Journalism Skills: Introduction

Course Overview

This two-day course is the ideal preparation for anyone who wants to fast track into journalism whether you plan to be writing for magazines or newspapers, working in PR or contributing to house journals.This is a practical, results-driven course covering news reporting, researching a story, feature writing, interview techniques, sub-editing and essential legal and privacy issues.

Course Outline

RESEARCH

• The internet as a research tool
• Traditional sources
• What makes news and how to find it

INTERVIEWING

• Face-to-face interviews
• Telephone interviews
• Interview techniques
• The difficult interview
• Extracting information
• Spotting hidden agendas
• The press conference

NEWS REPORTING

• News writing
• Working to media deadlines
• News desk organisation
• Writing press releases

FEATURE WRITING

• Understanding your audience
• Re-writing for different audiences
• Developing a feature
• Writing excellent introductions
• Selling your feature

SUB-EDITING

• • On-screen subbing
  • Writing headlines
• Effective use of quotes

ETHICS AND LEGAL ISSUES

• Privacy issues
• QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS