Below is an expandable list of all courses at the School of Journalism. Some are offered spring only, others in fall semesters only. Some classes are offered only once a year or occasionally. For more information about the courses, see the course information page.
Undergraduate
| Description: | (cr. 3) Topical course dealing with changing subjects and material from semester to semester. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic. Will not count toward journalism major requirements. |
| Categories: | Non-major |
| Description: | (cr. 3) A study of the institutions that produce news and information about public affairs for the citizen of American mass society and problems about the selection of what is communicated. Case studies. International comparisons. Will not count toward journalism major requirements. |
| Categories: | Non-major |
| Description: | (cr. 3) A workshop for nonmajors to improve writing skills and learn basic requirements of writing for publication. Instruction in market analysis and interpreting specific editorial requirements, in gathering and researching background materials, and in preparing manuscripts. Examination of various types and styles of published writing. Will not count toward journalism major requirements. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Survey of the institutions of journalism and mass communication, their philosophical foundations, history, processes, economic realities, and effects. |
| Categories: | Core Courses |
| Description: | (cr. 1) A nine-week online course emphasizing basic research techniques used by media writers to gather information for news releases, newspaper articles, magazine pieces, and other forms of journalistic-style writing. Skills covered include researching Internet and non-Internet sources. Ideally this course is taken concurrently with J 200. |
| Categories: | Core Courses |
| Description: | (cr. 1) Prerequisite: Member of the Media Living Learning Center. This course brings together students with shared academic and professional interests for events, speakers, readings and discussions about journalism and media in the 21st century. The primary goal is to establish a unique model of individual learning, a “College of One,” based on the value of experiences beyond the classroom. |
| Categories: | First Eight Weeks, Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: ENG-W 131 or its equivalent and fundamental computer skills. Working seminar stressing the creation of journalistic stories for diverse audiences. Students will learn to develop story ideas, gather information, combine visual and verbal messages, and to write and edit news. |
| Categories: | Core Courses |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J200 J155 Topic: Online Journalism. Students will explore non-linear methods of storytelling and how Web-based tools can enhance their written work. In addition to building existing skills, they will use photography and embedded audio to create story packages for an online magazine. (This is a required course for students starting at IU before fall 2007.) |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Theories of visual communications including human perception, psychology of color, and principles of design. Application of those theories to photography, video, and graphic design in news communication. |
| Categories: | Core Courses |
| Description: | (cr. 3) This course provides a general introduction to the issues of U.S. press performance. One of the main goals of this course is to hone critical thinking skills through the discussion of specific issues–critical issues in journalism. In doing this we will question assumptions, evaluate evidence, analyze systems and structures of power, and generate knowledge that can strengthen journalism. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) From the film Slumdog Millionaire’s runaway success in the U.K and the U.S to the boom in newspapers and magazines in China, the rise of the Islamic fashion industry in Turkey, and the popularity of basement Bhangra and Bollywood beats in New York, it seems that we live today in the paradoxical and connected world that globalization has created. This course will begin with an exploration of globalization’s historical foundations in colonialism and its highly contested meanings and definitions. Then, we will shift to the media’s place within social, political, and economic processes of globalization through considerations of global media ownership and production, media content, and media audiences. The global media addressed in course lectures and readings will include traditional and online news, advertising, public relations, and citizen-generated media. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Taught via videoconference from IUPUI. Course is J150 at IUPUI. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Taught via videoconference from IUPUI. Course is J152 at IUPUI. |
| Description: | (cr. 2) Wordsmithing: grammar, usage, punctuation & journalism style Workshop on the mechanics of writing and editing. The course builds on the basics, focuses on the practical and strengthens your confidence as a practitioner. |
| Categories: | First Eight Weeks, Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: sophomore standing. History and philosophy of laws pertaining to free press and free speech. Censorship, libel, contempt, obscenity, right of privacy, copyright, government regulations, and business law affecting media operations. Stresses responsibilities and freedoms in a democratic communications system. |
| Categories: | Core Courses |
| Description: | (cr. 2) Prepare for job or internship searches. Polish your resume and portfolio. Learn how to write impressive cover letters. Practice interviewing skills. Understand how to articulate your abilities and experiences to market yourself to potential employers. Learn how to use campus resources and to network. Prepare a career action plan. May not earn credit for BAJ for J307 and ASCS-Q299, COLL/ASCS-Q400, SPEA-V352, BUS-X320, X-410 or X-420. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Survey course about the field of advertising with a focus on its function as a means of communication. Learn how marketing, psychology, research, mass media, law and ethics are important to professionals working in the industry. Class will emphasize use of strategy to develop creative advertising. |
