JAM 371, PUBPOL 371, ETHICS 259, DOCST 371, RIGHTS 371, POLSCI 375, CINE 371

News as a Moral Battleground

Ethical 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. Codes: EI, R, W, SS. NOTE: A second session of this course has been added for Spring 2025, taught by Paul Tash.

Spring 2025

• Frank Bruni

JAM 367S-01, PUBPOL 367S-01

News Writing and Reporting

Seminar 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 Codes: R, W, SS.

Spring 2025

• Bill Adair

JAM 365S-01, PUBPOL 365S, VMS 305S, DOCST 367S, CINE 366S

Video Journalism

Theories and concepts of television broadcasting; writing and editing for electronic media; issues of production. Students will produce a Web portfolio. Codes: ALP, SS.

Spring 2025

• Lynn Owens

JAM 366S, DOCST 356S, PUBPOL 366S

Long-form Journalism

This hands-on course will introduce you to the world of long-form journalism. We’ll read and analyze some of the best writing of the past 30 years, and you’ll learn advanced interviewing skills, document research, writing, revising, and editing. We’ll talk with contemporary journalists. And you’ll spend the semester producing a high-quality long-form story, with guidance from me and your peers. You’ll read and write a lot, but none of it will be academic; this class is about writing that stokes imagination, outrage, catharsis, empathy, and delight. Codes: W, SS

Spring 2025

• Bronwen Dickey

JAM 410-01

Journalism & Media Capstone Course

Capstone course for the Journalism & Media minor. Note that the capstone will not be a requirement for students in classes graduating in 2026 and beyond, and the course will be discontinued after the Spring 2025 semester. This course is to be taken after the student completes an internship with a media organization. Designed to integrate student's practical experience with the more conceptual and theoretical knowledge gleaned from the classroom. Students discuss what they have learned, present examples of the work they have accomplished culminating in a research paper. Course requirements include writing a major research paper that synthesizes ideas and concepts learned in coursework with the internship's practical experience and a class presentation about the student's internship. Codes: R, SS.

Spring 2025

• Ken Rogerson

ISS 536S, VMS 536S, HISTORY 536S

Public History and Memory

Course examines key themes in the theory and practice of public history, an approach to historical storytelling aimed at audiences outside the academy. Topics may include the politics and ethics of public history; memory and history; monuments and memorialization; and changing modes of presentation from traditional museums to digital platforms. Student projects will use archival and library resources and engage with historic sites and organizations. Codes: R, CZ

Spring 2025

• Robert P. Buerglener

JAM 390S-40, PUBPOL 290S-40

Fox and the Future of Cable News

Fox, 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. The course will be co-taught with Eric Deggans, the TV critic for NPR and an adjunct faculty member of the DeWitt Wallace Center. Codes: W

Spring 2025

• Bill Adair

JAM 390S-30, PUBPOL 290S-30

Donald Trump and the Media

The 2016 election marked a new era in U.S. politics. Donald Trump has affected nearly every aspect of America, but none so powerfully as the press. He is a creation, creator, consumer, and critic of the media, and political journalism has been transformed permanently by him. This course will explore the challenges of covering Trump and politics broadly today. We will discuss where the media has risen to the moment and where it has fallen short, considering critiques of the press from the left, right, and center; the rise of misinformation and fake news; and the increased siloing of audiences. Students in this class will be expected to think and write critically about politicians and the role of the press in a modern democracy. Assignments will include a mix of analytical and journalistic work. No journalism experience is required, but a deep curiosity about and appetite for journalism is. Codes: W, SS

Spring 2025

• David A. Graham

JAM 390S-20, PUBPOL 290S-20, EDUC 390S-20

Free Speech and the Media

This course will explore the intersection with and impact of the free expression component of the First Amendment on the press/media. Students will be asked to examine the historical evolution of First Amendment protections for the press, landmark legal cases, ethical considerations, and current challenges facing journalists and media organizations. Emphasis will be placed on critical analysis of actual legal cases as well as hypothetical case studies, discussions of major contemporary issues, and the practical implications of the law on journalistic practices. Students will also be invited to consider the impact of the First Amendment on social media and the most recent decisions by the US Supreme Court impacting social media. Codes: EI, R, W, SS

Spring 2025

• Sue Wasiolek

LIT 272S, VMS 277S, WRITING 275S

Cyber Connections: Communication in the Digital Age

Explores contemporary challenges, contexts, and opportunities with communication across media platforms. Examines historical contexts and texts related to rhetoric and communication, and how these ideas have persisted and shifted in the digital age. Texts include theoretical approaches to communication and rhetoric (past and present) and examples of communication across a range of media (for example: podcasts, multimodal texts, web-based presentations, and social media content). Students learn to conduct rhetorical analysis across media, and create written, visual, and/or verbal rhetorical content across media platforms. Prerequisite: Writing 101. Codes: W, ALP

