We听will provide you with a combination of digitally-oriented, hands-on training,听and a听solid, intellectual grounding in theories and issues related to journalism, media, and communications.听You will be trained in all听aspects of journalism, including news gathering, reporting basics, magazine design and production, television news and video production, and digital journalism. You will听acquire a necessary familiarity with digital tools in production, design, and editing and develop professional-level skills in the writing and editing of articles for a news site, producing video for television and websites, and managing a print and online magazine, all working together under a common brand, in a single newsroom setting.听
The educational goals for this major are as follows:
Our student media resources will allow you to take part in workshops that concentrate on a multi-platform approach to journalism production, while courses in social media, fashion journalism, media economics, and media law and ethics will add invaluable resources to your exploration of journalism.听Your courses will be taught by seasoned journalists with experience at major international media outlets,听as well as听digital practitioners and scholars with longstanding teaching experience in media and communications.听You will also have access to a state-of-the-art newsroom and听video production studio听 in听our听new听Thamer听Salman Student Media Center.听
With every single one of our majors, you鈥檒l find a carefully curated medley of core courses and electives, which will provide you with the tools you need to establish an unshakeable foundation in the principles and concepts fundamental to your growth within your disciplines of choice. Many majors also enable you to specialize further within the broader area of study.
We aim to help you develop a range of skills, capacities, and modes of inquiry that will be crucial for your future since employers and graduate schools are looking for the critical thinking and innovative problem-solving skills that are associated with a liberal arts education, including sophisticated writing abilities, willingness to pose difficult questions, and an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts surrounding a topic or decision.听听The workshop requirement will also provide practical hands-on experience that will help you refine your professional interests.
Choose 16 credits among the听electives听suggested for the major and听find yourself with a solid foundation in areas of study that will prove crucial听to your future endeavors within journalism.听听
Note: The workshops need to be listed as part of the core courses, but with the caveat of select 2 from the four
The Journalism core courses, which you must take as part of the major requirements, will provide you with the tools you鈥檒l need to ground your present and future studies. Your introduction to the fundamentals of Journalism will help pave the way for your successful completion of other Journalism courses.
The introductory course provides students with basic training in writing and reporting in all forms of journalism, print and online. The course gives students with a grounding in the basic principles and practices of the journalism profession: accuracy, fairness, objectivity. Students will learn journalistic writing techniques as well as style and tone. They will analyze possible sources, define angles, and learn to write a hard news story. The course will provide workshop training for students involved in ASM courses focused on the Peacock Plume website.
This course provides a survey of the media and its function in today鈥檚 society. It introduces students to the basic concepts and tools necessary to think critically about media institutions and practices. In addition to the analysis of diverse media texts, the course considers wider strategies and trends in marketing, distribution, audience formation and the consequences of globalization. By semester鈥檚 end, students will understand the basic structures of today鈥檚 media and be able to provide advanced analysis that weighs the social and political implications of its products.
In this digital tools training course, students will learn skills, gain hands-on experience, and think critically and ethically about a range of contemporary digital tools for research, creative, and practical purposes in the fields of Communications, Media, and Cultural Studies. Students will acquire facility with and conceptual understanding of online publishing, search engines, privacy protecting tools, digital storytelling, and tools for data management, cleaning, and visualization, among others. As researchers, we will learn about finding quality information online, the ethics of gathering and protecting research data, and the fair and legal use of online content. Readings and lectures will interrogate the different ways in which digitization and datafication affect us as networked users, creators, citizens, and consumers, focusing on unequal access to information retrieval and creation, biases in Machine Learning, surveillance and tracking through datafication, algorithmic culture, and AI. The course prepares students to work with digital tools while critically and responsibly engaging with them. This change updates a woefully outdated description which no longer matches course content and has led to students feeling deceived.
Studies will study the production of journalism in different historical, political and cultural contexts. Theoretical approaches to media and journalism (for example, authoritarian vs liberal models) will be studied to understand the relationship between politics and journalism 鈥 and, more generally, the media that operate as industries regulated by states. The course also examines the transformation of the journalism profession by new technologies, notably the impact of the web and social media on newsgathering and other journalistic practices. Issues such as censorship and surveillance will be examined through case studies such as Google and Facebook and new 鈥済atekeepers鈥 of news.
Examines how constitutional and statutory law define and protect media in different countries. Introduces students to libel law, copyright and author's rights, commercial rights issues, and variations across countries. Examines the role of government institutions and regulatory bodies in formulating policy on matters such as children's television and advertising regulation. Explores the process of self-regulation and issues of journalist's ethics.
Students may undertake an internship in an advertising agency, film company, or television company. Internships may be taken for 1 or 4 credits. Students may do more than one internship, but internship credit cannot cumulatively total more than 4 credits. The internship must be registered for 4-CR if the student decides to do an internship instead of the senior seminar. Students have taken internships at CNN, Harpers, Societe Francaise de Production, Le Courrier International, Sixty Minutes, European Broadcasting Union, amongst many others.
The senior thesis research seminar allows students to work in a small group setting with a professor,where they draw from and hone research methods and theories they have learned in the Global Communications major and across their entire BA education. It culminates in a major piece of primary research that the student presents to an audience of peers and faculty.he seminar is designed to demonstrate cumulative knowledge, while teaching advanced research skills valued in the workforce and necessary for graduate school. The thesis is required for students seeking honors in the major.
In consultation with a faculty member, the student undertakes a senior project related to the field or pratice of journalism and media production. Written projects are normally 25-30 pages. The project can take the form of a feature-length magazine article, a long-form piece of video or audio journalism, a multi-media production including iconography and illustrative material, or a strategic business plan for a journalism or media product such as a magazine or online platform. (https://aupforms.formstack.com/workflows/senior_project)
Taught as a directed study, this course enables senior students to assemble as a whole their own work for the Journalism Major in order to reflect, to evaluate, and to critique its coherence.