Skagit Valley College

Catalog Course Search Details

 Course Title:   Introduction to Journalism & Newswriting

 Title Abbreviation:   INTRO TO JOURNALISM

 Department:    JOUR

 Course #:    101

 Credits:    5

 Variable:     No

 IUs:    5

 CIP:    090102

 EPC:    n/a

 REV:    2019


 Course Description  

The course is designed to develop skill in investigative research and reporting, news-writing, and the basic principles of journalism. This introductory class focuses primarily on researching, writing/reporting skills.

 Prerequisite  

Prerequisite: Completion of English 101 with a C or better.

Additional Course Details

Contact Hours (based on 11 week quarter)

Lecture: 55

Lab: 0

Other: 0

Systems: 0

Clinical: 0


Intent: Distribution Requirement(s) Status:  

Academic Humanities  

Equivalencies At Other Institutions

Other Institution Equivalencies Table
Institution Course # Remarks
Bellevue CMST 141
Clark JOURN 101
Everett JOURN 101
WWU JOURN 207

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Identify and describe journalistic and ethical principles and apply them to newswriting;
  2. Brainstorm, evaluate, select, and coordinate news topics as part of a news team;
  3. Apply appropriate interviewing, surveying, and/or online/in-person information-gathering skills to researching and verifying content for news stories;
  4. Construct a basic news story that contains a headline, lead, facts, and, if available, quotations and photos/captions;
  5. Use recognized writing conventions to proofread and revise news stories for flow, style, and completeness;
  6. Cultivate contacts and cover/produce news content related to various beats/pages and develop news stories that reflect them;
  7. Analyze and evaluate newspapers and news stories from personal, campus, local, national, and/or global sources for audience, effectiveness, and accuracy;
  8. Explore and characterize basic newspaper production and journalism careers;
  9. Manage time effectively by meeting copy deadlines and other due dates.

General Education Learning Values & Outcomes

Revised August 2008 and affects outlines for 2008 year 1 and later.

Course Contents

  1. The Basic News Story
  2. Interviewing
  3. Beat System
  4. Establishing Contacts
  5. Principles of Journalism
  6. Lifestyle Pages
  7. Sports Pages
  8. Editorials & Opinion Pages
  9. Ethics
  10. Role of Student Press in Media
  11. Careers in Journalism