GS-216: Introduction to Journalism

This 3 ½ - week intensive course requires students to write at least three stories: two short stories and one longer, 1,500 to 1,800-word feature, which are all published on this website. Students are required to develop their own story ideas, pitch the stories to the editor, conduct multiple interviews for each story and then re-write each story after at least one editing session. The students also participate in debates about open-records policy and media bias; and they help produce a short-form radio documentary. The course also includes field trips to the Colorado Springs Gazette and the records library of the El Paso County Combined Courts.

Introduction to Journalism is the first requirement of the Colorado College Journalism Minor program. For more information about the Journalism minor, please refer to the following site:

Journalism Thematic Minor

Thanks to all who helped this class!

Special thanks to our in-class guests: web-journalist and producer Chris McKenna; Independent writer and former editor Kathryn Eastburn; Freelance photojournalist (and CC grad) Sean Cayton; Gazette military affairs reporter John Diedrich and Gazette Photographer Andy Rogers (both fresh back from reporting in Iraq); feature and sports writer (and CC grad) Owen Perkins, Gazette Managing Editor Jeff Thomas and last, but certainly not least, Gazette Newspapers in Education manager, Lynnette Ryden.