Journalism, Ethics & Democracy (JED)

This is the discussion session for Witnessing Climate Change (ENGL 20760), thus, enrollment in both ENGL 22760 and ENGL 20760 (Or JED 30144) is required.

What is news? What are the most effective ways of presenting news to the public? What ethical decisions are involved in gathering and reporting news? These are a few of the questions addressed in this class. Fundamentals students may not enroll in any other JED course - this includes all the cross lists listed under the JED courses - until spring semester.

This class will focus on how print, broadcast and online journalists work - how they think and act as well as the ethical dilemmas they face today in delivering news, analysis, and commentary. We will study the processes involved in the creation of news and the effects or consequences of the news on the public. This is not a course that teaches the techniques of journalism. Rather it is an examination of the practices of professional journalists and a survey of the impact of what they do.

This course will consider the roles of persuasion, commentary, and criticism in contemporary American culture and will explore the techniques of these forms of expression. Students will prepare and discuss their own writing assignments, including opinion columns, editorials, and critical reviews of performances or books. Ethics and responsibilities in contemporary American journalism in expression of opinions also will be explored. Assignments will serve as the examinations in this course, which is taught by the opinion editor at the South Bend Tribune. Non AMST majors and JED minor applicants must submit a writing sample for review for course permission.

The purpose of this interdisciplinary course is twofold: to examine the social context and cultural change of the sixties and to explore the various journalistic and aesthetic representations of events, movements, and transformations. We will focus on the manner in which each writer or artist witnessed the sixties and explore fresh styles of writing and cultural expression, such as the new journalism popularized by Tom Wolfe and the music/lyrics performed by Bob Dylan. Major topics for consideration include the counterculture and the movement--a combination of civil rights and anti-war protest.

This course is an introductory and interdisciplinary examination of American political and media culture, particularly contemporary political thinking and behavior. Although we will examine the roots and development of U.S. political culture from the nation's founding into the 21st century, a principal concern of this class will be the involvement of the mass media (journalism, broadcasting, advertising, etc.) in our political life since the 1930s. In considering politics, government, and the media, we will attempt to come to terms with the role and influence of different forms of popular communications in modern political culture. Are traditional media forms fading in significance with the rise of social media? What methods of media assessment work most effectively in analyzing political and governmental issues? Does emphasis on a public figure's personality or image--as transmitted by the media--become more important than policy positions in the citizenry's assessment? Students will read several books and individual articles throughout the semester. Grading will be based on a mid-term and a final examination as well as a short paper and a more comprehensive, detailed essay.

This course is a conceptual immersion into the role of journalism in America as a catalyst for social, political, economic and cultural change. Students will learn the role and value of a free press, examine the principles of reporting and consider the evolving impact of social media and digital technology on the field today.

Building on the skills acquired in Fundamentals of Journalism, this practicum course is centered around students preparing stories, photos and videos for The Observer, the university's independent, student-run newspaper. Students will acquire real-world experience in reporting, writing, and using their digital journalism skills by covering live news events on campus and in the surrounding community. Pre-requisite: Fundamentals of Journalism.

This course is a practical and conceptual immersion into the world of contemporary sports journalism. Students will learn how to write and report for multiple journalism platforms, including newspapers, magazines and digital media. Students will practice a variety of reporting techniques and study writing styles ranging from features to news articles to profiles, while also taking a rigorous look at the legal, ethical and cultural issues surrounding the intersection of media, sports and society. In addition, students will gain hands-on sports writing experience by preparing articles for the university's independent, student-run newspaper, The Observer.

Applied Multimedia for Journalists - The main focus of this course is that students will learn how to shoot and edit videos. It will briefly touch on how to produce audio stories and podcasts. Students will also study the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use, creation and publication of digital media. The use of drones and the legal issues surrounding them will also be discussed.

This course helps to provide a foundation for students to build their skills as editors, including the study and practice of professional standards in grammar, AP style, and the structure of news stories. Students will exercise analytical and creative thinking through a critical evaluation of written work with an eye toward developing a professional level of news judgment. In addition to building copy editing skills, students will also broaden their understanding of writing headlines, photo captions and other principles of display type for both traditional and digital media platforms. Special emphasis will be given to the use of search engine optimization for online news stories. Students will also learn the techniques and principles of layout and news design in both traditional and digital platforms.Please note: Please note: This is a one-credit course that will meet twice weekly from Aug. 25 to Sept. 24.

