Fall 2007 Curriculum
TO: All M.S. Students
FROM: David A. Klatell, Vice Dean
RE: M.S. Instructional Program
Note: The Fall 2007 Ballots will be live linked from the DOS blog as of Monday, July 16, 10 a.m. The deadline for submission is Monday, July 23, 10 a.m. Students are automatically registered for the following courses: RWI, Critical Issues, Journalism, the Law & Society, U.S. as a Foreign Country (international students). Courses for which students are allowed to express preferences (depending on concentration/Stabile) via the ballot include Skills, RWIIs and the Master’s Project.
To all of you who are new, welcome to the Graduate School of Journalism. The faculty, administrators and staff are glad that you have chosen to study with us, and we look forward to working with you and our continuing part-time students. You are joining a community of teachers and learners who are dedicated to the highest ideals and aspirations of journalism. We believe that journalism is an integral part — the glue, really — of a free, open and well-informed society.
By choosing to attend the school, you have entered into what amounts to a contract with us. It binds us together in pursuit of a shared goal: to give you the finest opportunity to understand and master the craft of journalism. The school will do its part by providing faculty members who are accomplished professional journalists and educators, offering a curriculum that is varied and flexible, setting and upholding the highest standards of ethics, nurturing in you the core principles of the professional journalist, and serving as an example to working professionals. Your responsibilities include a devotion to achieving and sustaining excellence in your work, always behaving in an honorable and professional manner, whether with faculty, peers, sources or the public and above all, to telling the truth. The school works best when we work together in an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and professionalism.
The school cannot, however, be all things to all people. We cannot, for example, promise students they will gain a seat in any specific class, no matter how ardently they seek entry, as some classes and instructors receive many more applications than can be accepted. What we do promise, however, is that the great breadth of our offerings and the strength of the teaching faculty will permit all students access to outstanding classes and teachers. Similarly, we cannot promise students a job upon graduation. Many factors beyond our control will influence the relative success of each graduate. A Columbia degree does not — nor should you expect it to — guarantee immediate professional success or placement in “the job you’ve always wanted.” If you come to the school with such unrealistic expectations, it will diminish your appreciation for your own progress, strengths and weaknesses, as well as damage your relationship with faculty and colleagues.
You will be participating in a unique form of self-guided education. The skills of the interviewer, reporter, writer and producer develop differently and at a different pace in every person, so you will have to rely on your intellect, dedication, motivation and creativity to solve the problems journalists frequently confront. In addition, you will spend many hundreds of hours in the lesser-known residential communities throughout New York City, trying to understand and report about people quite unlike yourself. We immerse students in all aspects of community reporting, so you will be finding and developing stories almost from your first day. Be prepared to open your mind, eyes, ears — and heart — to the successes and failures of residents new and old, as they struggle to cope with this metropolis.
To help you make appropriate decisions, I have prepared this detailed letter. It describes the instructional program for the Fall semester for full-time and part-time M.S. candidates and answers many questions about the school. Candidates for the M.A. will receive a separate communication detailing the academic program, and they are to ignore this document. You should also carefully consult the school’s Bulletin, available on the Web or in hard copy. It contains much valuable information about courses, faculty, academic regulations and other important matters. You are responsible for reading and obeying our policies related to academic discipline and professional conduct.
You may read students’ evaluations of many of the classes and professors at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/journalism/evaluations/. You will have to log in using your UNI and password, about which you’ve already received information.
You can help to determine your own schedule by the preferences you indicate, based on what’s in this letter. Assistant Dean of Students Melanie Huff must receive the preference ballot by July 23, 10 a.m. The ballot must be submitted online (the ballot link will appear in the DOS Blog). Please note: if you are submitting writing samples to apply for Judith Crist’s course, these, too, must be received by Dean Huff by July 23; you should e-mail them to her (mailto:mgh2@columbia.edu) as the body of your document - not as an attachment. If you are sending a hard copy of your writing samples, address it to Melanie Huff, Assistant Dean of Students, Graduate School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway, Mail Code 3800, New York, NY 10027.
The academic year for all new, full-time M.S. candidates who are broadcast or new media concentrators begins promptly August 6, at 9 a.m. The formal orientation for all M.S. students is August 16 & 17. All students are expected to be in the Lecture Hall on the third floor of the Journalism School by 9 a.m. You should plan to arrive early (check-in and the distribution of I.D. cards begins at 8:15 a.m.), as we will begin on time. A packet of information with your name on it, containing schedules for orientation and classes will be available in the lobby. Members of the school’s staff will be on hand to answer questions and offer help.
Orientation will be short, and real work begins the first day. It is extremely important that you are prepared to begin classes and writing assignments immediately. You will be required to attend classes, work on assignments and participate in seminars and other activities five days and several evenings per week. You will be busy, so plan accordingly.
Full-time M.S. students will be placed in each required course: Reporting and Writing I (RWI); Critical Issues in Journalism; Journalism, the Law and Society; U.S. as a Foreign Country (for internationals), so these do not appear on your ballot. You may indicate a preference for a RWII 3-credit Elective (print students only); and the Master’s Project, but there is no assurance that you will be placed in that instructor’s section. Please be certain to fill out the correct ballot completely, and to submit it by the deadline to be considered for the course(s) you request; seats are assigned on a space-available basis. We cannot promise that you will get your first choice.
In addition, each student must take at least one of the Journalism Skills 5-week mini-courses: Radio, Television, New Media, Photojournalism or Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR). Stabile investigative students will automatically be enrolled in a special, 10-week Investigative Skills taught by Professor Coronel.
Part-time Broadcast students may opt to take Radio skills on a non-credit (free) basis (please contact Dean Huff for instructions; do not request the class on your ballot).
The Skills courses all meet in the evening or on Saturday. Students may try to add an additional skills course during the add/drop period provided they do not exceed 19 credits during the term. However, this should be undertaken with extreme caution, as the total work load of your courses will be far greater than most students anticipate. The “Skills” mini-courses cannot be used as a substitute for the RWII Elective.
Remember that you must fill out the ballot (the ballot link will appear on the DOS Blog - http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/ - as of 10 a.m. on June 16). Assistant Dean of Students Melanie Huff must receive your ballot by 10 a.m., July 23. All ballots meeting the deadline will be treated equally. If your ballot is received after the deadline, you will be placed in classes on a space-available basis in the order in which late ballots are received.
