Basic training in writing editorials, columns and broadcast commentary with an emphasis on political and social policies. How to encourage the persuaded, nudge the neutral and discomfit the opposition. The ability to write quickly will be stressed. Several short (two-page) papers.

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.

Profile writing is among the most useful, most powerful, and most fun genres of journalism. Compelling characters keep readers hooked, helping them feel and better understand stories and, arguably, humanity itself. A well-construed portrait can even lure readers into learning about complicated subjects they might otherwise ignore. In this class, we?ll discuss the ingredients of ingenious profiles and get plenty of practice creating our own.

This concepts and critical thinking course examines the relationship between journalism, gender and sexuality in newsrooms, news coverage and news audiences, with attention to both historical developments and modern issues. Students will analyze how news and popular media construct, depict and reinforce gender and sexuality, particularly in relation to race, class and privilege, with the help of historical artifacts, news coverage, nonfiction books, popular media clips, first-person experts and feminist, queer, political and communication theories.

In conjunction with UMass Athletics, this course creates opportunities for students to work in live sports production for ESPN+, NESN, web streaming and in-house video board shows while earning degree credit. Through lectures, observation, analysis, hands-on labs and working as crew for UMass sporting events, students will gain an understanding of the various elements necessary to produce a live sports broadcast. They?ll also build skills, clips and actual on-the-job training for their resumes and portfolios.

This course is designed to increase student awareness of various ethical situations and responsibilities around the professional practice of public relations. Students will learn how to identify, explore and develop their ability to make responsible strategic communication and business decisions.

In this course, students will be introduced to relevant social science research methods and data analytics used by public relations professionals. Students will learn about the importance of research in communication and business situations, as well as how it can be applied to the communication planning, development and evaluation process.

How can journalists use data to find stories? How can they tell stories through data? This hands-on course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to begin gathering, analyzing and visualizing interactive, data-driven stories. Students will tackle questions pertaining to ethical data sourcing, data analysis and making data meaningful for the public. They will apply their skills by way of a series of short assignments over the course of the semester that cover the different stages of data-driven news production.

This advanced, writing-intensive course will build on the fundamentals covered in Newswriting and Reporting to address the development and distribution of client content including earned, shared and owned media. Students will explore and gain practical, hands-on experience researching, writing, editing and evaluating various public relations materials, resulting in the creation of professional writing samples at the end of the semester.

In introduction to Visual Storytelling, students will become better producers and consumers of visual media. Students will develop a deeper visual literacy by studying topics like visual ethics, aesthetics, agency, and the currents of the modern visual journalism ecosystem. By reporting their own video, photography and data visualization projects, students will learn how to control exposure with a DSLR camera, how to capture quality video and how to use different editing and production software. (Gen. Ed. AT)