JOUR 491/891
Special topics: Public Affairs Reporting
Tuesdays, 5:30-8:20 p.m. ANDN 217
Taught by Trudy Lieberman, a veteran journalist from New York City, this course will teach you how to cover some of the most controversial and complex issues of the day such as the federal deficit, health care and climate change. The class will examine the accepted discourse around these issues and journalism’s role in changing or not changing it. Students will explore regulatory agencies, think tanks, public interest advocacy groups, lobbyists, businesses, and politicians that have a stake in an issue. There will be special emphasis on how to craft stories that connect with the public, which has the biggest stake of all.
Lieberman, a journalist for 40 years, is a contributing editor and blogger at the Columbia Journalism Review, where she writes about health care and income security issues. She was director of the health and medical reporting program at the Graduate School of Journalism, City University of New York and had a long career at Consumer Reports specializing in insurance, health care and health care financing She was the director of the Center for Consumer Health Choices at Consumers Union. She has contributed to The Nation and has written a column about health and the marketplace for the Los Angeles Times. She began her career as a consumer writer for the Detroit Free Press.
A graduate of the UNL journalism program, Lieberman is the author of five books including Slanting the Story: the Forces That Shape the News. She is completing another book about health reform in America.