COM 311 - Media, Empathy and Justice

This course will teach students how to use journalistic principles to tell better, more complex stories that emphasize the importance of ethics and empathy. The course ethically explores emotionally-charged issues such as race, sexual assault, disability and political difference, among others. This will be accomplished through students learning investigative journalistic skills and “an immersion in difference” exercise, as well as studying how media dealt with some of the most contentious issues in American history, such as lynchings. The course will have a writing basis, but students will be taught to tell stories in multiple ways and be introduced to some of the top journalists from print, radio and photography, in the world.