2024 - Fall

Advanced Reporting: New York City’s Housing Crisis(Print/Online track)

Course Number: JOUR-UA 301.001

Day & Time: Tue | 4:00 PM – 7:40 PM

Location: 20 Cooper Square, Room 743

Prerequisites: The Beat JOUR-UA 201 (Print/Online sections)

New York City faces the worst housing crises in the last 50 years with vacant units at a historic low, the influx of migrants overwhelming shelters, and homelessness on the rise. Throughout the semester, students will deeply immerse themselves in these issues as we learn and cover the city’s affordable housing crisis and widening economic inequality gap. Students will first learn and gain a deeper understanding about US housing policy; homelessness and the migrant crisis; protecting renters and improving access to housing to help establish their knowledge of their beat. We will spend the first few weeks reading and exploring the myriad of issues that you may wish to work on. Each week, class time will be devoted to varying degrees of research, reporting and writing, guest speakers, workshops and discussion. Each student will, in addition to assigned readings, select a book that provides background on their topic of interest. For example, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein; and Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Throughout this Capstone course, the emphasis will be on the development of students’ research, reporting and writing skills, culminating in a publishable long-form narrative piece. The course builds on the skills acquired in Inquiry and The Beat towards the mastery of query writing, research, interviewing, reporting and writing; and deep reading. In this section, students will produce two pieces: a 750- word article or Q&A with an expert and a 1,000-word story, as well as a one 3,000-word capstone feature article.

Notes: Required for students pursuing the print/online track in the journalism major. Counts as an elective for both journalism minors.