Course
How a story becomes news
Work out why you heard about today's stories, and name the ones you never will.
The shape of it
12 lessons
About 65 minutes in total. Your progress is kept on this device — no account, nothing sent anywhere.
Course complete
Put your name on it and print it, or save it as a PDF. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The lessons
What gets noticed
4 lessons · about 20 min01Someone has to be there
Predict which events get reported at all, from where reporters already are.
About 5 min
02Change, not size
Tell apart an event that is new and one that is big.
About 5 min
03Far away is small
Work out what distance is measured in, when it decides coverage.
About 5 min
04Two hundred stories, twelve slots
Predict which stories vanish when the day gets busy.
About 5 min
How it gets made
4 lessons · about 23 min05The wire moves first
Count the independent sources behind a story carried everywhere.
About 6 min
06Access is a currency
Explain why officials are quoted more than the people affected.
About 6 min
07The clock shapes the story
Predict how a deadline changes what a report can say.
About 6 min
08A number loses its error bars
Spot a figure that has hardened as it travelled.
About 6 min
What reaches you
4 lessons · about 22 min09Two sides is a choice
Tell apart a real disagreement and a manufactured balance.
About 6 min
10The headline is the product
Work out what most readers take away from a story nobody opened.
About 5 min
11The feed decides
Explain what a ranking can measure about a story, and what it cannot.
About 6 min
12Reading the silence
Name the gate that stopped a story you never saw.
About 6 min