2016 - Fall

Reporting the Arts

Course Number: JOUR-GA 2034.001

Day & Time: Thursday, 6:00pm-9:40pm

Location: 652

Instructor: Patrik Henry Bass

This course will explore various skills and techniques necessary for arts reporting and criticism. Students will have an opportunity to report across the spectrum of creative expression including film, television, theater, dance, and music. The goal is to develop solid research and reporting skills to create compelling profiles, Q&As, cultural essays, and criticism. By the end of the semester students will have written two long-form profiles, created a blog with weekly reviews that range from avant-garde theater to commercially successful movie and television franchises. We will also read the work of outstanding arts reporters and cultural thinkers including Susan Sontag, Hilton Als, Joan Didion, Roger Ebert, Margo Jefferson, John Leonard, Pauline Kael, Edmund Wilson, Dorothy Parker, Robin Givhan, Tom Junod, and Jennifer Dunning. Each month we will have a guest lecture from cultural editors at national magazines based in New York City.