The London School of Journalism
A 12 week evening course providing an introduction to news and features journalism.
This course will give you a solid grounding in how news and features are put together plus valuable feedback on the pieces that you write. If you are thinking of working in print journalism, this course will give you a good opportunity to discover if you would really enjoy it - and whether you can do it - before you give up your existing career.
The classes will begin at 6.30pm and end at 9.00pm.
If you would prefer a daytime course, we have a Saturday course which is identical in content.
The course tutor will be Tony Padman, an experienced freelance journalist who has written news and features for local, regional and national newspapers. He now specialises in entertainment stories for national newspapers.
| Week 1: | Introduction, course aims, syllabus, brief on assignments, short interviews, tools |
| Week 2: | Where to find news, diary/off-diary, puff pieces, what makes news, markets |
| Week 3: | News intros, the 5 Ws, inverted pyramid, balance, padding, who to quote, what to ask |
| Week 4: | Making the story stand up, good vs bad reporting, news values, finding the facts |
| Week 5: | News structure, dealing with the police, council and press officers, fact checking |
| Week 6: | Writing to length, editing, deadlines, news in brief, avoiding hype and advertising |
| Week 7: | News conferences, thinking on your feet, fine tuning the news story, copy tasting |
| Week 8: | News vs features, features intros, endings, hooks, scene setting, key quotes |
| Week 9: | Meeting the brief, why features go wrong, questions to ask, shaping a feature |
| Week 10: | Features conferences, arranging the interview, finding the right subject, timings |
| Week 11: | Controlling the interview, killer questions, meeting the brief, listing your questions |
| Week 12: | Vox pops, law, libel, PCC, the courts, course review, Q&A, future options |
There are four writing assignments included in this course - two news and two features. Students will have their assignments graded and be given written feedback from the course tutor.
| Course Details | |
|---|---|
| No. of weeks: | Twelve Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm-9.00pm |
| Course start: | Wednesday 25 September 2013 |
| Course fees: | £385 (inc vat) |
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