Journalism

This course will revisit how lyrics, songs, movies, articles, books and more inform race and how race informs them. In this course, we will read, watch movies, listen to music all through a lens of critical revision. Each class will present opportunities for more discussion and debate than lecture. And even more, you will learn how spot the stories in these cultural products and report as well as write high-quality stories about them. We will cover centuries of material: From Kanye West’s “George Bush doesn’t like Black people” statement and the media fallout that ensued to how the contemporary broad acceptance of the movie Birth of a Nation fueled and informed policy to Booker T. Washington’s magazine Southern Workman and its rival Crisis by WEB DuBois to the social change introduced founders of Black Lives Matter leveraging social media, and more.

Take this course if you find yourself geeking out to pop culture, be it movies, television shows, music, or the like, and if you want to learn how to investigate and write stories about how it informs and is informed by race and identity.
-Professor Caleb Gayle

Explores select topics in data journalism and support data-driven storytelling projects of various kinds. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to navigate the often-competing demands of rigorous analysis and accessible narrative and storytelling. Course units are designed to foster moderate technical learning of applications and software, incorporate theories from relevant fields in data visualization and data science, and emphasize storytelling for broad public audiences.

Take this course if you’re driven by numbers, have a story to tell, and need help communicating it. Go beyond the classroom with application and software tools to make your narrative come alive through data.

Course taught by Professor Matthew Carroll.

Politics continues to galvanize, and polarize, the country. In this class students will emulate journalists and Democratic and Republican strategist around the country—evaluating data and voting patterns, tracking the polls, interviewing voters, analyzing the news, shaping policy debates. We will examine the role of the media in our current political moment and discuss ways in which it can be improved and how serious is the threat to democracy.

Take this course if you’re someone who watches election results like a hawk, cares about your community, and is ready to watch an election cycle occur in real-time through the media’s lens. Learn more about how that lens affects voters, politicians, and our democracy. This course can be taken by both undergraduate and graduate level students.

Course taught by Professor Jonathan Kaufman.

Examines time-tested and cutting-edge methods for shaping and presenting messages across multimedia platforms to effectively disseminate an organization’s message, change a public conversation, or shift public opinion. Examines case studies in mainstream media, public advocacy, and strategic communications to explore the motivations and methods of the organizations as well as the tools and techniques used. Examines the practice of digital advocacy by exploring and applying pertinent findings from politics, advertising, and behavioral science that are increasingly employed by professionals looking to “micro-target” voters, “convert” customers, or “nudge” the public. One major component of the course is hands-on workshops through which students are offered an opportunity to learn how to leverage the latest digital tools for communicating across social media and online platforms.

Take this course if you want to stick up for others, sway public opinion, and wield the power that is strategic, communicative multimedia. This course is a foundational requirement for the Media Advocacy graduate program.

This course is taught by Professor Myo Chung.

Explores the obstacles women in journalism face and examines how a lack of diversity can damage news organizations’ credibility. Studies the historical underpinnings of journalism’s gender gap and practical strategies to navigate identity politics in a modern newsroom. For decades, women have represented the majority of journalism and mass communication students, but they remain the minority at most U.S. news organizations. This gender gap is, of course, not unique to journalism, but the paucity of women in newsrooms negatively impacts society. When news narratives are constructed primarily by men, those narratives often perpetuate “symbolic annihilation”—a term commonly used by feminist and queer scholars to describe the ways the media overlooks or stereotypes women and other marginalized identities.

Take this course if you want to expose the still-present effects of a historically gendered newsroom, learn through pop culture and dated publications, and analyze shifting gender roles over time. This course can be taken by both undergraduate and graduate level students.

Course taught by Professor Meg Heckman.

Offers students an opportunity to learn the fundamentals of digital journalism. Emphasizes hands-on instruction in multimedia skills. Topics may include blogging, photography, video and audio production, use of social media as a reporting tool, and mapping and data visualization. Guest speakers and a consideration of the future of news may also be part of the course. Requires students to produce a final project that consists of storytelling across a range of platforms; for example, a written article, a photo story, and a video.

Take this course if you want to tackle today’s digital journalism platforms, learn about different styles and formats of written communication, and have your own story to tell across platforms.

This course is taught by Professor Matthew Carroll.

Discusses the responsibilities of news media and ethical problems confronting decision makers in various journalistic fields and the principles found in codes of various professional societies. Requires students to write a paper on an ethical problem they faced while working in the media and place it in a framework of at least two ethical theories, for example, utilitarianism and deontology.

Take this course if you want to be a responsible writer, make the world a more ethical place, and use your own experiences to inform your classwork.

This course is taught by Professor Dan Kennedy.

This course is designed to give journalists training in all aspects of multimedia story telling, partnering with a media outlet on an innovative project for publication. You’ll work in teams to develop stories, integrating text, photography, illustration, video, audio, VR/AR and data visualization to build powerful and effective digital presentations. You’ll create, code and launch a web project site; and create a social media campaign to accompany it.

Taught by Dan Zedek.

Immerses students in a real-life television newsroom experience. Exposes students to all aspects of TV news production: from news gathering, producing, and being in front of the camera to the behind-the-scenes work of operating multiple cameras, live switching, audio mixing, and studio lighting. Allows students to be an integral part of a newsroom team, working as reporters, anchors, videographers, and editors to gather content and work in the studio to produce a Northeastern newscast covering news on campus and beyond. Involves hands-on reporting and production where the stories are real and so are the deadlines.

Taught by Mike Beaudet and Michelle Carr.

Public Relations Principles is an essential course for students who are interested in public relations as a career, for aspiring journalists who need to know how to work with public relations professionals or students who simply want to learn how public relations activities help support an organization’s goals. This class is focused on learning skills such as writing for the media, program planning, crisis planning and research and academics.

Taught by John Guifoil.