Fall 2026 Classes
The DeWitt Wallace Center offers over 20 undergraduate courses designed to give Duke students a thorough understanding of the role of the news media in modern society. Our courses are open to all students, but for those students pursuing the Journalism & Media (JAM) minor, the listing is divided into required and elective courses offerings. In the Duke registration system, DeWitt Wallace Center courses are listed under the JAM (Journalism & Media) subject area.
Fall 2026 JAM classes and electives
Core Course
This course is open to all students, but is required for students enrolled in the JAM minor. This course must be taken for a letter grade to count towards the minor.
News as a Moral Battleground
JAM 371, PUBPOL 371, ETHICS 259, DOCST 371, RIGHTS 371, POLSCI 375, CINE 371Ethical inquiry into journalism and its effect on public discourse. Issues include accuracy, transparency, conflicts of interest and fairness. Topics include coverage of national security, government secrecy, plagiarism/fabrication, and trade-offs of anonymous sourcing. Department consent required.
Journalism & Media Practicum Course Cluster
The following courses are open to all undergraduates, but students enrolled in the JAM minor must take at least one for a letter grade. For JAM students, these courses can count as an elective if you have already fulfilled the Practicum requirement.
News Writing and Reporting
JAM 367S-01, PUBPOL 367S-01Seminar on reporting and writing news and feature stories. Students required to produce news stories based on original reporting and writing, including interviews, use of the Internet and electronic databases, public records, and written publications. Written assignments critiqued in class; final project.
The Art and Craft of Narrative Podcasts
JAM 363, DOCST 369, WRITING 363Podcasting has exploded in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of shows in production and more than a fifth of Americans listening to podcasts at least weekly. This course will provide a hands-on introduction to the craft of podcasting, combined with critical reflection on various podcast forms. Students will consider the role of podcasts in the changing media equation, including the role of podcasts in local news. They will gain practice with the basics of podcast creation and will apply these lessons by creating podcast episodes focusing on the people, places, and issues of Durham, N.C.
Video Journalism
JAM 365S-01, PUBPOL 365S, VMS 305S, DOCST 367S, CINE 366STheories and concepts of television broadcasting; writing and editing for electronic media; issues of production. Students will produce a Web portfolio. Approved as a practicum course for the Policy, Journalism and Media Studies certificate and the Journalism and Media minor.
Media and Democracy Course Cluster
The following courses are open to all undergraduates, but students enrolled in the JAM minor must take at least one for a letter grade. These courses engage in analysis of various dimensions of our news and information ecosystem. Other courses not specified may count to fulfill this requirement with permission from the DUS, Professor Philip Napoli.
Modern Chinese Society and Culture through New Media
CHINESE 331-01Different social and cultural issues that China is facing, including the coronavirus pandemic in Hubei, China’s artificial-intelligence boom, globalization, etc; Content drawn from Chinese broadcast news, blogs and videos, TV shows, and documentary films; A community-engaged course or service-learning course; Engagement includes direct, project-based, or research-focused service with local/global community partners among other engaged practices; Improving language and intercultural communication skills that can be used to comprehend, analyze, and discuss real life topics and issues in modern Chinese society. Prerequisite: Chinese 232 or equivalent proficiency.
Digital Feminism
GSF 265S, SOCIOL 217S, ISS 265S, VMS 286S, COMPSCI 265S, I&E 265S, CMAC 265SThe aim of this course is to critically analyze digital culture from a feminist and gender studies perspective. We will address topics related to digital innovation and its history, unpacking and questioning them through the insights offered by genders studies analytical tools. Subjects such as the rise of the Silicon Valley, gaming culture, social media, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, extraction of data applied to biotechnology, macroeconomic development of IT platforms and the impact of technology on ecology will be discussed starting from a current event or debate, to which we will give a historical, ethical, sociological, theoretical, literary or cinematographic perspective.
