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 and the Bureau's work are a partnership with Capitol News Illinois (CNI), which will be publishing the stories of the student fellows admitted to this class. Students must apply for select spots in this class by filing the Medill Illinois News Bureau - Winter Application in October and getting accepted into the course in advance as MINB Statehouse Fellows. Students in the Politics, Policy & Foreign Affairs specialization will have the priority in Winter Quarter since they will be in Washington, D.C., Spring and Summer Quarters.

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 & Foreign Affairs specialization and also students from other MSJ specializations—and some of those latter students may want to apply to continue 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. Each Statehouse Fellow will likely get three to four trips to Springfield during the quarter and other travels as appropriate for other stories around Illinois. This also means students admitted to this class should not schedule classes on Wednesdays in the Winter Quarter if possible (or try to work with instructors) to allow Tuesday-Thursday travel to Springfield on any given week. Students will explore reporting assignments with Medill's partner, Capitol News Illinois (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. Statehouse Fellows with the Bureau started working in the Fall Quarter 2024 and worked through Winter, Spring and Summer Quarters in 2025 publishing stories for CNI. Fellows will continue publishing there through the Winter, Spring and Summer Quarters this year. Given the policies and conduct of the new federal administration, students may cover aspects of local and state government and politics that intersect with that of the current administration and its policies, explaining local and state impacts of those 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 immigration to the war in Gaza to the fight over abortion rights. The 2024 presidential campaign and the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president has set in motion controversial government policies and programs that will continue to reverberate 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 for about $22.89 on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Illinois-Politics-Citizens-Guide-Government/dp/0252087976) for the paperback edition or cheaper on Thrift Books and other sites. 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 coursework.

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory
Registration is By Application Only