Modern Tools.
Timeless Principles.

This course covers the history, ethics, legal issues, economics, and modern challenges of journalism. Students gain knowledge and engage in discussions about the role of journalism in a democracy, the threats to modern journalism, the function of a free press, and the elements/characteristics of strong and compelling journalism. This course will provide a contextual overview for the journalistic work that students will produce.

This course combines traditional reporting skills with the multimedia skills required of journalists today, including writing, audio, video, photo, data visualizations, and more. Students learn to pitch ideas, produce content, and market ideas to various media platforms. The course emphasizes community-based reporting with a strong focus on producing content/stories for specific audiences.

This course covers the many levels of the editing/coaching process that happens when producing journalistic work, ranging from high-level critical thinking to editing with precision. The editing techniques covered will focus on writing, audio, video, and photos, so that the editing tools can be applied to multiple forms of journalism, from short-form social media to longer-form narratives and a variety of genres in between. The course emphasizes tools that are used to help journalists produce compelling content relevant to specific audiences.

This course covers the relationship between journalists and audiences, which has changed from a one-way broadcast model to a two-way method of communication. As journalists need to have a respect for and an understanding of the people journalism is designed to cover, this course will look at how a collaborative culture is changing journalism and how journalists operate in this world. The course will cover social-media strategy and tools, audience engagement, reporting through social media, and more.

This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of effective data-driven storytelling and communications. The students will learn how to detect and articulate the stories behind data sets and communicate data findings in visual, oral, and written contexts for various audiences. The students will gain an understanding of Tableau, a data visualization tool.

This course teaches students the methods and strategies to use when evaluating online communication tools. Through effective working knowledge and real-world applications, students analyze and apply various types of research methods and tools.

This course introduces students to the study of mass media theories, specifically focusing on theories that can be used as the foundation for effective communication strategies in traditional and new media. Students assess how to bridge these theories to practice in mass communication industries. Students also gain an understanding of the theoretical perspectives that direct mass media research and apply them to their own final project, which requires them to develop strategies to solve problems or capitalize on opportunities within the communication industries.