This course will explore the techniques of investigative journalism and produce high-quality public service projects based in the state of Indiana. It begins with a survey of the history of investigative reporting, from early 20th century muckrakers like Upton Sinclair to Woodward and Bernstein to new models in today's online world. Students will learn how to identify and judge potential investigative topics, work with databases to find solid documentation, interview a wide range of sources, and write stories appropriate to different journalism platforms. Focusing on the criminal justice system, students this semester will work toward producing a piece that is publishable in the Indianapolis Star.

This one-credit, online-only seminar will equip students with a framework for considering some of the most pressing issues in modern American newsrooms, including such topics as leadership and management in the Internet age, best practices for promoting equity and inclusion in media, and adapting to digital transitions at news organizations. The course will be taught by newsroom veterans who will be delivering virtual lectures. The perspectives and practices that will be discussed in the course will be particularly salient for students about to embark on their professional journalism careers, staffers at student media organizations, and those interested in management issues in the media environment, in particular, or the professional world, in general. The class meets twice weekly from Feb. 23 to March 25.

The Art of Science Journalism (Deanna McCool) TR 9:30-10:45 a.m. This course will prepare students for the way articles based on scientific research or technological advancements are developed, reported, and written. After a brief historic look at science journalism, from H.G. Wells to Rachel Carson, students will also read/listen to works by contemporary print and radio journalists. Students will learn how to find and use scientific journals to supplement their articles, how to recognize a solid study from "junk science," and how to work with scientists to avoid jargon. Learning how to explain difficult concepts in detailed but accessible prose will not only benefit journalists who write about science, but also those who cover topics as diverse as city services or the arts. Students will create a short piece that can be published in a magazine or on a website with a focus on science. Please note: Please note: This is a one-credit course that will meet from Sept 29 to Oct.29.

This course will teach students how high quality audio news stories are reported, written and produced. Students will gain skills in gathering ambient sound, interviewing for audio, and writing for the ear. Students will also acquire the technical knowledge needed for editing and producing audio stories using such software as Adobe Audition. Besides hands-on skills, students will also gain knowledge in how the public radio system in America was built, its history, and the rise of such story-telling forms as podcasting. Students will produce a radio feature piece in the style of National Public Radio that could be aired on a professional station. Please note: this is a one-credit course that will meet from Aug.24 - Sept. 23.

This course will explore the history of food and environmental journalism to investigate how it has been a catalyst for social and political change, and it will analyze current practice in covering climate change and other critical topics. The course will consider the ways in which food and environment intersect with issues of justice, in particular economic and racial justice, how they delineate the tension between journalism and activism, and what opportunities and challenges exist in this realm for the future. While primarily a course of subject-matter exploration and analysis, students will also pitch, write, fact-check, and revise a story toward goal of publication or production. This is a one-credit course that meets twice weekly from Aug. 24 to Sept. 23.

We face worldwide ecological catastrophe, accelerating global warming, and political upheaval: this is the Anthropocene. What problems does the Anthropocene pose to narrative? What storytelling skills and rhetorical strategies do journalists, scientists, memoirists, bloggers, and philosophers need in order to adequately address and communicate about the epochal crisis we all face? Through journalism, essays, and other media, this course will explore the question - in practice - of what it means to write the Anthropocene.

Football is one of the most enduringly popular and significant cultural activities in the United States. Since the late 19th century, football has occupied an important place for those wishing to define and understand "America." And Notre Dame football plays a central role in that story, with larger-than-life figures and stories, from Knute Rockne's "Win one for the Gipper" line to the "Four Horsemen" backfield that led the program to a second national championship in 1924. The mythic proportions of the University's football program cast a long shadow on the institution's history, cultural significance, and traditions. This course focuses on Notre Dame football history as an entry point into larger questions about the cultural, historical, and social significance of football in the U.S. Who has been allowed to play on what terms? How have events from Notre Dame football's past been remembered and re-imagined? How has success in Notre Dame football been defined and redefined? In particular, the course will focus on how Notre Dame football became a touchstone for Catholic communities and institutions across the country navigating the fraught terrain of immigration, whiteness, and religious practice. This course will take up those questions through significant engagement with University Archive collections related to Notre Dame football, working toward increased levels of description and access for these materials. This course will include hands-on work with metadata, encoding and markup, digitization, and digital preservation/access through a collaboration with the University Archives and the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship. Readings for this course will include chapters from texts such as Murray Sperber's Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football (1993), TriStar Pictures' Rudy (1993), Steve Delsohn's Talking Irish: The Oral History of Notre Dame Football (2001), Jerry Barca's Unbeatable: Notre Dame's 1988 Championship and the Last Great College Football Season (2014), David Roediger's Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White (2005), David Roediger's The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (1991), and Noel Ignatiev's How the Irish Became White (1995). Class meetings will be split between discussions of conceptual readings and applied work with library and information science technologies and systems. Coursework may include response papers, hands-on work with data, and a final project. Familiarity with archival methods, library/information science, data science, or computer science tools and methods is NOT a prerequisite for this course.

