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Essentials of Journalism

Vak
2017-2018

Tags

JOUR

Admissions requirements

None.

Description

This is an introductory course seeking to give students a basic understanding of the essential elements of journalism. There will be lectures on what is news, news judgement and how to get and write a news story. There will be further lectures on the specifics of reporting, news writing, interviewing, sourcing, feature writing, and investigative reporting. Students will be given articles by a variety of journalists to study. The emphasis is on online journalism and students will be required to go out and report and write their own news stories and features on a weekly basis.

Course objectives

After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • demonstrate clear insight and understanding of what journalism entails, of how it has changed over the past few decades, of what it can achieve and of the ethical quandaries journalists face

  • report and write news stories and features –by actually going out and reporting stories, doing interviews – short and long

  • understand the logic of online journalism

Timetable

Once available, timetables will be published here.

Mode of instruction

Most of the classes will be in the form of lectures, always with time for discussion. There will also be several in-class assignments – writing news stories to time limitations.

Every week students will be given writing assignments – initially based on articles handed out by the lecturer, later on the basis of reporting each of the students has personally done – either in the form of news stories or of a news feature. Students will be graded both on the quality of their stories and on their participation in class discussions.

Assessment

In class participation: 10%
2 initial news articles: 10% each
1 interview: 15%
1 explainer: 15%
1 news features: 15% each
1 essay on journalism: 25%

Blackboard

There will be a Blackboard site available for this course. Students will be enrolled at least one week before the start of classes.

Reading list

  • The Elements of Journalism - Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel

  • Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism – Thomas Patterson

  • A number of articles that we will discuss in class.

Registration

This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Curriculum Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.

Contact

a.r.j.pleijter@hum.leidenuniv.nl