Day, evening . Writing 3 credits This course seeks to introduce students to the fundamentals of reporting and writing the news for today's print media. While emphasis falls on fact gathering, interviewing, and writing techniques, special attention is also paid to copy editing, developing the body of a story, handling breaking news stories, and covering beats. This course requires extensive writing and familiarity with mass communication theory. An introduction to the fundamentals of reporting and writing news and human interest stories for broadcast media.
Students learn the essentials of fact gathering, interviewing, and meeting deadlines.
Considerable attention is paid to the actual practice of writing and editing stories for both television and radio. The course emphasizes analysis of structure and format, the issue of immediacy, targeting the audience, and research techniques, and includes consideration of professional ethics. An introduction to filmmaking and half-inch portable video production. Students produce several individual projects in both film and video, mastering the skills of scriptwriting, storyboarding, cinematography, editing, and sound mixing. COM 402 Advanced Film and Video Production 3 credits An advanced course in film and portable video production, emphasizing the application of more complex production and post-production techniques in both dramatic and documentary projects.