Course Details

Modules: 10 lessons

Cost: $895.00

Length: Course can be completed at own pace: between six to twelve months

Registration: Online at www.nzwriterscollege.co.nz

Students must complete…

• 10 writing exercises (10 for assessment and feedback)        
• Short features, two full news reports and scripts

Admission Requirements:

• Basic writing skills are essential
• Computer skills, e-mail and Internet access required
• No previous tertiary qualification required

Tutor:  Noel Cisneros

She lives in Nelson, New Zealand, with her husband and two children.

Module One: Introduction

This module introduces the student to the wonderful and challenging world of journalism, from newspapers to the broadcast media, radio and television. A career in journalism is an adventure even though it can have its hazards.

• Background and rapid development of radio and TV
• The life, work and necessities of a journalist
• Five W’s and an H plus George Orwell’s advice
• A look at local TV stations
  
• What a radio reporter needs plus introduction to TV reporting

Exercises:

Two assignments – compile a current Who’s Who on the major players in the broadcast industry in NZ; read and summarise some recent newspaper stories.

Module Two: Introduction to Radio

• Radio history and how it works as a news medium
• What a radio reporter does
• Working in a community radio station
• How the TV reporter’s day differs from the radio job
• Some terms used - learning camera language

Exercises: Two assignments for learner reporters – find useful contacts and seek stories in the newspapers. Stretch your new muscles.

Module Three: Introduction to Television

• TV – the value of pictures - shooting a TV news story on location

• The reporter’s task – fitting the words to the pix (pictures)
• Working with the crew
• After the shoot
• List of NZ TV stations and times of news bulletins

Exercise:

Match the TV reporter’s news script with the visual images

Module Four: Newsgathering - or getting the story

• News sources, establish contacts, collect phone numbers
• Essential ingredients of news
• The role of the news agencies
• The “first rough draft of history” – a reporter’s opportunity
• A nose for news and the sceptical approach

Exercise: Doing it – contacting local police, hospitals, schools etc. Dig up stories on which to report for broadcast.

Module Five: Writing for Broadcast

• Writing news for a short attention span
• The basic structure of writing – brief, accurate and clear
• Read while you type – writing for the ear
• Use the Active verb rather than the Passive
• Beware of libel, slander, plagiarism and bad language 

Exercise: Editorial comparison. Listen to a news bulletin on each of two different radio or TV stations. Write a brief description of each. If there is a noticeable difference between the two bulletins, note why you think that was the case.

Module Six: Interviewing Skills

• The interview, one of the most important aspects of a reporter’s work. Appropriate skill is to elicit information, try to get interviewee to make statements that are important for telling your story.
• Effective steps to get interviewee at ease, responsive
• How to handle interviewee accused of wrongdoing?
• Why don’t you write down the questions?

• Listen carefully to professional interviewers at work

Exercise: Record two interviews on leading TV shows, and make comparisons

Modules Seven & Eight: Radio Journalism 2 & 3

• These modules continue and expand ideas expressed in the introduction given in Module Two.  What is a package?
• Advice from E.B.White – caution against using “stylish” language
• Never express your own opinions, either on air or in script
• Reading your script on air – voice-work; vox pops

• A few useful but - sometimes amusing - voice exercises

Exercises: Find suitable story for a radio current affairs feature: research, arrange and do interviews or vox pops, record background sounds, edit, cue and script and record package.

Some additional voice exercises

Module Nine: Television Journalism 2

• Words, their meaning and structure in a TV script
• The visual side of the report & its impact on the written word
• Reporting serious violence – the tasteful, sensitive report
• Privacy – how much may you intrude?
• Vox pops – what are they?

Exercises: Find a story of public interest (or argument or controversy), plan, research, find location, shoot film with vox pops, edit, script and record final cut suitable for broadcast.

Module Ten: The Professional Broadcast Journalist

• How can I give up my job and still make a living?
• Who do I approach for work and build up a reputation?
• How do I go about making good contacts?
• What would be my hours if I went freelance?
• More slang – what are pegs, hooks, strings etc.?

Exercise: Find story, plan, research, organise a radio package, record interview(s), edit, script, record and package.

How does the course work?

Once the writing assignment has been completed, and e-mailed to the lecturer, an assessment and feedback will be sent to the student, and the module will be considered complete.

Students can also participate in ongoing online discussions by posting comments about the materials covered in the course, as well as give feedback to students who have posted their pieces in the Discussion Forum.

Conditions of Certification:

Students will receive an NZ Writers' College Certificate upon successful completion of the course, provided they meet the following conditions:

• Students must have completed all assignments
• The course must have been completed within twelve months of registration.
• Students are expected to attain a minimum average of 50% for the course

Minimum Estimated Time Commitment:

• Reading time: 15 hours
• Writing time: up to 25 hours
• Research time: 10 - 25 hours, depending on the complexity of the selected topics for writing.