Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• COM JO 540: From Black Holes to Sentient Machines: Covering Science
  Are we alone in the universe? Can a machine be sentient? What happens when a million species vanish from the planet? These are the kinds of questions plumbed by science journalists. They also grapple with vital, often complex public policy questions, such as how and whether we should regulate artificial intelligence; what should be done to limit or remove carbon from the atmosphere; or how much we should tinker with the human genome. Ultimately, science journalists aim to cast light on issues that have a profound impact on society — and the planet. They bring context to sometimes confusing, sensational, or overly politicized debates. They distinguish fact from fiction and hype from hope. They explain the arcane, translate jargon, and debunk myths. They reveal hidden agendas, expose faulty science or other malfeasance, and ultimately, they seek to foster a more informed public. This course will immerse you in the fundamentals of science journalism, as well as the field’s challenges and opportunities. You’ll learn how to write about science for a general audience, how to find compelling stories and interview scientists, how to report on research studies and other scientific papers, and how to cover a science beat. Through readings, discussions, exercises, and assignments, you’ll also learn how to evaluate scientific claims and communicate complex concepts in clear and compelling ways. The course will also cover the increasingly important role of science journalism in an age of misinformation and disinformation.
• COM JO 541: The Art of the Interview
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: COMJO 200. Students learn advanced professional techniques for an essential skill. From preparing an interview to setting it up and carrying it out, students get detailed instruction and feedback. Please note: prior video production experience is required for this class.
• COM JO 542: The Literature of Journalism
  This course is an examination of cultural history as seen by our fellow journalists. It rests on the premise that to be a great writer, one must also be a great reader. With readings from Walt Whitman to the present, we examine the tools and techniques that make nonfiction writing memorable. Subjects include Mark Twain, George Orwell, Joan Didion, Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and the great misanthrope, H.L. Mencken. Four credits, fall and spring semesters.
• COM JO 543: Rescuing Lost Stories: Writing Nonfiction Narratives from the Archives
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - The course will prepare students who are interested in writing nonfiction narratives to plan and conduct archival research, especially at BU's Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Students will learn to navigate the archives, then frame and develop historical narratives of significant contemporary events based on research of primary source materials such as personal letters, diaries, government documents and contemporaneous media reports. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Writing-Intensive Course, Creativity/Innovation.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Historical Consciousness
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• COM JO 544: Trauma Journalism
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: JO 200 - Graduate Prerequisites: JO 721 - Trauma is at the heart of news. A working journalist will most assuredly report on some type of traumatic event at some point in her career, whether covering a national tragedy or one family's personal nightmare. This course will explore the best practices for ethically and empathetically covering traumatic stories. A second important goal of this course will explore how journalists themselves can emotionally process what they have seen and heard on the job.
• COM JO 546: Statehouse Program
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO250 & COMJO310) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMJO721) - Taking advantage of our location in the state capital of Massachusetts, the Journalism Department offers students the chance to cover the Statehouse for professional news clients. The prime component of The Boston Statehouse Program, this advanced study in government and political reporting offers the opportunity to write and report from Beacon Hill for a Massachusetts news organization. The course goal is to develop writing and reporting skills through the daily experience of covering state government that will apply in many fields. Working with a professor and a professional editor, students acquire the skills necessary to work in a daily news environment, including interviewing, developing sources, archival research and deadline writing. Students develop a substantial portfolio of published work. Taken with JO 511, eight credits, fall and spring semesters. See Statehouse Program: http://www.bu.edu/statehouse. (Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 200 and JO 210. Graduate Prerequisites: COM JO 721.)
• COM JO 547: Sports Storytelling
  This course goes beyond the game and focuses on sports features, learning from journalists, editors, producers and first-hand experience. We'll go through the whole feature process from pitch to final product. We'll explore different techniques for reporting, organizing, and crafting longer form sports stories. The goal: Produce professional-quality, publishable sports narratives.
• COM JO 548: Podcasting
  Anyone can produce a podcast, but does anyone actually want to listen to it? The purpose of this class is to sample a wide range of genres. Whether it’s a co-hosted talk-show, a true crime narrative, a deeply reported historical reflection, or a topical news show – we’ll listen to, critique and learn from it all. In the process, you’ll learn production, editing and reporting techniques as you produce your own three-part mini-series.
• COM JO 550: Multimedia Storytelling
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMJO304) - This course focuses on producing long-form, interactive multimedia projects. Working in teams, students learn to produce documentary-style multimedia packages that combine still photography, audio, video, interactives and text. The course will offer an overview of techniques and best practices currently employed by news organizations to produce advanced multimedia projects. Four credits, fall and spring semesters. (Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 304. Graduate Prerequisites: COM JO 704.)