This course builds on and hones skills learned in Fundamentals of Journalism by cultivating students' abilities to develop story ideas, gather information, conduct interviews, and then write and edit articles under deadline pressure. It introduces students to "beat" reporting, allowing them to cover a variety of newsworthy subjects and events. Students will be expected to conduct in-depth reporting and interview multiple sources to write four or five stories suitable for print, digital or broadcast media. Coursework will include reading, watching and discussing historic and contemporary reporting to learn about the evolution of the industry, professional ethics, and best practices.

Communicating about science has always been a necessity in public discourse, but communicating complex or ongoing science, health, and technology issues can be a challenge. This one-semester core Writing Intensive course, taught in Spring and Fall semesters, immerses students in the art of communicating about science in many forms, from writing for magazines and newspapers, to institutional writing for universities or medical centers, to giving speeches to lay audiences and creating descriptive museum displays. The areas of focus will be on writing concisely without jargon, workshopping/re-writing/editing, communicating and writing with accuracy, and developing empathy for both the scientist and the science communicator. Each week will include short reading assignments, as reading about science is critical to writing about science. Communicating about science has always been a necessity in public discourse, but communicating complex or ongoing science, health, and technology issues can be a challenge. This one-semester core Writing Intensive course, taught in Spring and Fall semesters, immerses students in the art of communicating about science in many forms, from writing for magazines and newspapers, to institutional writing for universities or medical centers, to giving speeches to lay audiences and creating descriptive museum displays. The areas of focus will be on writing concisely without jargon, workshopping/re-writing/editing, communicating and writing with accuracy, and developing empathy for both the scientist and the science communicator. Each week will include short reading assignments, as reading about science is critical to writing about science.

This course is a practical immersion into the world of broadcast journalism. Class will function much like a television newsroom, with time dedicated to workshopping and exploring a variety of reporting techniques. Students will spend time outside of the classroom engaging with asynchronous materials, practicing on-camera skills, and exploring the many roles that make up a newsroom. Students will build a professional reel or portfolio to demonstrate storytelling techniques essential to broadcasting the news.

The Earth's climate is changing faster than expected. Industrialization, fossil fuel use, consumption, and exploitation are radically transforming the planet we live on. In "Witnessing Climate Change," we work to make sense of the science behind this planetary crisis and practice writing about it for the public. This is a large, writing-intensive, public-facing course that engages key contemporary issues and core ways of knowing from a values-oriented perspective, through large lectures and small group workshops. Readings include Jeff VanderMeer, Nukariik, Barry Lopez, Aldo Leopold, Wanda Coleman, J.M. Coetzee, and St. Francis, among others. Find out more at witnessingclimatechange.nd.edu. Please note: for this class students are required to sign up for a discussion section (ENGL 22760).

Designed for English majors, this cross-disciplinary course is an invitation to thinking about contemporary freedom of expression as it has been reshaped by technosocial, economic, and legal features of the digital age. We will approach the topic through case law, short fiction (including near-future speculative fiction), cinematic and televisual works, political philosophy, and the history of mass media. Among the subjects of scrutiny will be: the purpose of free speech in pluralistic democracies; intersections of law, literature and technology; the counter-majoritarian First Amendment; disinformation and propaganda; hate speech; platform governance and emerging information architectures; parody, satire, copyright, and intellectual property. The course may be of special interest to those considering the application of an English major to the study of law or careers in media and technology.

