Journalism
How news is found, checked, written and paid for, and why a free press is worth defending.
For: anyone thinking of working in news, anyone who writes for an audience, and every reader who wants to tell good reporting from bad.
Shaped by the ACEJMC accreditation standards' professional values and competencies (the US accrediting council for journalism schools), UNESCO's Model Curricula for Journalism Education and the core of schools such as Columbia's; told worldwide, with press freedom, media law and the business of news compared across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. Media law is descriptive, not legal advice.
Year 1 · Finding and telling
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01ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Reporting & Interviewing: How to Find Out What Happened
Finding sources, asking questions and getting it right.
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02ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
News Writing & Storytelling: Put the Thing That Matters First
The lede, the structure and the story.
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03ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Narrative: Who Tells It, and When
How stories work: voice, time and point of view.
Year 2 · Checking and judging
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04ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Verification & Fact-Checking: How to Know What You Know
How to verify a claim, a photo or a video.
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05ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
Journalism Ethics: Four Duties That Pull Against Each Other
Truth, harm, independence and accountability.
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06ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Probability & Statistics: Reasoning with Uncertainty
The statistics behind every poll, chart and claim.
Year 3 · The law and the numbers
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07ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Media Law & Press Freedom: Who Can Be Sued for What They Print
Defamation, privacy, sources and press freedom around the world.
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08ReadInteractiveQuiz10 min
Data Journalism: Finding the Story the Numbers Hold
Finding stories in data, and charts that don't lie.
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09ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min
Elections, Parties & Public Opinion: Rules That Turn Votes into Power
Polls, elections and public opinion.
Year 4 · Accountability and the future
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10ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min
Investigative Journalism: How a Tip Becomes a Story That Holds
How investigations are built, from a tip to publication.
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11ReadInteractiveQuiz11 min
The Business & Future of News: Who Pays for Finding Out
Who pays for news, platforms, algorithms and AI.
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12Deep diveInteractiveQuiz15 min
Social Psychology: How Other People Change What We Do
Why people believe what they believe.
the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report, free each June; the Poynter and First Draft training material; the Global Investigative Journalism Network's guides, free; the textbooks named at the end of each subject.
Philosophy
How to argue well about the questions that don't go away: what we can know, what exists, what minds are, and how to live, asked on every continent.