2023 – Summer

Journalistic Inquiry: The Written Word (Session 2)

Course Number: SS2: JOUR-UA 101.001

Day & Time: Tuesday 9:00am-5:00 pm

Location: 20 Cooper Sq. or TBD

Syllabus: Download

Albert Class Number: 2458

Prerequisite: Expository writing or the equivalent. If you are visiting student and are interested in taking this course, please email journalism.summer@nyu.edu to find out whether this prerequisite can be waived. You will be asked to provide information about your previous journalism experience.

This course will teach you reporting by doing reporting around New York City one full day a week. Join me on six Tuesdays this summer where you’ll learn the fundamentals of news reporting in the morning and then hit the streets on deadline assignments to interview locals and tourists. Each week will feature a field trip, whether we head downtown and over to the Staten Island Ferry, up to the East 50s to hop on the Roosevelt Island tram or stroll through the Union Square Farmer’s Market and interview farmers and makers, browsers and bakers.

After all, the only way to learn journalism is by doing journalism and that’s what we will do in this course. The goal is to give you as much research, reporting and writing as we can pack into a 6-week session. You will learn how to produce journalism—tell stories—in a number of different forms: as hard news stories, as feature articles, as blog posts, and as a Tweet or an Instagram or a Snapchat. You will be writing at least one and often two pieces a week.

Using New York City as the classroom, you’ll have an adventure in the process. You will interview strangers, travel unknown city streets, attend media events, meet newsmakers and encounter some only-in-New York characters.

You will be required to set up your own website to publish your work and use social media accounts to share with a wider audience. By August you will have a professional online portfolio with news stories and features, audio, photos and video to help launch your personal journalism brand.

Notes: Required for the journalism major and both journalism minors.

If you are a non-NYU student and are interested in taking this course, please email journalism.summer@nyu.edu to find out whether this prerequisite can be waived. You will be asked to provide information about your previous journalism experience.