Carlin Romano, a lecturer at the Annenberg School, was named a Nieman Fellow for 2017 by the John S. Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation offers fellowships for projects seeking innovation ideas in journalism. Mr. Romano is among 11 fellows this year.

Mr. Romano, who holds a JD from Columbia Law, will adapt the pro bono model of clinical legal work to the world of journalism. In this model, journalists would commit a certain number of hours a month to helping those unable or afraid to bring important stories they know about to the media.

“Journalists traditionally think they’re already operating pro bono 100 percent of the time by doing their day jobs. That may be true of brave investigative journalists like the late Wayne Barrett. But critics, gossip columnists, and your average feature writer? Not so much,” said Mr. Romano.