Spring 2025

• Ernets Pejol Leon

LIT 320S, AAAS 247S, ICS 320S, LATAMER 320S, ISS 323S, RIGHTS 323S, VMS 323S, AMES 318

Social Movements and Social Media

Examines uses and abuses of social media by social movements. Interested in a broader historical study of mediating technologies and oppositional public sphere, course considers the uses of cameras, phones, cassette players, radio, and social media platforms, but also books, bodies, art, fashion, and automobiles as oppositional technologies. Studies political and ethical uses of technologies in social unrest. Investigates impact of technologies on social movements and social transformations in contemporary history. Student driven case studies will highlight contemporary engagement with social media by networked social movements. Codes: CCI, EI, STS, ALP, CZ

Spring 2025

• Negar Mottahedeh

PUBPOL 255, COMPSCI 255

Introduction to Cyber Policy

Policy and technical elements of activity in cyberspace will continue to impact and shape global society. Provide a basic understanding of fundamental of cyber technologies and threats, national and international cyber policies and frameworks, and key topical issues in cyber. Students will be required to complete a written mid-term based on lectures and readings, present short classroom briefings, and engage in class discussions. The final will be a capstone written and oral presentation on a realistic cyber scenario applying knowledge from classwork and their own research. No prior skills or knowledge is required. Codes: STS, SS

Spring 2025

• David Hoffman

JAM 362S, PUBPOL 370S

Business Journalism

Money is everywhere. It’s in sports, politics, fashion, entertainment, your daily life and, of course, in business. But how do you—to quote an overused phrase—follow the money? In this course you’ll dive into financial statements, discover how to evaluate public and private institutions and better understand stock and bond markets. We’ll dig into corporate scandals and financial crises, unravel how Wall Street enriches and defrauds, and figure out what makes some companies and CEOs successful and others losers. If you’re interested in journalism, this course will give you critical-thinking and writing skills useful in the fastest-growing part of the business. And if you’re just interested in business, you’ll gain a better understanding of corporate strategy, budgeting and investing, as well as how to be a smart consumer and financial steward. Business Journalism will be taught by Scott McCartney, who has decades of experience reporting for the Wall Street Journal.

Spring 2025

• Scott McCartney

JAM 363, DOCST 369

Podcasting in a Changing Media Landscape: The art, craft and ethics of an emerging medium

Podcasting 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. Codes: EI, R, ALP

Spring 2025

• Carol Jackson

JAM 364S, PUBPOL 364S, DOCST 364S

The Art of the Interview

An exploration of the role of the interview as a core feature of modern American journalism, with focus on its development as a tool of inquiry, a cultural form and news-making event. Students will study examples of media coverage and produce projects involving interviews. Codes: R, W

Spring 2025

• Barry Yeoman

JAM 390S-40, PUBPOL 290S-40, DOCST 390S-40

The Art of Profile Writing

By exploring one of the most popular and useful formats in journalism—the profile—students in this course will learn to report, write, workshop, and revise a profile of their own. Readings will be newspaper (New York Times, Washington Post) and magazine (New Yorker, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, WIRED) profiles of actors, artists, athletes, scientists, lawyers, activists, politicians, and a wide array of “ordinary” people who found themselves in extraordinary situations. Class discussions will focus on interviewing techniques, the ethics of the writer/subject relationship, narrative structure, and how best to unravel the mysteries of human motivation. No reporting experience required, but a willingness to talk to strangers is always a plus.

Spring 2025

• Bronwen Dickey

JAM 390S-20, PUBPOL 290S-20, EDUC 390S-20

Free Speech and the Media

This course will explore the intersection with and impact of the free expression component of the First Amendment on the press/media. Students will be asked to examine the historical evolution of First Amendment protections for the press, landmark legal cases, ethical considerations, and current challenges facing journalists and media organizations. Emphasis will be placed on critical analysis of actual legal cases as well as hypothetical case studies, discussions of major contemporary issues, and the practical implications of the law on journalistic practices. Students will also be invited to consider the impact of the First Amendment on social media and the most recent decisions by the US Supreme Court impacting social media. Codes: EI, R, W, SS

Spring 2025

• Sue Wasiolek

JAM 390S-30, PUBPOL 290S-30

Donald Trump and the Media

The 2016 election marked a new era in U.S. politics. Donald Trump has affected nearly every aspect of America, but none so powerfully as the press. He is a creation, creator, consumer, and critic of the media, and political journalism has been transformed permanently by him. This course will explore the challenges of covering Trump and politics broadly today. We will discuss where the media has risen to the moment and where it has fallen short, considering critiques of the press from the left, right, and center; the rise of misinformation and fake news; and the increased siloing of audiences. Students in this class will be expected to think and write critically about politicians and the role of the press in a modern democracy. Assignments will include a mix of analytical and journalistic work. No journalism experience is required, but a deep curiosity about and appetite for journalism is. Codes: W, SS

