Newstapa Journalism School [New School]

Best Practices in Teaching and Training of Investigative Reporting Myungju Lee/ KCIJ/ #GIJC23

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Korea Center for Investigative Journalism-Newstapa

What is New School?

Investigative journalism school combined with an internship program, plus the 3rd element

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Three Stages

• Stage 1: New School Classes
• Stage 2: Fellowship at KCIJ
• Stage 3: Independent media Start-ups

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Stage 1: News School classes (since March 2022)

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• Duration: 3 months (12-14 weeks)
• Total 36 lectures
• 3 parts:
• Basics of Investigative Journalism - public documents, paper trail, people trail …
• Data Journalism - spreadsheet, data visualization, web scraping, Python, ChatGPT
• Other - Journalism history in South Korea, Non-profit model newsroom, Practical tips on writing a good investigative story
• Instructors: veteran journalists at KCIJ and journalists from other media organizations, professors, experts
• Students are given practical assignment: FOIA request, paper trail, writing up a pitching form for an investigative piece
• Fee: 100% Free

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• Who Comes to New School?
• regardless of age, academic and professional background
• who agrees with KCIJ’s core identity and philosophy: independent, non-profit, non-partisan, investigative journalism
• people from different walks of life: aspiring journalists, current journalists, developer, civic group activist, PhD student, city council

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• Class of 2022: 19 people completed (including 4 current reporters)
• Class of 2023: 21 people completed (including 14 current reporters)

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Class of

2022

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Class of

2023

Positive Impact

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• Birth of a new independent news outlet “News Hada” in June 2023
• Team: 1 senior reporter + 1 junior reporter
• Investigative reporting on local issues of Incheon and Gyeonggi Province

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News Hada (Incheon Gyeonggi Center for Investigative Journalism) collaborating with 5 other news outlets including KCIJ and public broadcasters to expose Prosecution Service’s secretive budget spending

Stage 2: Fellowship

Middle stage to get ready for the final stage of creating a media start-up

• Fellows are selected from the New School graduates
• 1 year (or less) internship at KCIJ newsroom to practice investigative reporting

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• During fellowship, fellows go out for their original investigative story ideas, research,

write articles, make video reports and publish them on

KCIJ’s platform under the supervision of KCIJ editors

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5 Fellows from the Class of 2022

Stage 3: Media Start-ups

Currently 2 media start-ups getting ready to be launched by fellows -> Coming Soon … in October!

1. News Ody: Investigating money trail of news articles, media ownership structure (2-person team)
2. Court Watch: cover trials (1-person team)

KCIJ Provides 5 Types of Support (during 1-year incubation period)

1. Administrative Support: preparing business documents (registration), accounting
2. Technical Support: Website making and maintenance, helping them with data journalism
3. Journalistic Support: KCIJ editors will be editing their news reports
4. Provision of Platform: KCIJ as an amplifier
5. Financial support to cover salaries, overhead cost

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New round (Class of 2023) of Fellowship to begin in October 10th

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Brave Faces of News Ody and Court Watch

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How do we finance it

• Crowdfunding → over 100 million KRW has been raised (ongoing project)
• Name plaques on the wall: “Supporters of Newstapa Journalism School”
• Each media start-up could apply for grant and mobilize its own supporters

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What’s our Goal? Why does it matter?

• ‘New School’ kicked off in 2022, which marked the 10th anniversary of KCIJ’s first news publication.

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• GOAL: Creating 100 independent newsrooms in the country to bring about meaningful changes in the dynamic of Korean journalism practice

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• https://youtu.be/UlUrSavfr58

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• Forming of “Korea Independent Newsroom Network(KINN)” (modeled after Propublica’s Local Reporting Network and Institute for Nonprofit News)