Praxis Journalism study plan

Inventory the full Journalism content-knowledge blueprint and list every named subtopic (media law, ethics, reporting and writing, editing and design, history, and visual journalism) in a single checklist you can tick off.

Define the core legal vocabulary (libel, slander, actual malice, prior restraint, shield law, fair use, FOIA, open-meetings statute, obscenity, commercial speech) in your own words without notes.

Explain the four First Amendment theories and the key U.S. Supreme Court cases that shaped student-press and public-forum rights, naming the holding of each case.

Map the difference between civil and criminal liability for journalists and identify which defenses apply to each.

Distinguish the major journalism ethics codes (SPJ, RTDNA, NPPA) by their shared principles and where they diverge on deception, privacy, and conflicts of interest.

Apply the Potter Box and the least-harm principle to three hypothetical dilemmas and write the reasoning chain for each.

Identify when undercover reporting, checkbook journalism, and anonymous sourcing are defensible and when they are not.

Explain the role of an ombudsman, corrections policy, and transparency in maintaining credibility.

Identify the structural parts of hard-news and feature stories (lede, nut graf, bridge, kicker) and write one of each from a supplied fact pattern.

Apply AP style to 40 common error traps (numbers, dates, titles, abbreviations, possessives, datelines).

Distinguish active vs. passive voice, tight vs. flabby construction, and attribution verbs, and revise a bloated paragraph to cut at least 25 percent of its words.

Explain the difference between direct, indirect, and partial quotes and the rules for cleaning up spoken language.

Explain the reporting process end to end: pitch, source development, interviewing, records requests, verification, and fact-checking.

Distinguish primary vs. secondary sources and on-the-record, background, deep background, and off-the-record agreements.

Identify the elements of libel that a plaintiff must prove and apply them to a hypothetical published story.

Describe how to verify user-generated content and social-media evidence before publication.

Explain the roles of copy editor, assigning editor, and designer and how each stage of the editing cycle catches different errors.

Apply headline-writing rules (accuracy, active verbs, count, no editorializing) and write five headlines at different lengths.

Identify basic layout and typography principles (hierarchy, white space, grid, legibility) and critique one page design against them.

Describe caption, credit, and cutline standards and the ethics of photo manipulation and staging.

Trace the major eras of American journalism (partisan press, penny press, yellow journalism, muckraking, broadcast, digital) and name one defining figure or outlet per era.

Explain how technology shifts (telegraph, radio, television, internet, social platforms) changed newsgathering and business models.

Identify landmark moments in press freedom and press credibility, including the Pentagon Papers and major libel decisions.

Describe current industry pressures: declining ad revenue, subscription models, misinformation, and local-news decline.

Explain the components of visual storytelling (composition, framing, sequencing, audio, and captions) and how they support a story.

Distinguish news judgment criteria (impact, timeliness, proximity, prominence, novelty, conflict, human interest) and rank a supplied set of stories by newsworthiness.

Describe the basics of data journalism, including finding a dataset, cleaning it, and choosing an appropriate chart type.

Explain audience-engagement and social-distribution practices and the ethical lines around clickbait and native advertising.

Synthesize all subtopics into a single concept map that links law, ethics, reporting, editing, history, and visual journalism.

Complete two full-length timed practice sets under exam conditions and log every missed question by subtopic.

Re-drill your three weakest subtopics using only your own notes and glossary until you can explain them aloud without prompting.

Write a one-page exam-day strategy covering pacing, question-flagging, and how to handle unfamiliar terminology.