Teaching Journalism

Teaching students to report, write and overcome their fears

Sep 02, 2009 - Posted by Mary McGuire

Learning to identify stories, find sources, interview, take notes and write isn’t enough, writes Carleton journalism prof Dave Tait. A teacher's job is also to show novice journos how to accept anxiety and move past it.

Teaching the future of journalism

Aug 24, 2009 - Posted by Mary McGuire

Professors can't lecture about the future, says Tim McGuire, who holds a chair in the business of journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. But he plans to teach his students this fall about the business models of media and how the tension between producing quality journalism and making a profit might shape the future of the media. He has posted his syllabus online, complete with links to a lot of online readings. In it he writes, "We will try to understand where the media is headed amid this mind-boggling change. We will try to develop our own ideas about those future content and business models."

Re-thinking lessons for j-students

Aug 04, 2009 - Posted by Mary McGuire

One journalism educator is rewriting her lessons for the fall semester to include more straight talk for j-students and less emphasis on old arguments about the role of journalists in a democracy. Danna Walker, a j-prof at American University in Washington, has come up with what she calls the Seven Laws of Journalism. Among them:

Money counts
Grow a pair
Life is hard (so deal with it).

The change is needed, she says, because too many j-students think of journalism in "old-school" ways. Her full list of the laws of journalism, along with her explanations for each of them, are available on her blog post.

Doing a lot with a little: how a team of students broke a story wide open

May 11, 2009 - Posted by Regan Ray

As budgets and reporting teams shrink, lessons can be learned from what a team of University of King’s College students accomplished in an investigative workshop. Fred Vallance-Jones, the project instructor, shows how a six-week project beat the provincial media to an important story.

Inspiring photojournalism

Nov 23, 2008 - Posted by Mary McGuire

A list of nine sites where you will find some examples of the best photojournalism online today. The list can be found in this blog post, called Amazing Photojournalism: Where to find the best in news photography from the blog, 10,000 words.

And, if you are looking for a list of good photojournalism sites, including Canadian ones, and some links to other guides for teaching photography to beginners, you may find my page of resources helpful, too.

Inspiring j-students during troubled times

Sep 09, 2008 - Posted by Mary McGuire

Need some ideas about inspiring students in the face of the troubles facing newsrooms these days? Temple University professor G.W. Miller III makes a compelling case for why it's never been a more exciting time to be entering the field. His ideas and passion might also inspire fellow j-teachers.

Detecting doctored photos

Jul 22, 2008 - Posted by Mary McGuire

This PBS site provides a 13-minute video on a Dartmouth professor, Hany Farid, who is developing news ways to help people detect photos that have been manipulated. After watching the video, the site then invites viewers to examine 9 photos to try to determine whether they are real or fake. After making your choice, an audio clip of Professor Farid explains why you were right or wrong. This is a useful tool for anyone teaching photojournalism and the hazards of photo manipulation.

A guide to good journalistic practices

Jul 18, 2008 - Posted by Mary McGuire

This guide is unique. It is more than the traditional list of dos and don'ts that so many j-schools provide their students about acceptable journalistic practice. Instead, this one is posted online in a format that encourages debate and invites a conversation about the standard rules of journalistic practice. It's New York University's handbook on ethics, law and good journalistic practice online. It's extensive, well organized, thoughtful and an excellent model for any j-school developing its own set of guidelines. NYU chose this format to encourage a discussion about journalistic ethics and judging by the comments posted in the last few months it has succeeded.

Courses online to improve your j-skills

May 12, 2008 - Posted by Mary McGuire

For a long list of interactive, self-directed online courses you can visit News University. It's a project of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies. You will find courses on such things as writing headlines, editing copy, math for journalists and much more.

Teaching courses online to virtual students

Dec 09, 2007 - Posted by Mary McGuire

One of the questions I am asked frequently, as a journalism educator, is whether we offer any of our courses online. We don't -- at least not yet, and I am not aware of any other Canadian journalism schools offering courses online, yet. But it's easy to see why j-schools may consider it in the future. There is a clear and growing demand for online courses from students who cannot attend university but want to take university level courses. Some U.S. universities are now trying to meet that demand, though not necessarily with journalism courses. National Public Radio in the U.S. recently ran a two-part series examining this trend. The link below will take you to the NPR site where you can read or listen to the series.