Advanced Reporting: Enterprising Beat Coverage and Original Storytelling

2 units.

The class provides a unique opportunity for students to apply and enrich their journalism skills as they cover the most important news town in the world. This class runs like a newsroom. Students cover beats on Capitol Hill and in the other centers of power in Washington, DC. Students are credentialed as professional journalists for Medill News Service. During the first half of the quarter, students focus on attending congressional hearings, Supreme Court arguments and other news events, and they produce daily stories. They develop sources on their beats and come up with ideas for enterprise stories. During the second half of the course, students produce enterprise stories and pitch them to media partners.

Medill News Service partners with many news organizations that look to students to bring them breaking news and enterprise stories. Throughout the class, students develop their multimedia and social media skills, publish on the Medill News Service website and produce a daily video newscast. Professors guide students as they cover their beats, pitch stories and edit their written, audio and video stories. This class provides students with a chance to build their portfolios with published work.