ENG 224 - Writing for the Media

Course Description

This course examines the changing face of journalism and media today, providing students with theory and practice in four core areas: interviewing, newswriting, reporting and research. Students will learn the form and conventions of hard news, opinion/editorial, feature writing and alternative story formats across media platforms: print, on-line blog, radio and video. Students will examine the history of journalism, press law and ethics while exploring the changing roles of journalism and how its processes and products impact readers in our highly mediated contemporary society. Group 2 course.

Credit Hours

3

Contact Hours

3

Lecture Hours

3

Required Prerequisites

Placement into ENG 111

Recommended Prerequisites or Skills Competencies

Interest in or curiosity about print and digital media and reporting; knowledge of word processing, preferably in Windows and/or Macintosh environments

General Education Outcomes supported by this course

Communications - Direct, Critical Thinking - Direct

Other college designations supported by this course

Infused: Writing Intensive

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge:
  • Explain how reporting, interviewing, and story structure act as the foundations of journalistic professionalism.
  • Articulate the tools of news gathering.
  • Identify the complex roles journalism has played historically.
  • Identify the factors having changed media in recent decades.
Application:
  • Identify a journalistic story, conduct the appropriate interviews and research, and write a compelling, factually accurate story across a variety of media platforms.
  • Use the grammar, syntax, diction, and punctuation that best communicates with the reader.
Integration:
  • Write in a style that reflects professional media standards.
Human Dimension:
  • Come to see themselves as guided by the ethics of professional journalism.
Caring - Civic Learning:
  • Commit to the ethical standards that inform professional journalism.
Learning How to Learn:
  • Learn how to apply principles of journalistic storytelling to a variety of digital media in areas of their lives beyond the scope of the class.