Photo of Mark Schoofs

Mark
Schoofs

Associate Professor of Journalism
An award-winning investigative journalist and pioneer of BuzzFeed News’ investigative journalism department, Mark Schoofs has reported on global issues including gay rights, the AIDS crisis, and exploitative labor practices for over 30 years.
Photo of Mark Schoofs
An award-winning investigative journalist and pioneer of BuzzFeed News’ investigative journalism department, Mark Schoofs has reported on global issues including gay rights, the AIDS crisis, and exploitative labor practices for over 30 years.
Expertise: 
Gender and Sexuality, Global, Media Literacy, Science

Mark
Schoofs

Associate Professor of Journalism

Tabs

Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Schoofs leads investigative journalism programming at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. Over his 30-year career, Schoofs edited Chicago’s lesbian and gay newsweekly, The Windy City Times, as it successfully crusaded for gay rights; won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on AIDS in Africa at New York’s famed alternative newspaper The Village Voice; shared in another Pulitzer Prize at The Wall Street Journal for reporting from Ground Zero on the 9/11 terrorist attacks; wrote the opening and closing stories in a Wall Street Journal series on Medicare fraud that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; taught journalism to undergraduates at Yale University; oversaw complex investigations at ProPublica into everything from exploitative labor practices to the dangers of the common painkiller Tylenol; and launched and led a powerhouse investigative reporting team at BuzzFeed News, one of the world’s largest and most innovative all-digital media companies. In less than five years, that investigative team, which he built from zero to more than 20 reporters, earned some of journalism’s top prizes, including a George Polk Award, a National Magazine Award, a Scripps Howard Award, two British Journalism Awards, and a London Press Club Award. In addition, his team’s work was twice named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Courses

JOUR 490x: Directed Research
JOUR 539: Introduction to Investigative Reporting 
JOUR 590: Directed Research