Introduction to Journalism Course

Course Description

The free online course Introduction to Journalism provides information on the basic principles and practices in journalism, such as how to identify a story, how to gather facts, how to perform interviews and research, and how to create news articles while maintaining the highest journalistic ethics. The course begins by introducing you to the key elements of journalism such as identifying what is and what is not newsworthy, how to identify stories which are new, unusual or significant, and how to distinguish between a big news story and a small one. Next, you will learn about organizing and writing the feature story itself: you will learn how to define a feature story, what the basic approaches to writing the feature story are and what different types of feature stories there are. The basic processes and approaches involved in getting the required information for a feature story and putting it into an easily understood form is also explained. You will also learn about the four parts of an editorial, the different approaches to editorial titles and the three types of conclusions most commonly used in editorial writing. You will also learn about the different roles and responsibilities in a newsroom and how to use story weighting to assess a story's value and newsworthiness. Finally, you are introduced to the methods that address ethical issues which might arise during the course of journalistic activities with people, businesses and institutions. You will also learn how journalists must live up to the highest standards of integrity such as truth, fairness and sincerity, and you will learn why journalists must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. This course will be of great interest to professionals who work in the areas of communications and reportage and who want to learn how to tell stories in a way that will inform people in society. It will also be of great interest to all learners who would like to learn more about the key practices and procedures in journalism and who may want to pursue a career in journalism.

CERTIFICATION

To qualify for your official ALISON Diploma, Certificate or PDF you must study and complete all modules and score 80% or more in each of the course assessments. A link to purchase your Diploma certificate will then appear under the My Certificates heading of your My Account page.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this course you will be able to:
- Explain the different types of journalist;
- Define the main criteria for a news story;
- Develop a system for fact checking and research;
- Use note taking skills effectively;
- Explain how to perform an interview;
- Organize the layout of a news story or article;
- Explain the different types of feature stories;
- Define and construct an editorial;
- Identify and recognize the key points of a story;
- Use quotes and attributions correctly in a news story;
- Develop fact checking methodologies;
- Explain how to maintain balance in the use of opinions and facts;
- Identify the main types of plagiarism;
- Identify the five steps involved in proactive journalism;
- Explain how to assess a stories value using story weighting;
- Explain the different workflow's, roles and responsibilities in a newsroom.

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