In September, we will welcome the arrival of candidates for the Ph.D., as well as the Fellows of the Knight-Bagehot Program in Business and Economic Journalism, and students enrolled in the M.A. program. You will also get to meet and share classes with the nearly 100 members of the part-time M.S. program. As second or third-year students, they are a valuable resource for information about courses, instructors and coping with the school and city. When everyone is assembled, we - faculty, adjuncts, fellows and students - will be a community of more than three hundred fifty journalists, one of the largest in the nation.
The Program of Instruction and Related Information
Overview
Following is the program of instruction for candidates for the Master of Science in Journalism. Each student, either full-time or part-time, is required to take the courses listed below. Limited variations may be authorized by Dean of Students Sreenath Sreenivasan or Assistant Dean Melanie Huff. For full-time students, the minimum credit load per term is 16 credits, with the maximum being 19 (the loads of part-time students vary; they should consult with Bruce Porter, their program coordinator.) To graduate, students must complete all required courses, accumulate at least 30 graduate credits (most will earn more,) and pass the four “core” courses: Reporting and Writing I, the Master’s Project, the Spring Reporting/Writing Seminar and the Spring Media Workshop. A student who fails any two courses, or the same course twice, will be dismissed.
The Faculty of the School of Journalism reserves the right to withhold a degree from any student it deems unworthy because of poor performance or unprofessional behavior. Faking a story, making up quotes, or plagiarizing constitute grounds for instant dismissal. Professors and adjuncts have the authority to check on your sources and source material. All deadlines must be met. Students may not turn in the same assignment in two different courses without the prior knowledge and approval of the instructors of both courses.
We expect students to read newspapers and magazines, watch newscasts and listen to the radio so that they are familiar with issues, ideas and people making news. Spot news quizzes will be given during the school year. Poor performance can result in faculty review, and ultimately, dismissal.
Students must act professionally at all times, on and off campus. They are expected to attend all classes and complete all assignments. If unable to do so, they must notify the Assistant Dean of Students and their instructors prior to the scheduled meeting of each class or assignment.
Students who fail to adhere to the school’s policies may receive an official “academic warning.” If the problem persists, the student may be placed on “probation,” or ultimately, dismissed from the school.
While most courses are required of all students, flexibility within the requirements enables students to determine a specific emphasis or direction, e.g., urban or international reporting, print or broadcast, for their individual programs. Thus, students should look at the possibilities for the year as a whole when considering their goals. Most courses, such as the specialized seminars, have limited enrollments to assure optimum teaching conditions. Occasionally these courses are oversubscribed; while every effort is made to satisfy first choices, some students will, at times, have to accept choices they have ranked lower on their ballot, or a second section of a chosen course taught by a different instructor.
For guidance in achieving their objectives, students should consult early and frequently with their RWI professors, who will serve as their principal adviser for the school year, or with the Dean of Students Office. Each student also will have an adviser for the Master’s Project. The school assumes that the student seeking advice will initiate contact with his/her adviser.
The schedule is busy and tight throughout the year and involves much coming and going, both inside and outside the school. Full-time students should expect to be occupied with schoolwork most of the time Monday through Friday and during many weekends. Some missed class work may be made up on weekends. (Note: Many courses require frequent use of subways, buses and cell phones. Some courses require substantial amounts of long-distance telephoning, an additional expense that students have to assume; such a consideration might affect course selections.)
To request additions or changes to your schedule, you must submit an online add/drop form (the add/drop link will appear in the Academic Links section of the Student Resources page as of Monday, August 27, 10 a.m.). The add/drop period runs from Monday August 27, 9 a.m. to Friday, September 14, 9 a.m. Add/Drop requests ARE handled on a first-come, first-served basis and we are not able to guarantee that we will be able to accommodate your request.
Grades
The Journalism School has a Pass-Fail system of formal grading. It aims at encouraging students to perform as well as they can, without competing with classmates. In most courses (some electives excepted), students receive written evaluations of their work from the instructors. Copies of these evaluations are kept in the Dean of Students Office.
In RWI, written evaluations are issued at midterm and at the end of the semester. These preliminary evaluations indicate students’ early progress and, if necessary, serve as a warning if any students are in danger of failing. Students who are not doing passing work are placed on probation. If a student’s work is passing at midterm but deteriorates after the midterm evaluation, the instructor will give written notice of possible failure and inform the faculty.
RWI is the most important Fall course. The decision to pass or fail a student in that course is determined solely by the instructor(s). No grades of incomplete are allowed in RWI. Other required courses-such as Journalism, the Law and Society-are important, too. Inattention can result in failure. Students also should note that the “Skills” mini-courses are meant to be taken very seriously. The faculty reserves the right to dismiss a student who fails the same course twice or two courses, regardless of the credit points of the courses.
Deadlines for the Master’s Project drafts are strictly enforced. The Faculty retains the right to fail or place on probation a student who fails to meet deadlines for the Master’s Project.
No student is permitted to graduate while still on probation.
At graduation, the honors list is announced, recognizing approximately 15 percent of the students for superior performance in multiple courses, as measured by the number of instances each student has been designated for “honors in class.” Students are informed of the honors designation. The faculty determines the honors list by comparing and discussing each student’s complete record. The faculty also awards more than a dozen special prizes at graduation, including five Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for overall performance during the academic year
Summer Reading and Preparation
Upon arrival you will be given The Elements of Style and The Associated Press Stylebook. We also suggest you review a grammar handbook and bring it with you. Poor grammar and usage are unacceptable. So is poor spelling. We have noticed a decline in skills in these areas during the past several years and we urge you to work hard this summer to improve your mastery of the language.
We also urge you to get into the habit of reading daily newspapers and following important news events in other media. Most new organizations in the city maintain excellent web sites, which offer a convenient way to begin learning the neighborhoods, issues, officials and personalities likely to be important to your reporting in all classes. If you have a foreign language skill, you’d be wise to brush up. For example, even a little conversational Spanish can be helpful in street reporting.
Students should know about the City of New York, and about the reporting and writing techniques they will use to cover the city. Each professor decides whether or not to use one or more textbooks.
To assist students in arriving with a basic understanding of the twists and turns of the city that will serve as their laboratory for the subsequent 10 months, we recommend that you read most of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker (New York: Knopf, 1974). E.B. White’s short work, Here Is New York, (Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1949), also is recommended. It can be found in most libraries and in his collected essays.