| Categories: | Advertising, Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Survey course about the theory and practice of public relations. Examines public relations' function within organizations, its impact on publics and its role in society. Topics include the evolution of the field, the range of roles and responsibilities that public relations practitioners assume in a variety of settings, ethics, and significant issues and trends that have shaped the practice. Course provides a foundation for more advanced study in the field. Also useful for those planning another professional or managerial career that requires an understanding of public relations concepts and management practices. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives, Public Relations |
| Description: | (cr. 3) This course explores how economic forces influence production of media content, particularly at U.S. organizations. It examines basic economic concepts, such as market and competition, as they relate to commercial media organizations. Special attention is paid to the effect of advertising and market considerations on news decisionmaking. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J200 J155 J110 Techniques of gathering, analyzing, and writing news and features for newspapers. Practice in interviewing, observation, and use of documentary references that include computer information retrieval and analysis skills. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Print Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J200 J155 J110 Techniques of gathering, analyzing, and writing material for specialized and general circulation magazines. Practice in interviewing, observation, and use of documentary references that include computer information retrieval and analysis skills. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Print Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J200 J155 J110 Techniques of gathering, analyzing, and writing news and features for broadcast. Practice in interviewing, observation, and use of documentary references that include computer information retrieval and analysis skills. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Broadcast |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J200 J155 J110 This is an intermediate photojournalism course focusing on the basics of light, camera operation, and the use of the digital darkroom. It includes instruction in spot news and feature photography as well as instruction in ethics, privacy, and law. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Photography |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J321 J200 J155 Develop the professional writing skills expected of beginning public relations practitioners, including different approaches required for a variety of audiences and media. Focus on the basics of good writing as well as the art of writing. Brush up on AP style. Learn how to work effectively with clients.This course is a service learning course. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Public Relations |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J200 J155 J110 Workshop in fundamentals of editing newspapers, including both individual and team projects. Emphasis on news judgment, fairness, accuracy, editorial balance, and language usage. Practice in writing news summaries, editing copy, writing headlines, laying out pages, and using computer editing technology. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Print Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J200 J155 J110 Workshop in fundamentals of editing specialized and general interest publications. Individual and team functions are stressed. Attention is given to editorial voice and judgment, fairness, accuracy, and language usage. Practice in writing headlines and titles, layout, design, and use of computer editing technology. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Print Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J343 Continuing workshop in reporting, writing, and editing for broadcast. Individual and team functions are stressed. Emphasis on news judgment, fairness, accuracy, editorial balance, and language usage. Practice in editing copy, audio and video tape. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Broadcast |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J344 Workshop on the role and function of the picture editor for the print and Internet news media. Theory and practice of picture editing skills including assigning, selecting, cropping, writing captions and blurbs, producing informational graphics, designing photo pages, editing by computer, and managing visual journalists. May be taken without J344 with instructor permission. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Photography |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: Junior standing. This course will explore two distinct areas of business journalism: First, becoming prepared as a journalist to critically report on business topics that are timely and of relevance to the public is becoming more important. Learning how to approach the gathering, framing, and interpretation of the information will be examined. Second, the media is undergoing constant change and ongoing critiquing of its objectivity. Technology is having an impact on each medium, and the business issues faced by mass media organizations, independent owners, editors, reporters, broadcast outlets, agencies (advertising and public relations) and employees in communications functions of corporations have diverse and far reaching prospects. Assessing the change and approach to the evolving journalism career landscape will be discussed. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Sports journalism chronicles the seemingly immortal prowess of the games’ brightest stars. It trumpets the titanic showdowns between the best of its gladiators. And, journalists do it all in an attempt to feed America’s insatiable appetite for sports. This course will explore the state and practice of sports journalism, through case studies of some of this decade’s most controversial sports stories. Were sports journalists fair? Did they report these stories with context? Did they explore the larger societal issues? Did they explore the economics behind these stories? Did they portray the characters in these sagas as real people? We will explore these issues through evaluating coverage, reading related texts and talking directly to prominent sports journalists, executives and athletes. