This course explores intelligent design, stem cells, drug discovery, reproductive rights, FDA approval process, global warming, urban health policy, medicare and medicaid, intellectual property, technology and privacy, science and the budget, science and the courts.

Ideological arguments about issues such as abortion, the separation of Church and State, immigration, and gay marriage, dominate the headlines and airwaves. But are the people covering these stories experts? Do they even know where to go to get real expert opinions? Can anyone cover these stories without being overly opinionated themselves or without offending someone? This course will introduce students to the current ideological discourse, or lack thereof, in the news media. Specific beats will be assigned, and the students will learn how to write stories for print and radio media. Readings include Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America by James Davison Hunter; Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Great Questions in Politics Series) by Fiorina, Abrams & Pope, and Religion in the News : Faith and Journalism in American Public Discourse (Paperback) by Stewart M. Hoover, among others.

Using New York City's many art galleries, music clubs, theaters and performance spaces as laboratories, students will experiment with different ways of reporting and writing about the arts. Each student will choose a specialized cultural beat to concentrate on—contemporary art, for example, or modern dance or hip hop or performance—then set out to explore what is current in the field. Who are some of the most compelling artists? What trends are beginning to emerge? What kind of work is being privileged? What kind of work is being ignored? Emphasis will be placed on coming up with fresh story ideas and developing them into fully researched, fully reported articles.

Students will report on one of the most fascinating aspects of New York: its stunningly diverse people. The goal is learning how to craft strong, captivating stories featuring classic New York characters and settings - with emphasis upon resourceful newsgathering and interviewing; responsible presentation of facts and events; vivid character development, color and detail; coherent structure, impeccable mechanics, and artful language. Students will be required to write four short features profiling local individuals, groups, venues, and/or institutions, with a fifth (longer, more in-depth) piece as their final. Through field trips, guest speakers, in-class exercises, readings, lecture and discussion, students will be encouraged to not only strengthen their reporting/writing skills, but also to broaden their perspectives about the varied cultural/socioeconomic milieus of their subjects. These New Yorkers may be "ordinary folks" or luminaries, individuals who are extremely successful in their fields or who are struggling to overcome serious challenges, born-and-bred New Yorkers or part of the immigrant tapestry that lends color and vibrancy to our city.

Faith: It's arguably the most powerful driving force in the world today. It's also compelling local news in New York City, when Sikh subway workers fight City Hall for the right to wear turbans, Harlem churches push for a living wage or mosque attendees debate the validity of female imams. Each student will select a beat -- one religion in NYC today (Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, Buddhism, etc.); or a geographic area (religious life on the Lower East Side, religion in Chinatown, immigrant religious communities of Astoria).

In a world where low-carb foods are good one week and bad the next and where yesterday’s miracle cure suddenly becomeS today’s latest product recall, health reporting matters more than ever. In this course, we’ll read and talk about the issues health reporters face and then hit the streets, investigating topics from “healthy” fast foods to chronic disease. We’ll spend time in a busy emergency room doing on-the-scene reporting and we’ll visit the Ronald McDonald House to learn how to interview sick patients.

You’ll also choose your own health beats based on your interests, whether fitness classes offered at Equinox or new treatments for AIDS. Whatever you opt to study, you’ll do in-depth reporting and researching, including a final piece that looks at a health trend that can make a difference in a reader’s life.

We’ll read pieces written by such distinguished health and science reporters as Natalie Angier, Mary Duenwald and Gina Kolata and required reading will include weekly reading of the Science Times.

You don't have to be a player to be a great entertainment reporter. In the end, what matters is your skill in scoping out relevant people and information. Learn from a former Daily News gossip columnist the secrets of covering the city scene like a pro. Whatever your interest—music, nightlife, fashion, Hollywood or the arts—there are certain hard-nosed skills that can set you apart from the rest of the soft news pack. We explore this surprisingly complicated and nuanced segment of journalism with the help of guest speakers, reading assignments and most importantly, by going out there and getting real stories.

