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Will Work For Impact: Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism (May 2025)

$499.00

In stock

Will Work For Impact: Fundamentals of Investigative Journalism (May 2025)

This five-week, hands-on seminar is for reporters and editors with ambition to do investigative journalism that functions as an important part of democracy. 



May 8, 2025– June 5, 2025

Overview

  • Join in on Thursdays for live, 60 minute online instructions from ProPublica deputy managing editor Alexandra Zayas.
  • Analyze award-winning investigations and apply those reporters’ strategies to your own work.
  • Complete weekly assignments, interact with your peers and get feedback from Zayas on your work.
  • Join the hundreds of journalists who have graduated from this seminar with tangible, practical investigative skills.
  • Enroll as soon as you know this training is for you. Now in its 11th iteration, this seminar regularly sells out.

$499.00

In stock

SKU: POGS05-25 Tags: , ,

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Spot investigative opportunities that may have otherwise passed you by.
  • Commit to the right story by asking the right questions before you start.
  • Learn how to access information that isn’t available to the public.
  • Discover how to utilize the power of human reporting.
  • Construct an investigative story around findings to make a powerful case.
  • Learn strategies you can employ, before and after publication, to help your story make a difference.

$499.00

In stock

Overview

  • Join in on Thursdays for live, 60 minute online instructions from ProPublica deputy managing editor Alexandra Zayas.
  • Analyze award-winning investigations and apply those reporters’ strategies to your own work.
  • Complete weekly assignments, interact with your peers and get feedback from Zayas on your work.
  • Join the hundreds of journalists who have graduated from this seminar with tangible, practical investigative skills.
  • Enroll as soon as you know this training is for you. Now in its 11th iteration, this seminar regularly sells out.

Training five or more people?
Check out our custom training.

This five-week, hands-on spring seminar is for reporters and editors with ambition to do investigative journalism that functions as an important part of democracy. Now in its 11th iteration, this seminar regularly sells out. One of the 2024 attendees shared her experience below.

“It was both inspiring and actually specific enough to be actionable – a rare combination I find!”

– Rachel Schraer, Senior Global Health Reporter, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Will Work For Impact: Fundamentals of Investigative Reporting 2024

Can’t attend the May session? CLICK HERE to access our October session.

Questions?

If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org. 

This seminar unfolds over five weeks, beginning May 8 and ending June 5. Live sessions will take place on Thursdays at 2 p.m. Eastern. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend the live session, but sessions will also be recorded in case something comes up.

In addition to the live instruction, participants will interact in an online forum and complete weekly assignments. Alexandra Zayas will be available to talk through participants’ journalism challenges with them.

Week 1: May 8, 2 p.m. Eastern
Choose the right story by answering an essential question: What’s the harm? Learn how to spot the seed of a possible investigation. Almost every one that won an award last year from IRE got kicked off in a similar way. Learn how to make this work for you.

Week 2: May 15, 2 p.m. Eastern
Launch into reporting. Learn how to hone your mindset to avoid obstacles – including some of your own making. Get a lay of the land. Dive into the world of public records, including ones you may not have ever heard of.

Week 3: May 22, 2 p.m. Eastern
Sniffing the ground and eating the stuff. Zayas will walk you through her own award-winning work to discuss creative approaches to reporting beyond public records. She’ll share tips from her best reporters about how to penetrate institutions and get insiders to spill.

Week 4: May 29, 2 p.m. Eastern
Putting it all together. Using your findings to build a spine, and the narrative gems in your notebook, to give your story heart. Participants will look at 11 years’ worth of leads that placed in the Pulitzer Prize’s investigative category. How effective were they?

Week 5: June 5, 2 p.m. Eastern
Planning for impact. Strategies to help your investigation make a difference, including newsroom partnerships. Participants will hear advice from winners of the Selden Ring Award, which is an award given specifically because of the impact generated by a story.

Who should enroll? 

Reporters and editors of any level who want to spend time reading, thinking and talking about successful investigative journalism, and learn from real-world scenarios to give their own work an edge.

Cost

Tuition for this five-week online group seminar is $499. It includes five live lessons, weekly assignments, community interaction and feedback from the instructor.

Questions?

If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org.

 

 

Instructors

  • Alexandra Zayas
    Deputy Managing Editor
    Alexandra Zayas is the deputy managing editor at ProPublica, where she edited part of a series that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing...
    Read More

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