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) This class taught via videoconference from IUPUI. This course will introduce students to sports and will take a macroscopic approach in discussing sports’ societal influence. It will study sport from a socio-cultural-historical perspective as well as from a contemporary position. It will focus on the converging worlds of print journalism, electronic media, public relations, advertising, documentary, and emerging technologies as expressed in the new commercial reality of sport. Students will have mid-term and final exams and will also write critical analyses and a media journal. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) This class taught via videoconference from IUPUI. This upper-level course will study sports journalism’s key policies, trends, and issues. It will examine sociological, political, legal, ethical, and technological issues in college and professional sports. It will focus on current events and controversies in the world of sports journalism. This course will discuss the symbiotic relationship between sport media and race, gender, doping, steroids, sexuality and homophobia, politics and nationalism, sports fans, loyalty, and violence, disability in sport, and other provocative issues. The class will include discussions in a seminar format integrating lectures, debates, and questions. Students will turn in critical analyses, a media journal, and will conclude the semester with a presentation and final paper or project. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Above Class: Spring break travel to Austin, TX. March 13-21. Cost $500, limited to Journalism majors. Application required. By permission of department only. |
| Description: | (cr. 1-3) Topical course dealing with changing subjects and material from semester to semester. Course may be repeated once for credit. See instructor syllabi for details. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 Prerequisite: At lease sophomore standing. Will give students hands-on experiences in reporting, producing and presenting stories for the twenty-first century media environment. Students will create three major projects, and present them on the web in a job portfolio site: 1) Photograph a picture story, gather natural sound and interviews, and edit them together into a sound-slide show for the web. 2) Shoot and edit a video story for the web. 3) Create an animation in Flash for the web. Students will create their websites in Dreamweaver and Flash. The course will build on the photography and videography skills from J210, but will go beyond them. Flash represents a new skill, not included in J210. J360 may be taken without J210 with instructor permission, and may be repeated once for credit with a different topic. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Broadcast, Graphic Design, Photography |
| Description: | (cr. 3) This is a service-learning course about the theory and practice of public relations. Students look at the public relations function within organizations, its impact on publics, and its function in society. They study the evolution of the field, the range of roles and responsibilities that public relations practitioners assume in a variety of settings, and the significant issues and trends that have shaped the practice. The course will address the ethics of public relations practice and how values shape an organization's ability to build successful relationships with its publics. Lessons learned are applied to a community client's real-world public relations needs. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Survey and analysis of how news and entertainment media represent issues of race and gender. History of women and people of color as media professionals and media consumers. Discussion of contemporary problems and potential solutions. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J353 J343 Prerequisite: Consent of instructor can substitute for J353. Preparation and presentation of news for television. Practice in writing, reporting, filming, and editing news for TV. TV writing problems; use of photographs, film, and videotape; problems of sound in TV news; ethical problems of the TV film reporter and editor. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Broadcast |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: one 300-level reporting course and one 300-level editing course. Study and practice in using techniques of social science and traditional methods of investigative reporting. Class will plan, write, and edit news stories in depth. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J300 Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Students study the law relating to the content of news media and the processes by which that content is created. Discussion includes the legal issues triggered by story framing, selection of sources, interviewing, photography, and access to information. The course involves reading and research using primary legal materials. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Research seminar that examines techniques and processes used in managing media organizations. Through discussions, case analysis, and group projects, the course explores organizational missions and social responsibilities, market analysis techniques, personnel management issues, and budgeting. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J300 Prerequisite: Senior standing. Examination of the functions and impact of the mass media in society with primary focus on the United States. Discussion of the values of media organizations and the professional and ethical values of journalists. Critical analysis of the relationship of the media and society and the effect of political, economic, and cultural factors on the operation of the media. |
