J298 Covering the Election

This course will explore how to cover campaigns and elections — in the middle of the 2024 campaign and election cycle. Students will learn the basics of how to cover candidates and campaigns: how to source, how to avoid being spun, and how to connect campaign rhetoric with the pressing issues that shape people’s daily lives. We will delve into polling, opposition research, misinformation and how to dig into campaign finance and dark money. Class discussions will be inspired at least partly by real-time issues arising from what many believe is the most important–and possibly one of the strangest–elections in American history. Because this is a graduate-level course, we will also examine the evolution of political reporting in American culture and society, and how successful that model has been for the health of American democracy. Students will be asked to report and write at least one political story which will be due before the election.

There will be a second writing assignment due after the election.

Instructors:

Scott Kraft, Editor at Large for Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com/people/scott-kraft

Jessica Garrison, Reporter Northern California for Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com/people/jessica-garrison