Course Infomation

Advanced Reporting: Entrepreneurial New York, Fall 2012

Day(s): Mon 4:55pm-8:35pm

Location: 20 Cooper Square, room 652

Course ID: JOUR-UA 301, Section 004

Description

Prerequisites: Foundations, The Beat

This is the Capstone course. Subject matter varies from section to section, but the basic skeleton of the course is the same across sections: the emphasis is on development of the ability to produce writing and reporting within a sophisticated longform story structure. The course involves query writing, topic research and reading, interviewing, and repeated drafts and rewrites, leading to a full-length piece of writing aimed at a publishable level and the ability of the student to present the reporting orally.

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They’re young, they’re ambitious and they’ve gone rogue. In today’s fast-changing “flux” economy, entrepreneurs are forging a new way of creating, living and working, from techies and fashion designers to digital publishers and Off Broadway producers. In this course, you’ll report from the start-up front lines, choosing among topics such as: arts, fashion, food, green, social/activist entrepreneurship, and technology. You’ll learn to blend lively reporting on personalities and trends with the nuts and bolts of the money-side, from how to judge if a company is viable to assessing the competition. How do you separate braggarts, wannabes and vaporware from the real up-and-comers? How do you report what’s new in context of what’s been? How do you balance stylish prose and vivid creative content with business info? You’ll find out by sharpening your interviewing and reporting skills, while developing your own unique narrative voice in magazine style. To build up to your 3,000-word Capstone project, you’ll write shorter, related features including a trend report, quickie Q & A, mini profile, story query and your own “elevator pitch.” Interested students may also try first-person narratives on launching your own start up (or at least trying.) In the past, students have written about movers, shakers and up-and-comers in sour pickling, gaming, sneaker design, DJing, theatrical improv, artisanal cheese, top blogs, professional gambling, S&M, bartending school scams, restaurants from green to meat-centric, and much more.

Professor Bio: Jessica Seigel has covered arts, business and technology as a columnist and staffer for The Chicago Tribune, Brill’s Content and Pink Magazine. Her start-up, fashion, and tech coverage has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Marketplace Public Radio and NPR.