Environmental Issues and the Documentary Arts
DOCST 315S, ENVIRON 315S, CINE 315S, VMC 309S, LATAMER 315SSurvey how filmmakers, authors, photographers, and other artists have brought environmental issues to the public’s attention in the last century, and in some cases instigated profound societal and political change. Examine the nebulous distinctions between persuasion and propaganda, agenda and allegory, point of view and content. Evolve as a viewer of the environment and a maker of documentary art. Initiate your own projects to address and/or depict environmental issues in one form of a broad range of media.
Social Marketing: From Literary Celebrities to Instagram Influencers
I&E 253, CMAC 253, ISS 253, VMS 255, Writing 253You’ve surely heard the platforms described as “revolutionary,” and you’ve also heard them described as “time wasters.” What you probably haven’t thought about is how similar they are to previous “revolutionary” communications technologies like novels, newspapers, and even language itself. This course explores ways in which studying the masters of previous “social” media technologies—the Shakespeares, Whitmans, and Eliots of the world—can help us understand how influencers on digital social media leverage the same platforms you use every day to market themselves, build their brands, and grow their audiences.
The Public Sphere and the Democratic Process (Constellation course)
JAM 110CN-01, PUBPOL 111CN-01This course will explore normative notions of the ‘public sphere’ and how it should factor into the democratic process. In exploring both historical and contemporary versions of the public sphere, this course will also explore related concepts such as ‘public deliberation’ and ‘public opinion,’ how they have been conceptualized, defined, and measured over time; and how they affect – and are affected by – public policymaking. Finally, this course will spend a substantial amount of time exploring the dynamics of the contemporary digital public sphere, how it has evolved, how it is structured, and its implications for civil discourse and the democratic process. Reserved for first-year students in the Civil Discourse constellation. Students may enroll in one constellation course per semester.
Free Speech in the Francophone World in Relation to the US
FRENCH 335, JAM 335, RIGHTS 335Critical history of free speech in French-speaking world in relation to the US, earliest debates and current controversies. Investigation of key concepts and issues: blasphemy, pornography, hate speech, sedition. Is this freedom absolute? Whose speech is censored? Whose ‘unspoken?’ Case studies & “causes célèbres” include Voltaire, Rabelais, Sade, Céline, Camus, Djaout. Work culminating in debate around free press and fake news with North African journalists and human rights activists.
Language and/in the Media
LINGUIST 372S-01, CULANTH 372S-01, SOCIOL 372S-01The relationships between language and media have long been a socio-political concern. Plato was suspicious of the ‘new’ media of writing; at the end of the Middle Ages, the printing press meant Bibles written in the vernacular could weaken the power of the established church in Europe; today, fake news and online aggression are on the rise, potentially changing the outcomes of democratic elections. Innovations in media give rise to changes in both language practices and social, cultural, and political relations. This course looks at these issues from contemporary sociolinguistic and sociological perspectives, focusing on how linguistic resources are used to create and contest meanings.
Race, Power and Identity: From Ali to Kaepernick
EDUC 220, AAAS 232, SOCIOL 202, RIGHTS 221Exploration of historic and contemporary psycho-social and socio-cultural aspects of the African American sport experience. Examination of research that addresses the effect of physical differences, racial stereotyping, identity development, gender issues, and social influences on African American sport participation patterns. Analysis of sport as a microcosm of society with an emphasis on examining associated educational and societal issues.
Campaigns and Elections
POLSCI 242The campaign process, voting and elections in the United States, with emphasis on the varying role of media in campaigns. The nomination and election process; focus on the critical evaluation of various empirical models of voting behavior in presidential and congressional elections and the impact of election outcomes on the content and direction of public policy in various historical eras in American politics.
Information, Technology, Ethics and Policy
JAM 372, PUBPOL 372, POSCI 388The evolution of the Internet and other information technologies and the related policies and regulations that have emerged both internationally and nationally (in the United States). The tensions surrounding the access to information and the controversies about content, such as issues of free speech. Includes an Internet monitoring project designed to encourage in-depth analysis in order to place technology and technology policy in their historical evolution and context. Explores the contemporary political and social impacts of the Internet and other information technologies.