Additional Suggested Reading
Students may wish to deepen their knowledge of the history and dynamics of New York City — the complex laboratory they will explore for the academic year. Here are some books recommended by the faculty:
• American Institute of Architects: AIA Guide to New York City (New York: Macmillan, 1968)
• Jervis Anderson: This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait 1900-1950 (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1991)
• Meyer Berger: The Eight Million, Journal of a New York Correspondent (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942)
• Samuel G. Freedman: Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students and Their High School (HarperTrade, 1991)
• Alex Haley: The Autoboigraphy of Malcolm X (Mass Market/Paperback, Reissue 1989)
• Pete Hamill: Snow in August (Little Brown, 1997)
• Clifton Hood: 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993)
• Thomas Kessner: Fiorello H. LaGuardia and the Making of Modern New York (McGraw-Hill, 1989)
• A.J. Liebling: Back Where I Came From (North Point Press, 1990)
• Willie Morris: New York Days (Little, Brown, 1993)
• Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett: City for Sale (Harper & Row, 1988)
• Diane Ravitch: The Great School Wars of New York City 1805-1973 (Basic Books, 1974)
• David Rogers: 110 Livingston Street: Politics and Bureaucracy in the New York City Schools (Random House, 1968)
• Luc Sante: Low Life (Vintage, 1992)
• Jim Sleeper: The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York (W.W. Norton, 1990)
• Lloyd Ultan: The Beautiful Bronx 1920-1950 (Arlington House, 1979)
• Elliot Willensky: When Brooklyn Was the World, 1920-1957 (Harmony Books, 1986)
• Tom Wolfe: Bonfire of the Vanities (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988)
• The WPA Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers’ Project (Pantheon Books, 1982)
Specialized Curriculum Concentrations
The school offers four media concentrations: Newspaper, Broadcasting, Magazine and New Media, as well as the Stabile Investigative Journalism specialization. Although the choice of a Spring-term workshop is the primary factor in determining a concentration, some concentrations include Fall-term requirements. Students are assigned to concentrations based on their original applications to the School.
Before completing a ballot, all new FULL-TIME M.S. students must double check their concentrations at the concentration website; URL to be distributed shortly. The only switches possible are for those who want to leave broadcast or new media for print, ie, newspaper/magazine. If you are a broadcast or new media student who wants to move to print, please send e-mail to dos@jrn.columbia.edu and we will approve you to fill out a print ballot. For those with an interest in switching to broadcast or new media, we have a waitlist you can join by sending e-mail to dos@jrn.columbia.edu. Those who complete a ballot for a concentration other than the one to which they are assigned will have their classes assigned randomly in the correct concentration.
Newspaper
Students with a newspaper concentration take the regular, 6-credit version of RWI in the Fall and a Newspaper Workshop in the Spring, either the Bronx Beat or the Columbia News Service.
Broadcast
Full-time students who concentrate in this discipline must take the 8-credit broadcast version of RWI in the all and one of the broadcast workshops offered in the Spring. Some broadcast students choose to take Broadcast Management as their spring elective. Part-time students take a separate print RWI, followed by TV Reporting and Writing, offered in the fall.
Magazine
Magazine journalism courses are offered through the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism. While students who concentrate in magazine journalism must take one of the magazine workshops offered in the spring, they are not required to take a magazine elective in the fall. However, they are required to attend the “Delacorte Evening Lectures” in the Spring term, for which they receive one-half credit. Magazine courses offered under the auspices of the Delacorte Center include Magazine Writing, Literary Journalism, Narrative Writing, The Literature of Non-Fiction and Producing a Magazine.
New Media
Full-time students who concentrate in this discipline must take RWI, the Fall RWII Elective New Media Newsroom as well as the New Media Workshop in the spring.
The Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism
The Stabile curriculum varies by media concentration, but will include the following: All Stabile students will be assigned to work with the Center’s director, Professor Sheila Coronel or with investigative journalist Wayne Barrett for their Master’s Projects (if students are approved to do a broadcast or new media project, an additional adviser will be assigned). In the Fall semester, all Stabile students will be registered for a special, 10-week Investigative Skills taught by Professor Coronel. In the Spring semester, Stabile students will be registered for Investigative Techniques elective with Robert Port and for the Investigative Seminar (this is a separate, 6-credit course which does not replace the investigative Masters Project).
The First Term (August-December)
Reporting and Writing (RWI) 6 credits
Broadcast Reporting and Writing (RWI) (all broadcast students) 8 credits
Skills of the Journalist 1 credit per unit
Master’s Project 3 credits
Elective (RWII) 3 credits
Critical Issues in Journalism 2 credits
Journalism, the Law and Society
International Division students take The U.S. As a Foreign Country instead 2 credits
For RWII (electives), print students will take one of the classes below; new media students will automatically registered for New Media Newsroom.
The Art of the Profile (I) - John Bennet
The Art of the Profile (II)- Cynthia Zarin
Business and Financial Journalism (I) – Cheryl Einhorn
Business and Financial Journalism (II) – Rob Norton
Covering Conflicts - Judith Matloff
Covering National Politics – Thomas Edsall
Creating the Modern Critical Essay – Michael Janeway
Cultural Affairs Reporting and Writing – David Hajdu
Environmental Reporting – Michael Lemonick
International Reporting - Tom Kent
Investigative Techniques - Robert Port (for non-Stabile Students in Fall, Stabile students in Spring)
Media and Contemporary Society – Todd Gitlin
News Editing – Nancy Sharkey
New Media Newsroom I and II – Sreenath Sreenivasan, Sig Gissler, Stephen Isaacs, David Klatell
Opinion Writing – Gwenda Blair
Personal and Professional Style - Judith Crist
Social Impact of Mass Media – Andie Tucher
Techniques of Feature Writing (I) - Alexandra Peers
Techniques of Feature Writing (II) - Paula Span
Writing With Style - Kevin Coyne
Courses Offered Fall 2007
Reporting and Writing (RWI) 6 credits
Note: we will assign you to a RWI section and instructor(s)
This is the core course in reporting and writing on which much of the students’ work is built. Using metropolitan New York as a laboratory, students cover a variety of news events and issues. This street reporting is supplemented by weekly deadline writing exercises under the supervision of the Faculty and by assignments designed to familiarize students with material they will encounter in professional work.
