Class Schedule
Fall 2009
Monday
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Journalism of Ideas (Alterman) – Room 430
We will examine how journalism covers the role ideas play in our society. We will study how both intellectual journals and mainstream media profile individuals, arguments, and events in ways that illuminate intellectual trends. Students will write short “ideas” pieces and longer profiles of people and events. Guests will include distinguished practitioners of the craft, whose work we will discuss in class.
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Broadcast News Writing & Production (TBA) – Room 330
Broadcast students will learn to write news stories for radio and television in the five different formats used in broadcast news. Concentrated drills stress concise and conversational style for stories that run from 20 seconds to two minutes.
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism (Junnarkar) – Room 438
Students first assess how technology is changing journalism. They then learn the tools and techniques of interactive media. The goal: to learn the fundamentals of telling stories online using text, graphics, audio, video, and interactivity. Students will also use the tools of web logging and create their own blogs.
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Photojournalism (Smock) – Room 442
This course is designed to build on basic photo, audio, and visual storytelling skills introduced in Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism and other courses. It is a hands-on workshop in photojournalism and audio slideshow production. It will be taught using the School’s Canon RebelXTi dSLR cameras and Marantz 620/660 digital audio recorders. Students are responsible for several weekly assignments as well as two long-term projects.
- 12:30 – 3:20 p.m.
Legal and Ethical Issues (Freeman) – Room 442
Through a rigorous examination of court cases and ethical controversies, students will learn to anticipate, recognize, and properly address ethical and legal concerns in journalism.
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Legal and Ethical Issues (Rosenberg) – Room 308
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Legal and Ethical Issues (Hochberger) – Room 432
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Legal and Ethical Issues – (Tomlin) Room 330
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Criticism and the Arts (Mifflin) – Room 432
Students learn to write criticism of music, movies, and performing, visual, and interdisciplinary arts. These critical pieces range in length and style – from short reviews to indepth critical essays. Reading includes background pieces on the evolution of a given art form and criticism about it, as well as “touchstone” writings, old and new, that offer a standard of comparison for judging works of criticism. There will be reporting trips and outside speakers.
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Cross Cultural Reporting (Isabel) – Room 434
This course will provide students with in-depth training in reporting across cultural lines, the essence of international reporting. Students will immerse themselves in one or more of the many ethnic and national groups in large numbers here in New York. Learning customs, communication styles, political attitudes, family life and history, the students will cover these communities from the vantage point of international correspondents. The course will make ties to news and developments in the countries of origin. Through conversations with visiting correspondents and those in the field, students will get tips on covering other cultures and nationalities. Analysis of successful coverage and readings from accounts of reporters overseas will also feature prominently in the course.
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Covering New York’s Immigrant Communities (Moses) – Room 430
This course will teach students to cover critical social issues in New York City through the unique lens of ethnic communities. With 37 percent of the city’s population now foreign-born, journalists need to be able to navigate a variety of immigrant cultures in order to deliver fresh, compelling stories about education, housing, health, poverty, criminal justice and race relations, among others. This course will take advantage of the rich ethnic mix of New York to help students develop cross-cultural reporting skills and tell powerful, previously untold, stories that reveal much about the human condition.
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Health III: How the World Affects our Health (Lieberman) – Room 438
Here students begin to see how good health is more than just drugs prescribed by doctors. We examine how food, housing, poverty, work-related stress, transportation, and the environment affect health.
- 5:00 – 8:50 p.m.
Broadcast News Writing and Production (TBA) Room 330
- 5:00 – 8:50 p.m.
Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism (TBA) Room 436
- 5:00 – 7:50 p.m.
Investigative Reporting (Lehren) Room 440
This is an intensive capstone course that explores the advanced reporting, writing, organizational, analytical, and critical reasoning skills that are the foundation of investigative journalism for print and broadcast journalists. Using New York City as a laboratory, each student is assigned an investigative project. Some projects will require a team of two or three students. Every week students submit a detailed memo of progress. The goal: by the end of the semester each student or team will produce a 2,500 word investigative article or a 15-minute broadcast.
Tuesday
- 9:00 – 11:50 a.m.
Craft of Journalism (6 sections)
TBA – Room 430
TBA – Room 434
TBA – Room 432
TBA – Room 442
TBA – Room 436
TBA – Room 330
The foundation course for all students. Teaches the essential skills of researching, reporting and writing. Students will be assigned a neighborhood in New York and concentrate their reporting there for the semester. Students devote two days a week. The first day is spent in seminar and drill. The second day is spent reporting throughout New York. Frequent writing exercises and stories.
- 9:00 – 11:50 a.m.
Opinion Writing (Beinart) Room 446
Our democracy needs committed journalists who believe what they write can help their readers take a stand. Students will read and discuss editorials and columns, from the civil rights movement to the present, to discover what makes opinion writing effective. This is a writing-intensive class. We will write in an effort to open minds or change them about local, state, national, and international issues.
- 9:00 – 11:50 a.m.
Investigative Reporting (Arena) Room 448
- 2:00-4:50 p.m.
Craft of Journalism (6 sections)
Same sections/locations as morning sessions
- 2:00 – 4:50 p.m.
Interactive Journalism III (Junnarkar) Room 438
Working individually, students are expected to produce an in-depth feature that will serve as their Interactive capstone. This piece will bring together all the appropriate skills and tools acquired over the previous semesters to create a multilayered and well-reported Interactive feature.
- 2:00 – 4:50 p.m.
Narrative Journalism (G. Lewis) – Room 446
Students will explore the art and craft of long-form storytelling, writing their own 6,000-8,000-word pieces. They will study the techniques of nonfiction masters, enhance their skills of research and analysis, and write polished magazine articles based on character, plot, scene and dialogue. The lessons of this course also will translate into other major projects ranging from book proposals to multimedia presentations.
