News Reporting (421-4-22)
Topic
Statehouse Beat
Instructors
Bob Rowley
Meeting Info
Meets in Non-General PurposeRm: Tues, Thurs 9:00AM - 11:50AM
Overview of class
This course is an intensive news reporting class focused on Local and State Government and the Illinois Statehouse beat. We will be running this class like a newsroom as part of the Medill Illinois News Bureau (MINB) based in the Medill Chicago Newsroom. The course is a partnership with Capitol News Illinois (CNI), which wil be publishing the stories of the student fellows admitted to this class. Students in this course must apply for select spots in this class by filing the Medill Illinois News Bureau - Winter Application in November and getting accepted into the class in advance as MINB Fellows.
The course will prepare eight to ten admitted students to report on all aspects of local and state government and Illinois and national politics. Stories will range from breaking news and light enterprise to features, investigative and deeper dive stories covering the Illinois and Chicago news beats. This includes state government officials and agencies, the Illinois General Assembly, the governor's office and the executive branch, and even some stories on the Illinois Supreme Court, as well as stories about Chicago's City Hall, Chicago Public Schools and Chicago news conferences with an Illinois focus. This class will include students in the Politics, Policy and Foreign Affairs specializaiton and also students from other MSJ specializations—and some of those latter students may want to apply to contunue with the advanced reporting class on the Statehouse Beat in the Spring Quarter that will continue using MINB Fellows to work on stories and beats with Capitol News Illinois.
Students will be required to travel to Springfield regularly when the legislature is in session, and students will be getting invaluable, on-the-ground experience reporting from the Illinois State Capitol. This also means students admitted to this class should not schedule classes on Wednesdays in the Winter Quarter to allow for Tuesday-Thursday travel to Springfield on any given week. Students will explore reporting assignments with Medill's partner, Capitol News llinois (CNI), and work through an innovative new Medill bureau to place stories with CNI. This course will include discussions, readings and some guest lectures and field trips, and the class will operate like a newsroom with news meetings and one-on-one editing sessions to prepare students to report for the new Medill Illinois News Bureau. MINB Fellows started working in the Falll Quarter publisihing stories for CNI, and Fellows will continue publishing there through the winter, spring and summer quarters. There will be a new adminstraiton taking office on Jan. 20, and the students may cover aspects of state government and politics that intersect with that new adminsration and its policies.
American politics in the 21st Century have become increasingly divided, bitter and rancorous, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by a violent mob storming the U.S. Capitol and an attempt by members of Congress to undo the lawful result of the 2020 presidential election. Protests in Chicago and Milwaukee during the 2024 Democratic and Republican National Conventions underscored the divisions in the heartland and across the U.S. on issues ranging from the war in Gaza to the fight over abortion rights. The 2024 presidential campaign that played out during this Fall Quarter may still be reverberating through state and local government during Winter Quarter, and this course will provide excellent lessons in real time for discussion, brainstorming and producing stories on state and local government and national politics, how to cover them and the bitter partisanship gripping the country.
Class Materials (Required)
We will use mostly stories and links from news outlets on the Web for coursework and homework, but there is one required book: "Illinois Politics: A Citizen's Guide to Power, Politics, and Government" by Melissa Mouritsen, Kent D. Redfield & James D. Nowlan, August 2024 edition (Required - you can get if from Course Reserves on the Canvas site, or about $22.95 on Amazon for the paperback edition. Medill can help with costs.) There will be readings from other books and chapters for most classes. The instructor will recommend other good books, studies, analyses and excerpts too, during the course work.
Class Attributes
Attendance at 1st class mandatory