Introduction to video journalism

We will follow the schedule below as a general outline for the course but will also remain flexible about the topics we cover. Occasionally, there will be a guest speaker who may not talk directly about the topic on the schedule. Students are responsible for lecture notes for each week. News quiz questions can usually be found at the end of each set of lecture notes.

(Spring 2012; links to lecture notes)

Media writing

Week 1 (Jan. 12) - Introduction to the course
Writing for the Mass Media, chapter 1

Week 2 (Jan. 19) - Beginning writing: basic techniques; grammar; style and the stylebook
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 2, 3

Reporting with text

Week 3 (Jan. 26) – Writing in the media environment
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 4, 5

Week 4 (Feb. 2) - The inverted pyramid
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 4, 5

Week 5 (Feb. 9) - Sources: interviewing; on-the-scene reporting; records
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 4, 5

Week 6 (Feb. 16) - Headlines, lists, links
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 5, 7, 10

Week 7 (Feb. 23) - Acceleration; Diversity and inclusion 
Writing for the Mass Media, chapter 10

Week 8 (March 1) - Test 1

Reporting with images

Week 9 (March 8) - Photojournalism: Basics
Writing for the Mass Media, chapter 6

Week 10 (March 15) – Audio slideshows
Writing for the Mass Media, chapter 6

Spring break, March 19-23

Reporting with audio and video

Week 11 (March 29) - Writing for sound: Audio journalism
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 8, 9

Week 12 (April 5) - Writing, recording and editing sound
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 8, 9

Week 13 (April 12) – Building your audience
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 13, 14

Week 14 (April 19) - The writer and the law
Writing for the Mass Media, chapters 13, 14

Week 15 (April 26) - Test 2