Student News Team Launches "Brave Old World"

Last summer, ten student reporters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism produced a series of in-depth multimedia investigative reports on the elderly, depicting the complex dimensions of aging. Their work appears on their website, Brave Old World, and was also featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times and the AARP Bulletin.

The project involved comprehensive research to address a subject of growing importance to Americans: to show how communities may adapt to meet the needs of a growing elderly population.

These informative segments include:

• “How We Live Now,” a series of six video portraits showing the places and circumstances in which seniors are carrying out their days.
  
  
• “Growing Old in Three Minutes,” short videos drawing from the latest science, which demonstrate the impact of aging on the body’s senses.
  
  
• “What We Know About Dementia,” a report on the impending crisis, including interviews with Alzheimer’s patients themselves.
  
  
• “Welcome to Elderland,” an animated illustration of how communities can adapt to an aging population.

The reporters are fellows of News21, a national program that supports new forms of reporting and investigative journalism.The project is a moving tribute to senior Americans, and a recognition by these student journalists that most of us, if we are lucky, will face the challenges and joys of aging ourselves.

Photo: Columbia News21 Project