Syllabus Introduction to Journalism, Fall 2026
Professor Barbara Nevins Taylor
Introduction to Journalism
MCA 23300-4PR-28707
In-person with slight hybrid in room 290 Shepard Hall
917 678 6069 barbaranevinstaylor@mac.com bnevinstaylor@ccny.cuny.edu
ConsumerMojo.com @consumermojo
This syllabus by Barbara Nevins Taylor is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
*This is a journalism class, and I am a newsperson and that means we follow the news. The syllabus will change to reflect what’s happening on campus, in our communities, the nation and the world.
Welcome to journalism and your opportunity to help save democracy. In a world filled with lies meant to deliberately mislead Americans and others, truthful journalism is more important than ever. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right of journalists to report and speak truth to power.
Whether this is really your introduction to journalism or if you have practiced journalism in some way, get ready to jump in, learn the basics and begin to report and write. We share a mission with journalists in New York City, throughout the U.S. and the world to report and tell truthful stories that have meaning and impact.
Journalism allows you to explore whatever interests you, to ask questions, to frame a story as you see it and then tell the story in writing, video, photography, audio, and graphics. The possibilities for truthful storytelling keep expanding and providing opportunities. You know that social media plays a big role in the way we consume information, and that means we need to consider truthful storytelling techniques that also utilize social media platforms.
It’s true that you may feel like you are shouting into the wind. But when your story, your information catches the wind, you can have a powerful impact.
We use award-winning HarlemView as our platform to post stories about our communities throughout the city. We also use TikTok for short explanatory videos. We are also interested in sharing your well-reported, well-edited stories with hyper local publications.
This is an Open Educational Resources class and that means you will not have to purchase a textbook. All the class material will be posted on our class website: CCNY Introduction to Journalism-Truth Matters. I also hope that you’ll write for The Campus and The Paper.
Course Learning Outcomes
This course will help you learn:
How to work ethically to find the truth, pursue accuracy, fairness and diversity, and report strong news stories.
How to use your analytic skills to determine what makes a news story.
How to think creatively, independently, and critically about local and world events.
How to gather information, synthesize complicated details, and craft a succinct, logical story with a beginning, middle and end.
How to write stories of 300 to 750 words for print, digital and other platforms.
How to gather information using photographs, video and audio effectively.
How to use math and statistics to provide context.
How to understand the changes in the media industry and what they mean for journalists and news consumers.
How to meet deadlines.
Required Reading: The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There are free copies in the library. You do not have to buy the book, but please read it and I think you will enjoy it.
Download the AP app. It’s free. You must keep up with current events and the news. This will help you do it. Get a free subscription to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal: thttps://mec.cuny.libguides.com/NYTimes
For local news read Gothamist, The City Reporter Spectrum NY1 and for a broad world view, The Guardian. Our students get internships there. Some publications like The Economist have discounted subscriptions for students.
Read City & State New York, which has excellent political coverage. Hyperallergic covers the arts. Publications like Hell Gate are good and cover New York but require subscriptions. You can sign up for a free newsletter. Vice covers a wide range of culture, politics and interesting things. There are hyper-local online sites like BKReader, which covers Brooklyn. Read the non-profits ProPublica for investigative reporting and The Marshall Project if you are interested in criminal justice issues. If you are interested in economics and business read Bloomberg and CNBC. You might try The Nation, a progressive publication and Mother Jones The Root covers Black issues and culture, CapitolBNews also focuses on Black issues. Watch Telemundo and Univision News. Try PBS NewsHour. Try local TV news stations, which are free at the moment. Read and watch Vice, VOX and Mic.com. Listen to the radio. Try WNYC FM 93.9 in the morning. Use a news aggregator like Google News, Yahoo, Apple News, or Facebook Trending.
