Course Overview
This course is for those with some
experience of news writing who wish to improve their researching and
writing skills, work on ways to come up with new treatments for news
stories and brush up on media law. The course is ideal for those who are
writing news but have not had any formal training in reporting.
You
will learn how to make your stories sharper, how to work faster and with
greater accuracy and how to improve your news-gathering skills. The course
includes practical exercises in writing, interviewing, handling press
conferences and rewriting.
Course content
Turning
your weaknesses into strengths
Practical exersises designed to address
common problem areas
How to research complex stories
How to
isolate the essential facts that make a complex story news worthy.
How
to build up a network of brilliant contacts who give you stories
The
best stories are the ones somebody doesn't want you to get. To get to
these stories you need to know people who can either give you the
information you need or help you get it. How do you cultivate those
contacts?
Writing against the clock
Almost all news reporting is
carried out against a deadline and, as you advance as a news reporter,
those deadlines are likely to get tighter. You'll learn some essential
tips and tricks to get complex stories written on time. How to anticipate
events and plan ahead.
Handling tough interviews
· Dealing with a
reluctant interviewee.
· How to deal with going off the record
·
Avoiding no comment
Finding off-diary stories
Finding your own
stories and developing a real nose for news
Developing your
intro-writing and story structuring skills
Structuring a news story.
You will undergo some rigorous practical exercises designed to help you
ensure your intro and story structure are as good as they can be.
Covering
a specialist area
The next step for many reporters is to cover a
specialist area - from industry or science to finance or politics. How to
develop these specialist skills and contacts in a key area.
Latest
developments in defamation and privacy law
Questions and answers