- 5:00 – 7:50 p.m.
Covering Companies (Mirabella) – Room 432
At the heart of any economy are companies, and covering them is the critical core of business journalism. Students learn how to interview executives, evaluate corporate strategies, analyze earnings reports, and understand the role of capital markets and investors. Students will select a single company to cover for the semester, which will serve as the basis for stories on strategy, earnings, governance, and the CEO.
- 6:00 – 8:50 p.m.
Covering New York’s Immigrant Communities (Arce) – Room 430
Students will explore the art and craft of long-form storytelling, writing their own 6,000-8,000-word pieces. They will study the techniques of nonfiction masters, enhance their skills of research and analysis, and write polished magazine articles based on character, plot, scene and dialogue. The lessons of this course also will translate into other major projects ranging from book proposals to multimedia presentations.
- 5:00 – 7:50 p.m.
Health II: How to Cover Medical Studies (Oransky) – Room 434
Each year more than 600,000 medical studies are published around the world. How do journalists decide what findings to report? Where do you find experts you can trust? How do you decipher statistics? How do you detect spin and conflicts of interest among medical professionals and researchers and provide context for your stories? In this course, you will get hands-on experience searching data bases such as Medline and the Dartmouth Atlas and learn how to translate data into understandable stories.
Wednesday
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
News Service (Hester, Williston) – Newsroom
Students who have demonstrated strong skills may work at least one day a week on a web-based news service run by the Graduate School of Journalism. They will serve as a corps of reporters, writers, and web page designers working closely with the news service’s professional editors and faculty. Coverage will focus on NYC neighborhoods and will be made available for use by news organizations.
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Editing (Houck) – Room 434
Students learn the roles and skills of editors in print and online publications: selecting stories, shaping content, enforcing standards and promoting good writing. Classes use examples from the day’s news to develop stories, editing them for clarity, tone, fairness and space. Students take the perspective of editors who must understand the big picture – the look, contribution and impact of their publications – while sweating the details of layout and copyediting.
- 1:30 – 4:20 p.m.
Audio Podcasting (Pamintuan) – Room 330
This advanced level workshop focuses on creating and packaging news and information for broadcast and download via the internet. Students will rotate duties as producers, reporters, and editors on a professionally hosted and produced weekly news magazine called The NYPulse. Each student will also be responsible for producing several 10-15 minute audio webcasts
- 1:30 p.m. – 4:20 p.m.
Entrepreneurial Journalism (Jarvis) – Room 442
This course has students plan and develop interactive media journalism projects. The purpose is to prepare them to launch their own news products and businesses or develop such products for a media company, as they take a leadership role in reinvigorating journalism. The news project may involve reporting by professionals or citizens; it may involve packaging and editing; it may involve interactivity. Students will research the market need and competition. They will develop a compelling product description, draw up a simple business plan, assemble a prototype and present it to a jury of professionals.
- 5:00 – 7:50 p.m.
Covering New York City’s Economy and Business (G. David) – Room 430
The goal of this course is to help students understand and report effectively on the key economic and business forces shaping New York City. With the aid of selected readings and guest speakers, students will learn about the city’s most important industries and employers, the role of small businesses and immigrant entrepreneurs, and the impact of real estate and economic development. After getting an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of New York City’s economy, students will focus on some of the cutting-edge economic issues the city faces.
- 5:00 p.m. – 7:50 p.m.
Covering Culture in the Age of Convergence (Levine) Room 434
This course will address how to cover the arts at a time when digital technology is changing music, film, and television, and broadening our definition of culture itself. Students will discuss how to make sense of these shifts as both reporters and critics. Among the topics are understanding the arts business as it adapts to the digital world, assessing emerging art forms such as video games and YouTube, and evaluating user-generated content.
- 5:00 p.m. – 7:50 p.m.
Topics in International Reporting (Strasser) Room 432
This is a comprehensive, project-oriented course that will target one or more newsy regions overseas for coverage, either through a class project or with individual assignments. Students will be required to do extensive research and reporting to produce work that could constitute a capstone project.
Thursday
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism (Smock) – Room 438
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Broadcast News Writing and Production (Schiumo) – Room 436
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
News Service – Mott Haven (Stein) – Room 446
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Television News Magazine Production (Prout) – Room 330
Students will work in teams to produce stories of approximately 10 minutes and create a monthly magazine-format show. They will develop their storytelling skills by identifying compelling central characters and their stories, connecting them to larger issues or common experiences. They will concentrate on in-depth reporting and interviewing techniques and be introduced to sophisticated writing and audio/visual approaches that sustain longer-form pieces. The finished product may qualify as a capstone project.
- 2:00 – 4:50 p.m.
Covering New York City’s Economy and Business (Bartlett) – Room 430
- 2:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
Narrative Journalism (Twomey) – Room 434
- 2:00 p.m. – 5:50 p.m.
Broadcast News Writing and Production (TBA) – Room 330
- 2:00 p.m. – 5:50 p.m.
Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism (TBA) – Room 438
- 5:00 p.m. – 8:50 p.m.
Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism (TBA) – Room 436
- 5:00 p.m. – 8:50 p.m.
Broadcast News Writing and Production (TBA) – Room 330
Friday
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism (TBA) – Room 438
- 9:00 a.m. – 12:50 p.m.
Broadcast News Writing and Production (Solomon) – Room 330
- 9:30 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Covering Wall Street (Kuhn) – Room 432
Students become fluent in the language of Wall Street, learning how the stock, bond, and currency markets work, and the role played by Wall Street firms, exchanges, and regulators. Assignments focus on markets, firms, investing, and regulation.
Fall 09 Schedule
