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