Online Master's Degree for Journalism Educators

Good opinion pieces serve the purpose of persuading, an important role for media. They can be the voice of the publication and show leadership in the school community. They can explain or praise, too. Note, though, that was GOOD opinion pieces. Those aren't the personal narratives liberally splattered with “I” and “me.” And they aren't the shoot-¬from-¬the-‐hip rants with no support. Good opinion writing should be found in staff editorials, commentaries, columns and reviews, and that's what this course covers – what these are and how to teach students to write them well. First students will look at background and legal and ethical issues for this kind of material. Then they will see what makes such pieces effective. Finally, students will work through how a good teacher and adviser can help their students be stronger opinion writers. And, yes, along the way, students write some persuasive pieces of their own.

This course explores the foundations of news literacy, pedagogical applications in the journalism classroom, and its place among concomitant literacies (specifically media and information literacy). By emphasizing the importance of quality information, exploring changes and challenges to the news industry, and advocating for a critical consumer approach to news media, this course prepares journalism educators to better meet the needs of students in a digital world. Students in the course will also develop curriculum and lesson materials in news literacy topics for their own classroom use.

The idea of the Teaching Broadcast Journalism class is to provide teachers with the skills, the vocabulary and the knowledge necessary to teach broadcast journalism in a high school setting. As a member of the class, educators will be able to coach students to improve their ability to select and research topics for broadcast pieces; recognize resources to give students models of broadcast writing and production; continue to improve skills practiced in Reporting for Mass Media including coaching and revision; create a detailed unit plan to teach broadcast journalism.

Photoshop is the industry standard digital image-editing program. It provides users with powerful tools to acquire, manipulate, and output a variety of images, from fine art to instructional and web graphics. The focus of this course is learning the fundamental operations and controls of Photoshop. The course will feature lectures, demonstrations, and tutorial lessons from the Adobe Photoshop CS6 Classroom in a Book. In addition to learning software, students will maintain a weekly dialogue concerning various issues in teaching and learning with Photoshop.

The course serves as an introduction to the components of news content and design; type and typography; printing processes; photography and illustration; the thought process in creating a news product; and further introductions in the developing field of visual journalism. Design is about how we communicate information to readers. What are we trying to say? How are we saying it? Visual journalists need to be content gatherers, content creators, artists and news editors all at the same time. This course will help show you how a student media staff can accomplish this.

Visual communication is one of the most important aspects of modern media and photography has been a mainstay of that communication. From phones that capture images to digital SLR cameras, the average person can enhance communication with visuals. This course examines the components of photojournalism and prepares instructors to teach those components to their students. In addition to traditional assignments and projects, instructors and students will maintain a weekly dialog.

In this course, students will gain skills and strategies for each part of the yearbook advising experience. From budgetary considerations to theme development, beginning advisers will understand their role in each aspect of the yearbook's planning and production. Students will create materials for use in their own classroom, including forms, handouts and activities appropriate for each unique situation. Students will also gain an understanding of best practices regarding social media use as a part of yearbook reporting, marketing and promotion. Technology tools and time-saving techniques will be part of each lesson with an emphasis on making each adviser's experience as smooth as possible.

The main goal of this course is to help students achieve confidence. This course focuses on concepts and terminology and hopefully provide students with skills to aid them in helping students use ever-changing web tools and how to research and implement new tools in the future. Students will learn how to manage a WordPress site, how to utilize it as a content management system and how to guide their students in its use. Aspects of school administration will be covered along with legal aspects of putting student work online.