Journalists and reporters in the United States have often been referred to as members of the “fourth branch” of government. In a government where the people make all decisions, information provided to the public about the acts of the government and the officials that comprise it is invaluable to citizens. Furthermore, the press plays a vital role in American democracy as it presents information about pressing problems, uncovers corruption by public servants, holds politicians accountable for their actions, and even seeks to persuade legislators through editorials.

While members of the press corps will certainly develop experience interviewing others and writing clearly to a diverse audience, they will also be confronted with difficult decisions to make. Given that there are very few legal restrictions on what the press may print, individual reporters are confronted with ethical questions when they have information that might jeopardize national security. Also, as the individuals best positioned to understand the complete happenings at the conference, the press corps members make efforts to publish frequent bulletins and daily newspapers that significantly influence the course of events at the conference.

Press corps conference materials can be found here.

How to prepare for HMCA press corps:

• Read the Guide to the Constitution for an overview of the US government. Also, read the Guide to Partisanship and the Guide to Federalism—concentrate on getting a broad understanding of how the government functions.

• Read through the Guide to the Press Corps. We expect that you will have questions, so feel free to email Jacky (j225yk at gmail.com) and Kamille (kamille.washington at gmail.com), the Harvard staff members who will be leading your committee, with any questions.

• Most professional journalists have a “beat,” which is a set of topics and committees they are responsible for covering.  For example, CNN may have several reporters on the Iraq War beat who keep close watch of all the developments on that issue.  At HMCA, we want you to experience the entire conference, so we’re not going to give you specific beats ahead of time.  You may get to write one article about foreign relations, the next one about a Supreme Court case, and the next one about an unforeseen development that may arise!  For this reason, it’s important that you come to the conference with a good idea of what other committees will be discussing.  You should be able to find summaries of their briefings on their committee’s program website.

• Check out the links to helpful resources below. Also, follow the current press coverage of the issues you’ll be reporting on at the conference in newspapers like the New York Times.

• For more information on writing Opinion Editorials (also called Op-eds) click here.

IMPORTANT: Check out the optional preconference assignment--click here.