J230 To Catch a Thief: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Business

Business reporting isn’t all pin stripes and spread sheets.

It’s about following the money: who’s making it, who’s losing it, creating jobs with it, or laying off workers to line their pockets with it. It’s about the creation of wealth: the resource that can power social progress -- or perpetuate class discrepancies.

It’s about the cycles of fear and greed that drive investments.

There’s no better time to delve into business reporting than this year of recession and recovery, failures and bailouts, unemployment and job creation.

Reporters who want to put away bad guys -- or break news on the latest genius entrepreneur -- need tools to get started. If you want to understand what makes business tick, J230 can give you the tools to publish stories that make a difference.

Your universe as a business reporter is vast and varied, from the rogues’ gallery of the business world’s dirty rotten scoundrels, to the angel investors and venture capitalists who bring bright ideas from the incubator to the marketplace.

Reporters in J230 break news on: Social networking, community banking, futuristic moneymen and edgy restaurants that turn failure to success.

We’ll cover business for Mission Local, Oakland North, Richmond Confidential and Bay Citizen. In the process, you’ll build resumes and clips that give you a jump on the job market.

Assignments include breaking news and color features, with an emphasis on enterprise stories that you initiate. Bring your ideas and pitches. Bay Area business beats include biotech, social networking, clean energy, design, tourism/entertainment real estate and the interface between politics and the economy. Guest speakers include business leaders to help build your source network, and financial journalists from publications like The Wall Street Journal who can share their job-finding tips.

Restrictions and Prerequisites:
None

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