Journalism
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COM JO 505: Race & Gender in the News Media
Students examine the nature of race and gender stereotypes and the forms they take, and the historic context in which they develop and change overtime. The class looks at the structures, practices and culture of the news (and entertainment) media that create or echo and reinforce race and gender stereotypes. Students evaluate and analyze dominant political and ideological positions on race and gender in the U.S. and how they are presented by major media outlets. Four credits, every semester. -
COM JO 508: Multi-platform Story Editing
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO200 & COMJO205) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMJO704 & COMJO721) - Whether you go to work for a print, broadcast or digital only newsroom, or produce content for your own start-up or non-profit, knowing how to properly edit content for multiple platforms is critical. This course is designed to give you hands-on experience with editing for multiple platforms. Examples of typical assignments: Editing a text story for print and web, writing a headline and description for YouTube video, copy editing photo captions for a photo gallery, fact checking social media. Students will put what they've learned to practical use by editing content that will run on the department's award-winning showcase news site for journalism students' work. -
COM JO 511: Covering Government and Politics
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO200 & COMJO210) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMJO721) - This class provides instruction in covering state government, including legislative process, analyzing data, interviewing, and developing beats. Students learn how to write so that readers understand significant issues. Guest lectures, readings, and exercises explore the dynamics of political and public affairs reporting. Taken in the same semester as JO546 (Statehouse Program) as part of the Boston Statehouse Program. Class is open to journalism majors in all specializations. Four credits, every semester. (Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 200 and JO 210. Graduate Prerequisites: COM JO 721.) -
COM JO 513: Photojournalism II
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO312) or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: and consent of instructor. - An intensive course designed to give students the skills necessary to produce professional quality work meeting publication standards, with emphasis on storytelling in the visual medium. Weekly assignments require students to produce original picture packages complete with written material and captions. Four credits, fall and spring semesters. (Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 205/303 and JO 312; or consent of instructor. Graduate Prerequisites: JO 706 or consent of instructor.) -
COM JO 514: Sports Journalism
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO200) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMJO721) - A special-topic writing course for students interested in a career in sports journalism. Topics include game stories, features, columns, and profiles, as well as examining sport as a commercial enterprise. Four credits, fall and spring semesters. (Undergraduate Prerequisite: COM JO 200. Graduate Prerequisite: COM JO 721.) -
COM JO 516: Foreign Reporting
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Pre-req: JO200 or JO721 - This course covers the practical, critical, and theoretical issues involved in reporting the world for domestic audiences. How can journalists best report on different cultures? How can they demystify the other for their readers and viewers? How do you work with a fixer? Manage your own trauma? Stay safe? How does 19th Century colonialism still influence foreign coverage, and how do you escape this influence? What's to be learned from Conrad's Heart of Darkness about reporting on Africa? When is personalizing the news a bad idea and when is a good time to do it? Students read outstanding examples of foreign reporting, workshop their stories, and learn how to be successful given the current standards for foreign reporting. However, in light of such challenges as globalization, global warming, ethnonational conflict, and the rise of China, the class also debates how to develop better norms in the future. Four credits. (Undergraduate Prerequisite: COM JO 200/250. Graduate Prerequisite: COM JO 721.) -
COM JO 519: Narrative Radio
It used to be commonly accepted that if you wanted to work in audio journalism, then you were likely looking for a career in radio news. But the nature of audio – and journalism – continues to evolve. Now, legacy media outlets like newspapers have entire audio divisions producing daily and longform podcasts while news radio stations are re-thinking their broadcasts and attracting new audiences via streaming apps. But no matter the platform, there are certain tenets of audio storytelling and production that make for great listening and powerful journalism. This class combines the highest editorial standards of public radio with the best practices of digital audio production. You will learn how to write effectively for radio, incorporating in-depth reporting techniques with creative audio storytelling. The goal of this course is to produce a variety of high-quality audio pieces that could potentially be aired on a public radio program or serve as a launching off point for a longer form project. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation. -
COM JO 521: Data Journalism
Undergraduate Prerequisites: JO 200 - Graduate Prerequisites: JO 721 - This course teaches the basics of how to find, report, write and present data- driven news stories.? It is an introduction to the collection, analysis, presentation and impact of structured information by journalists.?Students will learn six skills:? identifying and obtaining government data, downloading and importing data, "scraping" data, cleaning and standardizing data, analyzing data, visualizing data and crafting a compelling data-driven story for your audience.? Students will also gain an effective mindset for approaching data, including how to obtain data from government agencies and strategies for overcoming obstacles in getting that data. Four credits, fall and spring semesters. (Undergraduate prerequisite: COM JO 200; Graduate prerequisite: COM JO 721.) -
COM JO 522: Filmmaking for Journalists
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO205) - This course is an advanced visual journalism class, concentrating on moving images and (a little) audio in a cinema direct documentary film tradition. The course takes students through a range of skills to develop their ability to work to professional standards & complete a narrative documentary show-reel adhering to photojournalistic/cinema direct ethics. You may use this class to create visuals/b-roll for an existing documentary film project you are working on. It will be a showcase piece for your portfolio. Active, experiential and hands-on learning will dominate this course. You are expected to have some experience in video and sound, as well as a basic knowledge of how to edit, though the instructor will assist you to grow your skills. 4 credits. (Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 205. Graduate Prerequisites: COM JO 706; or permission of instructor.) -