Over the past decade, network television producers have reimagined the situation comedy with great success by utilizing mockumentary film techniques. This course will examine the ever-changing boundaries between fiction and non-fiction film and television by analyzing a series of works which question these discrete categorizations. We will consider canonical examples of documentary and the challenges posed to these known forms by pseudodocumentary and other media which reveal the devices used to establish cinematic realism. We will also explore a selection of film and television work which ascribes to realist modes of representation while subverting this approach. Issues such as testimony, performance, reflexivity, and ethics will be addressed in an effort to deepen the complex discourse of realism in visual media. Students must register for the lecture and lab for this course - Lab - FTT 41257

A generation ago, students interested in media were likely journalism, broadcasting, or FTT majors aspiring to work full-time for big TV networks or newspapers. Today, that’s not usually true. Digital tools have blown open what it means to create and consume media. Whether you see yourself as a creative, a community organizer, an entrepreneur, or an influencer, you no longer have to launch your content through established channels, hoping to someday catch your big break. You could manage a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers from your dorm room. Some of you probably already do. But how do you monetize such ventures? How do you turn a cool hobby or vision into a side hustle or career? In Media Entrepreneurship, we’ll explore how you can combine your passion, skills, and awareness of social needs to capitalize on the media's exciting new frontier. You’ll gain the knowledge, tools, and confidence to see creating your own digital media startup as a realistic possibility. And it’s not just about you. When you hear the phrase “media entrepreneur,” you might think of a tech bro pitching an idea to venture capitalists on Shark Tank. But, at its best, media entrepreneurship is an act of service. It’s about identifying community needs, building trust with audiences, and expanding whose voices we hear as a society. In this course, you’ll practice conceiving of a media project and working with a team to create a startup business plan.

This course will be taught by an ND alum, who is the host of a Chicago based PBS show. We will examine what the interview process is and its preparation. Students will have an understanding of what are the types of interviewing in journalism. Which types are intended for a news story? Which types are for a feature story?

This course is about telling great, factual stories within the realm of human endeavor we call sport. That is, you will read and write substantial nonfiction narratives, and your main subject of inquiry will be near-at-hand happenings in sport, play, and performance. You can call it longform sportswriting, literary journalism, creative nonfiction, or anything in between—and, indeed, this course will ask you to interrogate the boundaries between subgenres in the literature of fact. Through your ethical efforts in research, exploration, and storytelling, you will seek to define and describe real-world truth through the art of the longform essay. With guidance, you will look for potential stories locally—on campus, or nearby—request access and permission to tell those stories, and gather material en route to crafting meaningful narratives. Together, we will ask fundamental questions about the time-honored act of storytelling and explore the history of the "longform" narrative form. What impact—culturally, socially, politically—can a well-told story have? We will build personal toolkits for writing nonfiction while reading and discussing exemplary essays. We will ask big questions about the role of sport and play in culture, mindful of local significance: What is the relationship between play and identity, for instance? How do conceptions of race, class, or gender find expression (or deconstruction) in sport? How does socioeconomic division affect access to sport and play in America? Most fundamentally, in this course, we will write and share our work with others. This course requires the completion of a substantial writing project, among other assignments, and you should be prepared to spend time with real people and your writing subjects outside of class time, and often according to their schedules.

This one-credit seminar is open exclusively to students in the journalism minor who are also in leadership positions with student media organizations. Students who meet that criteria may register for this course for up to three semesters, earning a maximum of three credits. The class will meet 10 times throughout the semester with a rotating group of visiting professional journalists who will critique student media work and help cultivate story ideas. In addition to feedback on published and broadcast work, the class sessions will focus on principles of news judgment and editorial decision-making, innovative storytelling approaches, and practical advice for reporting on complex or controversial subjects. The visiting journalists also will provide insights and examples from their own work and offer advice on establishing a career in the news industry.

Taught by former ESPN anchor, Emmy award-winning sports reporter, and President of Game Day Communications Betsy Ross, Game Day Media will delve into the preparation and performance of game day media opportunities: play by play personnel, color analysts, Public Address talent, news conference moderators and more. This is a 50/50 zoom and class will meet in person and over zoom/ class. Students will record play by play/analyst segments from campus sports, conduct pre-game interviews and post-game news conferences and observe the intricacies of public address announcing.

In a new book about her work as longtime obituary writer for the Economist, Ann Wroe dubs the task "catching lives": i.e., capturing and conveying the crucial elements that illuminate a subject's personality, behavior, motivation, and even their soul. We will explore journalistic techniques, along with ethical and even moral considerations, in the writing of lives, both the living and the dead, in formal biographies, in informal profiles, in obituaries, and in appreciations. From current books such as His Name Is George Floyd and Elon Musk and Going Infinite, to the pithy profiles of contemporary figures written on deadline in the wake of news events, how do life-writers — who must be part detective, part psychoanalyst, part historian, and part gossip-trawler, but always fair and thorough — go about their work?