With stock market volatility and millions of Americans facing uncertain financial prospects in their youth, middle age and Golden Years, perhaps no journalism beat has more relevance than business news. The terms and lingo can seem daunting at first, but it's a financial reporter's job to make it crystal clear and put it in a useful context for your audience. In this class, learn how to find meaningful feature and spot news business stories, research, report, write and produce them. By the end of the class, you will be able to write a range of business stories, including the government's monthly inflation and employment reports, quarterly corporate earnings, mergers and acquisitions and personal finance. You will also learn how to turn potentially dry stories into interesting, entertaining and informative ones. The business beat can't be beat, so join it!

TV or Radio field reporting. Students learn location reporting skills, including interviewing and editing. Students work in small groups, and at term's end, each student produces a three-minute final project. There is a four-hour lecture and a three-hour production lab.

In this class we will cover how to research, write, report and produce news stories for various television outlets. Tape assignments will emphasize story structure and journalistic value. Your final project will be on a topic of your choice, with approval from the professor. Reading assignments will require written responses. Working in teams students will produce four field reports on community news, health, personal profiles and the final project in an area of student interest. Class lectures will teach the craft of TV reporting, thinking visually, field problem solving as well as the role of journalists in democracy.

This course focuses on the theories and practices of advanced radio journalism production and presumes that students have the basic skills of audio production and reporting. A wide variety of projects are intended to develop students' ability to produce, conceive and write radio feature stories, news wraps, and other radio news pieces of various lengths. Class lectures and discussions are also designed to get students to think comprehensively about radio feature production, to understand that technical proficiency and thematic clarity go hand in hand in developing features and/or documentaries for radio. In essence, the class discussions and listening sessions are intended to advance students' appreciation of quality radio productions in order to produce for existing formats, as well as to broaden the possibilities in a creative and critical fashion. Students will gain competency in researching topics, developing pre- production strategies, arranging and conducting interviews, and doing in-the-field sound gathering, as well as writing fluid scripts, editing interviews and structuring pieces. Technical emphasis will be placed on digital editing, mixing, and post-production, multi- track mixing, and remote field recording.

In On The Road in the City, students will go on a series of journeys throughout the city in search of snippets of ordinary life that say something extraordinary about the city and humanity. In the process, students will be in pursuit of the seeds of cultural change. The mission and challenge will be to present those seeds and portraits of life with prose that gives the reader a sense of making the same discoveries. You will also read three books that employ "road" journalism in different ways. The semester will culminate in your own major project that will require you to journey with a social or cultural world of New York.

This course is designed to give students first-hand experience covering an election the way a news organization would: with a team of reporters assigned to specific beats with regular news meetings and internal critiques. The professor acts as the managing editor in charge of assignments and would be responsible for the totality of the coverage.

Reporters will be assigned to specific campaigns and/or candidates including but not limited to the U.S. Senate, governor and attorney general races. Stories will include: campaign financial records, campaign advertising critiques, and actual campaign events such as state nominating conventions and debates. The team also would include at least two reporters assigned to cover the way the campaign is portrayed by both mainstream and alternate media in New York City. They would be responsible for the type of articles that might appear in a journalism review.

Boy or Girl? It's the first question asked about who we are -- and today what that means is up for grabs as social, cultural and scientific revolutions influence our most deeply held beliefs and behaviors. In this course, students will report from the front lines of these most private and public questions, developing story ideas, researching and writing about women's issues, gay rights, bisexual and transgender movements, sex and youth, pornography and the sex trade, reproductive rights, STDs and public health policy.

This course is for students who want to try their hand at investigative reporting in New York City, learning to mine documents and official records for exclusive stories.

