Student Spotlight: Murphy McFarlane

Murphy McFarlane likes to push herself. A determination to perfect her craft of visual storytelling has produced several impressive achievements, like winning a prestigious Hearst Journalism Award and completing a photography project in the Alexia Fall Workshop at the Newhouse School.  

But what McFarlane considers her proudest accomplishment is a documentary that gave voice to struggles against environmental injustice shared by two communities separated by more than 1,600 miles.  

McFarlane was heavily involved in producing “A Tale of Two Cities: Reclaiming Niagara Falls and Salinas,” a project that resulted from an innovative collaboration between students at Newhouse and the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico, with limited financial and equipment support from Canon U.S.A.  

The documentary, which captured life in communities in western New York and Puerto Rico, tapped into McFarlane’s interests as a dual major in geography and photography with an emphasis in cinematography, and her desire to focus on stories about the effects of climate change. 

“Being able to produce and edit stories that center on environmental justice and amplify voices that often are not heard is work I know I can be proud of,” she said. 

Milton Santiago, an assistant professor of visual communications, led the Newhouse contingent on the project. McFarlane helped to produce, edit and conduct research. She sat in on the student panel when the film premiered at Newhouse in September 2024 and traveled to Puerto Rico to promote the film with students from Sagrado.  

It was “a major achievement and an overwhelming experience that I am extremely grateful for,” she said. 

McFarlane was originally drawn to Newhouse’s renowned journalism programs when she was looking at colleges while growing up in her hometown of Chicago. She started as a magazine, news and digital journalism major in August 2020, but “I knew after taking COM 117 that I needed to be behind the camera,” she said. “I wanted to do both journalism and film.” 

That led McFarlane to switch into the visual communications program at Newhouse.  
 
Little did McFarlane know, that switch would result in her being the first student to take classes, like Nonfiction Video Storytelling, in Newhouse’s new—and at the time still unofficial—cinematography track. The track officially launched in 2023 for both visual communications and television, radio and film majors at Newhouse. Fueled by her passion for behind-the-camera work and desire for professional growth, McFarlane collaborated with Santiago and provided feedback on the still-developing curriculum.  

“Coming into a program that hasn’t been built yet, and being the only student going along this trajectory was very difficult at times, but Professor Santiago was always there to answer any questions or offer equipment, and help me really grow and develop my films to be the best that they can be,” she said.

One of those films was a documentary made last fall titled “Full Circle,” chronicling a Central New York farmer and her family who produce meat and poultry sustainably. The work earned McFarlane notoriety including first-place honors in the 2023 Hearst Journalism Awards Multimedia Narrative competition and the Associated Collegiate Press Awards, as well as placing third at the White House News Photographer Association. 

The experience of attending the Hearst National Journalism Awards Championship in San Francisco last June was “life-changing.” 

“Just being there, with the ability to meet a ton of peers and professionals was rewarding,” she said. “I felt honored and inspired to be pushed to create a story like never before.”  

In last fall, she found herself challenged during the Newhouse Alexia Fall Workshop, where students are coached by industry professionals and alumni to create multimedia projects.  

McFarlane, who gravitates towards telling stories through video, was encouraged by her coaches Lauren Steel and Lynn Johnson to do a still photography story on a sport fisherman and hunter in Baldwinsville, New York, where the workshop took place. Leaving her comfort zone paid off. 

“If I don’t challenge myself, I am never going to grow. Now I know I am capable of making a still photo story and being proud of it,” she said. 

McFarlane encountered a different challenge last spring after suffering a concussion serious enough that she delayed graduation and took a couple more semesters to finish her degree program. Although she didn’t take part in the May 2024 convocation ceremony, she was named a Newhouse Scholar in 2024 and honored with the Dr. Frank Meola Photography Prize.  

After Newhouse, McFarlane is considering pursuing documentary production work in Chicago. She knows she wants to continue to pursue passion projects around climate education and social justice issues.  

“It is going to be hard to leave but I am excited to see what the future holds,” she said. “Newhouse has been a really amazing community, and I feel like I’ve been impacted by almost every professor here, along with students.”