This course delves into the evolving practice of engaged journalism in the U.S., equipping students with skills to close gaps between journalists and the communities they serve. Students will examine standout examples of engaged journalism in the U.S., highlighting how leading newsrooms build trust, prioritize community input, and make journalism relevant to diverse audiences.  Students will explore engagement as more than audience metrics — focusing instead on inclusive reporting, collaborative storytelling, and trust-building. Through case studies from some of the nation’s best storytellers and investigative journalists, students will learn techniques for involving community voices in creation, from story selection to distribution, enhancing journalism’s accessibility and relevance. As a classroom, we will discuss the ethical challenges journalists face when interviewing people who have experienced trauma or harm. Students will analyze case studies, identifying best practices and key strategies that deepen audience connections. We will apply these practices through assignments, learning to design and implement engagement-focused reporting through community listening exercises and collaborative story creation. This hands-on approach allows students to create audience-centered journalism that bridges gaps between newsrooms and the public and explores what it means to do journalism as a public service.  By semester’s end, students will leave with actionable strategies for fostering sustainable, community-centered journalism and ways to integrate these practices into their budding careers.

While the words “creative” and “nonfiction” might seem an odd pairing, the combination is rooted in a long tradition of telling stories, making personal observations and employing a variety of literary techniques to communicate facts. In this course, students will read, analyze, and discuss the works of creative nonfiction writers. This course is for beginners as well as more experienced writers who want to delve into the still-evolving genre of creative nonfiction, which includes personal essay, memoir, documentary, and literary journalism. Students will also write their own work and discuss it in class.

In “South Bend Stories” students will produce reported narratives across a variety of nonfiction genres, including prose writing and documentary filmmaking. This course draws its inspiration and subject matter from the city of South Bend and the greater Michiana region, as you will work with classmates and community partners to tell stories of local interest and significance. Topics may include close-up looks at a wide range of ideas—family, sport, education, history, etc.—but the ultimate goal is to describe real-world truth at the “felt-life level,” revealing something of what it means to be alive in this particular time and place. We wish to highlight the daily lives, cultural events, natural and built spaces, and social issues of South Bend. Projects are collaborative, with students working in teams. With guidance, you will look for stories, request access and permission to tell those stories, and gather material en route to crafting meaningful narratives. Each group will produce several different stories, though subjects and forms will often converse with one another. For instance, storytelling teams may create short moving-image documentaries, works of prose journalism, photo essays, audio narratives, creative nonfiction essays, or more avant-garde documentary projects, etc. The class will interrogate the boundaries between subgenres of these factual artforms. Students will decide which types of stories they will produce. Telling others’ stories is a profoundly ethical act. It is also a creative process that allows us to grow as individuals and as a community. This challenging process demands your respect and your time as a media-maker. The class will regularly engage in discussions about media ethics and accountability, in the traditions of journalism and documentary filmmaking courses. Students must be prepared to use resources to travel beyond campus and engage with people who are not students and may not be affiliated with the university. Additionally, you must act ethically as a storyteller and collaborator. Further, you must solve a range of challenges—conceptual, logistical, and narratological—while being prepared to spend time with your subjects outside of class time and often according to others’ schedules.

Victoria Tin-bor Hui will convene a workshop series titled "Democracy Defenders In Exile," in conjunction with a writing seminar at the Political Science Department. The workshops, open to students from all disciplines, will feature six democracy defenders, including four from Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang, and China, one from Congressional staff, and one from a transnational organization like Safeguard Defenders. These workshops will be structured as question-and-answer sessions, where students will interview the speakers and gain hands-on experience writing about human rights work and democracy defense. This course will be repeated, with the best student essays posted on a website, and the top essays compiled into an edited volume.

This course invites students to explore the ways writing can develop our moral imagination about what poverty is and what our world could be without poverty. We will read and write intensively in a wide variety of genres and modes--memoir, podcasts, letters, poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and more. Class will include active participation from students through rhetorical analysis of published texts and workshopping of peer writing to create a portfolio of diverse expressions, insights, and arguments about poverty and injustice. Students will have the opportunity to meet experienced writers and advocates who write for social change. We will seek inspiration and insight through community-engaged and campus speakers and events that will prompt us to complicate and elevate our understanding of why poverty exists and what we can do now and throughout our lives to make change. Introduction to Poverty Studies or an equivalent course is desired but not required.