Spring 2025

• David A. Graham

JAM 390S-40, PUBPOL 290S-40

Fox and the Future of Cable News

Fox, 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. The course will be co-taught with Eric Deggans, the TV critic for NPR and an adjunct faculty member of the DeWitt Wallace Center. Codes: W

Spring 2025

• Bill Adair

JAM 390S-60, PUBPOL 290S-60, ENGLISH 290S-4-60, ETHICS 390S-60

Opinion Writing

What ingredients go into the best opinion writing? What mix of hard facts and individual conviction most effectively sell a point of view, whether your focus is political or personal, whether you’re advocating a specific policy or articulating a broader philosophy? To teach the art of the form, this course uses extensive reading of newspaper columns and magazine essays present and past, conversations with current practitioners, the professor’s decade-long stint as an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and, above all, students’ production of their own op-eds/opinion essays at least once every two weeks. It also emphasizes general, cross-genre principles of nonfiction writing and journalism. Codes: EI, W, ALP Course open to JAM students only.

Spring 2025

• Frank Bruni

AMES 432S, ICS 333S, VMS 384S

Storyworlds: The Art, Technology and Pleasure of Narrative

Is "tell me a story" an universal imperative? Seminar examines storytelling practices across a broad span of histories and cultures, and the creation of storyworlds through multiple media, genres, and platforms. Topics include comparative oral traditions, Medieval story cycles, serial tales, textual poaching and fanfic, alternate reality gameworlds (ARG), social media, transmedia storytelling and transcultural fandoms. (CCI, ALP, CZ)

Spring 2025

• Eileen Chow

ARTVIS 119S, DOCST 119S

Intro to Digital Photography

An 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. Codes: ALP

Spring 2025

• Tash Lehner
• Nora Zubizarreta

DOCST 101, VMS 103, ICS 111

Traditions in Documentary Studies

Traditions 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. Codes: CCI, ALP

Spring 2025

• Wesley Hogan

DOCST 105S-01, CINE 331S, CULANTH 106S, HISTORY 125S, POLSCI 105S, PUBPOL 170S, VMS 106S

The Documentary Experience: A Video Approach

A 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. Not open to students who have taken this course as Film/Video/Digital 105S. Codes: R, ALP, SS

Spring 2025

• Gary Hawkins

DOCST 110S-01, HISTORY 126S-01

Introduction to Oral History

Introductory 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. Codes: R, CZ

Spring 2025

• Michelle Lanier

DOCST 315S, ENVIRON 35S, CINE 315S, VMC 309S, LATAMER 315S

Environmental Issues and the Documentary Arts

Survey 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. Codes: ALP

Spring 2025

• Miguel Rojas-Sotelo

DOCST 317S, HISTORY 381S, RIGHTS 317S

Veterans Oral History Project

Explore methods of oral history, specifically focusing on interviewing U.S. military veterans who have served during times of conflict. Weekly readings concerning ethics of oral history work and the particulars of interviewing veterans. Learn techniques for conducting successful oral history interviews and master technical skills involving recording equipment. Conduct multiple interviews with veterans throughout semester. Discuss interviews and transcriptions with classmates. Assignments include written responses and a final presentation on conducted interviews. Includes a service-learning component involving work in the community. CCI, SS

Spring 2025

• Michelle Lanier

GSF 265S, SOCIOL 217S, ISS 265S, VMS 286S, COMPSCI 112S, U&E 265S

Introduction to Digital Feminism

The aim of this course is to critically analyze digital culture from a feminist and gender studies perspective. 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. Codes: R, STS, SS

Spring 2025

• Lucas Power

HISTORY 591S

Environmental (Hi)stories: History, Narrative and Writing in Practice

How do historians and others in the environmental humanities tell compelling stories about entanglements of places, people, and non-human worlds? How do these narrative forms shift across time and cultures? Together we will read environmental histories and other forms of nature writing for content, prose, and structure; identify narrative styles unique to the field; and examine how writers showcase individual voice. Assignments include several short-form written pieces culminating in a final essay appropriate for publication in an academic or popular forum. This seminar is for graduate students or advanced undergrads interested in learning how to read for writing and write for readers. CCI, W, CZ

Spring 2025

• Hannah C. Conway

I&E 250, ISS 250, VMS 249

Building Global Audiences

Marketing and publicity are so important to audience building that, 20 years ago, expanding beyond local audiences usually couldn’t be accomplished without huge advertising budgets. However, thanks to the Internet, you can build a global audience from your dorm room. This class explores how. Learn about social media, search engine optimization, virality, content marketing, growth hacking, and other digital audience building strategies. They’re difficult to learn and time consuming to execute, so expect to struggle. We’ll learn as much from our failures as we will from our successes as we discover what it takes to cultivate global awareness for an idea without ever leaving Durham. Codes: STS Instructor consent required.

