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This course aims to provide students with a framework for critically examining the intersections between media messages, the digital revolution and the wider sociocultural environment. That journalism has been profoundly impacted by the development of Web 2.0 applications is nowadays axiomatic. However, the precise ways in which such ?new media? phenomena as Facebook & Twitter, the personal blog and the smart phone have transformed news gathering, packaging and dissemination still need to be researched and understood.

In this class, students will develop a variety of skills necessary for undertaking writing feature stories and getting them published. Students will learn to identify strong story ideas, query magazine editors, and turn ideas into finished products ready for submission. Finding the story is a process that unfolds throughout the writing process of gathering information and facts (through observation, research, and interviews), developing a strong lead, selecting and structuring the material, and revising for clarity and interest.

This is a writing course. It consists chiefly of weekly individual conferences with the teacher. The topics for most for the writing assignments are chosen by the individual students themselves, and can be drawn from the popular culture.

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.

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.

The subject of athletic endeavors has long been the source of inspiration for journalists, novelists and filmmakers. This course will explore examples of sports narratives in words and images, across generations, media and different types of sports.

Individual field study and practice for a semester or a summer in news organizations, public agencies, or elsewhere. Part-time arrangements possible. Internship credit divided between Pass/Fail in JOURNAL 298 and 1-6 graded credits in JOURNAL 398. Prerequisites: JOURNAL 300, 45 completed credit hours, and a grade point average of 2.5, or consent of director of internships.

In this class, students will be introduced to basic investigative techniques. Students will learn first-hand how to scan police records, court records, land records and such. We will study some of the great investigative stories of our time and the techniques reporters used during their investigations. This will be a hands-on class where students will learn the basics of computer-assisted reporting, database reporting and mapping the results of your investigations.

Almost all journalism job descriptions these days require some level of multimedia experience. In this class students will continue to develop their online writing skills through blogging while at the same time learning how to create packages and tell stories with audio and video. This class will focus on ways to merge the traditional methods of storytelling and present them on the Web. Students will learn what makes for good Web presentations and will be introduced to tools to help them with editing photos, video and audio.