2021 – Fall

The Beat: Reporting Black America (Print/Online track)

Course Number: JOUR-UA 201, section 3

Day & Time: Thu | 2:00 PM – 5:40 PM

Location: 20 Cooper Square, room 653

Prerequisites: Journalistic Inquiry: The Written Word JOUR-UA 101

We are going to do ground level, pound the pavement beat reporting on Black America.

Black Lives Matter, police shootings, stop and frisk, racism, violence murder and incarceration dominates the news cycle. But being Black in America is so much more.

There are 46.8 million people who identify as Black in the United States, and the population is growing.

Black people are diverse. Many are descendents of slaves, others are recent immigrants, from immigrant families or multiracial. Black people trend younger. One in four are Gen Z and use social media for social activism. A growing share of Black people have college degrees. That number has doubled since 2000. Black political leadership is growing and changing how many view black lives.

There are so many stories to tell. We will let history and present day inform our journalism. Each of you will choose a topic under this very large umbrella and go hard. Class time will be us exploring and learning about Black America and how we can best tell these stories. And if news breaks, prepare to cover it. The best way we, as journalists, can stop hate and ignorance is to write stories that tell the whole truth of Black life in America. So from neighborhoods to protests, to churches and mosques, barber shops and subway stops, we will be there. We will speak to the elderly, the young, LGBTQ, the disabled, the moms and dads, the college grads and high school dropouts, the activists, the lawyers and the recently incarcerated, the teachers of classrooms and those who teach with a bullhorn.

We will report the truth.

Notes: Required for students pursuing the Print/Online track in the journalism major and the Minor in Print and Online Journalism. Counts as an elective for the Minor in Broadcast and Multimedia Journalism.

Questions? Email undergraduate.journalism@nyu.edu.