Advanced Sports Reporting (404-0-20)

Instructors

Melissa Isaacson

Meeting Info

303 E. Wacker Dr. 1623: Wed 9:00AM - 11:50AM

Overview of class

This course is designed to help you better understand the industry you will soon enter, to make you better, more ambitious writers and reporters and in the process, more employable. In doing all this, we will set the bar high, expecting you to take the next big step in determining the kind of professional sports journalist you want to be.

We will spend time examining our ever-changing business and sometimes elusive audience. Asking who they are, what they want and how we can best deliver quality content to them will be part of our objective this quarter while looking at how we do that with an innovative and entrepreneurial eye. In other words, what can we bring to prospective employers that will make us irresistible as candidates?

We will learn how the best sports writers in the business have developed the skills and tools to stand out from the pack by studying their work. And we will hone the fundamental reporting and writing skills you learned in Methods and developed last quarter, work on generating original ideas and crafting stories on deadline while being ready to pivot on a daily basis as the news changes.

We will dip into beat coverage, alternative story forms and retrospectives. We will talk to top journalists, editors and industry professionals about the current state and future of our business, cover events including the NFL Draft, the Bears rookie mini-camp, Chicago Sky Media Day; and issues that continue to be compelling such as the betting industry, the future of college sports and the state of women's sports.

Class Materials (Required)

None

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory