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.

Fall 2025

• Bill Adair

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.

Fall 2025

• Sara Israelsen-Hartley

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

Video Journalism

This course will offer students the opportunity to learn how television journalism works. Students will learn how editorial decisions are made and will get hands-on experience weaving the elements of video, audio and the written word into television stories that can inform and inspire. This course is designed for students who may be considering a career in broadcast journalism or other students Who want to better understand how television journalism works and its role in public policy. Codes: ALP, SS.

Fall 2025

• Lynn Owens

JAM 363, DOCST 369

Intro to Podcasting: 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

Fall 2025

• Carol Jackson

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

Covering the World

Today, all international stories are potentially local—and vice versa. Conflicts such as the invasion of Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas War, for example, hold our attention much longer than they used to. Digital platforms such as Facebook and X (and WhatsApp) allow international news to travel with blinding speed. And the rise of citizen journalism has democratized international reporting. In short, the very nature of international journalism has changed. It is faster-paced, more widely distributed, and poses a bevy of ethical challenges for journalists today. With all of that as a backdrop, this course examines how international reporting has evolved in recent years; how journalists handle the complexities that have come with that evolution; how U.S. news audiences consume international news; how American news organizations now treat these stories; and how the global media climate has impacted how people all over the world produce and consume news. One final note: Although most international news tends to be driven by crisis and conflict, we will focus much of our attention on how to cover different cultures (which is a lot of what international reporting is all about) in ways that are smart, fair, sophisticated, engaging, and nuanced. Codes: CCI, W

Fall 2025

• Stephen Buckley

JAM 390S-10, PUBPOL 290S-10, SCISOC 390S-10

The Transformation of Media

This course explores the evolution of media industries by examining the interplay between media technologies, economies, and policy across different communication eras. Anchored around these three central pillars, students will analyze how shifts in technology, market structures, and regulation have shaped media from print and broadcasting to today’s digital platforms. Students will examine the reciprocal relationship between culture and technology, to understand how technological innovation ¬– from the printing press to platforms – emerge out of, and contribute to, economic and cultural dynamics. Through historical case studies and critical discussion, students will learn about the role of regulation and policy in shaping media and technology industries historically. The course equips students with analytical tools to understand current trends and anticipate the future of media. Codes R, STS, CZ

Fall 2025

• Robyn Caplan

AMES 435S, POLSCI 435S, ISS 435S

Chinese Media & Popular Culture: Politics, Ideology and Social Change

Examines contemporary Chinese media traditional news press, radio and TV, new media such as the internet and social media, and popular culture, including cinema, popular music and fashions. Uses cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and comparative approach. Focuses on how China views itself and constructs its global images, and how the world views China through media and popular culture. Primary objective is to understand political, ideological, and social changes since the Reform Era that began in 1978. No foreign language prerequisites are required. Codes: CC, SS

Fall 2025

• Kang Liu

CHINESE 331-01

Modern Chinese Society and Culture through New Media

Different 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. Codes: CCI, FL, CZ Has service learning/community-engaged component.

Fall 2025

• Tianshu He

GSF 265S, SOCIOL 217S, ISS 265S, VMS 286S, COMPSCI 265S, I&E 265S, CMAC 265S

Digital Feminism

The 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. Codes R, STS, SS

Fall 2025

• Nicki Washington

SCISOC 614-02, PUBPOL 614-02

Privacy and Ethical Decision-Making in Our Digital Era

Emerging technologies and data use in our digital economy affect privacy. We will evaluate the ethical issues raised when emerging tech and data use intersect with Americans' privacy interests in a variety of current contexts: law enforcement surveillance technologies; the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic; corporate surveillance and the advertising business model; the ways in which our family, friends, and neighbors' use of technology can affect our privacy (e.g., DNA testing, Alexa, Amazon Ring, Nest); student surveillance; sexual privacy and Section 230; algorithmic decision-making; and employment issues including hiring and monitoring. Spoiler alert: Privacy Isn't Dead. Note: For undergrads, section 2 (614-02) is reserved for undergrad students. Codes EI, STS, SS

Fall 2025

• Jolynn Dellinger

JAM 366S, DOCST 356S, PUBPOL 366S, Writing 366S

Long-form Journalism

This hands-on course will introduce you to the world of longform 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 longform story, with guidance from your professor 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

Fall 2025

• Barry Yeoman

JAM 375, PUBPOL 343

Data and Investigative Journalism

Teaches 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. Codes: STS, SS

Fall 2025

• Tyler Dukes
• Ren Larson

JAM 382S,

Gods and Monsters: The Art and Craft of Sports Journalism

Media 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. Codes: EI, W

Fall 2025

• Stephen L Buckley

JAM 390S-10, PUBPOL 290S-10, DOCST 390S-10

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.

