The Master's Program

Investigative Reporting with Jon Leiberman
Learn Research, Interview, and Storytelling Secrets from the Star Correspondent of America's Most Wanted!

When: September 1 - September 30
Where: Only @ www.chuckpalahniuk.net
Who: Intermediate and advanced student writers in all genres
Who else: Bloggers, podcasters, and citizen journalists
How much: $350 minus special discounts*
How to register: Click Here

The Introduction
This is your opportunity to learn research and reporting skills from Jon Leiberman, top correspondent for America's Most Wanted.  You will come away from this course with the practical know-how to enhance your status as an author, journalist, or new media professional, possessing the skills to break real news and enhance stories, documentaries, and creative work of all kinds with well-sourced interviews and well-documented though sometimes surprising or bizarre facts.

The Method
You will be presented not only with brief lectures custom-designed for this course, you will also be invited to examine carefully selected video clips that demonstrate news gathering and storytelling processes in action.  You will have the opportunity to interact, ask questions, demonstrate your own knowledge and understanding, and create the learning experience as a collaborative endeavor with instructor, facilitator, and fellow students.  Everything we do will be designed as a Life-Lab Learning Environment, meaning that what you can do remotely will be keyed to real results, engineered to generate new understandings and simultaneously impart real-world skills and all the tools you need to succeed.  You will learn by doing and you will come away with at least one authentic and well-structured article or segment that is newsworthy, as well as the skills to do lots more on your own initiative.  

The Delivery
Registered students will gain access to a private online forum where posted lectures, articles, and video segments will generate question & answer sessions and organic, threaded conversations that remain in place for your review and input at any time that suits your schedule.  Once each week we'll have a 30-minute call-in session to provide immediate access and answers and the community benefits that grow with hearing each other's voices.  These phone conferences will be recorded and the recordings posted within the private forum for review and re-listening at any time, again, to meet the needs of every learner's schedule.


The Takeaway

• Master research and reporting skills that every writer needs to know
• Distinguish yourself as someone who knows how to break a story
• Learn to evaluate the credibility of a source
• Explore the ethics of protecting your sources
• Investigate the secrets of balanced reporting
• Uncover the vital components for getting a great interview
• Learn where to find an expert for interview on any topic
• Discover the indispensable information sources available to you through the Freedom of Information Act

• Make yourself stand out from the pack with timeliness, professionalism, and crunchy facts.

The Summary
Whether blogger, baker, or candlestick maker, you'll take away the skills you need to build your own platform in the age of citizen journalism.  You'll know where to dig for facts, how to evaluate the credibility of a source, and how to report with high ethics and integrity.  You'll also gain the fact-finding and research skills to benefit other forms of writing and creative work with factual substance for enhanced credibility.


About your Instructor
Jon Leiberman is an Emmy award-winning investigative correspondent who has filed hundreds of reports on fugitives across the country and abroad for the FOX TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” An expert in all things crime, he regularly appears on shows including “The Today Show,” “Shepard Smith’s Fox Report”, “Nancy Grace,” “The Dan Abrams Report” and “The Maury Povich Show,” and is quoted extensively on crime stories in newspapers throughout the country.

Leiberman previously reported from Iraq, Cuba, and from the floor of the 2004 presidential political conventions for 62 stations nationwide as Washington Bureau Chief for Sinclair Broadcast Group. His journalistic actions during this time earned him a 2005 Payne Special Citation for Ethics in Journalism.

As Albuquerque capital bureau chief for KOAT from 1997-2000, Leiberman earned an Emmy for Live Reporting when he remained on the air for 24-hours straight during a fast-moving wildfire that engulfed thousands of acres. He reported from the ground, and then from a helicopter when the flames came too close.

Leiberman has served as a professor in residence at the University of Iowa School of Journalism, and has lectured at the University of Maryland and McDaniel College.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Click Here To Register Now!

*Premium members of Chuckpalahniuk.net receive a $25 dollar discount
Early registrants through August 19 receive a $25 dollar discount
Other incentives may apply.  Be sure to view our Terms of Service
Copyright © 2008 A Writer's Cult, LLC.

Check out what fans are saying about our Master's Program:

"Clevenger's Intensive exceeded my (impossibly high) expectations; I have learned everything I hoped to and much more. I will be poring over written lectures as entertaining and at least as informative as his fiction until every useful morsel is burned into my brain. Extensive (and brutally honest) peer reviewing and critiques from Clevenger himself have really helped me to step up my craft and polish my stories. I've met brilliant writers here who I hope to keep in touch with. You just can't get a learning experience like this anywhere else. For me, it was everything that college was not."
- Casey F., Washburn, WI, USA

"For someone struggling inside his own head to figure out how a story works, the Craig Clevenger intensive delivered on every level. Where else are you going to get unfiltered access to the lessons and personalized critique of not only a published author, but a published author you respect? Who could you learn from best, someone who has a lifetime of theory and no practice; or someone who followed their passion, made it work, and created something new and purely theirs? If you missed the Craig Clevenger intensive, you missed an incredible learning experience. Don't miss the next one!"
- Dave H., Dublin, Ireland

"This intensive has been a turning point for my writing. A price cannot be put on the knowledge and confidence I've come away with."
- Gary L., Middletown, CT

"The Will Christopher Baer and Craig Clevenger Intensives provided me with an array of tools to hone and enhance my writing skills. Each week of both workshops were an inside look at not only the common problem areas of writing, but also the mechanics that make up an effective, solid story."
-Chris D., Boston, USA

Stay Tuned For Our Next Intensive Announcement!