stanford, Holson will teach Narrative Journalism and a new course titled Navigating the News. Holson says the Narrative Journalism class will focus on teaching students to use storytelling as a fundamental tool for understanding the world and humanity itself.

Holson said she wants to teach students that good narrative writing is about giving the audience “a view of how the world works.”​

“You're helping people today understand the world that they're living in, but also leaving a record for the future,” she says.

In addition to writing, Holson is also a visual journalist and is interested in how audiences consume various types of media. In the Navigating the News course, Holson will dive into case studies of how news organizations are responding to technological advances, and will explore the growth of independent media platforms, YouTube, social media, newsletters and audience engagement.

“My goal is that, when students leave both of these classes, they understand how journalism has evolved and how to find their place as storytellers in it,” she says.

Guglielmo has been a longtime journalist covering the world of business and technology, most recently serving as editor-at-large and an editorial strategist at CNET, focusing on how artificial intelligence is reshaping journalism. Guglielmo has worked for a range of pioneering tech-focused publications and  global media companies, from MacWeek and Wired to Bloomberg and Forbes, and has interviewed technology founders including  Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Marc Andreessen, and Pierre Omidyar.

A graduate of the Stanford graduate journalism program herself, Guglielmo says she plans  to emphasize critical thinking, ethical reporting and news literacy.

“What are the rules of engagement with sources? How do you write a story quickly? – those are things I learned working on the job at a wire service,” she says.​

Guglielmo will teach “Reporting, Writing, and Understanding the News,” a gateway class for  undergraduates to learn the basics of journalism.

“They're going to learn the nuts and bolts of how to put together a new story, and that putting together a new story requires research and reporting, it requires writing and critical thinking,” says Guglielmo. “What story are you telling, what problem are you trying to solve through your storytelling? Then students need to know how to amplify  their  work and make  sure that it resonates with your audience.”