RWI seeks to blend instruction in the craft and the substance of journalism so that, upon completion of the course, students are accurate, clear and complete in their writing, can meet a deadline, understand how to gather and to verify material, report in a fair and balanced manner and have an understanding of several subject areas that are essential to reporting.
Competence in varied subjects is stressed. Weekly sessions explore such topics as reporting on police, courts, politics, education and race, and ethnicity. Weekly seminars review student work and examine the craft.
Street Reporting: Instructors give students at least one street reporting assignment each week. Some assignments may come from the AP Daybook, i.e., stories to be covered and written that day; others may require in-depth coverage for an entire day, to be handed in the same day or the following day. Later in the term, instructors may ask students to execute longer pieces requiring reporting/writing spanning two or three weeks.
Deadline Writing: One day per week, students spend several hours writing in class, under deadline conditions, and with on-the-spot supervision. Sometimes, students are given material in class from which to write their stories, while other days they must develop their own sources.
Professional standards are expected. Instructors expect students to use a dictionary and grammar handbook. Errors in punctuation, spelling, and grammar may be grounds for failing a paper. Students are asked to rewrite copy that fails to meet their instructors’ standards.
Print RWI Instructors: Boyle; Goldman; Griffin; Hancock; Maharidge; Ojito; Padwe; Reisig; Rimmer; Shapiro
Reporting and Writing for Broadcasting (RWI) 8 credits
Several sections of RWI will be tailored for broadcast students and taught jointly by print and broadcast professors. The course will cover the same print reporting techniques as other sections, plus reporting for radio and television. Because the Jumbo RWI is an eight-credit course, broadcast students DO NOT take an RWII elective.
Broadcast RWI Instructors: Cooper and West; Lipton and Cutbirth; and Dinges and Bourin
Journalism, the Law and Society 2 credits
Instructors: Vincent Blasi, Anthony Lewis, Floyd Abrams and John Zucker, Roger Newman
Fri., 9 a.m.-12 p.m. (Blasi, Lewis and Abrams), Wed., 7:30-9:30 p.m. (Zucker or Newman)
The course examines the current and historic conflicts between journalists and jurists over fundamental First Amendment issues such as libel, privacy, prior restraint against publishing the news, protection of sources, the right to gather news, and national security. Broadcast regulations, including the Fairness Doctrine, and questions of equal time and access are also explored. Reading includes texts of landmark cases. Two special sessions at the end of the course concentrate on practical aspects of libel and invasion of privacy. This course includes a final examination.
Note: All full-time students except international students will automatically be enrolled in the Friday section of this course. International students do not take this course; instead, are automatically enrolled in The U.S. as a Foreign Country.
Additional Note: part time students may enroll in either the Friday section or the alternate sections taught by John Zucker and Roger Newman, Wednesdays 7:30-9:30 p.m. Advanced fellows and others should enroll in one of the Wednesday evening sections.
New York As a Foreign Country 2 credits
Instructor: Josh Friedman
Fri., 9-11 a.m.
Required of students in the International Division. A series of class meetings and field experiences designed to help foreign students overcome differences between their home communities and New York City and the U.S. so they can more effectively carry out the local assignments that form the core of the Fall curriculum.
International students only (who will be automatically registered).
Critical Issues in Journalism 2 credits
Instructors: David Klatell Fri., 12:30-2 p.m.; Richard Wald Thurs., 7-9 p.m.
This course, required of all students, explores the social role of journalism and the journalist from legal, historical, ethical, and economic perspectives. While the course covers some of the same issues raised in Journalism, the Law and Society, they are examined more from an ethical and professional point of view.
Note: All full-time students are automatically enrolled in the Friday section; part time students may enroll in the Thursday night or the Friday section. Knight Bagehot fellows and should enroll in the Thursday section.
Master’s Project 3 credits in Fall 3 credits in Spring
In its scope and duration, the Master’s Project is the student’s most sustained effort of the year. In terms of relative importance, credits and priority, however, it should be kept in proper perspective with the rest of the curriculum. The Project is not a master’s thesis in the traditional academic sense, but rather an in-depth exploration of a topic as a journalist would pursue it.
Master’s Projects may be executed in print, new media or broadcast (radio or television) forms. Students work on radio and print Projects individually, and students doing video or new media Projects work with one or two partners.
The student receives guidance from an assigned faculty adviser who offers advice in selecting a topic, fixing its focus and working through an approach, conducting the research and doing the reporting and interviewing, and organizing, writing, rewriting (and recording and re-recording, where appropriate) and polishing the various versions. Some faculty advisers specialize in one or more subject areas, so you may wish to indicate the general topic you hope to pursue for your Master’s Project.
We would like to know from students which type of Project they would like to undertake-including the general topic, if that is known now. Students should indicate their preferences, even if they are tentative, on the Fall ballot, since an attempt will be made to match faculty advisers with students according to their preferences.
Students will begin meeting with their adviser in September, and thereafter depending on the arrangement worked out between individual students and their adviser.
Requirements
Every student carrying out a Project must meet the minimum requirements of 1) a proposal; 2) an early outline; and 3) three drafts or edits. Some variations are permitted at the discretion of individual advisers. The broadcast and new media faculty impose slightly different requirements.
Students must meet with their advisers during the Fall to develop a topic. That topic must be fixed by Nov. 20. Serious work on the project will proceed during the Fall as well as over the holiday break. A “billboard” or brief description, preliminary outline and a list of likely sources must be submitted to advisers December 1. The results of your initial reporting and interviews are due by December 15 - your adviser will specify what he/she requires. The first draft is due on January 22, 2008. The second draft is due Feb. 25. The third-and final-draft will be turned in at the end of the Spring break, March 24.
You should stay in close and frequent contact with your adviser, who will explain the school’s expectations and stipulations for completion of the Project.
Choosing a Topic
Students should consider a topic that is significant, interesting, and feasible and will sustain their interest over months of research. The Faculty recommends that students choose topics that make them passionate or that at least really interest them. One does not have to be an expert on the subject; indeed, a good reporter becomes an expert.
For both logistic and educational reasons, the topic must focus on the New York area-that is, the student must collect most of the necessary information, and interview characters in person in the New York area. Some telephone interviews and computer-assisted reporting are likely needed, but they cannot predominate. Projects that need reporting in a foreign country will not be approved. Projects needing substantial reporting outside of the New York region also are discouraged.
