SC&I Courses

Advanced television reporting and electronic news gathering with students assigned to various projects.

Examines who controls the media and how the media differentially serve the public and power holders. Attention to both news and entertainment media.

Looks at how past and present social movements (e.g., environmental, civil rights, labor movements) challenge dominant social, economic, and political structures and how they have been portrayed in the mass media. It also examines how social activists use media technologies to organize themselves and communicate their messages to wide audiences in order to achieve social change.

This 3-credit course takes students to Guatemala for 10 days to study the role of media in historic and contemporary struggles for democracy. The class meets with Guatemalan journalists, human rights activists, Indigenous associations, women’s collectives and other community groups. Students visit news agencies, community radio and TV stations and the office of the country’s first and only feminist magazine. Using Guatemala as a case study, students will learn about the regional effects of colonization, US military intervention and neoliberal economic policies in the Central American region, as well as the key role of media in local struggles for political autonomy, human rights and democracy.

This [3 credit] embedded course takes students to Ireland for 8 days to study the role of Irish (Gaelic) journalism and media in historic and current struggles for political autonomy and cultural identity. There are six 3-hour class meetings before the class travel. In the heart of Galway’s Irish-Gaelic speaking region, students will spend a few days in the lovely rural village of Carraroe, where Gaelic is the main language spoken (although everyone is bilingual in English). They will also spend two days in the cultural hub of historic Galway City, and two days in the county’s bustling capital, Dublin. Through readings, films, lectures and site visits, students will learn the history of British colonialism in Ireland and the role of Irish-Gaelic journalism in the country’s struggles for political independence from England. They will meet Irish civil rights activists who fought in the 1960s and 70s for the right to have Irish/Gaelic radio and TV stations in Ireland, and will visit Gaelic radio, TV, print and online news outlets to speak with journalists and other media makers. Focused on the political and cultural importance of native language media for minoritized and formerly colonized populations, students will see examples of Irish- language journalism and cultural programming such as documentaries, websites, children’s cartoons, sports, music videos and soap operas (subtitled in English), and gain familiarity with contemporary debates about whether the Irish government should continue funding Irish language media. Connections will be emphasized between struggles for Gaelic media in Ireland and struggles by minoritized and indigenous populations in other parts of the world for the right to have media in their native language.

Independent study in journalism and media studies topics under faculty supervision.

Supervised field experience at professional media outlets. 

Before registering, students must meet with the Internship Coordinator to determine eligibility and receive approval of the placement.  Students must work at their site a minimum of 15 hours per week during the semester.  Off-site (virtual) positions will not be accepted.  Students will complete weekly journal and attend several in-class meetings during the semester.

Note: Students will be allowed to take both the 3 credit Internship and the 6 credit Internship, but are not allowed to take both of them in the same semester.  Also note that students are limited to a maximum of 9 out-of-classroom credits in the major; the courses that fall under this heading are: Internship, Practicum, and Independent Study.

Supervised field experience at professional media outlets.

Note: Students will be allowed to take both the 3 credit internship and the 6 credit internship, but are not allowed to take both of them in the same semester.  Also note that students are limited to a maximum of 9 out-of-classroom credits in the major; the courses that fall under this heading are: Internship, Practicum, and Independent Study.

Students will cover the game-changing stories of our time, from the widening gap between the rich and the poor to battles over immigration to the climate change wars that may determine our very survival. They will analyze groundbreaking journalism and have an opportunity to write and shoot commanding stories of their own.

Magazine writing for publication, including consumer, trade and business magazines.