Letters to a Young Journalist

by Freedman, Samuel G.

• ISBN13: 9780465024551
• ISBN10: 0465024556
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-27
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Over the course of a thirty-year career, Samuel Freedman has excelled both at doing journalism and teaching it, and he passionately engages both of these endeavors in the pages of this book. As an author and journalist, Freedman has produced award-winning books, investigative series, opinion columns, and feature stories and has become a specialist in a wide variety of fields. As a teacher, he has shared his expertise and experience with hundreds of students, who have gone on to succeed in both print and broadcast media. InLetters to a Young Journalist, Freedman conducts an extended conversation with young journalists-from kids on the high school paper to graduates starting their first jobs. Whether he's talking about radio documentaries or TV news shows, Internet blogs, or backwater beats, shoeleather research or elegant prose, his goal is to explore the habits of mind that make an excellent journalist. It is no secret that journalism's mission is seriously imperiled these days, and Freedman's provocative ideas and fascinating stories offer students and journalists at all levels of experience wise guidance and professional inspiration.

Author Biography

Samuel G. Freedman has been working as a journalist or teaching the craft for over thirty years. He is the author of five books, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and for the National Book Award, and winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Freedman is a professor of journalism at Columbia University's School of Journalism and a columnist for the New York Times. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(20)
Temperament	21	(26)
Reporting	47	(40)
Writing	87	(46)
Career	133	(34)
Epilogue: Ancestor Worship	167	(4)
Works Cited in This Book	171	(6)
Index	177	(7)
Permissions	184