2026 - Spring

The Beat: The Sporting Life (Print/Online track)

Course Number: JOUR-UA 201.005

Day & Time: Mon 11:00am-2:40pm

Location: 20 Cooper Square

Syllabus: Download

Albert Class Number:

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

They say all politics is local, and the same is true of journalism. People are endlessly curious about local news. The focus of this course is one of the richest areas of local news: sports.

In this class, students serve as “sports correspondents” for New York City, exploring, reporting and writing about sports and fitness and related endeavors. The sports range from bowling to tennis to swimming to cycling to skateboarding to parkour to roller derby. There are axe throwing, bodybuilding and spin classes. Sports are not just for the physically fit, either. There are bar games like darts and pool, too. The sports envisioned by this course can be indoors or (as the weather warms) outdoors. They can be professional or amateur events or even pick-up games at the playground. They can be team endeavors or individual ones, and they can be fitness activities, too. Hot yoga, tai chi, Pilates — all are eligible areas.

The athletes or exercisers themselves are only part of the beat; there are also many activities related to sports or fitness. Students might profile a popular skateboard designer, or an avid collector of sport stars’ autographs. They might follow a band of obsessive college basketball fans who wear outlandish costumes to every game. They might report on an important volleyball game at Chelsea Piers, or visit one of the many pubs that serve as outposts for fans of out-of-town teams. (Green Bay Packer fans gather at Kettle of Fish in Greenwich Village, for example.)

Culturally diverse New York City offers a long menu of ethnic sports as well, from the Jamaican cricket players in Prospect Park to the elderly Italian men playing bocce in Little Italy. The city’s many schools are full of inspiring sports stories, too–the sophomore who is nationally ranked in fencing, the fabled basketball rivalry between two high schools.

Sports is a huge business, of course, so there is also, say, the former felon trying to launch a career as a personal trainer, or the shopkeeper who sells baseball memorabilia or gearless bikes or skateboards. Then there’s the guy who scalps tickets at Madison Square Garden.

Why are sports and fitness a good topic for a course? Because they are a major way that people socialize, from the creative street games that kids invent, to the running clubs founded by drug addicts trying to shake their addiction, to the bowling leagues that senior citizens join to stay healthy. In fact, sports and fitness encompass many major aspects of life: competition, passion, discipline, heartbreak, triumph, excitement, courage, failure, money.

More broadly, this course will use sports and fitness as a lens to examine the fundamentals of journalism, familiarize students with the concept of the beat, sharpen their reporting skills and scrutinize and practice the craft of writing.

Notes: Required for NYU 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.