Online Courses, Fall 2019
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 FoxPublic 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 combines the text work of John Brady's anecdotal Craft of Interviewing and The Interviewer's Handbook with decades of reporter tips and scientific studies to provide a framework to develop professional interviewing skills. Students will learn interview preparation skills, reading body language, pacing tactics, the psychiatric basis for information storage and retrieval, listening skills, physiological causes for certain responses, statistical parameters of certain reactions. Police and military interrogation skills are combined with reporters' tips and psychological studies to better prepare students to conduct efficient and accurate interviews.
Instructor: Greeley A. KyleStudents will become familiar with legal concepts underlying freedom of the press: censorship, obscenity, libel, privacy, free press/fair trial, contempt, access and other legal problems affecting the mass media. The case study approach generally is used, but emphasis is on the principles and philosophy underlying various aspects of communication law as these affect the daily work of journalists.
Instructor: Karen ListOnline 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.
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
397U Special Topics - Interviewing Essentials (Kyle)
This combines the text work of John Brady's anecdotal Craft of Interviewing and The Interviewer's Handbook with decades of reporter tips and scientific studies to provide a framework to develop professional interviewing skills. Students will learn interview preparation skills, reading body language, pacing tactics, the psychiatric basis for information storage and retrieval, listening skills, physiological causes for certain responses, statistical parameters of certain reactions. Police and military interrogation skills are combined with reporters' tips and psychological studies to better prepare students to conduct efficient and accurate interviews.
445 Journalism and Law (List)
Students will become familiar with legal concepts underlying freedom of the press: censorship, obscenity, libel, privacy, free press/fair trial, contempt, access and other legal problems affecting the mass media. The case study approach generally is used, but emphasis is on the principles and philosophy underlying various aspects of communication law as these affect the daily work of journalists.