Fall 2025

• Bronwen Dickey

JAM 390S-30, ENGLISH 290S-4-30, PUBPOL 290S-30, VMS 390S-30, WRITING 390S-30

The Art of Criticism

One of the most treasured and commercially viable genres of journalism is the review or appraisal of the arts – literary, cinematic, culinary and more. One of the most respected kinds of journalist is the critic. But what constitutes good criticism and what tools does a writer need in order to become a widely read critic? This course, taught by a professor whose resume includes years as a movie critic and then a restaurant critic, will answer those questions as it teaches students how to write journalistic reviews. Students will read many examples of superior criticism, hear from successful critics and, above all, try their hands at criticism, their focus (e.g. movies, television, restaurants, music, books, etc.) dependent in part on their own passions and existing knowledge. Codes W, ALP

Fall 2025

• Frank Bruni

AMES 107, ICS 144

Introduction to East Asian Cultures: Narrating East Asia through Word and Image

The 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. Codes: CCI, ALP, CZ

Fall 2025

• Guo-Juin Hong

AMES 511, DOCST 511, ICS 513, CINE 511

Documentary and East Asian Cultures

Focus on documentary films from various regions in East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, studying the specific historical and social context of each while attending to their interconnected histories and cultures. Emphasis on the ethical implications of documentary in terms of its deployment of visual-audio apparatus to represent different groups of people and beliefs, values and conflicts, both intra- and inter-regionally in East Asia. Special attention paid to the aesthetics and politics of the documentary form in terms of both its production of meanings and contexts of reception. Codes CCI, EI, ALP, CZ

Fall 2025

• Guo-Juin Hong

ARTSVIS 213S, DOCST 215S, PHOTO 216S, PUBPOL 377S

Medicine & the Vision of Documentary Photography

The intersection of healthcare and documentary photography. Explore work of established photographers engaged with healthcare topics. Produce semester-long documentary photography project and 5-10 page documentary essay on healthcare related topic. Students must have or quickly develop proficiency in the use of a digital SLR camera and Adobe Lightroom. Course materials include photographs, articles, and books. Class sessions combine critique of student work, discussion of course materials, and discussion of ethical questions involved in documentary representation of healthcare-related topics. Code: ALP

Fall 2025

• John W. Moses, Jr.

ARTSVIS 216, DOCST 215S, VMS 215S, PHOTO 216S

Documentary Photography & the Southern Cultural Landscape

Emphasis on the tradition and practice of documentary photography as a way of seeing and interpreting cultural life. The techniques of color and black-and-white photography - exposure, development, and printing - diverse ways of representing the cultural landscape of the region through photographic imagery. The role issues such as objectivity, clarity, politics, memory, autobiography, and local culture play in the making and dissemination of photographs. Codes CCI, ALP

Fall 2025

• Tom Rankin

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

Fall 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

Fall 2025

• Michelle Lanier

DOCST 135S, JAM135S, ETHICS 135S

Introduction to Audio Documentary

Practicing the research, recording, and digital production of short audio (podcast or public radio-style) documentaries. Through listening in and out of class, exposure to various approaches from journalistic to narrative to artistic. Exploration of audio documentary as a medium for telling stories and examining issues of social and cultural significance and for advancing equity and justice. Codes: EI, R, ALP

Fall 2025

• John Biewen

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

Fall 2025

• Miguel Rojas-Sotelo

HISTORY 415S, SCISOC 415S, ISS 415S

Information History (History Capstone)

Data analytics, machine learning, deepfakes, artificial intelligence, mobile apps: revolutionary as it seems, today's information landscape is the product of centuries-long global history of information in society. Seminar introduces students to information history, a field scrutinizing information in/as technology, business, labor, governance, culture, politics, and science. Students conduct original research on a topic of their choice and write a major scholarly paper. Course fulfills Capstone requirement for History majors. Also, suitable for non-majors interested in historical perspective on computing and information, as well as prospective thesis-writers exploring topics and archives. Codes: R, STS, W, CZ, SS

Fall 2025

• Evan Hepler-Smith

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

Fall 2025

• Aaron Philip Dinin

I&E 275

Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Intersection of Media, Entertainment and Technology

The class will jump into the middle of the change and innovation happening at the intersection of Media, Entertainment and Technology. We will look at how we make, distribute and consume Media and Entertainment. We will focus on entrepreneurs and innovative companies and creators revolutionizing Media and Entertainment, as well as thought leaders and leading companies in the space. The class will feature Cases, articles, speakers, in class discussion along with a term long project. Codes: STS, SS

Fall 2025

• Jed Simmons

ISS 110, PHIL 110, COMPSCI 110, PUBPOL 110

Information Society & Culture: Bass Connections Gateway

Information, Society, and Culture across disciplines. How all aspects of information theory and practice, including computational and mathematical and those from social sciences and the humanities are transforming research, reframing intellectual questions in research and its application, and having an impact on interactions within societies, cultures, ideologies, economics, politics. Modules presented by faculty from all areas and schools, contrasting and comparative perspectives in research-driven modules focused on interdisciplinary project questions and ideas. Lecture/section activities. Course Gateway for the Bass Connections theme in Information, Society and Culture. Coles: STS, CZ

Fall 2025

• Astrid Giugni

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

Fall 2025

• TBD

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

Fall 2025

• James R. Haverkamp

WRITING 240S

Style, Voice, Editing: Rhetorical Choices & the Art of Effective Writing

Approach style as a rhetorical art of selection influenced by audience, purpose, genre, and context. Analyze grammar and syntax through aesthetic and rhetorical lenses. Experiment with different writing styles from various literary works, rhetorical traditions, and disciplinary genres individually and collaboratively. Instruction and practice in methods of developmental editing and copyediting. Analyze values, judgments, preferences and epistemologies inherent in individual, generic, and disciplinary stylistic choices and standards. Code W

Fall 2025

• Benjamin Hojem