Education

Curriculum

Sunday, July 5th

18:30 – 19:00: Meet in the hotel lobby

19:30: Welcome dinner: Lavicka, Seifertova 77, Prague 3, Tel: (+420) 222 221 350

Monday, July 6th

09:30 – 12:30: Breaking into the Trade (Michael Jordan)

• How to generate salable ideas
• Approaching the right publications and editors
• How to master the ‘”formula” of foreign correspondence
• Advance research, determining the best sources
• Arranging the logistics of your reporting trip
• How to produce an accurate “snapshot” of the situation once on the ground.

14:00 – 17:00: Multimedia Reporting (Nedim Dervisbegovic, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

• What should be included in a multimedia journalist’s toolkit (hardware and software)
• How to evaluate a story and decide what multimedia elements work best
• How to record and edit high-quality video
• How to judge basic visual elements
• Storyboarding
• Shooting photo essays and soundslides
• Thinking about distribution on the web.

Tuesday, July 7th

09:30 – 12:30: Reporting for Radio (Rob Cameron, BBC)

• Successful stringing
• Writing for radio, how to be clear and concise, but not boring
• Use of sound, how to liven up your reports and create a  sense of place
• Interview techniques, what makes a good radio interview
• Package techniques, how to get the most out of story and  produce great radio.

14:00 – 17:00: Reporting project

Wednesday, July 8th

All day reporting project.

Thursday, July 9th

09:30 – 12:30: Photojournalism (Jan Rybar, award-winning photojournalist)

• The challenges of photojournalism
• How to prepare before you arrive
• Getting people to let you take their picture
• Setting up that perfect shot
• Understanding the key principle: how photos “work”
• How to capture the atmosphere of places
• Combining photos and stories – how to “construct” great shots
• Tips and tricks for making great portraits
• How to make great photos with “simple” cameras (even mobile phones)
• Photography basics – settings, composition, etc
• Post-production basics – small improvements can make a huge difference.

14:00 – 17:00: Reporting project (deadline: 17:00)

19:30: Evening concert, Strelecky ostrov 336, Czech band “Olympic”

Friday, July 10th

09:30 – 11:00: Visit to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Working Under Conflict (Andrey Shary, Russian service)

• RFE/RL introduction (Evgeniya Konovalova)
• Covering war as a local
• Staying safe as a journalist in a war zone
• The ethical and moral responsibilities associated with covering conflict
• How to report in a time of conflict
• The debate over “embedded” journalism.

14:00 – 17:00: Techniques for Better Story-Telling (Benjamin Cunningham, Economist)

• How to recognize potential stories
• Accounting for history in a foreign environment
• Interviewing techniques and asking good questions
• Framing local stories for a global audience
• On the ground reporting and reacting to the unexpected
• Organizing material and crafting the finished product.

Evening drinks: Pivovarsky Dum, Jecna/Lipova 15, Prague 2, Tel: (+420) 296 216 666

Saturday, July 11th

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

• “Welcome to a dying trade”, or, how to become a foreign correspondent
• How to find stories (a clue: they are rarely on page one of the local press)
• Dealing with editors at long distance and pitching stories
• Differences between European and American journalism
• Ethics of Journalism, Journalism and the Law, Boundaries of Plagiarism.

Afternoon: Preparation of multimedia to accompany articles and present on Monday

Sunday, July 12th

Free day

Monday, July 13th

09:30 – 12:30: Reporting project review and feedback (Michael Jordan)

14:00 – 17:00: Jana Ciglerova, Tips of the Trade

• Determination as a vital part of one’s goal
• Early career in the Czech media
• The aspect of luck in one’s career: Czech saying “Luck is there for the ones who are ready for it”
• Britain: journalism, studies and work for The Guardian/Observer
• Being a woman in the mainstream media: many female reporters, only few female editors –why
• The importance of failure in one’s career: I have failed twice (MFDnes, Elle)
• Comeback makes you twice as powerful: my beginning work for television and radio has made me way more versatile. Had I not failed, I wouldn’t be so
• Women’s issues and me: launch of a woman’s weekly and a weekly TV show
• How does motherhood affect career of a female journalist?

20:00: Farewell dinner

Tuesday, July 14th

Departures