Print Projects should run between 5,000 and 7,000 words but may go longer if the material requires it and if the adviser so recommends. Those executed in broadcast or new media form vary according to the complexity of the material involved; most are the equivalent of a 30-minute documentary.
Master’s Project Reference List
These are highly recommended as examples of the kind of journalism to which the Master’s Project aspires:
• Helen Benedict: Portraits in Print (Columbia University Press, 1991)
• Joan Didion: Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Washington Square Press, 1991) and The White Album (Simon & Schuster, 1979)
• Oriana Fallaci: Interview with History (Houghton Mifflin, 1977)
• Frances Fitzgerald: Cities on a Hill (Simon & Schuster, 1986)
• Samuel Freedman: Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church (HarperCollins, 1994)
• Pete Hamill: Piecework (Little Brown, 1996)
• LynNell Hancock: Hands to Work: The Stories of Three Families Racing the Welfare Clock (William Morrow, 2002)
• Randolph T. Holhut: The George Seldes Reader (Barricade Books, 1994)
• J. Anthony Lukas: Common Ground (Knopf, 1985)
• William Lutz: The New Doublespeak (Harper Collins, 1996)
• John McPhee: The John McPhee Reader (Vintage, 1976, originally published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• Jessica Mitford: Poison Penmanship (Knopf, 1979)
• Sylvia Nasar: A Beautiful Mind (Touchstone, 2001)
• Bruce Porter: Blow (St. Martin’s Press, 1994)
• Michael Shapiro: Solomon’s Sword: Two Families and the Children the State Took Away (Westview Press, 2002)
• In-depth broadcasts such as Frontline, 60 Minutes, All Things Considered, Nightline, and various radio and television documentaries
Print Master’s Project Advisers for which students may ballot (Broadcast and New Media advisers are assigned during the pitch and approval process; Stabile students are automatically assigned to Sheila Coronel or Wayne Barrett - broadcast and new media Stabiles will pick up an additional adviser for that medium if they are selected to do a project in it): Gwenda Blair; Richard Bradley; Kevin Buckley; Ann Cooper; Evan Cornog; Kevin Coyne; Brent Cunningham; Paul Davies; John Dinges; Tom Edsall; Pam Frederick; Samuel Freedman; Josh Friedman; Todd Gitlin; Ari Goldman; Martin Gottlieb; David Hajdu; Lynnell Hancock; Neil Hickey; Mike Hoyt; Michael Janeway; Peter Kann; Christopher Lehmann-Haupt; Nicholas Lemann; Robert Love; Dale Maharidge; Sheryl McCarthy; Arlene Morgan; Laura Muha; Victor Navasky; Nicole Neroulias; Robert Norton; John Palatella; Bruce Porter; Addie Rimmer; Robin Schatz; Michael Shapiro; Paula Span; Andie Tucher; Richard Wald; Jonathan Weiner; Cynthia Zarin; Kristal Brent Zook;
Specialized Reporting/Writing Electives (RWII) 3 credits
As the title indicates, these 10-week courses focus on specific news beats, such as international reporting or business reporting, or on specific media, such as feature writing. While an average of three writing assignments are given, instructors in most courses stress subject matter. All seminars include a weekly 2-3 hour class meeting on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday, usually in the evening, or on Saturdays. (Schedule adjustments may be needed for Thanksgiving week.) No classes for full-time students are offered Tuesday evenings, because these students are required to attend the School’s all-class lectures and panel discussions. Part time students are invited, but not required to participate.
Specialization is continued and expanded in the spring term in the two-day Advanced Reporting/Writing Seminars. Thus, in the spring students can either choose a second specialty or enlarge on the one taken in the first term. In courses that are offered in both the fall and spring terms, such as “Personal and Professional Style,” students who fail to get their first choice in the Fall have another chance in the spring.
The Art of the Profile (I)
Instructor: John Bennet
Mon., 6:30-8:30 p.m.
This elective offers an in-depth chance to read, study and write profiles. The reading list includes John McPhee, Jane Kramer, Calvin Trillin, Gay Talese, Susan Orlean, Joan Didion and others. Students will write two short profiles and one long one. Your work will be critiqued in class and edited in detail.
The Art of the Profile (II)
Instructor: Cynthia Zarin
Mon., 7-9 p.m.
How do we describe the content of a person’s character? Does the way she wears her hat have anything to do with it? In this course, we’ll address the mechanics of profile writing: choosing a subject, approaching sources, pacing reporting, and honing powers of observation. At the center of every profile, stated or unstated, is the relationship of the writer to his or her subject. We’ll talk about the substance of that relationship, the responsibilities that go along with it, and how that elusive thing, a narrative voice, can be a natural outcome of the writer’s stance. We’ll also pay particular attention to how to think through what you’ve learned and organize it into a finished piece.
For the first class, students will bring in one or at the most two sentences of prose in which they feel the writer has illuminated some truth-profound or ridiculous-about a subject or character. What has the writer seen? What makes the prose tick? Class assignments will include two profiles: 800 words and 2,500 words, respectively, about the same subject, as well as occasional in-class writing exercises.
Business and Financial Reporting (I)
Instructor: Cheryl Einhorn
Thursday, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Show me the money! That’s what students will learn to do for readers in this Business and Economic Journalism course designed to teach how to generate, research, report, write and edit cogent business stories. Learn how to use numbers effectively and sparingly to explain how business impacts peoples’ daily lives. Gain an understanding and appreciation for how publicly traded and privately held companies are structured, how and where reporters may find the documents to learn how the companies are doing and how such ‘bottoms up’ data provides clues to the health of the overall economy. We will examine the stock and bonds markets, some aspects of personal finance and major economic trends that journalists can expect to cover.
Business and Financial Reporting (II)
Instructor Rob Norton
Monday, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
This course is an introduction to the basic concepts and tools of business and economics reporting, designed for students interested in the field as well as those planning to specialize in other areas: Understanding the way companies, markets and the economy work is useful for journalists covering many beats – from politics and policy to science and the arts.
Topics include: understanding financial statements, using market and economic data intelligently, and applying key concepts in finance and economics to real-world issues. We will study these subjects both through readings, by following and discussing news stories throughout the semester, and by analyzing classic business articles by writers such as Ken Auletta, John Brooks, Bryan Burroughs, Kurt Eichenwald, Carol Loomis, Bethany McLean, Sylvia Nasar, Richard Preston, and James Stewart.