From the Olympics to Formula 1, sports are a central part of global culture and everyday life. Our experiences of sport, however, are largely shaped—and often even constructed—by media. Rather than simply presenting sport, media play an active role in producing the values, identities, emotions, and conflicts we associate with it. This course examines the historical roots and current conditions of the convergence of corporate sport and corporate media. We will analyze how media—from early 20th-century newsreels to live Twitch streams—do more than distribute sport content; they shape its cultural meanings and social impact. Centering sport media as both an industry and a cultural practice, we will explore how it intersects with issues of gender, race/ethnicity, labor, nationalism, and globalization. By analyzing the forces shaping sport media production and consumption, we will consider the meanings audiences make of those messages, we will consider the ways sport media production and consumption might be reimagined. Assignments in the course include a variety of reflection and application projects, as well as larger research project.

A story centered on one person can be a useful way to illuminate a big issue. For example: An immigrant student living in fear of government policies on immigration. A local store owner forced to close shop because the economy is changing. A worker afraid of being put out of work by AI. In this class, we'll focus on that kind of story and on the building blocks of any good story: How do you find the right people to interview? How do you earn your subject’s trust? How do you conduct an effective interview? How do you bring a person to life with details, quotes and action? How do you weave the person’s life with the bigger issue? How do you collect facts—and check them? How do you structure a story? How do you convey meaning and feeling? We’ll examine stories—short and long—to see how the writers did it. We’ll listen to some good interviews. You’ll build several stories of your own.

What role does a local reporter play in their community? How does the unique nature of a small community impact the journalism profession? Local reporters are the backbone of journalism, an unsung majority holding up a field on minimal resources and stretched for time. Oftentimes, local reporters are the only members of the public present at government meetings where decisions are made that impact everyone in a municipality. This class is meant to prepare you for the work required to be a reporter in a small community. This class will revolve around consuming, understanding, and producing local journalism. Students will write local news stories, read examples of good local reporting, and interact with local and regional journalists. Students will learn to understand their unique local audience, and how to interpret the importance of news for that audience and through their lens. Note: the only required text for this course will be a subscription to a local newspaper.

From ancient myths to Pixar films, from Superbowl commercials to political campaigns, we understand our world through stories and take actions because of stories. In this course we will examine the major components of narrative by viewing storytelling through a global lens. We will study how narrative works, link narrative analysis and practices across professions, and explore narrative effects across cultures. With the storytelling we practice every day we will learn to tell a story of “self,” of “us,” of “them,” of “now.” To craft compelling narratives on topics such as “change” and “difference,” and create powerful accounts by means of data, visual tools and on social media. By the end of the semester, we will develop skills to understand the power of stories more profoundly; to use them in our own lives and within the frameworks of organizations, marketing and advertising; to identify better social change strategies; and to become aware of all the new professional and academic fields that are recognizing the importance of storytelling to enhance effectiveness and emotional connection.

This course will examine various forms of magazine journalism, from the direct presentation of information to narrative journalism to the art of the first-person essay. The class, requiring students to complete a variety of written assignments while performing in a workshop setting, will emphasize those storytelling techniques essential to writing for publication.

"The primary purpose of journalism," according to media observers Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, "is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing." That's a lofty goal in any age - but it's especially difficult in the current era of market-driven journalism that has produced fabrication and plagiarism scandals, political cheerleading on news networks, "gotcha" videos on the internet and social media, and an outright obsession with celebrities. Students in this course will come away with a deep-seated understanding of journalism's purpose, develop a disciplined and repeatable process of making sound ethical choices when confronted with tough situations, and be able to articulate ethically defensible arguments explaining their decisions. They will accomplish these goals by reading, viewing, debating, analyzing, and writing about actual cases and issues in the news. The focus will be as much on what journalists should do, as on what they should not do.

Understand and master the principles of the language of a photographic report. Know and apply the principles of photo editing, and learn to integrate text and image. Know the main milestones of photography and photographic reporting through history. Learn about the main trends in photographic reporting today. The course promotes the learning of photographic language through the exploration and construction of expressive portraits and documentary stories on various topics.

In this course, students will develop the tools to interact effectively with the press in a future professional context. To do this, the course will analyze the functioning of both traditional media (written press, radio, and television) and online from the perspective of journalism. Through the analysis of cases and exercises in classes, the student will be able to understand their work dynamics and the ways of relationship between media and sources."

A professional work experience in news gathering and presentation for print, video, or online organizations.

Special Studies offers students the opportunity to pursue an independent, semester-long reading or research project under the direction of a faculty member. The subject matter of special studies must not be duplicated in the regular curriculum.