Far more than horse-race election coverage, the political reporting course offers students a deep dive into how current news and cultural media handle the socio-political issues that define our time. We will take a critical look at media coverage of elections, the White House and the Beltway, but will focus on issues and stories far beyond this, including race and racism, the far right and left, #Metoo and feminism, immigration, leaks and corruption, the environment, LGBTQ struggle and more. Students will gain a sense of: 1) How the media is broken up into a coverage landscape, and what this means for how issues are covered, prioritized and de-prioritized. 2) How ideas, ideologies and discourses are established, maintained and challenged in the news media. 3) The challenges to traditional journalistic forms -- reliant on "news events" and "two-sides" objectivity -- posed by structural, ongoing problems like racism, inequality and environmental degradation. 4) Site visits to (and guest speakers from) major media institutions both traditional and new, from The New York Times, to Buzzfeed, to Vice, will offer students direct access to the professionals currently covering the issues we discuss. 4) As well as developing critical awareness, we will work together to think about possible solutions or ameliorations -- as such, students will develop the sort of ideas that will make them appealing candidates for an industry struggling to situate itself and ethically address some of today's crucial socio-political issues.