2015 - Fall

The Beat: Reporting Downtown

Course Number: JOUR-UA 201, Section 003

Day & Time: Wednesday 3:30pm-7:10pm

Location: 20 Cooper Square, room 653

Prerequisites: Foundations, Inquiry

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 resarch, and then to present them in story form. Students will be expected to keep weeky 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.

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All semester long we will cover New York City from Riverdale to Far Rockaway. It’s government, its budgets, its elections its restaurants, courts, neighborhoods, healthcare, all are part of our portfolio.

From Day 1, we are metro reporters who will hone our craft covering the biggest and most vibrant municipality in the nation. You will learn to research report and write authoritatively on New York City and all its problems and issues.

This is not a lecture class per se, so you will be out covering stories all over the Big Apple and then bringing them back to write on deadline. I will stress the news feature which will require a good amount of reporting before a piece is turned in but don’t be surprised if you are asked to go cover something on our beat on deadline.

You will sharpen your interviewing techniques and learn to follow up breaking news with insightful analytical pieces to go to the heart of the issue. You will develop a keen eye for detail and your copy must reflect the details of each piece so readers are transported to the scene through your writing.

To be an effective metro reporter you must be a local news junkie, so scouring the big dailies is a must for this class, hence the New York Times, New York Daily News and the New York Post are must-reads before class. In addition to the free papers like AM New York and Metro.