Course Catalog

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Course Catalog

VIDEO JOURNALISM PRACTICUM (CM1852)

This hands-on workshop trains students in video journalism in a real-time newsroom and production studio setting. Students will gain skills working with video production equipment and editing tools including Final Cut Pro. Students will contribute video journalism pieces to “PTV”, the video platform linked to the student media website where their video work contributes to the content mix of news pieces, video work, and magazine stories. Students will produce short video stories, narratives and interviews for the site. They will edit video pieces, post on YouTube, and use social media to promote their stories. The course will prepare students for entry-level positions in video journalism and for more advanced AUP courses in video and broadcast journalism. Note: Up to 8 credits for Journalism Practica can be applied toward the degree. May be taken twice for credit.

AUDIO JOURNALISM PRACTICUM (CM1853)

This hands-on workshop trains students in audio journalism in a real-time newsroom and production studio setting. Students will gain skills working with audio production equipment and editing tools. Students will contribute radio journalism and podcast pieces to the Peacock student media platform.

TOPICS IN COMMUNICATIONS (CM1910)

Topics vary by semester

PUBLIC SPEAKING IN THE DIGITAL AGE (CM2001)

Concentrates on the principles of communication in public speaking. Students learn and practice strategies and techniques for effective speech preparation and delivery of informative, ceremonial, persuasive, and impromptu speeches, and panel presentations. Helps students sharpen their oral presentation skills, express their meaning clearly, and become accustomed to public speaking.

GLOBAL FASHION: HISTORIES AND METHODS (CM2002)

This course aims to explore the histories of non-western fashion, crafts, and industries of a variety of countries. The course gives students the opportunity to explore new fields of fashion history while at the same time providing them with research methods such as image, object and film analysis, and exhibition study.

MEDIA INDUSTRIES: STRATEGIES, MARKETS & CONSUMERS (CM2003)

This course examines how the media industries – from movies and television to music and magazines – have been transformed by the disruptive impact of the Internet and new forms of consumer behavior. Economic terms such as “creative destruction” will help students understand how the Internet disrupted old media business models and shifted market power to consumers. Case studies include Apple’s impact on the music industry, the emergence of “streaming” services such as Netflix and Spotify, the decline of traditional print-based journalism with the emergence of online platforms, and Amazon’s transformation of the book industry.

COMPARATIVE COMMUNICATIONS HISTORY (CM2004)

This course provides historical background to understand how contemporary communication practices and technologies have developed and are in the process of developing and reflects on what communication has been in different human societies across time and place. It considers oral and literate cultures, the development of writing systems, of printing, and different cultural values assigned to the image. The parallel rise of mass media and modern western cultural and political forms and the manipulation and interplay of the properties and qualities conveyed by speech, sight, and sound are studied with reference to the printed book, newspapers, photography, radio, cinema, television, new media.

MEDIA GLOBALIZATION (CM2006)

What is globalization? Why study the media? What is the relationship between the media and globalization? What are the consequences of media globalization on our lives and identities? This course critically explores these questions and challenging issues that confront us today. Globalization can be understood as a multi-dimensional, complex process of profound transformations in all spheres – technological, economic, political, social, cultural, intimate and personal. Yet much of the current debates of globalization tend to be concerned with “out there” macro-processes, rather than what is happening “in here,” in the micro-processes of our lives. This course explores both the macro and the micro. It encourages students to develop an enlarged way of thinking – challenging existing paradigms and providing comparative perspectives.

DIGITAL JOURNALISM (CM2012)

This course is a workshop that will focus on training students for digital journalism. Students will learn writing, editing and curating skills for an online environment, notably in news, reviews, and opinion writing. Emphasis will also be placed on using online tools for researching and sourcing, as well as digital tools for graphics and big data.

COMPARATIVE JOURNALISM : GUTENBERG TO GOOGLE (CM2014)

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 – 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 “gatekeepers” of news.