Course Catalog

Journalism  
List of all courses and their descriptions
List of all courses, their descriptions and offerings in the schedule book

JRNL2015 - Info Gathering For Journalism

Spring 2024

This course will prepare journalism students to gather information necessary to write newspaper articles. Upon successful course completion students will be able to: 1) Find information through interpersonal, textual, electronic and Internet channels. 2) Know the implications of copyright and intellectual property law on information gathering. Know when all the necessary information for a particular story has been acquired. (Know when all the questions have been answered.) 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL2035 - News Writing I

Spring 2024

This course provides students with a foundation on which to build a career as a newspaper reporter. Students in this class will learn how to gather and write news by covering local government, the police and courts, the schools as well as general assignment topics
Prerequisite: JRNL2015 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL2070 - Past, Pres, Future Amer Journl

Spring 2024

This course will review the important role journalism has played in the development of American democracy. Topics will include the revolutionary press, the advocacy press, the muckraking press, the Civil Rights era press, and the modern online press. This course will also assess the health of American journalism, and provide perspective of the role news reporters may play in covering the democratic process in the digital age. 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3020 - Journalism Production

Spring 2024

Students in this class gain valuable, real-world journalism experience by writing news articles for potential publication by RMU Sentry Media. Upon successful course completion, students will be able to: 1) Recognize the news value or best angle for assigned story topics 2) Conduct effective interviews to obtain information 3) Write publishable newspaper articles on almost any topic 4) Function as a reliable member of a newsgathering unit
Prerequisite: JRNL2015 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3030 - News Writing II

Spring 2024

News Writing 2 builds on News Writing 1 by challenging students to fine tune their basic newsgathering skills. In News Writing 2, students select a beat, or specialized area of coverage, and write all of their stories on topics relevant to that beat. In this way, they continue to develop your newsgathering and writing skills while cultivating expert-level competence in covering a specific type of news. Journalists need to be able to cover a wide range of issues well, but expert-level competence, such as that developed by beat reporters, is needed to provide substantive coverage of the big issues in many areas. That's what this class is for. Students are encouraged to incorporate their "restricted elective" theme into the beat they select for this course. Upon successful course completion students will be able to: 1) Display expert-level mastery of the subject matter related to your beat 2) Generate consistent news coverage from their own beat Write publishable newspaper articles/features that are beat specific 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3031 - Broadcast News Writing

Spring 2024

This course allows students to explore all facets of writing for broadcast, including the incorporation of audio and visual elements that assist in telling a story. Students will write short-and long-form stories such as voice-overs and packages and pay attention to the time demands consistent with the broadcast news industry.
Prerequisite: JRNL2015 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3050 - Journalism Law and Ethics

Spring 2024

This course is a very practical survey on the legal and ethical principles applied by rank and file journalists in their daily reporting and editing activities. Upon successful course completion students will be able to: 1) Work as a journalist without getting themselves or their employer sued. 2) Obtain more information and perform more efficiently as a reporter as a result of an increased understanding of current laws, particularly those related to open meetings and open records. 3) Reflect more profoundly on the actions of the mass media than someone without ethical training (i.e. yourself before the course). This will involve actually thinking about what the media are really doing, why they might be doing those things and tracking the implications of it. Many people, particularly busy reporters, don't dissect the performance of the media in this way because they are on "auto-pilot," merely acting out (in the case of journalists) or accepting (in the case of audiences) the perceived role of the media. Prequisite: JRNL2015 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3055 - Writing For Magazines/E-Zines

Spring 2024

This class will take a rhetorical approach to freelance writing for magazines and electronic publications. Students will critically examine existing texts and publications as they meet the rhetorical needs of audience, purpose and context. In addition, students will assess a specific target audience for its informational/entertainment needs and collaborate in the creation of an original electronic publication that meets those needs. Students will also develop a publishable portfolio of two full length feature articles targeted to specific publications along with corresponding pitch letters. This course encourages students to experiment across genres with their writing and to actively engage in the exciting world of freelance publishing.
Prerequisite: COSK1221 or COSK1225 or permission of the instructor and JRNL2015 and JRNL2035. 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3065 - Sports Reporting

Spring 2024

This 3 credit class will challenge students to develop skills essential to effective sports reporting and writing in the 21st century. Because of the converged nature of news and entertainment media, the course will emphasize critical examination of stories delivered across platforms (i.e. magazines, web-based sports publications, television and radio broadcast and social media such as Facebook and Twitter). Students will also produce original material for web publication, television and radio, as well as for traditional print media. The course will strongly emphasize writing and research skills as well as interviewing and press conference management.
Prerequisites: JRNL2015 and JRNL2035 or Department Head permission. 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3075 - Journalism Abroad

Spring 2024

The course prepares students to write and report in a converged media world with an emphasis on constructing short- and long-form multimedia reports in an international environment. The course considers issues such as accuracy, credibility, ethics, research and sourcing. Assignments will simulate professional media activities and build on information gathering techniques and news writing/reporting skills learned in other classes.
Prerequisites: JRNL2015 or permission of the department head 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3085 - Interaction Sports, Pol, Media

Spring 2024

The Interaction of Politics, Sports and the Media challenges students to grasp how powerful forces - political, business, athletic and journalistic - often come together (or work with differing aims) for a perceived important local, national or international sports event. Using case studies, readings, research and class discussions, this course explores issues such as political interference in the Olympic Games, business support for local stadium construction projects, the business/commercial pressures on major sports events, and how the media report these events. This course demands that students see sports as more than mere games in which a winner or loser is identified. Instead, over the next 15 weeks students must grasp that the interplay of politics, sports, business and media interests can work together or collide with each other when important events are taking place.
Prerequisites: JRNL2015 and 60 credits 3 Credits
3 Credits

JRNL3340 - Investigative Journalism

Spring 2024

This course will challenge students to develop skills essential to effective investigative reporting and writing, including analyzing numbers, data, budgets, and trends to identify potential stories and gauge their significance or newsworthiness. The course will strongly emphasize research and interview skills; a particular emphasis will be how to "interview" spreadsheets and databases to find pertinent and newsworthy details. The course will survey professional investigative journalism to give students a better understanding of the field.
3 Credits

JRNL4000 - Investigative Journalism

Spring 2024

This course will challenge students to develop skills essential to effective investigative reporting and writing, including analyzing numbers, data, budgets, and trends to identify potential stories and gauge their significance or newsworthiness. The course will strongly emphasize research and interview skills; a particular emphasis will be how to "interview" spreadsheets and databases to find pertinent and newsworthy details. The course will survey professional investigative journalism to give students a better understanding of the field. Skills will include in-depth interviewing and computer-assisted reporting.
Prerequisites: JRNL2015 and MATH1010 or MATH1050
3 Credits

JRNL4010 - Mass Media Campaigns

Spring 2024

As the capstone course in the journalism concentration, this course will prepare students to responsibly handle the skills they have acquired thus far in the program (the ability to exercise news judgment, gather information, and prepare effective journalistic products). Upon successful course completion students will: 1) Understand the media's role in constructing the civilization we know today. 2) Understand the "Fourth Estate" role of the media in society 3) Understand the effect mediated messages can have on the direction of public discourse, public understanding of critical information, and public opinion. 4) Gain an increased appreciation for the importance of one's decisions as a media practitioner 5) Be able to defend one's position on media-related issues that impact mass society Increase one's awareness of current nature of the mass media (the way the media are today)
Prerequisites: JRNL3020, JRNL3050, and JRNL2035 3 Credits
3 Credits