JOUR 295 - Topics in Journalism and Mass Communications

Credits: 3 credits in Fall or Winter; 4 credits in Spring
Planned Offering: Offered when departmental resources permit.

Study of a selected topic in journalism or mass communications. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Appropriate for non-majors.

Spring 2014 Topic:

JOUR 295: Journalism That Changes the World (4). In the social media and on broadcast talk shows, you can’t escape criticism of the news media. It’s easy to wonder: Don’t journalists get anything right? In this course, we examine cases in which journalists not only got the facts right (they usually do), but their reporting gave the public extremely important and detailed information about the nation and the world. The course includes extensive reading and viewing of important examples of extra-dimension journalism that offers far more than a mere chronicle of the day’s events. Students engage in a probing analysis of what they have read and seen, and imagine themselves in the place of the journalists who carried out the reporting and photography, becoming aware of the obstacles that those journalists faced and how they were overcome. Through Skype and in-person interviews during a field trip to Washington, D.C., students have an opportunity to hear and question several of the journalists who were behind journalism that changes the world. (HU) Foreman. Spring 2014 only

Winter 2014 Topic:

JOUR 295: National Security v. Freedom of Speech “or of the Press” (3). Prerequisite: At least sophomore standing. From the nation’s beginnings, America’s government, its people, and news media have struggled during conflict at home and abroad to live up to the principles enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. This course focuses on responses by government officials and the public to dissent – from the nation’s early days to today’s War on Terrorism – and examines the impact of digital advances on whistleblowing, government surveillance of citizens, and the future of privacy, online and elsewhere. In addition to learning about the issue, students experiment with tools and techniques that reporters and their sources can use to protect the newsgathering process and that citizens can employ to preserve privacy in the digital age. Locy. Winter 2014