Journalism Skills for Engaged Citizens

Module three: Finding things out. 
We discuss interview skills, citizens' rights to access public forums and public documents and the ethics of disclosure, privacy and consent.

Module five: Leaks and sources. 
We cover how to develop and manage contacts and sources, the potential of new media for crowdsourcing information, and the complexities of "off the record" interactions, and how to deal with leaks of data and documents. We meet a Newstown "deep throat" and consider what we can publish of what he tells us. 

Module six: Newstown scenario. 
We put all the lessons into practice by participating in a Newstown scenario involving allegations of corruption and the release of public documents. Your task is to break the big story, and write it clearly and with impact.

Module seven: Debrief and feedback. 
In this module we will debrief and give feedback on the exercise in module six, and ask how we would take the story forward.

Module eight: Key concepts highlighted. 
We talk about key concepts highlighted by our journalism practice, including impartiality and public interest and basic principles of law and ethics. Finally, we review and wrap up the course.