NewsVideo Workshop
2011 Faculty
John Larson
As a correspondent for PBS and NBC News, John Larson’s work is among the most awarded in the broadcast news industry. In 2010, John Larson won a George Foster Pea- body Award, and a DuPont Columbia Silver Baton for his work on “Cannabis Cowboys,” an investigation of Mexican drug cartels and Pot farming in California. He also won 2010 Emmy Awards for Best Writer, and Best Hard News Reporting from the Los Angeles NATAS Chapter.
As West Coast Correspondent for Dateline NBC beginning in 1994, Larson excelled in in- vestigative, breaking and feature news reporting for Dateline NBC, NBC Nightly News and The Today Show.
His investigation of the insurance industry for Dateline NBC, "The Paper Chase", became one of the most honored broadcasts in broadcast journalism history
Larson has received extensive national recognition -- 4 DuPont Columbia Silver Batons, 2 George Foster Peabody Awards, and 22 Emmy Awards for reporting on Racial Profiling, the Insurance Industry, Hurricane Katrina, and corrupt police in Lousiana.
Larson is also a much sought after speaker, teacher and motivator. He consults for the E.W Scripps Company -- motivating more than 400 working journalists. He also was selected as the 2011 Distinguished Ottaway Professor of Journalism for the State University of New York. He speaks regularly at the National Writer's Workshops, the Poynter Institute, and the National Press Photographers' National Workshop. He has participated in the Committee of Concerned Journalists, sponsored by the Nieman Foundation of Harvard University.
In 2009, Larson left NBC to work as an international correspondent for PBS - contributing to “World Focus,” “Need to Know” and “Southern California Connected”. He also launched his own production company, began training in digital journalism, and began consulting with media companies.
In 2008, Larson co-authored "Televion Field Production and Reporting" - one of the most widely distributed college broadcast journalism textbooks in the country.
Larson's career has taken him to the corners of the world: to investigate the sinking of a passenger ferry in Indonesia, and to tell the story of a 5-year-old Buddhist Monk in Nepal. He examined corrupt police in Mexico City. He revisited a bloody terrorist attack in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Central Africa. He reported on the Aids epidemic in Zambia, and micro-loans in Kenya. Recently, he has reported on renewable energy in Denmark.
In the United States Larson has covered everything from snake handlers in Appalachia and diets that relieve epilepsy in children, to ecstasy dealers and the 2008 Presidential Campaign. John lives with his wife and children in San Diego, CA.