Curriculum

This is a tentative schedule as of July 2018.

Saturday, July 7th

Arrivals for participants that paid by March 15, 2018 – Check in from 15:00 (Marriott Courtyard Prague Flora, Lucemburska 46, Prague 3, 13000)

Sunday, July 8th

Arrivals for participants that paid after March 15, 2018 – Check in from 15:00 (Marriott Courtyard Prague Flora, Lucemburska 46, Prague 3, 13000)

15:45 Meeting point: hotel lobby

15:45 – 16:00 Registration

16:00 – 19:00 Tour of Prague

19:00 – 21:00 Welcome dinner – Kozlovna u Paukerta (Národní 981/17, 110 00 Prague 1)

Monday, July 9th – venue: Thomson Reuters (Václavské náměstí 832/19)

08:40 Meeting point: hotel lobby

08:45 Departure from the hotel

(talk on understanding Czech culture, Jeremy Druker, Transitions)

09:30 – 12:30 Techniques for Better Story-Telling (Michael Kahn, Reuters)

14:00 – 17:00 News-Writing Lab (Michael Kahn, Reuters)

Tuesday, July 10th

09:30 – 12:30 News-Writing Lab: Getting Out into the Field (Michael Kahn, Reuters)

Participants will spend the morning reporting a news story in the streets of Prague.

14:00 – 17:00 News-writing Lab: Story Review (Michael Kahn, Reuters)

Participants will have two hours to write their stories and then Michael will review the results.

17:30-18:00 Feature Story Idea Presentation to Feedback Panel (Jeremy Druker – Transitions and Michael Kahn – Reuters).

Each participant will present their story to three long-time journalists in Prague who will offer initial feedback, suggestions for additional sources, and possible contacts.

Wednesday, July 11th

9:30 – 12:30 Multimedia Reporting: What is a Video Story and How to Give Every Story a Classic Story Structure (Adam Pemble, Associated Press)

14:00 – 17:00 Multimedia Reporting: Make it Pleasant, Capture Attention, Make it Beautiful, Make it Motivated (Adam Pemble, Associated Press)

Not everything is beautiful or interesting but it can be shot that way:

– How to look at something and see it for more than it is
– Change perspective
– Layers
– The whole universe in a soda bottle
– What are the subjects of the story and can you get them all into one frame?

What art teaches us:

-Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical
-Rule of Thirds
-Leading lines
-Graphical
-Odd numbers

A) Camera movements

-Push, pull, pan and tilt: every movement must reveal

B) Tracking shot

-Why do we need to move? What can it show?

A) One mistake and you can lose the viewer

B) What is matched action and how to find it

-What is a cutaway and how close ups can save your story
-Using jump cuts to illustrate a point
-How much is too much

Thursday, July 12th

1/2 day reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories.

Tour at The Cold War Museum: Crisis fallout shelter (private guided visit – the group divided in two groups – each tour cca 45 min), a crisis fallout shelter from the 1950s, situated under the Hotel Jalta in downtown Prague.  In case of war, the military headquarters of the Warsaw Pact countries would have had their base here. In 2013, the Cold War Museum opened in the fallout shelter.

14:25 Meeting point for 1st group: Jalta Hotel reception lobby, Václavské náměstí 818/45, Prague 1

14:30 – 15:15 – 1st group = The University of Tennessee group

1st group continue day reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories.

15:55 Meeting point for 2nd group: Jalta Hotel reception lobby, Václavské náměstí 818/45

16:00 – 16:45 – 2nd group = other participants

2nd group continue day reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories.

Free time

Friday,  July 13th

9:30 – 12:30 Photojournalism (Jan Rybar, award-winning photojournalist)

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 17:00 Exercises in the field

Jan will accompany participants in downtown Prague as they shoot photos. The group will then congregate back at the venue and review the shots that they have taken.

18:00 – 20:00 Evening drinks at local Czech brewery – Pivovarský dům (Ječná/Lípová 15, Prague 2, 120 44)

Saturday, July 14th

9:30 – 12:30 Life as a Foreign Correspondent (Raphael Minder, New York Times)

Afternoon: Reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories

Sunday, July 15th

Free day

Monday, July 16th

A Day at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (for this day’s session please bring your passports) – (Vinohradská 159A, Prague 10)

9:30 Meeting point: hotel lobby

10:00 – 10:30 group security checking – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
10:30 – 11:00 introduction and tour with Jana Hokuvova (RFE/RL -Media and Public Affairs)
11:00 – 12:30 Working Under Conflict (Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL)

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 15:30 Digital storytelling (Glenn Kates, Wojtek Grojec, RFE/RL)

Tuesday, July 17th

All day for stories assignments

Wednesday, July 18th

09:30 – 12:30 The Female Correspondent – The Benefits and Challenges to Being a Woman in What Was Once a Man’s Game. (Silvie Lauder, Respekt and Jana Ciglerova, MF Dnes)

14:00 – 15: 00 Visit to Václav Havel Library (Ostrovní 13, 110 00, Prague 1)

Participants will meet with Barbora Grečnerová whom studied Czech language and literature and Norwegian at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Prague. She published several translations from Norwegian and published reviews of contemporary Scandinavian literature. She worked as project manager for the European Commission’s training projects and Norwegian funds to foster international school collaboration and technology integration into teaching. Vaclav Havel Library is responsible for educational projects.

Thursday, July 19th

09:30 – 12:30 Rob Cameron – Reporting from Prague

The BBC’s long-time correspondent talks about how he got his start and how the profession has changed since his arrival in the early 1990s.

Free afternoon or Optional Tour at The Czech Radio

13:40 Meeting point: By horse – Václavské náměstí

13:45 Departure – Václavské náměstí

14:00 – 15:00 Tour at The Czech Radio – Vinohradská 12, Prague 2 (for this day’s session please bring your passports)

Free afternoon

Assignments deadline midnight!

Friday, July 20th
9:30 – 11:30 Solutions Journalism (Sam Swan, University of Tennessee)

11:15 – 12:30 Interviews

Free time in Prague

14:00 – Meeting point: Metro hall Křižíkova station (Line B)

14:10 – Departure Metro hall

14:30 – 15:45  Visit Economia publishing house – the most modern news complex in the country.

The massive Economia media complex (which features a central newsroom for all of their publications with a “Superdesk” in the middle, where the main editors sit and collaborate across publications. An introduction and discussion with Martin Ehl, the foreign editor of Hospodarske noviny (the Czech Republic’s leading business daily).

Free time in Prague

Saturday, July 21th

09:30 – 12:30 Reporting-project critique session (Jeremy Druker and Michael Kahn)

Free afternoon

17:30 Meeting point: Dvořákovo nábřeží, Na Františku, Prague 1
17:45 Boarding on boat Gladius – wharf nr. 11 –  under the Na Františku hospital
18:00 – 20:00 Farewell dinner on boat Gladius

Sunday, July 22th

Departures