Report, character sketch and obituary are some of the new journalistic genres successfully learned by the students of the School of Advanced Journalism (SAJ) within the module of Long form Articles, which has recently been taught at the School. The trainer of the course was the director of “Ziarul de Garda” newspaper, Alina Radu.

The course lasted five days; it was mainly practical, and the students’ working schedule was quite tense. However, young people successfully learned the techniques used to prepare a report and wrote a character sketch and an obituary. During the course, students did intensive fieldwork, collecting interesting information, topics and stories for their articles, but they also had some practical group exercises.

From the course, students learned the elements of a report, a feature and an obituary. “Not just any occurrence that a journalist witnesses can become a report, and not just any human story can become a feature,” the trainer said. She also mentioned that journalists should take into consideration several important elements when they start writing a report: temporal proximity, spatial proximity and the novelty of the event. Journalists should not forget, however, about their public, either. “Write as simply, clearly and accurately as possible,” Alina Radu noted.

Students confessed that this complex course helped them better understand the specific features of the three journalistic genres and promised to take into account all of the trainer’s suggestions and recommendations when they get to work in media outlets. “I learned to see in people things that others don’t see,” said student Liliana Botnariuc at the end of the course.