There are other good, reliable news sources. Seek them out. X or TikTok and Instagram often feature bits of reporting by reliable journalists. Get to know who you can trust. Add news sources, elected officials and newsmakers to your feeds. Associated Press @AP, @Reuters, @theathletic, @Bloomberg, @NYT, @WashingtonPost, @theroot. Look for mainstream and diverse sources that offer different points of view. They can keep you up-to-date and engaged in the news.
It is important to read the work of others if you want to become a good writer.
Articles and links: I will post articles, links, and essays for you to read regularly on the class website and will include questions about the stories in the quizzes.
Writing Assignments: You will have several reporting and writing assignments that we’ll peg to what’s happening in the city, country and the world. You have the option to report and write more for extra credit. The best stories from the class will appear on HarlemView, our journalism website.
Using AI
You might use AI, and many of us do either directly or indirectly. Autocorrect is AI. Grammarly is AI. Google Docs reminds you about grammar and spelling using AI. That’s all fine. You may find ChatGPT and Anthropic, Claude and AI apps useful for checking or finding information. That’s okay. But it is not okay to ask AI to write your stories or create your videos. While the university and college don’t have a clear AI policy, I do.
If you use AI to write your stories, you will fail. Do not delegate your talent, or your intellect to a bot. Do not allow a bot to steal your ability to learn to think and to write.
Please maintain your own standard of ethics and integrity. Do not use AI to create your work. AI provides shortcuts that can help your creativity in some cases and rob you of the ability to think on your own in others.
Attendance: We have a lot of ground to cover and that means you need to come to class and show up on time. Two unexplained absences will mean you get a lower grade. If you must miss a class, email or text me in advance. If you miss more than four classes, we’ll ask you to withdraw from the course. Please don’t do this. Three instances of lateness will count as one unexcused absence. Please get into the excitement of journalism and come to class on time.
Special Accommodations: Please let me know if you need special accommodations. I’m happy to help.
Grading:
Assignments: 25 percent
Final Writing Project: 25
Class participation: 25 percent
News Quizzes, midterm and final 25 percent
Class Conduct: Please put away your digital devices and other distractions. We need your full attention. Multi-tasking and concentration don’t mix. Please do not chat or eat in the classroom. Journalism requires collaboration. We depend upon one another in newsrooms, in the field and in the classroom, and we need to play nice. Students will present their work in class for review, and we want to provide positive feedback that helps everyone move their work forward. Analyze the work before you speak up and then offer constructive criticism. Try to start with something positive and then explain your criticism.
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File stories in the class folder in Google Drive.
- Put your name and contact information including your phone number at the top, flush left.
- Make copy flush left. Do not indent.
- Double space
- Use Ariel 12-point type.
- Write 300 to 750 words
- Take a photo that illustrates the story and prepare to send it separately. The photo should be 2000 x 1200 px
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Assignments: I’d like to keep you close to the news and our assignments may vary depending upon what happens in the news cycle. The assignments listed on the syllabus are likely to change.
I’ll edit your work so that you can improve week by week and you’ll be expected to rewrite and submit several drafts, if necessary. I will not grade your early work because you will get better and better as you continue to write.
The class will have a midterm and a final.
Class Calendar ***This may change as we move through the semester.
Week One
Thursday, September 3
Getting to know you. Introduction to class.
How do you define journalism? What are your sources of information and are they news, or journalism?
Misinformation. Disinformation and manipulation. Where we get our news. How do we figure out what’s real?
Defining Truth, Lies, Misinformation and Disinformation.
What makes journalism. Objectivity and Bias. What’s the difference between opinion and news or facts. https://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/news-statements-quiz/
What the United States Constitution guarantees and what journalists need to know to fulfill their mission. Ethics.
Writing in the active voice. How to write a sentence in the active voice. You can do it!
Reporting Basics Anatomy of a news story. The basic elements and how we construct stories. The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of Journalism. How to incorporate that in your story.
AP Style
Homework: Read, watch and listen to the news. Check the AP app. It will help you with the weekly news quiz.
