2024 - Spring

Elective Reporting Topics: Investigating Injustice

Course Number: JOUR-UA 204.003

Day & Time: Tue | 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Location: 20 Cooper Square, Room 657

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

Unjustified police shootings. White nationalist marches. Church burnings and defaced mosques. Campus protests. Journalists have long played a critical role in exploring and exposing issues of racial injustice, but they have also perpetuated stereotypes and have even incited racial violence. In this course, students will gain the tools to report on racial justice issues while gaining a deeper understanding of the historical roots of our racial divide. Students will investigate racial killings from the early 1900s and report on contemporary bias crimes in New York City. Students will also practice pitching their stories and learn how to use social media for reporting and promoting their work. We will analyze historical media coverage for racial bias and turn the lens on contemporary coverage and on ourselves so that we can produce more accurate and thoughtful content. This course provides students with experience in mining government and archival records, reporting on criminal justice and developing skills in critical media analysis and reporting on sensitive subjects.

Notes: Counts as an elective for the journalism major and both journalism minors.