Sara-Ellen Amster, Ph.D., has worked as a daily newspaper reporter in New York, Florida, Delaware, and Hawaii, having trained at dailies in some of these and two additional states. She earned her Ph.D. in communication from UC San Diego and holds a master’s degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her undergraduate degree is in English and Creative Writing from Cornell University, where she ran the college daily newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun. In 1992, while working as a social services reporter at The News Journal in Delaware, she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for an unusual, four-part series called “Inside Delaware State Hospital,” during which she gained unprecedented access to the wards for a week and chronicled the lives of the mentally ill, who are typically unseen by the public. Amster is lead faculty member for the digital journalism B.A. at National University, which will expand to offer a M.A. in Digital Journalism in January. She is the author of the 2006 book, Seeds of Cynicism: The Undermining of Journalistic Education from University Press of America.

Blog Entries by Sara-Ellen Amster, Ph.D.

Thanks A Lot Regal Cinema For Risking The Health Of Families

Posted November 23, 2009 | 01:07 AM (EST)


On Thanksgiving, Americans are bound to overeat and this weekend, they often take in a family movie.

My husband and I went last weekend, taking our sons, 5 and 10, to see Planet 51 after they begged us. Let this commentary serve as a warning to you.

We were actually...

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The Chronicle of Darth Vega: May the Force Be with Him

Posted November 9, 2009 | 01:56 AM (EST)


Most troubled newspapers have tried to stay afloat by squeezing out every cent they can from newsrooms with staff layoffs and buyouts and by reducing newshole so that local papers are stuffed with wire stories.

But The San Francisco Chronicle is taking the opposite approach beginning...

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Up, Up and Away: How TV News Blew It

15 Comments | Posted October 22, 2009 | 08:26 AM (EST)


Students in journalism school are taught the maxim: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

In the 24/7 cable and Internet world of 2009, such a saying might seem old-fashioned, even Lou Grant-esque.

But more intense fact checking is desperately needed in this post-Survivor world where "reality"...

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So You Want To Be a Journalist?

4 Comments | Posted October 5, 2009 | 04:58 PM (EST)


So you want to be a journalist?

The news that journalism admissions are up at many schools this fall -- even while news outlets are in economic distress -- should surprise no one.

Not if one understands the powerful dream journalism holds for many...

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