| Categories: | Core Courses |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J342 In-depth explanation of the nonfiction magazine article field. Examination of trends and problems in nonfiction writing for both general and specialized magazines. Criticism of student articles written for publication. Seminar sessions with editors and freelance writers. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Structure and function of international communication systems and barrier to flow of information among nations. Emphasis on gathering and disseminating information around the world. Study of the major newspapers of the world, international news agencies, and international broadcasting and satellite networks. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) A study of literary forms and techniques used in journalism. Topics to be considered include formal considerations such as voice and structure, reporting methods, and ethical issues. Students will supplement reading with writing experimental pieces of their own. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Behavioral study of nature, operation, molding, and influence of public opinion, with practice in its measurement and evaluation. Discussion of major political, social, economic, and cultural problems. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: 12 credit hours of journalism. Corequisite: J403. Lectures, projects and discussion on legal and ethical aspects of advising school media and on designing, producing and financing school-produced student media, including print, broadcast and online media. Required for Education 2nd concentration. |
| Categories: | Journalism Education, Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J321 Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Theories and principles relevant to public relations research and strategic planning, including development of goals and objectives, client relationships, budgets, and research methods. |
| Categories: | Public Relations, Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J321 How to develop a campaign proposal to meet a client's business objectives and how to pitch it. Part of the course focuses on media relations and crisis communications training. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Public Relations |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J320 Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. Seminar in current developments in advertising as an economic and social force. Examines contemporary issues in the profession. Students will conduct independent and original research projects. |
| Categories: | Advertising, Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J344 Advanced techniques of reporting and interpreting news with photography. Practice in news, sports, features, photographic essays, color photography, electronic imaging, and studio illustration. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: At lease junior standing. American social-intellectual history integrated with the story of news media development, emphasizing the historical relationship of the mass media to American social, economic, and cultural patterns and developments. Origin, growth, shortcomings, and achievements of media. Impact of society on the media and vice versa. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Corequisite: J403. Prequisite: EDUC-W 200, EDUC-P 255, EDUC-M 300, EDUC-H 340 and EDUC-M 314. Examination of the methods, techniques, content, and materials applicable to the teaching of journalism at the middle school or high school level. Experience provided to assess ongoing programs in schools and to study materials appropriate for these programs. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: Application to instructor. This course is a capstone, professional service learning experience designed to model the operations, functions, business practices and service offerings of world-class integrated communication agencies. Through the agency structure, students will develop and implement public relations, advertising and related communication consultancy services or actual business clients. Students will work in teams as they would in an agency setting. They will encounter the real-world challenges of managing their time and projects, being accountable for results to their clients and learning how to work together. Necessary industry professional skills, proficiencies and business practices will be developed through the hands-on learning experience. J 460 may be repeated twice for credit with different topics. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Advertising |
| Description: | (cr. 2) Prerequisite: At least junior standing. Almost every organization, whether it’s a for-profit business or nonprofit association, deals with reputation-damaging crises. Organization managers and public relations professionals must know how to handle crises effectively to maintain the organization’s credibility. This course takes a real-life, real-time approach to handling crisis communication. During the eight-week course, students will participate in an ongoing mock crisis drill and be placed in realistic situations each class meeting. Participants will develop detailed crisis plans, handle damage control and learn to deal with the unexpected twists and turns in this challenging communication environment. Activities include on-camera interviews, press material development and learning to speak to multiple constituencies. Upon completion of the course students will know how to take steps before, during and after a crisis to help their organizations communicate effectively. Course will be taught by a public relations executive who is experienced in handling crises for clients in business, nonprofits and government. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives, Public Relations, Second Eight Weeks |
| Description: | (cr. 4) Prerequisite: junior/senior standing and application. Covers the life and times of Ernie Pyle. The class will include Spring Break travel to Europe, and will be led by Professor Owen V. Johnson, an Ernie Pyle historian. The week in Europe will include travel to London, Normandy and Paris. Students will visit the Imperial War Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Cabinet War Rooms, historic Omaha and Utah beaches, the American cemetery and Mont-Saint-Michel. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 4) Prerequisite: junior/senior standing and application. The class will travel to Tokyo during Spring Break to visit international public relations firm and learn from the professionals who work there. The group will then travel to nearby areas of Japan, visit the Emperor’s Palace and partake in traditional Japanese dinner. J 460 may be repeated twice for credit with different topics. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: junior/senior standing. A reading and research seminar in which students study print and broadcast coverage of the Civil Rights Movement and carry out original research projects on some aspect of the media’s relationship to the movement, with an emphasis on the African American press, movement media, and active efforts by movement organizations to shape mainstream coverage. Projects would draw on manuscript collections (e.g., SNCC papers), oral histories, and primary texts (newspapers, magazines, video). J 460 may be repeated twice for credit with different topics. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 4) Prerequisite: At least junior standing. |
