J 201: Introduction to Mass Communication

Facebook going public

2012-02-01T09:50:00.002-06:00

New York Times analysis of the upcoming Facebook public stock offering.

My online assignment

2012-01-25T08:13:00.003-06:00

Name and hometown: Chris Wells. Boston and St. Paul

Possible future job? Anybody in that job you really admire now? Love the one I have now. There are people I admire in it though--Dhavan Shah and Lew Friedland in our department. Theda Skocpol is a great historian of civic organizations. Juliet Schor's work on consumer culture.

Do you consume “news”? If you do, what are your mainsources? Yup, lots of ways. Most of all probably the NY Times online. Other major outlets. Also follow colleagues and journalists on Twitter. Sometimes get news from Facebook, but that's more social. I check in with some foreign sources, BBC, Guardian, LeMonde.

What kind of music do you like? (It could appear inlecture.) My favorites WILL appear in lecture. So if you don't like the Boss, list your favorites in your post!

Favorite online video (link to it): Autotuned Carl Sagan

What recent pop culture expression do you love (or findyourself using)? I thought the Big Lebowski was a pretty brilliant social-political commentary. So I sometimes find Dude-isms to be just right for a particular situation. Such as "in the parlance of our times," or "you're not wrong, Walter," or "yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man."

Online assignment 1!

2012-01-25T07:39:00.001-06:00

Online assignment 1: Introduce yourself

This week, once you have authorization on your blog, create a new post and introduce yourself to your TA and the class. In your post, answer the following questions. Where you want to include links, do so using Blogger's linking function--not just a long URL.

Name and hometown:

Possible future job? Anybody in that job you really admire now?

Do you consume “news”? If you do, what are your mainsources?

What kind of music do you like? (It could appear inlecture.)

Favorite online video (link to it):

What recent pop culture expression do you love (or findyourself using)?

J201 Introduction and objectives

2012-01-22T19:52:00.002-06:00

Morethan any previous society, ours is a mediasociety. More of the messages and meanings we exchange pass through media,there are more media, and more of us are connected because of media, than atany previous time. How our society addresses its problems and performs itsfunctions is deeply structured and influenced by how it communicates—which itdoes predominantly through media. As a result, mediated communicationsinfluence how we choose our political leaders, how we learn about ideas and productsand decide what to purchase (or whether to purchase), and how we perceive othermembers of our society. And the scope of media in our society continues toexpand at a rapid rate.

Thiscourse is about learning how to come to terms with the consequences of themedia society for the people living in it. It is about getting beneath thesurface layer of what happened on Gossip Girl, or what the Old Spice man said duringthe Super Bowl, or Newt Gingrich’s most recent flagrant attack ad, or the nextsocial networking tool. Our aim in this class is to develop knowledge andskills that give us perspective on whatis happening—in the bigger picture of the media world—and why: who is behind the messages weencounter in media every day, why they were put there, and what effects theyhave on the culture we inhabit.

We willhave three specific objectives:

· First,J201 is an introduction to the work done in the School of Journalism & MassCommunication. The J School is a diverse department that covers a lot ofground, from the history of journalism and mass communications to the latesttechnological innovations, and from public relations crisis management toanalyses of how scientists communicate with the public. We will touch on all ofthese topics during the course, often with the help of a faculty memberguest-lecturing to talk about their latest writing and research.

· Second,J201 is the introductory skills course for many of the skills needed in later JSchool classes. It is an essential introduction to journalism and strategiccommunication for those considering a major in the J School. And its extensive writtenand oral communication assignments fulfill the Communication-B requirement ofthe UW-Madison.

· Finally,because ours is such a media society, much of the content we will cover will beuseful to students not majoring in journalism or strategic communication.Skills such as critical analyses of news content and advertising, knowledge ofmedia structure, and perspectives on media effects will be useful whether youare a journalist, advertiser, business owner, scientist, doctor—and consumerand citizen.

Welcome!

2012-01-19T09:48:00.001-06:00

Welcome to J201! On the course website you'll find just about all the information you need for the course, from the syllabus to course policies to assignment descriptions.