COMM 474Depth Reporting

3 credits · Communications · Penn State

Exploration of strategies for developing indepth newspaper or magazine articles, with an emphasis on gathering information and long-form writing. COMM 474 Depth Reporting (3) This is an upper-level undergraduate course designed to prepare students for writing in-depth newspaper or magazine articles, which extends beyond the basics of writing and reporting techniques emphasized in courses such as News Writing and Reporting, Reporting Methods, and the Feature Article. Depth stories are comprehensive accounts that go well beyond a basic news story or feature. An emphasis on longer, more comprehensive stories that require extensive research and interviews gives students an opportunity to be more than technicians following a rigid set of journalistic guidelines or principles. Depth stories require journalists to spend days, weeks or months exploring and investigating a topic and writing a lengthy story that must be cemented with effective transitions.