Like any neighborhood, Brooklyn's Park Slope has its issues: There is frantic development on its once low-rise western side, and a growing grocery-store rivalry. Also, like most neighborhoods in New York and elsewhere, Park Slope is many neighborhoods. There are the yuppies in their brownstones, the twentysomethings in their shared apartments and at the Fifth Avenue bars, the nation's largest lesbian community, the old-timers who resent the arrivistes. There are the teens, the offspring of the yuppies, whose Park Slope is far different from their parents' and the twentysomethings'. Any one of these broadly defined "neighborhoods" may be grist for a great story. In this course, we will scout out such possibilities throughout the five boroughs of New York City, from Tottenville to Stuyvesant Town. Thinking hard about what makes a rich story, we will then select one topic, dive deeply into it through reporting and research, and produce an incisive 3,000 word article.

This is a hands-on course designed as a real broadcast newsroom experience, combining all the elements that go into putting together a thirty minute television newscast. Emphasis is placed on story selection, story placement, writing and reporting. You'll also be involved with the production side which includes functions such as directing, floor managing and operating various types of studio and control room equipment. Those of you interested in on-air experience will have opportunities to anchor the newscast or one of its specialized segments. Students work a full day to put together the newscast which will air live on the NYU cable system. In addition, many of the broadcasts will be streamed on the web. Once I've shown you the basics, you'll produce a newscast every week straight through the end of the semester. We'll start with a couple of dry runs... then on week four we'll begin sending the broadcasts out live to the cable system.

All students will do a field reporting rotation and be required to complete three stories: one topic of the week, one day of air and one well researched in-depth story. TV Reporting is a prerequisite for this class. The newscast will include certain specialized segments, some of which will air each week and others which will air often but not always. For example, an arts and entertainment segment and a sportscast will be regular parts of the format. A business report, a commentary and a live interview will be included in some, but not all, of the newscasts.

Like many television stations around the country, we subscribe to CNN's Newsource service which gives us access to video of significant events around the world. These cuts come in live throughout the day as news breaks and we decide which ones are appropriate for the evening's newscast. We then process the selected cuts and integrate them into the broadcast. As in a professional news operation, our stories will be current and accurate. Our sources include the Associated Press newspaper wire and various internet news sources. Our own reporters will develop sources at NYU and around New York City for stories of special interest to our audience. At the conclusion of each week's class we'll critique our work...examining everything from quality of reporting to story selection and writing to anchor presentation and production values.

SPECIFICS: Students assigned to the four week reporting rotation will ordinarily come in at about 9:30am (you won't always have to stay until 9:00). Those students putting together the newscast itself will come in at 1:30. We go on the air from 8:00-8:30 and wind up at 9:00, following our critique. As for grades -- you'll be evaluated on how well you perform your duties each week, how effectively you work with others, and how often you do even more than is expected of you. As a journalist you will stay current on national, world and regional stories of significance.

Prerequisites: None

Why do we think that way? What do we mean by "women" and "men"? If you were a visiting anthropologist from Mars, how could you use our culture's media to understand our ideas about gender? Women & the Media is a collaborative seminar that examines the complex relationship (or different contradictory relationships) between those humans we call "women" and those forms of discourse we call "media." We will consider women both as subjects and objects, as artists and models, as creators of "media" in its many forms and as media's creations. What does our culture's "media" tell us about how we read gender? What, if anything, does our gender tell us about our readings of "media"? Student participation in this seminar is key: students are expected to attend all sessions, to complete all the reading (there's lots of reading!), to participate actively in discussion, and to lead one of the class sessions themselves. Leading a class means opening the day's conversation with a presentation, critiquing and elaborating on the assigned reading, bringing in additional relevant material, and suggesting questions or issues that seem particularly interesting or troublesome. The purpose of the course is to develop our critical and self-critical faculties as journalists, media critics, consumers of media, and women or men; to think clearly, challenge our pet assumptions, and have fun.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

Demographics alone suggest that America is a different thing than it was just a few years ago. A shifting racial and ethnic makeup has cast the discussion of how news organizations cover minorities in a near-holographic glow, ever-changing. It is the purpose of this lecture course to dissect and understand the constellation of factors that influence coverage, including the Civil Rights movement, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the growing disparity between haves and have-nots, politics, ethics, economics and the mores of the modern print, broadcast and internet newsrooms. We will examine the myriad ways that people, places and whole issues are tagged with labels and become caricatures. We will move beyond conventional wisdom, beyond simply finding fault, to achieve our most important goal -- to arrive at ideas and solutions for richer, more illuminating and precise coverage.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

