McCarthy graduated from Columbia Journalism School in May 2025 with a master in journalism. CAROLINE MCCARTHY/COURTESY
Mary Haley Senior Write
After only three years of post-graduate life from Manhattan University (MU), Caroline McCarthy ‘23 is back at MU as an adjunct instructor.
The alumna is teaching news production for social media, a four-hundred-level class in the communication department, which is a course structured to simulate a professional, fast-paced digital newsroom.
Each week, students are divided into teams with defined roles such as journalists, media producers and media planners. Given that class time only runs once a week, they must submit a written news story and a corresponding short-form video that gets published on the class’s live website and social media. The class operates on both TikTok and Instagram accounts using the shared username @mu.report. Additionally, during the class time, they review the content, examine analytics and discuss what could be improved in terms of storytelling, formatting and strategy to reach and grow an audience from a new account.
After graduating, McCarthy worked for the New York Post as a digital producer and sportswriter, reporting on the progress of many teams and events, ranging from the WNBA, MLB, to the 2024 Olympics and U.S. Open. She then earned her Master of Science in journalism at Columbia Journalism School, only a few miles south of her previous alma mater.
Shortly after graduating from Columbia’s J-School in May, she became a general assignment reporter at POLITICO, covering the New York City mayoral race. The role required frequent travel between boroughs as she followed candidates on the campaign trail.
While starting at MU as an adjunct professor, McCarthy will also begin as a reporter at Citywire.
“I would have days [at POLITICO] where I stepped foot in each borough in one day, just following [each candidate] around,” McCarthy said. “To have had a front row seat for that was amazing.”
During her time at MU, McCarthy was a communication major with a concentration in journalism and a marketing minor. She was heavily involved in campus publications, holding multiple editorial positions on The Quadrangle’s masthead and producing Lotus magazine issues, Vivacious and Eclectic, as editor-in-chief her senior year. McCarthy credits her career success to many of her involvements at MU.
“When I was on the dance team, we talked about the grit of being a [MU] student,” McCarthy said. “You work really hard at this school. You’re commuting into [Manhattan] every day for internships. You’re fighting a little bit harder than a lot of other people you know that went to college. It’s just a different environment. All the opportunities that [MU] gives you, and all the opportunities to work as hard as you do, prepares you so much more for the real world.”
Since returning to MU as an instructor, an entirely different role than as a student just three years ago, the experience has offered a unique perspective. Many of her students now are people she worked with previously in student clubs or in classes.
“I’m not really seeing [the University] in different eyes yet, maybe when I don’t know anybody I will,” McCarthy said. “Right now, it kind of feels like I’m getting up and giving a presentation but it is every class, and it’s just me for three hours.”
Avril Celada Miro, a junior business major and an exchange student from Barcelona, has been studying at MU since the fall 2025 semester. Celada Miro does not have plans to go into the reporting industry, but she finds it easy to connect with the course, emphasizing the importance of media literacy and content creation for marketing. She spoke with The Quadrangle about how the class encourages students to think critically about how news is produced, along with developing skills she considers relevant in any business setting.
“Although it doesn’t seem useful for my degree, I think it’s really useful because it teaches you different information about news,” Celada Miro said. “It’s really useful for creating content, because for any business, it’s really important to have a good marketing department that knows how to promote your business, and also that knows how to communicate the adequate messages to its customers.”
Celada Miro and her team completed their first project about the Closing of Fenwicks Pub, a bar frequented by many Jaspers. She served as media producer for the production of the story. While being an exchange student, the subject matter was especially interesting to report on, as someone who had never been to Fenwicks Pub before.
“I learned that it [was] a really famous pub where it was a tradition to go there,” Celada Miro said. “So it was interesting to investigate and gather information about it. Those are [details] that I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t taken such a subject or worked on this project.”
Real-life, hands-on experiences are a central part of McCarthy’s teaching approach, and she regularly invites guest speakers, many of whom are alumni of MU’s communication department. Molly Callahan ’25 visited the class as a guest speaker during last week’s Tuesday night session.
Callahan, who is now an associate videographer and editor at Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (MSGS), creates and edits content for teams like the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers. Callahan graduated this past May with her Bachelor of Arts in communication with a concentration in media production and a films studies minor. Her presentation to the class as a guest speaker revolved around her day-to-day schedule at MSGS and general tips for getting internships and jobs in her industry.
“It’s a class that I wish was available when I was a student,” Callahan said. “I absolutely would have taken it. I think that [McCarthy] teaches things that I definitely do at my job, and it’s definitely real-world stuff that she’s teaching that’s useful. I was impressed with it.”