Fox News and the Future of Cable news
JAM 390S-10, PUBPOL 290S-10Fox, CNN, MSNBC and the future of cable news – In an age of YouTube and TikTok, cable news remains an information source for tens of millions of Americans. It has survived because outlets such as Fox, MSNBC and CNN have targeted narrow partisan audiences and benefited from creaky but lucrative cable contracts. But their survival comes with a cost: It has polarized our discourse and made us a nation of red or blue. This course will explore the history and impact of cable news, the characters behind it and what’s ahead for the cable news outlets in the future.
Critical Digital Studies
AMES 420S, CULANTH 420S, ICS 439S, ISS 420 S, CMAC 420SIntegrate frameworks in digital anthropology and critical digital studies to examine contemporary digital culture in/of East Asia. Examine how the digital highlights historical and ongoing issues in various East Asian contexts. Introduce digital anthropology and digital ethnographic methods, including debates on digital ethics
Gender and Media
GSF 273S, SOCIOL 273S, DOCST 275S, VMS 189SThe aim of this course is to critically analyze media culture and communication landscapes from a feminist and gender studies perspective. We will address a wide range of media innovations and their histories, unpacking and critically questioning them through the insights offered by feminist, queer, and intersectional analytical tools. To each, we will examine historical, ethical, sociological, theoretical, literary or film perspectives. What roles do media spaces play in our everyday lives and how do our politics and self-understandings inform and reflect burgeoning platforms? This course will consider these questions in terms of US media cultures and its interconnected global frameworks.
Intro to Digital Culture: Media Theory, Politics, Aesthetics
LIT 110S, CMAC 110S, VMS 110SWhat is digital culture today? In the 90s digital culture studied how the internet transformed our interactions. In the 00s digital culture is driven by social media platforms (from youtube to tiktok), data profiling and recommendation algorithms. We visit iconic places through our constantly updating city apps. Our identity profiles are fashioned by social media influencers. We match with new friends and become followers. We know that biases of race, class, gender and sexuality are internal to search algorithms. Everyday decisions, behaviours, and desires are linked to our smart media. This course explores how digital media affect our subjectivity, our body, social and collective actions, political power and control.
Elective Courses
These courses are open to all undergraduates. JAM students must take at least 3. For JAM students, any courses listed above in core requirements which is not already counted as a core course, can count as an elective. If you find a course you think should be included in this list, please contact Kim Krzywy at kkrzywy@duke.edu.
AI Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Culture
LIT 524S, VMS 524S, JAM 524SThis course engages with theories of aesthetics and ethics to examine how artificial intelligence models in contemporary planetary culture mediate and entangle the sensible and the ethical. From the generation of text, sound, and images to the production of literary genres, musical forms, and visual styles, the rapid diffusion of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has exceeded the revolutionary transformation brought about by the Internet in the 1990s. As Large Language Models and other generative systems increasingly function as culture machines, they transform digital processes into structural articulations of meaning, value, and relation. In this context, it becomes urgent to ask what has happened to the relation between sensibility and ethical life today.
Data and Investigative Journalism
JAM 375, PUBPOL 343Teaches the tools and techniques used by investigative journalists interested in acquiring and analyzing data to examine public policy and scrutinize systems of power. Students should have basic familiarity with journalism concepts, but no specific technical or mathematical skills required.
Digital Documentary Photography: Education, Childhood, and Growth
DOCST 209FS, ARTSVIS 212FS, VMS 212FS, EDUC 209FS, PHOTO 209FSDocumentary photography as a tool for exploring public education in Durham. Learn digital techniques including camera function, Photoshop, ink-jet printing, audio capture and production of audio-visual slide shows. Discuss ethical issues that emerge as a result of digital photographic impermanence. Service-learning environment consisting of fieldwork photography in collaboration with community organization, culminating in an exhibit. This is a Focus Program Course for Knowledge in the Service of Society. Department consent is required.
Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Communications
ISS 240S-01, VMS 288S-01, CMAC 240SMultimedia information systems, including presentation media, hypermedia, graphics, animation, sound, video, and integrated authoring techniques; underlying technologies that make them possible. Practice in the design innovation, programming, and assessment of web-based digital multimedia information systems. Intended for students in non-technical disciplines. Engineering or Computer Science students should take Engineering 206 or Computer Science 408.
German Media
GERMAN 340SThis course examines contemporary discourses in German society through the lens of the media landscape, which includes but is not limited to film, music, podcast, art, literature, and TV. Students will continue to develop their competencies in German at an advanced level by discussing and analyzing present issues and debates, with an emphasis on vocabulary building through oral and written response and analysis. Topics will vary, but may include politics, arts and entertainment, business, multiculturalism, Germany’s role in Europe and the world, among others. Recommended prerequisite: GERMAN 303, 305, 306, or permission of instructor.
Global Russia
RUSSIAN 399, CULANTH 399, PUBPOL 223, ICS 399, LIT 309Through novels, short stories, poems, films, and cultural criticism produced in the last fifty years, the course equips students with the tools needed to unravel the historical, social, and philosophical underpinnings that have shaped Russian culture both within its native borders and in the global diaspora presented by the émigré community. The course analyzes state-sanctioned vs. oppositionist cultural productions while offering a prism through which the human experience is examined, inviting students to engage with a storytelling tradition that crosses, challenges and transcends linguistic and cultural thresholds.
Intro to Digital Photography
ARTSVIS 119S, DOCST 119SAn emphasis on digital photography, using the camera as a distinctive way of seeing and knowing. Class assignments accompanied by historical and theoretical readings, lectures, class discussions, and field trips. Final projects include thematic photographic series and an individual documentary essay.
Introduction to East Asian Cultures: Narrating East Asia through Word and Image
AMES 107, ICS 144The study of East Asia makes sense not necessarily as a study of shared canons or of ‘civilizational origins’ or, shared ‘Asian values’: rather, modern East Asia can be productively studied in terms of shared historical, political, cultural concerns; the influx of new ideologies; the processes of ‘becoming modern’; and of course, the positioning of East Asian area studies in the academy and the larger world. In this introductory course, we will be looking at “Global East Asia” and its diasporas through all manners of storytelling, focusing on word-image narratives: Asian traditions of manga, manhwa, manhua, as well as graphic novels.
Introduction to Oral History
DOCST 110S-01, HISTORY 126S-01, WRITING 125SIntroductory oral history fieldwork seminar. Oral history theory and methodology, including debates within the discipline. Components and problems of oral history interviewing as well as different kinds of oral history writing.
Long-form Journalism
JAM 366S, DOCST 356S, PUBPOL 366S, Writing 366SStorytelling techniques of magazine journalism; reporting and writing strategies; historical and contemporary writing for magazines in print and digital formats. Students develop experience in different kinds of magazine writing. Approved as a practicum course required for the Policy, Journalism and Media Studies certificate and the Journalism and Media minor.
Maximizing Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at Duke
PUBPOL 106CNThis course provides opportunities for students to both engage in open dialogue on controversial topics while learning about the history of academic freedom and freedom of speech on college campuses. Topics covered include: self-censorship, student sorting, doxxing, the role of protest on campus, safe spaces, the tradeoffs of dedicated free expression spaces, the impact of faculty political views on the openness of student debate, and how the freedom of assembly intersects with freedom of speech to govern student groups on campus, especially those based on identity: religion, race, sex and gender. The course reviews how the modern understanding of academic freedom developed in the 20th Century alongside First Amendment jurisprudence, with a focus on key agreements. Reserved for first-year students in the Trouble and Joy constellation. Students may enroll in one constellation course per semester.