Completion of "Journalism Ethics and First Amendment Law" (V54.0502) prior to taking this course is highly recommended. Successor course to Journalism Ethics and First Amendment Law. Provides students with an understanding of the need to balance absolute freedoms of speech and press with other societal rights. Students study key court cases, statutes, and administrative rules in the areas of defamation, privacy, access to information, broadcast regulation, and journalists' protection of confidential sources, along with the government's use of prior restraint to protect national security, the role of the FTC in protecting the public from false and deceptive commercial speech, and the balance between a free press and a fair trial.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

Completion of "Journalism Ethics and First Amendment Law" (V54.0502) prior to taking this course is highly recommended. Contemporary and historical look at the way in which the American mass media cover the American political process. Special attention to coverage of the White House, the executive agencies, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, conventions, campaigns, and elections. Examines the Washington press corps, the press conference, the press secretary, and governmental secrecy for their impact on the quality of coverage. During election periods, evaluation of media coverage of candidates for high office.

In this course, students will explore the visions of American social, cultural and political life and upheaval by way of the travelogue. We will read four major pieces of on the road writing and students will be required to write a short essay on each book. In addition, students will be required to select a writer—not on the list—and perform a major explication of the writer's "on the road" work. The final product will be an oral presentation and written paper. We will read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed; William Least's Heat Moon and Blue Highways; John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, In Search of America, and Walt Whitman's Memoranda During War.

The vast majority of Americans still get their news from television despite the Internet and mobile devices such as Blackberry and cell phones. While these devices are ubiquitous, they have not replaced our traditional media as news channels to the masses. But our traditional media have changed dramatically partly as a result of new technologies but also as a result of the way broadcasting is viewed by our political leaders and the public in general. All it takes is one evening watching television to make it clear that the lines between news and entertainment, or infotainment as Neil Postman called it, are becoming increasingly blurred. This course examines the history of broadcast news from a critical perspective, to help students understand what broadcast news once meant in America and what it means today. The primary focus of the course is television news with a secondary emphasis on contrasting broadcasting systems, including radio, in other countries with those of the United States.

History of Media uses a history of previous forms of communications -- from languages, images, writing, and print to photography, the telegraph, film and radio -- to gain perspective on the current communications revolution. The course pays particular attention to the effect of different media on ways of thinking, politics, social patterns and on the nature of news.

Overview of the process and effects of communication as they are studied through the theories and methods of the social sciences. Emphasis on the components of the communication process and the effects of the mass media. Studies nonverbal, interpersonal group, organizational, and mass communication. Students develop a working knowledge of the key concepts, approaches, and findings of the study of communication.

Journalism is often the first step towards a life of professional storytelling. Newspaper stories, magazine pieces, scripts, books, ad copy, radio and TV writing, are all based on solid journalistic principle. With that in mind, this course has one goal: teach the basic structure of first person writing. Emphasis is on reporting, then telling what you saw with clarity. We will focus on cutting the fat out of writing, getting to the bone, the nub, by learning to work the finite details of what you report -- what you actually see or think you see -- into a story that has length, power, and accuracy, told from your perspective.

No computers in this class. No iPods, no taping lectures, no slam poetry, no meandering first person accounts. Bring a pencil and a yellow legal pad. Any motivated student with good pair of walking shoes and an interest in writing is welcome. Students will be expected to wander the city as reporters with specific assignments, then come back and write about what they have experienced. Reading list includes Dispatches by Micheal Herr, Beyond the Game, by Gary Smith, and A Nietzsche Reader translated by R.J. Hollingdale, and a Marvel comic book to be selected later.

