2018 - Fall

The Beat: TV NY Neighborhoods (Broadcast Track)

Course Number: JOUR-UA 201, Section 005

Day & Time: Monday 6:20pm-10:00pm

Location: 20 Cooper Square, room 750

Investigating Journalism, Journalistic Inquiry: The Written Word, Journalistic Inquiry: Multimedia

This course is designed to hone the student journalist’s ability to research and report deeply and to be able to imagine and develop fresh ideas, test them with the strength of his or her reporting and research, and then to present them in story form. Students will be expected to keep weekly beat notes or blogs, exploring what is current in the topic and demonstrating week after week the shoeleather they have worn in pursuit of their subject matter. Out of this work will come four or five stories in narrative, explanatory or investigative style, depending on the instructor and the specific assignment. Syllabi differ by content of the course but all sections emphasize idea development, interview technique, reporting, background research and writing skills across genres. Broadcast sections vary only by medium.

This course is designed to hone the student’s ability to research and report stories about the impact of the midterm elections on the intricate political milieu of New York City.

Students will work in teams of two and each team will be assigned a specific beat that could include the electorate of a neighborhood, a political organization, a campaign, a candidate, or the mainstream and fringe media’s coverage of the elections.

Each team will have to produce two stories about the elections. In addition to the two stories produced as a member of the team, each student is expected to produce three more individual stories related to the assigned beat.

Each student will be expected to maintain a blog with weekly updates on developments related to the assigned beat and their own progress in producing the stories.

This is a great opportunity to improve research and reporting skills, interviewing technique, shooting and editing packages that may be used on the NYU Now Election Webcast.