Journalism

Overview

Course Description

This course is designed to prepare you to become a student of journalism and media. The work we do here will equip you with the critical skills you must have to succeed in high school media, college media, and beyond. We will read a variety of journalistic material and do a great deal of news writing. We will also look at journalism from legal, ethical, and historic vantage points. Expect to complete numerous writing activities in a variety of styles including editorial, hard news, feature, review, and more. If you participate actively, you will gain tremendous skills that will serve you for the rest of your life. Individual and group project will also be a part of this class. This course is a project based course and does not include traditional tests, unit level understanding is assessed through unit projects.

Course Requirements

Grade Level

9-12

Materials

None

Duration

1 Semester

Credit Value

0.5

Prerequisites

None

Outline

Major Concepts

  • Effective journalism requires creating a story that is readily understandable to a mass audience.
  • Journalistic ethics and the laws that govern journalists is a topic of constant debate.
  • Responsible journalism involves meticulous researching and verifying of facts and data.
  • Editorial writing contains both facts and opinions and is similar to persuasive writing.
  • Features contain elements of major news stories, but also contain descriptive details.