A course that blends the practical aspects of technical editing with the critical thinking and craftsmanship needed to structure and polish stories till they shine. If you love to tweak a single sentence until it is absolutely clear, true and elegant, and enjoy deconstructing a feature story to truly understand how it was shaped, this is the class for you! The first half of the semester will focus on the micro elements of editing: from proofreading to punctuation, to grammar and usage. The second half of the semester will focus on the macro elements of editing: from line editing to cutting meaty stories in half to fit the space. Publication tone, house voice and writer's voice will be discussed in depth. Students will also gain experience writing headlines and captions. Other assignments include editing the interview, editing humor pieces, and re-structuring articles that just don't work. Students will learn how to think like editors and shape and tweak stories analytically as well as technically.

Top editors from the best magazines will speak to the class about navigating a career in magazines and working one's way up the masthead. Prof. Jill Dearman developed the in-house Style Guide for book publishers Simon and Schuster. She has edited film reviews for Video Hound, TV Guide, and the Video Sourcebook. As an arts and culture reporter Dearman's stories have been published in New York Daily News, Time Out New York, Punk and numerous other publications. Dearman's literary essays about New York City have recently appeared in Mr. Beller's Neighborhood.

Completion of "The Beat" (V54.0201) prior to taking this course is highly recommended. The Profile: Editors love them. Practically every publication — be it fluffy, artsy or serious — uses profiles. It’s a format journalists must master. The profile taps all key journalism skills — interviewing, observing, developing good anecdotes, researching, finding strong story ideas, structuring material and writing.

The writing assignments will be extensive. Students will profile a NYU newsmaker, undertake a “write-around” and write a publishable full-life profile that will require visits with the subject and interviews with family and colleagues. This class will staff BULLPEN, a student-written webzine on world-renowned journalists who speak at NYU. Each student will write three BULLPEN articles — a backgrounder, a profile of the speaker and coverage of that journalist’s lecture. Also students will turn in extensive background research, participate in interview exercises, master “The Get,” that is landing that hot interview in the first place and write the perfect pitch letter. The class will feature guest writers from major news outlets. See BULLPEN

Here's your chance to work for NYU's own international news service: Livewire. Students in this course will conceive, report and write news feature articles for publication, on subjects young people want to read about -- from up-and-coming artists to new trends in politics to consumer issues and the challenges of living in and outside of mainstream America. Students should be prepared to file frequent stories on firm deadlines, go through intensive revisions and edits, and aim to get pieces picked up by Livewire subscribers.

Students in this class can assemble an impressive array of clips published in the university's print and online newspaper, The Washington Square News. Our territory is NYU and beyond, where we'll delve deeply into beats of our own choosing, such as cultural life, social/sexual life, technology, religion, politics, architecture and history. Mirroring the experience of being an on-staff features writer at a newspaper or magazine, we'll cultivate key sources on our beats, brainstorm and research feature ideas, pitch stories in editorial meetings, then write articles and undergo the editing process. Nearly every student gets at least one piece published in either the print or online edition of the WSN; some get more than five. Circulation for the paper is 25,000 but your work can find a much larger audience, as media bloggers, radio stations and editors nationwide have picked up our pieces. What's more, many WSN articles are distributed nationwide via U-Wire, which is syndicated to professional media outlets such as NYTimes Digital. We'll also study the work of and host several guest speakers.

Principles and methods of magazine editing and production. Includes practical training and instruction in editorial work such as editing stories, layout, proofreading, planning issues, and desktop publishing. The main assignment is a class project editing and designing the departmental magazine, Manhattan South.

Learning from The Best To Be The Best is a survey of some of the most entertaining and well-written literary journalism of the last two centuries. We will read these articles and book excerpts carefully - "deep reading," it is called - to discover how good writers take basic journalism and enliven it with literary technique. We want to catalog as much of that technique and structure as we can so that we can "steal it," appropriate the devices for our own work. Students will work in teams; each week a team will "present" the readings and incite a discussion with the rest of the class. There will be some three to five formal academic papers in which students will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of the material, and there will be a number of "creative" assignments as well. The main text for the course is an excellent anthology of non-fiction: The Art of Fact by Kerrane and Yagoda.