• COM JO 573: Justice Media Computational Journalism Co-Lab
  Undergraduate Prerequisite: HUBXC 473 - This Cross-College Challenge (XCC) and BU Spark! course is a newsroom and a laboratory. If you have a background in computer and data science, statistics, computer engineering, or journalism-related disciplines, you will have an opportunity to work on interdisciplinary, student teams to co-produce a data-driven news investigation for one of our established media partners (like the Boston Globe, CBS Boston, GBH, USA Today, and more). You will work on computational investigations focused on issues of justice and accountability, and be guided by veteran faculty practitioners.
• COM JO 700: Journalism Symposium
  This symposium is required for first-semester graduate students in journalism. The goal is to enrich the first semester curriculum by presenting a variety of topics relevant to the field, presented by interesting speakers who are experts in the subject matter. Attendance is mandatory.
• COM JO 703: Magazine Writing
  Graduate Prerequisites: JO 721 - This is a course in long-form magazine journalism such as appears in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Outside, and the New York Times Magazine, as well as websites such as Medium, The Atavist and others. Students read and analyze superb examples of the genre and report, research and write long-form pieces. Topics intensive, in-depth reporting and research; the writing process; the use of fine language and the development of a personal voice; the importance of a point of view; structuring long pieces; digging deeply into subjects in order to truly enlighten readers. Four credits. (Prerequisite: COM JO 721.)
• COM JO 704: Online Journalism
  This course introduces students to multi- platform journalism. Students will gain practical experience producing and editing news and features for delivery via digital platforms. This class critiques and analyzes news sites to examine how multiple elements such as text, photo's audio, video, social media and interactive graphics are currently used in multimedia reporting. Four credits, fall and spring semesters.
• COM JO 707: Video Reporting
  This introductory course is about reporting, writing and producing the news for television and the internet. Students learn the fundamentals of news- gathering, story generation, research, videography, writing, editing and presentation. Strong stories air on BUTV and are posted on the department's news-service website. Four credits, fall semester.
• COM JO 710: Digital Tool Kit
  You will build technical skill-sets in shooting, editing, composition, lighting and color. You will learn to develop a visual plan to produce a strong video story that includes: action, reaction, opening, closing, and point of view shots. You will also learn to shoot and edit a video sequence of a process. When shooting photos or video, students will capture a variety of situations and angles while using various focal length lenses. Editing skills are key to building a story, so we'll take a deep dive into editing workflow while learning to edit with Adobe Premiere Pro and Lightroom Classic. In addition to building visual storytelling skills, we will cover story arc and the interview.
• COM JO 711: Video Storytelling
  Graduate Prerequisites: JO 710 or permission of the instructor - Recommended for students in the TV journalism specialization who are interested in long-form video storytelling. This is a production class and will also include the study of documentary aesthetics, ethics and genres. Students will work throughout the semester to produce, shoot, and edit an eight-minute documentary short, learning to build a story from an idea to the final edited story. Students will be critiqued on their production skills as well as their reporting and storytelling.
• COM JO 721: Introduction to Reporting
  Students learn newswriting and reporting by covering a full range of news stories in a newsroom environment. This foundation course emphasizes stress on deadline pressure, writing, and reporting for all media. Includes weekly discussion of journalism principles as illustrated by current events and controversies. Four credits, fall semesters.
• COM JO 725: Media Law and Ethics
  MEDIA LAW/ETHIC
• COM JO 727: Narrative Non-Fiction
  Narrative Journalism focuses on the craft of true storytelling. We consume, study, and produce work that adheres to the highest standards and ethics of journalism. Among those are accuracy, fairness, honesty, transparency, independence, impartiality and accountability. Nonfiction narratives are carefully structured, with beginnings, middles and ends. They can be short or long. They can be presented on any media platform, but at their core is good writing. They feature characters rather than sources. They are built on scenes. They have themes. They have stakes. They include sensory detail. They are attuned to the emotional content of the information they explore. They unfold over time. They employ a voice appropriate to the material. They engage, enlighten, and when appropriate, entertain. Although they share certain structural and stylistic elements with great fiction, nothing in them is invented or imagined, and no characters are created or composited. They are true.
• COM JO 734: Newsroom
  In an unsettled industry, local nonprofit and independently owned news organizations are rising up in communities across Greater Boston. In this class, our students become reporters for these outlets, partnering with designated news sites to write high impact news and enterprise stories, almost always under deadline pressure. Students will see first-hand the challenges and triumphs of working in a newsroom, all while emerging with a portfolio of professionally published work.