Course ID: | JOUR 5390/7390. 3 hours. |
Course Title: | Investigative Reporting |
Course Description: | Students master investigative reporting techniques involving
documents, data, and human sources. Special emphasis on
investigating and holding accountable government and other major
institutions. Students will produce a major investigative
project. |
Oasis Title: | Investigative Reporting |
Undergraduate Prerequisite: | (JOUR 3090 or JOUR 3190) and permission of department |
Graduate Prerequisite: | Permission of department |
Semester Course Offered: | Offered every year. |
Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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Course Objectives: | Students will develop a “documents state of mind” in
approaching research questions, learning how to ethically and
legally gather and present detailed information and interview
sources to produce investigative stories. Students will master
the investigative process from hypothesis to production. The
course requires students to complete a set of small and one
major investigative project. |
Topical Outline: | The importance of holding institutions accountable
Methods of finding story ideas
The ethics of investigative reporting
Using state and federal open records laws
Requesting and receiving documents and data
Online and database research techniques
Identifying and interviewing sources
Numeracy
Making sense of documents and data formats
Analysis of data through spreadsheets, databases, and mapping
Presentation of stories in a multimedia formats |