Write a 300-word essay to answer the following questions: Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? Include a selfie or photo to illustrate your About Me.
Please do it by 5 p.m. on Wednesday and put it in this folder in Google Drive
Read, watch and listen to the news.
Week Two
Thursday, September 10
Meet at the 911 Museum at 180 Greenwich Street New York
We’ll meet at the museum and visit it and then move on to the 9/11 Memorial. Bring your note pad you’ll interview visitors and write a 250 to 300 word story about what you found.
Week Three
Thursday, September 17
Where does news come from?
Guest Speaker: Michael Oreskes
What journalists need to know about government.
Types of news stories. Breaking News, Features, Profiles, Criticism, Opinion and more.
AP Style review. Using the Associated Press Stylebook, we’ll review grammar and do active writing exercises.
Homework
Finish the book: The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor.
Find out and write down the names of your city council member, state assembly member, state senator, mayor, county executive, U.S. senators, U.S. representative, the police commissioner. Find out the number of New York City council members and U.S. representatives to Congress. How many representatives does New York State have? New York City? Bring the information to class. You do not have to submit it in advance.
Week Four
Thursday, September 24
News quiz and quiz on the Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor.
Guest Speaker: Harry Siegel
What’s a news angle? How do you check facts?
Pitching. What is it and how to write a pitch.
Think about a social issue or cultural story that you would like to report about: immigration, housing, homelessness, crime in your neighborhood, crime in the subway, art in a museum or a gallery, food.
Homework: Write a pitch for a story that you would like to report. Deadline TBA put it in the Google Drive.
Week Five
Thursday, October 1
News Quiz
Possible guest speaker Kay Murray, managing attorney with Lawyers for Reporters, about Copyright.
Copyright and ethics. Creative Commons licenses and how you find information, photos, video and music that you can legally and ethically use in your own work.
Interviewing techniques. How to conduct interviews. What makes a good interview? We’ll try a few. Let’s go out and interview people.
Homework: Read, watch and listen to the news. If your pitch is approved, start reporting your story. Deadline for first draft Monday at 5 p.m. Please put the story in the Google Drive.
Week Six
Thursday, October 8
News Quiz
Interviewing techniques. How to conduct interviews. What makes a good interview? We’ll try a few. Let’s go out and interview people.
Week Seven
Thursday, October 15
Midterm Exam
Midterm elections
Who is running? What’s at stake and how do you cover it.
Guest Speaker, political reporter.
Does anyone want to cover a story involving the midterm elections.
Homework: Work on your revisions. Please get them back to me as soon as possible. I will set a deadline.
Week Eight
Thursday, October 22
News Quiz
Photography Workshop
Guest speaker TBA
Using photography and video to tell stories.
Homework: Read, watch and listen to the news.
Work on your story.
Thursday, October 29
News Quiz
Guest speaker – Data Journalism.
How do you use data to augment your reporting and tell a story.
Week Nine
Thursday, November 5
News Quiz
Guest speaker – Data Journalism.
How do you use data to tell a story and augment your reporting. What does the data from the midterm elections tell us.
Anyone want to report and write a story using data journalism?
Homework: TBA
Week Ten
Thursday, November 12
News Quiz
Covering a news conference. What you need to look and listen for and how to synthesize the information.
We Zoom into a news conference and write about it in class like a deadline story.
Homework: Read, watch and listen to the news. Write a pitch for your final story.
Submit the pitch by 5 p.m. Sunday.
Week Eleven
Thursday, November 19
News Quiz
Styles of writing
Gonzo Journalism
Guest: TBA
Homework: TBA
Week Twelve
Thursday, November 26 Thanksgiving!! Enjoy!
Week Thirteen
Thursday, December 3
Using your voice and still reporting honestly and fairly.
Guest Speaker former People Magazine writer Steve Dougherty.
News Quiz
Week Fourteen
Thursday, December 10 Last Class
Final and let’s celebrate a great semester.
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