Two to three short features will be assigned, as well as in-class exercises in business and economics news writing. We will cover effective methods for conceiving and pitching stories, identifying and interviewing sources, story structure, rhetoric and writing. Most class sessions will feature guest speakers from major business and general-interest publications
Covering Conflicts
Instructor: Judith Matloff
Wed., 6-8:30 p.m.
Covering conflict poses unique challenges to reporters and is arguably the trickiest field to navigate from an ethical point of view, due to the life and death stakes. Your reporting and writing can get someone killed — including yourself. This course will cover all areas of this delicate subject, from moral minefields to logistics. The aim of this class is to prepare you to think critically when hit by propaganda and how to work most effectively in volatile situations of danger. As well as dealing with content and ethical issues, we will also discuss practical matters such as how to find fixers, use satellite technology, and navigate mined roads.
Taking Iraq as the central paradigm, we will evaluate whether the media could have done a better job. We will examine the following questions: how technology and the globalization of 24-hour news have changed the nature of war reporting; can you be a patriot and maintain objectivity; what are the pitfalls of embedding; how do you get beyond military spin; do you give equal weight to both sides of genocide; is it better to operate beneath or above the radar; do you intervene to save a life? We will discuss the need for context, for protecting sources and how to dig beneath spot news to grapple with wider issues.
Each student will “adopt” a crisis and track coverage throughout the semester. The first assignment will prepare you to parachute into a strange country. Then, two news analyses will train you to think about the implications of breaking news, with particular focus on the causes of fighting and possible solutions.
Covering National Politics
Instructor: Thomas Edsall
Thurs., 4:00-6:30 p.m.
The Covering National Politics class will focus on politics and Congress, with as much coverage of the 2008 elections as possible. This course is best suited to those with a strong interest in government and elections. We will explore the role of racial and culture war issues that have worked successfully for the Republican Party in the past, and try to determine the most important factors in 2007-8. Guest lecturers will include reporters and operatives from both major parties. If possible financially and logistically, we may travel to Washington, Iowa and/or New Hampshire.
Creating the Modern Critical Essay (offered in conjunction with the School of the Arts)
3 credits
Instructor: Michael Janeway
Wed., 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Modern criticism was shaped, and is still influenced, by writers and artists working as journalists and essayists in the years of cultural earthquake from the Victorian era through World War II. They include Mathew Arnold, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Henry Adams, H. L. Mencken, Walter Lippmann, Virginia Woolf, and Edmund Wilson.
Some, such as Arnold, Wilde and Mencken, were poised between a celebration of the classics, and a recognition of the future. Others, such as Twain, Adams and Lippmann, were concerned with distinguishing between fact and myth. Shaw, Woolf and Wilson were more clearly heralds of change. They brought news of artistic, cultural and political shifts to a public unready for the revolutions in the sciences (including the study of the mind), technology, philosophy, governance and war that marked the culture of modernity in the first half of the 20th Century. Those who were themselves poets, playwrights, novelists (Wilde, Shaw, Twain, Woolf, and later Robert Graves, Scott Fitzgerald and James Agee) were experimenting in new forms both as artists, and as critics. Many are read today because their response to contemporary crises — the shocking impact of mechanized warfare, the frailty of democracy in the face of charismatic totalitarian ideologies – was more insightful than that of historians and political commentators of the time.
Much can be learned in our own cultural context by exploring how these writers sought – and sometimes fought – to interpret modernity in journalistic and essay form. This course examines ways that beginning writers can learn the techniques of the critical arts by studying their origins. Film clips and photos depicting events and artists discussed in the readings (including Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, World War I trench warfare, the rise of Communism and Fascism, Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway) are offered for background on a Columbia website reserved for students in the course.
Assignments: two 1,000-word exercises, one 1,500-word paper, one 2,000-word paper. The final paper will ask students to undertake independent reporting or research.
Note: Students who wish to apply for one of the 9 Writing Division places in this 18- student interdepartmental course offered jointly in Journalism and the School of the Arts Writing Division should submit a one-page sample of their critical writing to Professor Janeway at mj153@columbia.edu.
Cultural Affairs Reporting and Writing
Instructor: David Hajdu
Mon. 7:00-9:00 p.m.
This is a course to help journalists understand and write with authority on culture – that is, on the world of the arts, entertainment, and living. The class will examine how journalists’ conceptions of culture have changed with time, and we will study exemplary works of cultural reporting and criticism. In this course, as in the contemporary marketplace of ideas, we will approach culture inclusively, with room for the ballet, opera, food, cars, and tattooing. Our focus will be on how to develop ideas for fresh, topical, and resonant stories; how to report them thoroughly; and how to write prose with vigor and flair. Reporting in the culture beat poses unique challenges, including those of dealing with celebrities and publicists, and we will address those challenges in class exercises. There will be three writing assignments: One news-oriented feature, one profile, and one work of criticism. In addition, students will write proposals for all story ideas and present oral pitches for them in class. Rewrites are expected. We will have several guest speakers, including performing artists, writers and editors. (Past guests have included Louis Menand, cultural critic for The New Yorker, and Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic.)
Environmental Reporting
Instructor: Michael Lemonick
Wed. 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Covering the environment is an increasingly complex and important beat. Through extensive readings, visits with working journalists and scientists, and their own reporting and writing assignments, students taking this class will become familiar with some of the major environmental stories of the day. These will range from the specific concerns of individual communities about clean air and water to national issues—how to balance economic development with the preservation of species and ecosystems, how to wrestle with energy policy, environmental racism and more—to international conflicts over climate change, access to water resources, exploitation of the oceans and many other examples.
Students will also become knowledgeable about the legislation that governs this beat, the complexities of risk assessment and the key challenge of striking a responsible balance by finding sources other than those on the fringe, which can muddy the issues badly.
International Reporting
Instructor: Tom Kent
Thursday, 7-9:00 p.m.
Introduction to the techniques and challenges of international reporting for online, print and broadcast media. Main themes include ethics, writing, reporting from dangerous areas, covering the military, career opportunities in the international reporting and ways to engage readers and viewers who may have a slim interest in international affairs. Students will be assigned readings, write three stories of varying length and critique media coverage of current international issues
Investigative Techniques
Instructor: Robert Port
Thurs., 2-4:30 p.m.
