Education

Curriculum

This is a tentative schedule as of March 2024.

Saturday, July 6th, 2024

Arrivals – Check in from 15:00 (Marriott Courtyard Prague Flora, Lucemburska 46, Prague 3, 13000)

Free time

Sunday, July 7th

09:50 – 10:00 Meeting point: hotel lobby and registration of participants

10:05 Departure from the hotel

10:00 – 13:00 Walking Tour: Prague sightseeing

13:15 – 14:45 Lunch

15:15 – 15:30 Welcome and Introductions (Jeremy Druker, Transitions)

15:30 – 17:30 Life as a Foreign Correspondent (Raphael Minder, The Financial 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
• Being a foreign correspondent for The Financial Times.

Free time in Prague

Monday, July 8th

09:00 Meeting point: hotel lobby

09:05 Departure from the hotel and arrival at the venue

9:45 – 10:00 Welcome and Introductions (Jeremy Druker, Transitions)

10:00 – 12:30 Panel Discussion: “What Is Actually a Foreign Correspondent?” (moderated by Jeremy Druker, Transitions, with participants: Michael Winfrey + Jana Ciglerova, Denik N).

• The news cycle for foreign correspondents: news agencies vs. other media outlets
• The different kinds of foreign reporters: staff positions vs. stringers vs. freelancers
• The specific challenges of being a female foreign correspondent
• Finding stories in a foreign city: how and where to look
• Interviewing people in foreign lands (some of whom may be suspicious of journalists from other countries)
• Tips for staying safe and the necessity (sometimes) of special security precautions.
• How does motherhood affect the career of a female journalist?

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 16:30 News-Writing Lab (Michael Kahn, Reuters)

• Introduction to writing and reporting with a special focus on writing for an international audience
• Writing and developing feature stories for news agencies and general publications
• Tips for writing for an audience that knows very little about the history and culture of the location
• When to file a story
• How to source a story.

16:30 – 18:00 Pitching session for story proposals (Jeremy Druker, Transitions, Michael Kahn, Reuters; and Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

All participants will pitch their ideas for their two stories to the panel for feedback. The assignment for the first week will be a print/web story or a photo essay for print or web (first draft due Friday); the assignment for the second week will be a video or audio story (due at the end of the second week).

Tuesday, July 9th

09:30 – 12:30 Writing Lab: Getting Out Into the Field (Michael Kahn, Reuters and Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

Participants will be divided in two groups and work intensively with the faculty, focusing on the following subjects:

• Finding stories and conducting research for stories before hitting the ground
• Finding sources and interview subjects
• Interviewing techniques, especially in a foreign land, including mock interviews for practice
• Integrating quotations from non-native speakers.

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 17:00 Practical-writing exercise (Michael Kahn, Reuters and Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

Participants will have two hours to write their stories with faculty then review the results.

Wednesday, July 10th

All-day reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories.

Thursday, July 11th

All-day reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories, preparing the first draft of print stories.

Students finalizing their stories.

17:30 – 19:00 The Benefits and Challenges to Being a Woman in What Was Once a Man’s Game. (Silvie Lauder, Respekt)

• The challenges women reporters face in everyday work
• Sexism in journalism and politics – what to watch out for
• Being a woman in the mainstream media: many female reporters, only few female editors and managers – why?
• Different careers for male journalists.

Friday, July 12th

9:30 – 12:30 Writing and Reporting for TV (Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

• Writing to video
• Selecting sound bites
• Stand ups
• Types of stories
• Types of video packages.

14:00 – 16:00  – Working Under Conflict (Tomas Brolik, Respekt) and Covering Africa (Tomas Linder, Respekt)

• Covering war as a foreign correspondent
• Staying safe as a journalist in a war zone
• The ethical and moral responsibilities associated with covering conflict
• How to deal with and counter the stereotypes of Africa
• Is reporting from Africa really different from reporting elsewhere?

16:30 – 19:00 Finish first draft of print stories, deadline 19:00

Students finalize their stories and submit.

Saturday, July 13th

Free day

Sunday, July 14th

Free day

19:00 – 21:00 Individual feedback on first draft of stories (Michael Kahn, Reuters; Jeremy Druker, Transitions; Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

Each participant will have a 15-minute slot to discuss the drafts with Michael or Jeremy during a meeting in the hotel lobby.

Monday, July 15th

9:30 – 12:30 Multimedia Reporting: What is a Video Story and How to Give Every Story a Classic Story Structure (Will Tizard)

• Breaking into video journalism
• How even the most basic of shots tells a story
• Classic story-writing structures and how they can be incorporated into video-sequencing (inverted pyramid, diamond, stories without the classic structure)
• Shot-by-shot case studies
• Shooting video for news stories: framing, sequencing, perspective, lighting.

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 17:00 Exercises in the field

Will will accompany participants in downtown Prague as they shoot video. The group will then congregate back at the venue and review the video that they have taken. Points to be covered:

• In-the-field demonstration shooting
• Raw-video review (put camera card in the computer, play, and review – a technique some employers use in broadcast news to judge a prospective camera person’s field work in a real-life, real-time situation).

Tuesday, July 16th

Participants will spend the day working on video/audio stories, i.e. lining up and starting to shoot interviews and other footage.

Wednesday, July 17th

9:30 – 11:15 Tour of Seznam.cz with Aneta Kapucianova and session on innovation with Peter Jancarik

11:30 – 12:50 The Power of Solutions Journalism (Jeremy Druker, Transitions)

• Just showing the problem is no longer enough. What is solutions journalism and how does it work?
• The four pillars of a classic solutions journalism story
• Where to find solutions stories
• What questions to ask
• How does solutions journalism increase engagement and civic participation
• Examples of Transitions’ solutions stories.

Free time

Thursday, July 18th

Trip to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (please bring your passport)

09:40 Meeting point: hotel lobby

09:45 Departure from the hotel

10:00 – 10:30 Group security check at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – (Vinohradská 159A, Prague 10), followed by tour

10:30 – 11:30 Meeting with Pete Baumgartner, editor in RFE/RL’s central newsroom

• Working for RFE/RL in Munich and Prague and how things have changed
• The importance of the RFE/RL mission
• RFE/RL’s transformation from a radio-only media outlet to a multimedia organization (TV/video and Internet)
• Some samples of RFE/RL’s work, including those distributed through social media

11:45 – 12:15 Meeting with Amos Chapple RFE/RL photojournalist

Free time

17:00 Deadline for final version of print story and posting it to WordPress site

Friday, July 19th

All-day shooting and editing final video stories

17:00 Deadline for video story and posting it to WordPress site

17:00 – 19:00 – Individual feedback on final version of stories (Michael Kahn, Reuters; Jeremy Druker, Transitions; Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

Individual story feedback on the final version of print story – each participant will have a 15-minute slot to discuss the final version with Michael and Jeremy during a meeting in the hotel lobby.

Saturday, July 20th

10:00 – 12:00 Reporting-project critique session for video/audio stories (Will Tizard and Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

Led by Will Tizard and Mark Harmon, the panel will provide detailed feedback on the video and audio stories.

14:00 – 16:00 Farewell boat cruise with lunch.

Free time

Sunday, July 21st

Departures