2014 - Fall

WRRII – GloJo

Course Number: JOUR-GA 1022.001

Day & Time: Wednesday, 1:15pm-4:15pm

Location: 655

In WRR I, your focus was news reporting, “the backbone of every type of journalism,” to quote Professor Borst. You spent a good deal of time on the basics – on research methods, sourcing, interview technique, note-taking, story organization, grammar, style and deadlines, tapping the resources of this great city all the while. The downbeat was accurate and evocative reporting, solid research and reporting and lively, well-organized stories. Ethics, cultural awareness, news judgment, analytical skills development and other reporting considerations especially important in the global sphere figured heavily, as did your introduction to multimedia skills. In WRR II, we’ll have two alternating drumbeats meant to deepen, amplify, and enhance the skills you will need as working professionals. More work on all of the above plus a new heavy emphasis on voice and originality, analysis, descriptive acuity, long-form structure and exquisite narrative technique in both short turnaround and longer deadline assignments.

We will work in a three-week rhythm: Story assignment workshops and exercises one week; Thesis workshops the next; and Multimedia every third week. We will work in themes rather than ethnic neighborhoods as past WRR II classes have done. This is our conceit: We are correspondents based in New York City who cover the city not for the city, but for other locales. That could mean as a national reporter or as a reporter for a publication in another country. It’s the most basic notion of foreign corresponding: making the place you are reporting from come alive in a truthful, factual, engaging way to those who cannot be there or do not know it.

Open to GloJo students only.