REPORTING - DATA JOURNALISM

Summer: In this module, you'll explore the methods journalists use to gather and evaluate information. You'll learn how to think and behave as a journalist, how to conceive of journalistic story assignments, and how to report them quickly and accurately on deadline. You’ll learn how to gather original information first-hand and to combine it with contextual information that can be found online and elsewhere. You will be taught how to ensure that a story is true, both in the sense of getting the facts right and also by stating the implications fairly. You’ll also get some basic training in digital technologies such as photo, mobile video and audio that are essential parts of a modern journalist’s toolkit, and you’ll begin using them in the service of journalism, while thinking about ways to use social media to engage an audience for your work.

Fall: Deep, compelling stories are built on a foundation of solid research and reporting. The goal of this course is to inspire you to dig deep, to find multiple sources of information and to explore different ways of gathering, verifying and evaluating facts and putting them in context. This class also will challenge you to think critically about the questions that drive your work and introduce you to a wide range of research and verification tools. More specifically, you will learn how to:

• Use advanced internet search techniques

• Obtain and analyze public records and data, including how to compose thorough FOIA requests

• Get information about individuals and groups using a variety of sources

• Work with, and incorporate, data and numbers in your reporting and writing

• Use social media for reporting and verification

• Evaluate scholarly literature

This course also will help you to sharpen your ability to critically assess the information you have obtained so you can create unique and accurate works of journalism. You will consider tactics for overcoming common obstacles, such as verifying information from interviews, being aware of cognitive bias and navigating informational roadblocks.