Education

Curriculum

This is a tentative schedule as of March 2019.

Saturday, July 6^th
Arrivals – check in from 15:00 (Marriott Courtyard Prague Flora hotel, Lucemburská 46, Prague 3, 13000)
Free time

Sunday, July 7^th
09:50 – 10:00 Meeting point: hotel lobby and registration of participants
10:05 Departure from the hotel
10:30 – 12:30 Walking Tour – Prague sightseeing
12:30 – 14:30 Welcome lunch and session with Jeremy Druker – A Stable Democracy? The Czech Republic Today (venue: Restaurace U svatého Jana Nepomuckého, Hradčanské nám. 12, Prague 1, 118 00)
Free time in Prague

Monday, July 8^th
08:40 Meeting point: hotel lobby
08:45 Departure from the hotel and arrival at the venue: Thomson Reuters (Václavské náměstí 832/19)
09:15 – 09:30 Welcome and Introductions (Jeremy Druker, Transitions)
09:30 – 09:45 Tour and Overview of Reuters (Michael Kahn, Reuters)
09:45 – 12:30 Panel Discussion: “What Is Actually a Foreign Correspondent?” (moderated by Jeremy Druker, Transitions, with participants: Michael Kahn, Reuters; Adam Pemble, The Associated Press, and Kateřina Šantúrová, award-winning freelance journalist).

• 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.

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; Adam Pemble, The Associated Press, 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).

18:30 – 19:30 Evening drinks at local Czech brewery (optional event)

Tuesday, July 9^th
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 10^th

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

Thursday, July 11^th
All day reporting and interviewing in the field for feature stories, preparing first draft of print stories.
Students finalizing their stories.

17:30 Meeting point: hotel lobby
17:35 Departure from the hotel
18:00 – 19:00 Visit to Economia publishing house (the most modern news complex in the country) and discussion: 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
• The challenges women reporters face in everyday work
• Being a woman in the mainstream media: many female reporters, only few female editors –why?
• Different careers for male journalists
• How does motherhood affect the career of a female journalist?

Friday, July 12^th
9:30 – 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.

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.

17:30 – 19:00 Finish first draft of print stories, deadline 19:00
Students finalize their stories and submit.

Saturday, July 13^th
11:00 – 14:00 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
• Being a Foreign Correspondent for the New York Times.

Sunday, July 14^th
Free day

19:00 – 21:00 Individual Feedback on First Draft of Stories (Michael Kahn, Reuters and Jeremy Druker, Transitions)

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

• Breaking into video journalism and work at the AP
• How even the most basic of shoots 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
• Questions and Answers.

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 17:00 Exercises in the field

Adam 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 cameraperson’s field work in a real-life, real-time situation).

Tuesday, July 16^th
Participants will spend the day working on video/audio stories, i.e. lining up and starting to shoot interviews and other footage.

Wednesday, July 17^th
A Day at 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)
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)

• Covering war as a local
• Staying safe as a journalist in a war zone
• The ethical and moral responsibilities associated with covering conflict.

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch break

13:30 – 15:00 Digital storytelling (Tolkun Umarali and Wojtek Grojec, RFE/RL)

• Priorities: engagement over clicks
• Know how your audience consumes content
• Think about platforms before and after story production
• Pitch to yourself – would you really share this?
• Visuals-based strategy.

Thursday, July 18^th
09:30 – 12:30 Reporting from Prague (Rob Cameron, BBC)
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.

• 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 the story and produce great radio.

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch break
 
14:00 – 17:00 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.

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

Friday, July 19^th
Shoot and Edit 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 and Jeremy Druker, Transitions)

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 or Jeremy during a meeting in the hotel lobby.

Saturday, July 20^th
10:00 – 12:00 Reporting-project critique session for video/audio stories (Jeremy Druker, Transitions, Michael Kahn, Reuters, Adam Pemble, The Associated Press and Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee)

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

Free time
17:30 Meeting point: Dvořákovo nábřeží, Na Františku, Prague 1
18:00 – 20:00 Farewell boat cruise with dinner.

Sunday, July 21^st
Departures