Transcript title

News Reporting and Writing II

Credits

3

Grading mode

Standard letter grades

Total contact hours

30

Lecture hours

30

Recommended preparation

J 216.

Course Description

A continuation of J 216 with emphasis placed on building on basic skills to report and write more complex stories, develop investigative stories, write editorials, and achieve a broader grasp of communication law.

Course learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate journalistic habits of mind and news judgment to identify and report on stories within and outside of beat reporting.
2. Employ advanced interviewing skills that tease out underlying causes of an issue in order to have a nuanced understanding of a story.
3. Create articles using journalistic skills such as interviewing, researching, critical thinking, and writing to investigate and write about stories that are complex, may be embedded within other stories and may be of broad concern to the community.
4. Develop fact-based arguments on news-related subjects with sound reasoning, context, and historical background.
5. Explain and apply the skills and responsibilities of a journalist in the context of communication law, such as libel, slander, privacy, etcetera.
6. Explain and analyze the changes in journalism over time, including the study of historical journalists and the emergence of online media.
7. Reflect on and analyze one’s choices in relation to journalistic standards and ethics.

Content outline

1. Foundational readings in ethics
2. Best non-fiction narrative journalism
3. Feature story
4. In-depth news/enterprise story
5. “Beat” reporting story
6. Readings and discussions on the state of the craft as it is practiced

Required materials

Required textbook.

General education/Related instruction lists

• Arts and Letters