Additional Prerequisite: Honors Advanced Reporting (V54.0351)

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

Students develop their ability to analyze and critique a variety of arts, particularly theatre and other live performances. The course emphasizes discussion of the debates on art, politics, and cultural issues that provide the context for informed critical writing. Students take advantage of London's vibrant theatre, music, and art scenes and should expect to see two performances a week, hear a BBC Proms classical concert, and visit museums such as the Tate and the National Gallery.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

Seminar on current issues in journalism as seen from a global perspective, including such topics as the role of international news agencies, the influence of humanitarian agencies on newsgathering, photojournalism in a digital age, how local journalists report the news in countries without a First Amendment, and the risks of covering dangerous or traumatic stories. Looks both at international media and at U.S. media from an international point of view. Includes field trips and guest speakers.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry

The course focuses on combining the techniques of fiction with the rigor of journalistic travel reporting to produce stories that move beyond the constraints of the news and feature story: stories that engage, resonate with readers, provide insight - stories which "produce the emotion". The course proceeds by reading and analysis of contemporary journalism and classic travel pieces; careful examination of the narrative, fictional and literary devices used in travel writing; examination of and experience with various information gathering strategies; and consideration of the ethics of representation. Students will produce travel articles on deadline in several different styles and genres.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

Using the cultural life of Prague as its focus, students will learn to report on the diversity of cultural and artistic activity in the Czech capital in eight main areas—film, photography, literature, architecture, music, visual arts, travel, and literature. Several forms and techniques will be explored including news reports, interviews, reviews (film, literature, theater), feature stories, essays, and commentaries. During the course, students will learn not only about Prague's cultural landscape but they will be encouraged to examine it in various journalistic and literary forms. One of the leading aims of this course is also to introduce the students to extraordinary artists whose work has gained international attention.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry, The Beat

This course aims to give students a strong grounding in radio journalism and radio production and unlock the secrets of being a successful freelance stringer. Topics include: organization of a radio station, stringers and the industry, cultivating sources, writing the radio news dispatch, on-air voice and delivery, the technology of radio reporting, conducting the interview, press conferences, covering a news event, sound editing, producing the radio feature. During the semester students will write several news dispatches; record and edit a ten-minute interview; and write, edit, record and produce a radio feature story.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

A collaborative seminar designed to question the impact of various forms of media on "society" and various notions of society on "media." Students consider conventional and unconventional media in Central Europe—from the Financial Times to movies to fashion magazines-in an effort to interpret Central European culture. The key question is not "Is this text 'good'?" but "What does this text mean?"

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry

The course will focus on foreign reporting in American and British newspapers and journals (not wire, radio or television) from Evelyn Waugh's Scoop! to the present. How has foreign news in print evolved and what does it take to be a foreign correspondent today? History, extensive reading and guest lectures by contemporary foreign correspondents will bring context to the practical second half of the course in which the class will produce its own stories.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry

After the fall of Communism in 1989, the centralized command media systems had to be replaced with new open pluralistic media systems. Transformation of print media was relatively simple—it needed only deregulation (abolishing the administrative control of the state, abolishing censorship, opening the system up to free enterprise, etc.). Due to their nature and history, the transformation of radio and television was more complex and problematic—it required not only deregulation, but also re-regulation (rewriting the old laws, transforming the old government agencies into public corporations, delegating regulatory authority to non-governmental bodies, etc.). The course shall describe the history of transformation of the Czech media and analyze the existing media systems in post communist countries and their performances. Due to the lack of literature and printed sources in English language on the subject, the course will exploit internet sources pertaining to the topics.

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry or Instructor Permission

This class will explore the sociocultural and philosophical context of the media industry and the practice of mass communication in Africa in general, and Ghana in particular. This broad perspective will be examined against the background notion that the media do not function in a vacuum. Thus, students will examine how these contexts, informed by the dominant philosophies and macro-institutional practices of society, mitigate or even dictate the operations of the media. As a special focus, we will examine the significance of the liberalization of the airwaves in emerging democracies such as Ghana.