Published Research

Fundamentals of Reporting Technologies

Develops news-gathering skills for work in news enterprises. Students learn skills for working with technologies used in news reporting and in storytelling for various media formats. Students are introduced to a range of technologies for recording, editing and producing.

Journalism and Social Identity - Undergraduate and Graduate

Provides a discussion-based inquiry into the role of journalism and journalists in the representation of intersectional identities, focusing on race, gender, sexual expression and socioeconomic class in the United States. The study and practice of journalism in this course will address issues of trust, power, privilege and ethics inherent in reporting across difference. 

Media Coverage of Diverse Populations

Explores the ways in which issues of gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and religion play out in news coverage and how news organizations approach coverage of marginalized groups in society. 

Qualitative Advertising Research Methods  

Exposes students to the principles and methods of qualitative methodology including interviews, focus groups and ethnography. Explores how these methods inform the practice of strategic communication. 

Writing for the Media

Introduces students to writing news for a range of news media platforms, including print / online, broadcast, social media and more, and teaches them how to use the appropriate grammar and style conventions for those media types. Also introduces students to various types of stories, from breaking news to features to profiles, and to basic reporting skills. 

Journalism Law and Ethics - Graduate 

Explores the legal and ethical frameworks of journalistic practice and media production. Covers historical as well as current frameworks used in examining the legal and ethical issues that arise in newsgathering and publication. Examines the relationships between ethics and the law in various media context.  

Strategic Communication Capstone 

Puts into practice knowledge from previous coursework to plan and execute a strategic communication campaign. Students work with others, operating as an agency. Students will develop one or more strategic communication campaigns. In addition, students will practice organizational and leadership skills; design and layout skills; produce a plans book; and pitch the proposed campaigns to the class and the client. 

Principles of Media Relations

Provides students with information about the ethics, history and practice of media relations (community affairs, community relations, customer relations, government relations, industry relations, internal communications, public relations, press agentry, public affairs, publicity, etc.). Introduces students from multiple academic disciplines to the genres of writing required for a media relations career.

Social Media Communities - Junior Seminar  

Course intended to analyze social media strategies and products that can influence our politics and public opinion. Through a discourse on digital communication principles, using a sociological lens, case studies will look at social platform use in relation to fake news, politics, privacy, digital regulations, and the ethical implications of our human and non-human online interactions.  

American News Media

History, politics, social organization, and ideology of the American news media. Surveys of the development of the news media as an institution, from earliest new newspapers to modern mass news media. 

Law, Communication, and Freedom of Expression 

Examination of the legal framework of freedom of expression in the United States. Covers fundamentals of First Amendment law studying key cases in historical content. Prior restraint, incitement, obscenity, libel, fighting words, public forum, campaign finance, commercial speech, and hate speech are covered.  

Branding Nature - Junior Seminar  

This course discusses the processes and politics of branding and consuming nature that are characteristic of globalization processes. It uses a sociocultural approach to analyze specific case studies where natural spaces and its resources, landscapes and the environment have been commoditized through tourism planning, conservation zoning, urban development and climate change discourse.  

Digital Journalism 

Builds upon digital production skills through the creation of multimedia project. Applies media theory to evaluate digital media content and explore how digital forms influence the news industry, politics, culture, and society.  

Media Law and Ethics  

Studies state and federal laws and court decisions that affect the media in order to develop knowledge of media rights and responsibilities and an understanding of the legal system. Provides students with an overview of the theories, ethics, codes, and analytical models that are used in journalism, and introduces students to a variety of ethical issues that can arise in journalism. 

Journalism Ethics and History in Film 

Examines how the depiction of journalists evolves over time through watching classic films. Also, the course studies how journalists depicted in film enact (or do not enact) ethical norms of the profession. Through the reading of cinema as text, and in conjunction with written texts, the class will discuss how these depictions in popular culture have, over time, impacted the way American society views the media.  

Introduction to Public Relations 

Focuses on public relations and its role for the individual, the non-profit organization, business and government; research methodology, principles and practices necessary to become a public relations practitioner; and media channels best suited to a persuasive appeal or crisis.  

New Media 

Explores techniques and approaches in the latest delivery methods for internet-based journalism. Students explore digital media outlets such as blogs, microblogs, audio and video podcasts, e-zines and social networks. Students create journalistic pieces for internet-based media, focusing on best journalistic practices, ethics of internet media, and technology emergence effecting digital journalism. Concepts in video production, photography, writing, sourcing, editing and additional relevant skills necessary for the citizen journalist are introduced. Students create all components for the online dissemination of news, documentary and infotainment.