The role of the investigative reporter is as important as ever. Yet the techniques of the craft, invaluable to any journalist, are changing rapidly. This course will equip students with an array of skills - high-tech and old-fashioned shoe leather - applied to real-world subjects. Students will learn advanced applications of computer-assisted reporting, and will be able to find a variety of hidden documents useful to good journalism: court records, pollution and safety studies, campaign contributions, the filings of tax-exempt organizations, child abuse and industrial safety statistics, corporate records, etc.
Media and Contemporary Society
Instructor: Todd Gitlin
Mon., 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
A survey of philosophical, sociological, political, economic, and cultural ideas about the nature of contemporary media (including journalism); the relationship of journalism to other segments; the place of media in government; the uses people make of media and the uses media make of people. The emphasis will be on the United States, but with sorties elsewhere. Students will only be admitted with the permission of the instructor.
News Editing
Instructor: Nancy Sharkey
Thurs., 6-8 p.m.
A 10 week course explaining how editors try to ensure accuracy, fairness, clarity, precision and completeness while keeping an eye on tone and structure. Will also examine the detail work — spelling, punctuation, grammar, style — with an emphasis on how problems in those areas affect meaning and damage credibility. Portions of the course will deal with deciding what is news, and with aspects of presentation (headline writing, photo use). Participants will edit stories with an emphasis on reading critically, raising good questions and dealing with reporters in ways that should elicit positive changes in copy.
New Media Newsroom
Instructors: Sree Sreenivasan, Sig Gissler, Steve Isaacs, Duy Linh Tu,
Russell Chun
Two identical sections
Section 1: Wed., 6:30-8:30 pm
Section 2: Thurs., 6:30-8:30 pm
Please note this elective runs 12 weeks.
This new course will bring together new media majors and a limited number of other majors to master new ways of storytelling and newsroom work flow. Using a combination of original reporting as well as building on stories already done for RW1, students in each section will build three editions of a website, with each four-week project covering one specific issue affecting New Yorkers. Students will work with several new media tools, including web page production; photography and image editing; audio and video editing; blogging, etc. This course is an excellent opportunity for students to learn how newsrooms are evolving - combining the best of traditional reporting and editing with the latest new media storytelling techniques.
NOTE: This course is mandatory for new media majors and may also be open to a limited number of other majors (no previous web experience is necessary).
Opinion Writing
Instructor: Gwenda Blair
Mon., 6:30-8:30 p.m.;
This course will deal with the theory and practice of opinion journalism. We will consider the questions of how opinion journalism is affected by notions of objectivity, fairness, balance, neutrality and accuracy. We will also look at the ways in which a strongly stated point of view can shake up debate on an issue and change the general understanding about what constitutes an objective discussion of a subject. Most of all, we will examine the relationship between opinion writing and intended audience and the difference–or lack thereof–between “opinion” and “context”-at least for journalistic purposes. The course will explore how to shape an opinion on subjects as diverse as politics, cultural trends, foreign policy, and the arts — and how to express it. Each student will be expected to produce no more than three opinion pieces in different genres for different audiences at varying lengths. We’ll read many of opinion writing’s “greatest hits,” including H.L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, Walter Lippmann, John Dewey, I. F. Stone, George Orwell and Lester Bangs. We will also read contemporary opinion writers, including some of the work of our occasional guest speakers, of whose work students will be encouraged to offer their own opinionated critiques.
Personal and Professional Style
Instructor: Judith Crist
Wed., 1:30-5:30 p.m.
The nature and demands of this course make it necessary to limit the class size. It is offered to students who have mastered the basic mechanics and techniques of journalistic prose and are interested in developing and refining a personal literary style within a journalistic framework, appropriate to editorials, columns and reviews. The emphasis is on form, structure and semantics for effective and original approaches to specialized writing in areas too long cliché-ridden. There are basic assignments and free-choice exercises, with concentration on self- and intra-group criticism. Prospective students must submit one sample of their best writing and, in no more than 350 words, a statement of their interest in the course. These are to be delivered directly to Assistant Dean Huff, who must receive them by 10 a.m., Monday, July 23. (This course is repeated, in expanded form, in the Spring.)
Social Impact of Mass Media
Instructor: Andie Tucher
Wed. 4:00-6:00 p.m.
In this course we explore the social consequences of what journalists do and the complex relationships between the press and the public. Through readings, class discussions, and close observations of media past and present, we locate the work of journalism in its social, historical, and theoretical context, focusing on such topics as the media’s obligation to society; relationships between the press and the theory and practice of democracy; the media and storytelling; social ramifications of new technologies and new economic structures; and how the media are implicated in our perceptions of time, space, memory, and identity.
Techniques of Feature Writing (I)
Instructor: Alexandra Peers
Thursday, 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
The class aims to acquaint the student with the fundamentals and challenges of feature writing and, beyond that, to serve as an intensely practical, modern look at the current climate for such writing. Students will work on developing a “voice,” will learn sourcing and interviewing strategies and will discuss current publishing industry issues with professionals working at newspapers and magazines. Particular attention will be paid to the specific stylistic elements that distinguish feature writing from news reporting, and to developing the characters, atmosphere and breadth of features.
Techniques of Feature Writing (II)
Instructor: Paula Span
Saturday, 11 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
We will be reading, writing and rewriting the kinds of lively, engaging, informative-but-not-dreary stories that editors prize and readers remember. Learn to report with your senses. Incorporate characters, scenes and dialogue into your pieces. Streamline your prose or die in the attempt. Grapple with the Doctrine of Infinite Perfectability. We meet on Saturday mornings, true, but we have a good time.
Writing With Style
Instructor: Kevin Coyne
Thurs., 7-9 p.m.
All prose, good and bad, has a fingerprint you can usually tell within just a few lines who wrote it, and whether it s worth reading. So where does a writer s style come from, and how can you sharpen your own? By taking apart the work of other writers both fiction and nonfiction you will analyze the elements of a prose style in this class, and then apply these lessons to your own work. The idea here is not to learn how to mimic the voices of other writers, but how to develop your own. Among the writers we will be reading are George Orwell, Alice Munro, John McPhee, Tracy Kidder, James Joyce, Jane Kramer, Joan Didion and John Cheever. There will be three writing assignments of medium length the first an account of a place or an event; the second a portrait of a person; the third an attempt to combine the two into a narrative.
Skills of the Journalist 1 credit per unit (These are 5-week mini-courses.)
