Public Affairs Reporting

Journalism 135

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Course Description

This is a course on public affairs reporting. It is designed to acquaint you with the processes of city, county and state government from a news reporter's perspective.

The texts are primarily resource books to help guide you in your search for information on public issues covering the vast array of public agencies and issues. You will learn how government organizations function, how to access documents and sources, and how to decipher the sometimes complex machinery that make up America's bureaucracy.

The focus of attention will be Sacramento (city, county, school district and law enforcement) and California (executive, legislative and judicial systems). Although this is structured with local flavor, the lessons learned with be applicable if you end up in Utah or New York or South Dakota.

I will guide through the early part of the course, but you will make significant oral and written contributions toward the end.

Public issues involve a great deal of paper –– hence the term, "following the paper trail."

Good reporting requires patience. It requires attendance at long, often boring public meetings and court hearings. It requires poring over lengthy, often confusing public documents. It requires the careful development of sources –– both human and documentary –– and more than anything else, it requires careful research, the ability to ask good questions based on that research, and of course, the ability to organize and compile information and to write precisely and accurately.

In summary, Public affairs reporting –– the reporting of public issues –– constitutes the very core of journalism. The journalist is a very real sense is the public's eye on government and public affairs. Without a tenacious press, much that is "public" would never see the light of day. And still, much of it does not.