News
Journalism Students Learn from the Pros
by Dr. Andrew Marzoni
This fall, the sophomores, juniors, and seniors enrolled in my Scholars course, Introduction to Journalism, studied the fundamentals of the trade, considering such topics as newsworthiness, reporting techniques, accuracy and verification, news style, and journalistic ethics as they worked on their own submissions to York Prep’s student newspaper, The Paw.
In the latter half of the course, students heard directly from working journalists about their experience in the field. First, Hannah Seidlitz, an editorial staffer and contributor to The New Yorker, joined the class on Zoom to discuss the magazine’s notoriously rigorous fact-checking process. Max Abelson, a reporter at Bloomberg, visited in person to share his wisdom about monitoring money and power, and cultivating relationships with sources. York Prep’s Co-Head of school, Jeremy Clarke, told stories from his past life as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in East Africa, and Tampa Bay Times food and dining critic Helen Freund Zoomed in to debunk some myths about the restaurant beat. In a profession that famously privileges doing over knowing, by already having put what they’ve learned into practice, these students have a leg up on the competition.