Computer-Assisted Reporting
This course is designed to put student journalists in the driver’s seat on the Information Highway. It takes students beyond simple lookups to a realm in which they not only capture information but also manage it to produce compelling daily, in-depth and investigative stories. Students will acquire skills in the staples of computer-assisted reporting - the spreadsheet and a database management program - while learning techniques to convert, merge, “interview” and interpret complex information from original or outside sources, such as the Internet or government CD-ROMs. This course is required for Stabile students.
Writing, Reporting and Mixing for Radio
Students become familiar with radio news writing and reporting. Students write news reports using audio they gather as reporters in the field and produce them using the digital audio laboratory. Note: not open to broadcast concentrators, who receive radio skills training in RWI.
Television News Production
Non-broadcast majors get an introduction to video journalism and explore the editorial and production processes of TV. The course includes screenings, discussion sessions and exercises. Note: not open to broadcast concentrators, who receive television skills training in RWI
New Media
Students learn the basics of new media production, including software such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash. Students learn to build Web pages and slide shows and learn the basics of photo editing and graphic design. No prior experience is necessary. Note: not open to New Media concentrators, who receive new media skills training in other courses.
Photojournalism
Students learn the basics of photography, using Photoshop, scanners and printers to produce short photo essays on non-fiction topics.
Investigative Skills (Stabile Students Only)
This is a 10-week crash course on the tools that investigative journalists use for their research and reporting. The course will focus on the skills that watchdog journalists need: interviewing, document and database searching, data analysis, data visualization and computer-assisted reporting. It will also help students conceptualize investigative projects and run them through the process that journalists go through in the course of their investigations.
Other Fall Term CoursesThese courses are not open to full-time M.S. students
The Literature of Non-Fiction 6 credit Seminar
Instructor: Helen Benedict
Mon., 6:00-8:30 p.m.
This 15-week course is designed to expose students to the most influential and innovative nonfiction writers of the past and present. Starting with Samuel Johnson and W.E.B. DuBois and moving up to contemporary writers such as Susan Orlean and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, we will examine how nonfiction has evolved in its approach, subject matter, voice and style. Assignments: Two short, critical reviews of the reading matter. One long literary essay, of the type found in The New York Review of Books, that links some of the readings with original research and thought. The essay should concern a writer from the past and from the present and discuss the influences on and evolution of nonfiction. Course not open to new full-time students
TV Reporting and Writing 3 credits
Instructor: Lisa Cohen
Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Required of students in the part-time program who are concentrating in Broadcast journalism. This course covers the same materials that full-time students receive in their “jumbo” RWI sections, and prepares students for advanced courses in broadcast journalism. For part-time students only
Columbia News Service 3 credit elective
Instructor: David Blum
Wed 6-8 p.m.
The Columbia News Service operates as a feature syndicate whose stories are thought up, reported and written by students under the guidance of faculty members. They are then distributed by the New York Times News Service for publication in some 400 daily newspapers throughout the United States and Canada. Topics concern anything of general interest happening in and around New York City. Subject matter can deal with the arts, entertainment, science, technology, health/fitness, sports, publishing, economics, fashion, ideas, travel, politics, academia, business, government–anything that would intrigue and inform a national audience. To see examples of what students produced last year, take a look at the CNS stories listed under Student Work on the school’s website. Also check the clips posted opposite the elevator and in the hallway on the 6th floor. Along with receiving instruction and practice in how to report and write feature stories, students will learn how to develop ideas, present them to editors in acceptable fashion and deal professionally with editors as staff writers and freelancers. Students must turn out four stories of 750 to 1500 words each in the course of the semester, writing and rewriting them, working one-to-one with their own instructor, until their pieces reach publishable quality. Please note that enrollment in this course does not make you ineligible for the Spring 6 credit version of the class.
Advanced Seminar in Business Journalism 3 credits
Instructor: Terri Thompson
The Knight-Bagehot schedule for the fall will be Mondays (4 to 5:30 p.m. for seminars and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for dinners) and Tuesdays (4 to 5:30 p.m.)
For Knight-Bagehot Fellows in Business and Economic Journalism only
Internship 0.5 credit
A student who, with the prior approval of the Assistant Dean of Students and the Office of Career Services undertakes an internship at a media organization can earn 0.5 credit if the work consists of serious journalistic enterprise. At the conclusion of the internship, the student must submit a written description of what he or she has accomplished and learned, and an official of the media company must send a separate letter corroborating that and evaluating the student’s performance. You do not request this class via the ballot. Please contact Assistant Dean of Students Melanie Huff or Career Services Director Ernest Sotomayor for details.
Equipment and Facilities The school provides excellent facilities and equipment, most of which are available to students on a 24/7 basis. Each year, including this one, we make major investments in updating our infrastructure, replacing old models with new ones, installing new software, and purchasing new computers, cameras, editing equipment, printers, scanners, and necessary supplies.
However, the basic purpose of the Graduate School of Journalism remains the same: to concentrate on writing, reporting, research and intellectual preparation. We are not a professional production facility, broadcast station, newspaper or web-design house, and have no desire to compete with them in the complexity of our equipment. Our equipment and facilities are appropriate for our needs, and frankly, our acquisition program is so effective that annually, the graduating students envy their successors.
We are committed to the idea of cross-training, so that every student gets a basic exposure to several different journalism formats and technologies. “Skills of the Journalist,” for example, introduces you to new media, computer-assisted reporting, web search software, digital audio and video, and some aspects of photojournalism and associated software packages.
But, like any technology-intensive institution, we must limit access to certain, advanced equipment (for example, digital edit suites and high-end new media facilities) to faculty and students with specific educational priorities, who have been properly trained and certified. It is unrealistic to believe that several hundred students can be properly trained to use every piece of equipment in our inventory during a two-semester program. So, to a large extent, your selection of courses will determine your access to certain technologies.
For the most part, however, we all share the same facilities and equipment, and few of us are operational experts. So, we must depend on each other to treat equipment with care, to follow the instructions and advice of the hard-working and excellent technical staff, and to respect the needs of others.
We will provide you with a basic supply of disposable items such as video and audio tape, and will give you information on the best and least expensive suppliers from whom you can purchase more, as your needs or preferences dictate. We will also make available information on low-cost providers of services such as tape duplication, international format conversion, film processing, virus protection, disc scanning and recovery and high-end, multicolor printing.
Please refer to http://deanstudents.blogsome.com/category/technology/ for additional details.