Curriculum
In Investigative Reporting: Courses Faculty Careers Events
Investigative Reporting Courses
The following Investigative Reporting courses are being offered for the Fall 2009 semester:
J200: Reporting the News - Gorney/Platoni
This course, an intensive 15-week workshop, provides the foundation for the rest of the curriculum and will take up the majority of your time during the first semester. J200 stresses hard news reporting, writing, and editing. Faculty members with extensive experience in newspaper reporting run their classes much like newsrooms. The aim is to produce publishable newspaper stories and many class assignments do end up in print, often in local dailies, weeklies, and regional newspapers. This course is considered the most important of your J-School career. Plan on about 20 hours of outside reporting time each week.
J200: Reporting the News - Chavez/Chakarova
This course, an intensive 15-week workshop, provides the foundation for the rest of the curriculum and will take up the majority of your time during the first semester. J200 stresses hard news reporting, writing, and editing. Faculty members with extensive experience in newspaper reporting run their classes much like newsrooms. The aim is to produce publishable newspaper stories and many class assignments do end up in print, often in local dailies, weeklies, and regional newspapers. This course is considered the most important of your J-School career. Plan on about 20 hours of outside reporting time each week.
J211: Reporting the news-lab--Chavez/Chakarova
Lab Component for J200.
J200: Reporting the News - Drummond/Snow/Griffin
This course, an intensive 15-week workshop, provides the foundation for the rest of the curriculum and will take up the majority of your time during the first semester. J200 stresses hard news reporting, writing, and editing. Faculty members with extensive experience in newspaper reporting run their classes much like newsrooms. The aim is to produce publishable newspaper stories and many class assignments do end up in print, often in local dailies, weeklies, and regional newspapers. This course is considered the most important of your J-School career. Plan on about 20 hours of outside reporting time each week.
J211: Reporting the news-lab--Drummond/Snow/Griffin
Lab Component for J200.
J211: Reporting the news-lab--Gorney
Lab Component for J200.
J255: Law and Ethics
An introduction to the legal and ethical conflicts faced by working reporters. Half of the semester will concentrate on First Amendment and media law, including libel and slander, privacy, free press/fair trial conflicts, and civil lawsuits arising from controversial reporting methods. The remainder of the semester will focus on ethical dilemmas faced by reporters and editors. Using case studies, in-class argument, readings and guest lecturers, the course examines some of the murkier conflicts that don?t necessarily make it to court but nevertheless force difficult newsroom decision-making.
J260: Investigative Reporting for Print/TV
This class is designed to build on students' fundamental reporting and writing skills by learning the basics of investigative reporting. It is journalism that often bridges traditional beats to examine systems and institutions.
In this class, you will enhance your interviewing skills, learn the difference between newspaper and television interviews; learn how to set up a two-camera shoot; work with public records; and develop and protect sources.
In past years, students have been involved in production of "Frontline" films and Web sites. Past projects produced by the class include work on:
"Al Qaeda's New Front"
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/
"Secret History of the Credit Card"
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
"Chasing the Sleeper Cell"
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sleeper/
Students will be required to become familiar with the development of investigative reporting and its place in American history.
The seminar will meet regularly on Fridays, 11-1, and occasionally at other times to accommodate special guests or lectures.
Students can propose projects for class credit and are encourage to incorporate the class in their master's projects.
J294: Master's Project Seminar
J294 is a 2 semester course (1 unit/Fall, 1 unit/Spring). You must register for both semesters and it must be taken for a grade.
J298: Key Issues with Faculty and Campus Experts
Class Begins September 18th.
The difference between an adequate journalist and a good one is knowing enough to find the powerful stories and knowing how to anchor those stories with more than just quotes from the usual suspects. KEY ISSUES will give you an overview of subjects you'll be covering in one way or another for the rest of your career. With support from the Carnegie Foundation, we've brought together JSchool faculty members, other UC professors and professionals to give you the background you need on local state and federal budgets, economics, health care policy, immigration issues and foreign policy.
Each segment will have a set of reading materials and/or videos to view. Those will be posted on the Key Issues website that you'll all have access to in the next week or handed out as readings by the GSR's attached to each J200 section. Attendance is mandatory; students will be asked to sign in for each class.
The first class begins September 18, and don't forget that we meet in Room 3108 Etcheverry Hall, the building across the street.
Here is a list of lecture topics and speakers. Please contact Lydia Chavez or Susan Rasky if you have any questions.
Friday, September the 18 The first session: Nexis Searching, Rob Gunnison, Tom Peele
Friday, September25 State and local Budget Basics - Jean Ross, California Budget Project, John Decker, CA State Treasurer's Office.
October 2 – Ellen Weiss from NPR - location to be determined
October 9 The economy Part 1 Dr, Martha Olney, Econ Dept lecturer, UCB
October 16 The economy Part 2 Martha Olney
October 23 Heath Care Reform Policy— Prof. Steve Shortell, dean UC Berkeley School of Public Health
October 30 Health Care Reform Politics - Measuring and Manipulating Public Opinion - MollyAnn Brodie, Dir. Surveys and Public Opinion Research Kaiser Family Foundation
November 6 Immigration Overview - Tyche Hendricks
November 13 Foreign policy - Latin America - Spkr tbd
November 20 Foreign Policy Pakistan and Afghanistan: Spkr tbd
November 27 Thanksgiving NO CLASS
December 4: TBD