Spring 2025

• Aaron Dinin

I&E 253, CMAC 253, ISS 253, VMS 255

Social Marketing: From Literary Celebrities to Instagram Influencers

You’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. Codes: STS, SS

Spring 2025

• Aaron Philip Dinin

ISS 187FS-01, VMS 187FS-01

Digital Storytelling and Interactive Narrative

Digital storytelling methodologies, theory, and practice. In-depth analysis of digital storytelling in various media forms and modes of production. Cultural impact of new media narratives. Exploration of digital storytelling affordances and approaches: text, video, audio, design, animation, and interactivity. Critical analysis of existing media and remediation of older media forms. Experimentation with non-linear, spatial, ludic, and hypermedia approaches. Questions of authorship, agency, authority, and collaboration in blogs, games, fan fiction, adaptations. Hands-on experience developing digital narratives and creating digital critiques. Analytical paper and regular crits. Codes: EI, STS, CZ

Spring 2025

• Victoria Szabo

ISS 240S-01, VMS 288S-01, CMAC 240S

Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Communications

Multimedia 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. Codes: R, ALP

Spring 2025

• TBD

ISS 536S, VMS 536S, HISTORY 536S

Public History and Memory

Course examines key themes in the theory and practice of public history, an approach to historical storytelling aimed at audiences outside the academy. Topics may include the politics and ethics of public history; memory and history; monuments and memorialization; and changing modes of presentation from traditional museums to digital platforms. Student projects will use archival and library resources and engage with historic sites and organizations. Codes: R, CZ

Spring 2025

• Robert P. Buerglener

LINGUIST 372S, CULANTH 372S, SOCIOL 372S

Language and/in the Media

The 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. Codes: SS

Spring 2025

• Gareth Price

LIT 272S, VMS 277S, WRITING 275S

Cyber Connections: Communication in the Digital Age

Explores contemporary challenges, contexts, and opportunities with communication across media platforms. Examines historical contexts and texts related to rhetoric and communication, and how these ideas have persisted and shifted in the digital age. Texts include theoretical approaches to communication and rhetoric (past and present) and examples of communication across a range of media (for example: podcasts, multimodal texts, web-based presentations, and social media content). Students learn to conduct rhetorical analysis across media, and create written, visual, and/or verbal rhetorical content across media platforms. Prerequisite: Writing 101. Codes: W, ALP

Spring 2025

• Ernets Pejol Leon

LIT 320S, AAAS 247S, ICS 320S, LATAMER 320S, ISS 323S, RIGHTS 323S, VMS 323S, AMES 318

Social Movements and Social Media

Examines uses and abuses of social media by social movements. Interested in a broader historical study of mediating technologies and oppositional public sphere, course considers the uses of cameras, phones, cassette players, radio, and social media platforms, but also books, bodies, art, fashion, and automobiles as oppositional technologies. Studies political and ethical uses of technologies in social unrest. Investigates impact of technologies on social movements and social transformations in contemporary history. Student driven case studies will highlight contemporary engagement with social media by networked social movements. Codes: CCI, EI, STS, ALP, CZ

Spring 2025

• Negar Mottahedeh

PUBPOL 255, COMPSCI 255

Introduction to Cyber Policy

Policy and technical elements of activity in cyberspace will continue to impact and shape global society. Provide a basic understanding of fundamental of cyber technologies and threats, national and international cyber policies and frameworks, and key topical issues in cyber. Students will be required to complete a written mid-term based on lectures and readings, present short classroom briefings, and engage in class discussions. The final will be a capstone written and oral presentation on a realistic cyber scenario applying knowledge from classwork and their own research. No prior skills or knowledge is required. Codes: STS, SS

Spring 2025

• David Hoffman

VMS 356S, CINE 357S, DOCST 288S

Editing for Film and Video

Theory and practice of film and video editing techniques. Exploration of traditional film cutting as well as digital non-linear editing. Exercises in narrative, documentary and experimental approaches to structuring moving image materials. Code: ALP

Spring 2025

• James R. Haverkamp

VMS 396, ARTVIS 223, ISS 396

Graphic Design in Multimedia: Theory and Practice

Design history and theory. Lectures and projects focused on direct interaction with digitized elements of historically significant designs. Design elements and principles. Comparison of the language and tools of old and new media. Analysis of visual materials, discovering conceptual and stylistic connections, including Illustrator and Photoshop. Consent of instructor required. Codes: ALP

Spring 2025

• Tash Weill Lehner