Online Courses, Summer 2018
What is fact? What is fiction? Can we even tell the difference any more? Today's 24-hour news environment is saturated with a wide array of sources ranging from real-time citizen journalism reports, government propaganda and corporate spin to real-time blogging, photos and vidoes from around the world, as well as reports from the mainstream media. In this class, students will become more discerning consumers of news. Students will use critical-thinking skills to develop the tools needed to determine what news sources are reliable in the digital world. Through readings and assignments, students will deconstruct stories, breaking down broadcast, print, web, and social concepts such as objectivity, opinion, bias and fairness and how all contribute to the mix of news reports in today's digital landscape.
Instructor: Steve FoxThis course explores the challenges and issues facing journalists covering global affairs. Students will learn about intercultural communication, overcoming biases in reporting, and the use of social media as a platform for news reporting. They will also examine the work of foreign correspondents from a critical perspective. Through a mixture of readings and news writing, the course will broaden students' understanding of current affairs on the global stage.
Instructor: Shaheen PashaThe roles and responsibilities of today's PR practitioners are expanding. PR Professionals must understand and embrace how to integrate social media communications with overall business communications, learn different ways to engage with customers and other stakeholders and navigate a changing media landscape with new technology that drives consumer news consumption. This course examines the role of today's communicators who are developing new strategic approaches to the practice of PR. Students will learn how to research and evaluate various types of 2.0 collaborative technologies, monitor conversations for reputation and crisis management, develop social media objectives and strategies for integrated communications programs, create and manage the social media communications process, identify opportunities to engage via different networks, develop content for deeper interactions with stakeholders, and use different types of measurement to gauge communications success. The class will focus on how to align strategic PR and social media programs with higher level business goals and objectives.
Instructor: Deirdre BreakenridgePublic relations writing requires a narrative arc and good storytelling in which essential information gets delivered, along with a feeling of positive connection to an organization. Students in this course will learn how to translate an institutional mission statement into various narratives. They will learn how to gather information in a complex environment, and how to evaluate that information according to constituency needs. Writing projects will be required ranging from basic press releases and news briefs to interviews, speeches, profiles, a roundtable report, a position paper, first-person essays, and possibly a full-length magazine feature story. Course materials will include examples of excellent magazine writing, and books and articles on effective public relations programs.
Pre-requisite: Journalism 300 Newswriting and Reporting
Instructor: Barbara (Lee) WicksThis course will develop an understanding of the ethical questions raised by media coverage in a democratic society at a time of focus on profit over news values and on entertainment over substance. Issues discussed will include: accuracy and fairness, diversity, conflicts of interest, privacy, deception, relationships with sources and photojournalism. We will also learn to identify news values--or lack of them--both as professionals and as consumers. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Journ majors.
Instructor: Karen ListThis class will help you learn what makes magazine journalism different from newspaper journalism. Unlike newspaper writing, magazines often demand that a journalist bring both authority and a point of view to the work. We workshop each student's paper, so each student is expected to think as an editor as well as a writer. There is substantial reading required from magazine anthologies, plus your fellow students' work. We will learn how to do the type of research necessary to produce a magazine article, and work hard to improve writing and analytical skills. Weekly writing and reporting assignments, plus one 3000-4000 word magazine feature that will require extensive field work and interviewing.
Instructor: Connie GriffinOnline Courses, Fall 2014
250 News Literacy (Fox)
What is fact? What is fiction? Can we even tell the difference any more? Today's 24-hour news environment is saturated with a wide array of sources ranging from real-time citizen journalism reports, government propaganda and corporate spin to real-time blogging, photos and vidoes from around the world, as well as reports from the mainstream media. In this class, students will become more discerning consumers of news. Students will use critical-thinking skills to develop the tools needed to determine what news sources are reliable in the digital world. Through readings and assignments, students will deconstruct stories, breaking down broadcast, print, web, and social concepts such as objectivity, opinion, bias and fairness and how all contribute to the mix of news reports in today's digital landscape.
310 International Journalism (Pasha)
This course explores the challenges and issues facing journalists covering global affairs. Students will learn about intercultural communication, overcoming biases in reporting, and the use of social media as a platform for news reporting. They will also examine the work of foreign correspondents from a critical perspective. Through a mixture of readings and news writing, the course will broaden students' understanding of current affairs on the global stage.
391PR S-Social Media and Public Relations (Breakenridge)
The roles and responsibilities of today's PR practitioners are expanding. PR Professionals must understand and embrace how to integrate social media communications with overall business communications, learn different ways to engage with customers and other stakeholders and navigate a changing media landscape with new technology that drives consumer news consumption. This course examines the role of today's communicators who are developing new strategic approaches to the practice of PR. Students will learn how to research and evaluate various types of 2.0 collaborative technologies, monitor conversations for reputation and crisis management, develop social media objectives and strategies for integrated communications programs, create and manage the social media communications process, identify opportunities to engage via different networks, develop content for deeper interactions with stakeholders, and use different types of measurement to gauge communications success. The class will focus on how to align strategic PR and social media programs with higher level business goals and objectives.
392P S-Writing for Public Relations (Wicks)
Public relations writing requires a narrative arc and good storytelling in which essential information gets delivered, along with a feeling of positive connection to an organization. Students in this course will learn how to translate an institutional mission statement into various narratives. They will learn how to gather information in a complex environment, and how to evaluate that information according to constituency needs. Writing projects will be required ranging from basic press releases and news briefs to interviews, speeches, profiles, a roundtable report, a position paper, first-person essays, and possibly a full-length magazine feature story. Course materials will include examples of excellent magazine writing, and books and articles on effective public relations programs.
Pre-requisite: Journalism 300 Newswriting and Reporting
460 Journalism Ethics (List)
This course will develop an understanding of the ethical questions raised by media coverage in a democratic society at a time of focus on profit over news values and on entertainment over substance. Issues discussed will include: accuracy and fairness, diversity, conflicts of interest, privacy, deception, relationships with sources and photojournalism. We will also learn to identify news values--or lack of them--both as professionals and as consumers. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Journ majors.
492M Magazine Writing (Griffin)
This class will help you learn what makes magazine journalism different from newspaper journalism. Unlike newspaper writing, magazines often demand that a journalist bring both authority and a point of view to the work. We workshop each student's paper, so each student is expected to think as an editor as well as a writer. There is substantial reading required from magazine anthologies, plus your fellow students' work. We will learn how to do the type of research necessary to produce a magazine article, and work hard to improve writing and analytical skills. Weekly writing and reporting assignments, plus one 3000-4000 word magazine feature that will require extensive field work and interviewing.