Investigative Journalism 101

How to find the news that makes news

Course is closed.
Investigative Journalism 101

WHEN Wednesday, June 25, 6:45-9:45 pm

WHERE mediabistro.com, 7494 Santa Monica Blvd., Ste 303, W. Hollywood, CA 90046

MORE INFO Email us or call 310-659-5668

PRICE
$65 ($50 for )
more info

Course Details

You've done some stories on interesting people, eyebrow-raising trends or questionable companies. But you want to go deeper, to find out what's going on beyond the press releases—the stuff they might not want you to know. This course will introduce you to the basic tools and techniques of doing investigative journalism—backgrounding individuals and institutions, getting access to people and places, unearthing key facts and turning the mass of information that results into a compelling story that gets published.

In this seminar, you can expect to learn:

  • How to spot great potential investigative stories - and how to tell them from ones that aren't
  • How to background individuals using public documents, from criminal records to home ownership histories
  • How to get the goods on corporations and non-profits
  • How to use narrative techniques to make complex issues into compelling stories
  • How to pitch and sell the story

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Instructor Bio

Vince Beiser's Courses

Boot Camp for Journalists – (Class starts September 17)
Breaking into Freelancing – Los Angeles (Seminar on September 15)
Perfect Pitching – Los Angeles (Seminar on July 28)
Writing about Technology – Los Angeles (Seminar on September 29)

Vince Beiser
Vince Beiser is an award-winning magazine writer specializing in criminal justice and other social issues. In his many years of full-time freelancing, Vince has hunted down stories from the Balkans to the Middle East on assignments for The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Village Voice, The New Republic, The Nation, US News & World Report, Harper's, and Rolling Stone. He has also held a number of staff gigs, including senior editor for Mother Jones, special projects reporter for The Oakland Tribune, and senior writer for The Jerusalem Report, Israel's leading news magazine.

Vince's work has been honored by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Columbia and Medill Graduate Schools of Journalism, the National Mental Health Association, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Los Angeles Press Club and many other institutions.

Testimonials


I've been freelancing full-time for 2 years, and I wish I'd taken Vince's class before I had started--the tips he shared would have improved my reporting and made my life a lot easier. -- Kenneth Miller, full-time freelancer

"The seminar was terrific. Vince was friendly, informative, and handled the class extremely well. He really got me jazzed about my current investigative pieces. I'd definitely recommend him and take classes from him in the future." -- Lauren Horwich, News Editor, Back Stage West

"I found Vince's class to be very informative. He was clear, logical, realistic, and encouraging." -- Maria A. Del Toro, writer, www.madeltoro.com

"The class was very informative and empowered me with many helpful websites and resources that will help me develop new stories." -- Lisanne Alack, freelance reporter

"Vince Beiser makes it all look easy! He's that rare, successful writer who's able to share what he's learned out loud in a way that is engaging and fun, not dig-me and pedantic. You won't get sugar-coating or fairy tales in Vince's class; he tells it like it is. Which means you'll walk away equipped with what you need to actually make a good run at it. Way to go, mediabistro!" -- Colleen Wainwright

"Vince Beiser is a very credible instructor because he has been willing to put himself on the frontlines of journalism, quite literally: reporting firsthand on the Bosnian war and the ongoing Arab Israeli conflict. Not just a war correspondent, he is very well rounded in both professional and life experience. He lived in Prague at the height of the American expatriate phenomenon there in the early '90's, he braved the New York publishing world, he has worked as an editor as well as a writer and he is multilingual. I learned a great deal from him in just three hours." -- Susan Brooks

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