Military Imaginary, Understanding War Through Photography
DOCST 121CNS-01, VMS 121CNS-01, JAM 102CNS-01, PUBPOL 105CNS-01First year seminar course which explores ways photography and images are used by journalists, artists, documentarians, as well as governments, militaries, and civil society, in order to document and report on events and shape public opinion and historical memory. Project-based course in which students will conduct research in image-based archives, conduct oral histories, and curate exhibitions and related programming for public audiences. Reserved for first-year students in the Peace or War constellation
New Media, Memory, and the Visual Archive
VMS 565S, ISS 565S, CMAC 565SExplores impact of new media on the nature of archives as technologies of cultural memory and knowledge production. Sustained engagement with major theorists of the archive through the optics of ‘media specificity’ and the analytical resources of visual studies. Themes include: storage capacity of media; database as cultural form; body as archive; new media and the documentation of ‘everyday life;’ memory, counter-memory, and the politics of the archive; archival materiality and digital ephemerality. Primary focus on visual artifacts (image, moving image) with consideration of the role of other sensory modalities in the construction of individual, institutional and collective memory.
Opinion Writing
JAM 390S-20, PUBPOL 290S-20, ETHICS 390S-20, WRITING 390S-20This course explores what ingredients go into the best opinion writing and what mix of hard facts and individual conviction most effectively sells a point of view, whether the focus is political or personal, whether it advocates a specific policy or articulates a broader philosophy. Extensive reading of newspaper columns and magazine essays past and present, conversations with current practitioners, and students’ production of their own op-eds/opinion essays will help students develop the skills needed for effective opinion writing. The course also emphasizes general, cross-genre principles of nonfiction writing and journalism.
Sound for Film and Video
CINE 157S, VMS 157SSound for Film and Video explores sound design for film, with an emphasis on the relationship between sound and image. Students develop skills in sound acquisition, including location recording and microphone techniques, as well as finishing skills such as sound mixing on non-linear editing software. Alongside screenings, readings, and discussions, students build their own soundscapes by editing, manipulating, and layering sound. The course culminates in a final project in which students creatively explore the potential of sound to express narrative meaning in film. No prior experience is required.
Sports Journalism
JAM 382SMedia coverage of athletes and teams has morphed into a field that calls for an array of skills, as reporters chronicle the games, personalities and businesses that collectively have such powerful hold on the American psyche. Students will learn the skills necessary to produce a range of sports journalism – game stories, features, analyses, profiles, accountability pieces, and enterprise articles. We will examine the many ways sports now intertwines with, and impacts, how we think about various issues in our society, including race and civil rights, gender, politics, public health (such as the Covid-19 pandemic), and the entertainment world in general.
The Documentary Experience: A Video Approach
CULANTH 106S, CINE 331S, HISTORY 125S, POLSCI 105S, PUBPOL 170S, DOCST 105S, VMS 106SA documentary approach to the study of local communities through video production projects assigned by the course instructor. Working closely with these groups, students explore issues or topics of concern to the community. Students complete an edited video as their final project.
Traditions in Documentary Studies
DOCST 101, VMS 103, ICS 111Traditions of documentary work seen through an interdisciplinary perspective, with an emphasis on twentieth-century practice. Introduces students to a range of documentary idioms and voices, including the work of photographers, filmmakers, oral historians, folklorists, musicologists, radio documentarians, and writers. Stresses aesthetic, scholarly, and ethical considerations involved in representing other people and cultures.
Writing for Global Audiences – Theories and Applications of Comparative Rhetoric
WRITING 265S, ICS 235S, GLHLTH 265SThis course examines how writing practices and communication strategies are shaped by cultural differences, focusing on how writers construct, adapt, and negotiate voice and identity for global audiences. We will analyze rhetorical traditions through non-Eurocentric theories—spanning cultural, geographical, and non-human perspectives—via rigorous reading, case studies, and discussion. By examining real-world examples like protest writings, we will explore methodologies for effective global communication. We will refine rhetorical knowledge through collaborative learning, honing adaptive, ethical, and sophisticated writing practices that meet the expectations of diverse global audiences.