Course overview
This course aims to extend the skills and knowledge of public interest journalism developed in earlier courses through a focus on the importance, contexts, principles and practices of investigative journalism. Through story sourcing, advanced verification, extensive research, data analysis and interpretation, interviewing, students produce investigative stories in a variety of formats on a social justice topic. Through these contexts, theories and practices, they come to a high-level understanding of the development and achievements of investigative journalism, and apply their understanding to the production of their own investigative storytelling.
- Understanding investigative journalism
- Investigative storytelling skills
- Connecting the detail to the big picture
Course learning outcomes
- Explain the history, traditions and contemporary nature of investigative, in-depth and social justice journalism
- Apply advanced journalism research techniques and skills, including verification, data research, visualisation, interpretation and analysis, investigative interviewing, and reporting empirical evidence
- Plan, create, write and produce an investigative/in-depth work of social justice journalism in textual form and podcast or visual story
- Identify and practice in accordance with the ethical and legal obligations associated with professional journalism
- Write and present journalism in a variety of formats to a professional standard, including style, sentence structure, spelling and grammar, presentation and referencing