2022 – Spring

The Beat: The Changing City (Print/Online track)

Course Number: JOUR-UA 201, section 3

Day & Time: Tue | 11:00 AM – 2:40 PM

Location: 20 Cooper Square, room 655

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

Students will cover New York City through the lens of gentrification and development, visiting neighborhoods in the five boroughs. The city is constantly evolving, from the Bronx down through Staten Island, presenting fresh story ideas all around us: Luxury condominiums displace working-class enclaves. Neighborhood demographics constantly change, with immigrant groups brushing up against one another.

This class will help you paint portraits of that changing landscape, covering everything from building to toxic waste cleanup, displacement, transportation and graffiti. The cast of characters students will interview range from real estate developers and housing advocates to neighborhood activists and pioneering artists.

Students will write five pieces including a Q&A, short features, a personal essay/op-ed, and a deeply researched and reported 2000-word article. Guest speakers will include top writers and editors in the field. One-on-one time with the professor will help to address individual writing problems and issues.

Notes: Required for students pursuing the print/online track in the journalism major. Also required for the minor in print and online journalism. Counts as an elective for the minor in broadcast and multimedia journalism.