COM JO 523: The Presidency and the Media
Students follow the week-to-week interaction of the president and the news media, while examining the evolution of relations between journalists and American presidents from FDR to the present. Four credits -
COM JO 530: Drafts of History
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO357) - Journalism has been called "the first rough draft of history." We consider several episodes from U.S. history and examine how the first drafts written by journalists compare to subsequent drafts written by historians. We analyze how new evidence and chronological distance alter understanding of important events. Four credits, fall semester. (Undergraduate Prerequisite: COM JO 150.) Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Oral and/or Signed Communication. -
COM JO 531: Disinformation and the Press
Critical examination of the role of covert action in foreign and national security, including the process and impact of disinformation when used to manipulate the adversary's public opinion or decision-making elite. Particular attention given to international disinformation campaigns and the ways in which the media can defend themselves. -
COM JO 532: Sports Seminar
Students explore the issues that writers and broadcasters face as they pursue their careers in sports journalism. Each week, we invite working professionals to join us on campus discussing such topics as ethics, sports and its place in society, reporting, women in sports and how to find that first job. Students are expected to ask thoughtful questions and will be required to write an evaluation each week. A great opportunity to start the networking process. Four credits. (Undergraduate Prerequisite: COM JO 200.) -
COM JO 535: Investigative Reporting
Investigative and Project Reporting is an advanced reporting clinic and seminar that teaches students how to identify, vet and pursue investigative stories. Students will dissect what it means to be “an investigative reporter” while learning and utilizing some of the most useful practices and tools of the trade. From conducting interviews and requesting public records, to searching databases and organizing data, we as a class will work toward a long-term project that will, ideally, be published and or broadcast with a number of potential news partners, including WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, ProPublica and The Boston Globe. Story topics may include criminal justice investigations, deep dives into immigration, as well as accountability reporting of complex systems and institutions, all with an emphasis on humanizing our story and placing an emphasis on the crucial role of effective storytelling. -
COM JO 537: Advanced Visual Storytelling
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO205) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMJO706) or permission of instructor - New course description: This course explores long-form storytelling through the genres of photojournalism and documentary photography. We investigate advanced technical underpinnings and techniques of digital photography with the goals of enabling students to control their work, experiment and develop a deep understanding. Through lectures, hands-on assignments, and critiques, students expand their understanding of digital photography while exploring their creativity to broaden the possibilities and improve the quality of their photographs. With this lecturer's background in conflict and documentary photography, this course will explore those worlds extensively, with an emphasis on narrative photography, but it does not preclude you from any genre of photography you wish to pursue. The goal of the course is for each student to produce a semester-long body of work, or a photographic essay. The art of editing your own work will be a key learning goal. The course will constantly refer to the advanced use of software tools and color management technique. 4 Credits. (Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 205. Graduate Prerequisites: COM JO 706; or permission of instructor.) -
COM JO 539: Global Health Storytelling
GLOBAL HEALTH STORYTELLING marks our first effort to present an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to address core concepts in both public health and journalism, and to prepare students to make the truly exciting--but often untold--stories of public health available to a wide public Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation. -
COM JO 541: The Art of the Interview
Undergraduate Prerequisites: JO 351 - Graduate Prerequisites: JO 707 - Students learn advanced professional techniques for an essential skill. From preparing an interview to setting it up and carrying it out, students get detailed instruction and feedback. Please note: prior video production experience is required for this class. -
COM JO 542: The Literature of Journalism
This course is an examination of cultural history as seen by our fellow journalists. It rests on the premise that to be a great writer, one must also be a great reader. With readings from Walt Whitman to the present, we examine the tools and techniques that make nonfiction writing memorable. Subjects include Mark Twain, George Orwell, Joan Didion, Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and the great misanthrope, H.L. Mencken. Four credits, fall and spring semesters. -
COM JO 543: Rescuing Lost Stories: Writing Nonfiction Narratives from the Archives
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - The course will prepare students who are interested in writing nonfiction narratives to plan and conduct archival research, especially at BU's Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Students will learn to navigate the archives, then frame and develop historical narratives of significant contemporary events based on research of primary source materials such as personal letters, diaries, government documents and contemporaneous media reports. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Writing-Intensive Course, Creativity/Innovation. -
COM JO 544: Trauma Journalism
Undergraduate Prerequisites: JO 200 - Graduate Prerequisites: JO 721 - Trauma is at the heart of news. A working journalist will most assuredly report on some type of traumatic event at some point in her career, whether covering a national tragedy or one family's personal nightmare. This course will explore the best practices for ethically and empathetically covering traumatic stories. A second important goal of this course will explore how journalists themselves can emotionally process what they have seen and heard on the job.
