Community Journalism

Local news is experiencing a notable resurgence, filling the vacuum of declining legacy newspapers. In this course, students identify, develop, report, and write compelling stories about the communities they live in. The course provides coaching on gumshoe reporting: how to approach people in real life, break the ice, and engage them so that they become trusted sources. Students also learn to identify and develop listening posts that enable them to immerse themselves in their community and build the trust required to report stories that matter. In addition, students learn to pitch their stories to editors of community publications with the goal of getting them published.