| Categories: | Other |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J455 J342 J341 J315 J201 Prerequisite: Any one of the required courses suffices. This advanced reporting and writing class will teach students how to craft narratives that combine classic journalistic skills with timeless storytelling strategies. We will cover how to report for dialogue and detail and scene, how to practice invisibility as you immerse yourself inside your subjects’ lives, how to identify a structure inside the chaos of your notes, how to assemble an account that sings with the vivid power of what you’ve witnessed in the field. We will learn how to use these skills quickly on breaking stories and how to practice them in greater depth for profiles and magazine pieces. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Print Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Course provides students with training in the coverage of the arts. Writing assignments range from feature articles to news to criticism for the journalistic media. Course includes coverage of issues revolving around the arts and society. Of value also to those who plan to write about the arts for promotion or development purposes. Close attention is given to information gathering and writing. Good opportunity for a student to sharpen writing skills in an area of special interest |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Prerequisite: At least junior standing. You will enjoy and benefit from this course if you have an affinity for science, and just as important, if you have been otld by someone other than your mother or roommate that you are a clear, engaging writer. If you have worked on a high school or campus publication, this is a plus, but not required. This is a course for people who already are good writers, who can quickly learn new ways of writing, and who want to apply their talents in the service of the public's understanding of science. Any journalism student who fits this description may join the course, even if you are not a junior; non-journalism students will need the permission of the instructor. J460 may be repeated twice for credit with different topics. |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 4) Prerequisite: At least junior standing. A four-credit-hour course designed to help undergraduates understand and appropriately use available cutting-edge technology to create innovative, yet effective news coverage. Students will learn about emerging forms of journalism through a unique new media and technology course that fosters critical and creative thinking needed for competitive news reporting and production. During Spring Break 2009, students will travel to Seoul, South Korea, the fifth largest city in the world. Students will meet journalists, mass communication professionals and professors from the area. |
| Categories: | Other |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Reserved for Senior journalism honors track students. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) |
| Categories: | Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Topic: Sports Journalism Research: Money and Collegiate Sports. Taught via videoconference from IUPUI. |
| Categories: | Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Surveys twentieth-century photography as a medium of art and communication. Considers portraiture, landscape, still life, the nude, conceptual photography, the social documentary tradition, the magazine picture story, fashion, advertising, and war photography. Examines the impact of post modern theories on photographic practice and the understanding of photography. |
| Categories: | Photography, Research Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 This graphic design course incorporates electronic photo editing, graphics, and page design. Students are instructed in design theory, computer publishing skills, and creative problem solving. |
| Categories: | Advanced Skills, Graphic Design |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J210 J463 Prerequisite: Permission of instructor can substitute for class prerequisite. This course builds a foundation of knowledge about the visual display of quantitative data and the ethical issues in graphs and maps. Students put this knowledge into practice by creating graphs, maps and explanatory diagrams in Adobe Illustrator for print publication and in Flash for motion graphics. |
| Categories: | Graphic Design, Journalism Electives |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Requires: J463 This advanced design course builds on Graphic Design I and incorporates advanced work in color, type design, computer illustration, creative problem solving, and an introduction to production. |
| Description: | (cr. 3) Seminar on problems of communicating news through aural and visual channels. Application of communications theory to broadcast news and public affairs presentations. Study of effects of format, verbal content, nonverbal content, and presenter on communications process. |
| Description: | (cr. 1-3) Prerequisite: prior approval of internship coordinator; journalism majors only. Supervised professional experience in communications media. May be repeated, but a student may take no more than 3 credit hours total of internship credit for the B.A.J. degree, either through journalism or any other academic unit. |
| Categories: | Special Schedule Activities |
| Description: | (cr. 0) Prerequisite: consent of the School of Journalism undergraduate dean. This non-credit course is for journalism students studying off campus temporarily as part of the B.A.J. degree program. |
| Description: | (cr. 3-8) Prerequisite: consent of the School of Journalism dean. Planning of research project during year preceding summer abroad. Time spent in research abroad must amount to at least one week for each credit hour granted. Research paper must be presented by end of semester following foreign study. |
| Categories: | Special Schedule Activities |
| Description: | (cr. 1-3) Prerequisite: consent of the School of Journalism dean. Opportunity for independent reading, research, and experimentation on relevant issues in mass communications. Work with faculty member on individual basis. |
| Categories: | Other |
