In response to the growing demand for digitally competent employees in the news media industry, journalism schools are cautiously integrating social media reporting into their curriculum. This study explores techniques for teaching news reporting on social media platforms focusing on challenges and opportunities for learning engagement that…

Presents a case study of the use of constructivist theory in mass communication higher education. Reports the participants' observations during and critique of a quasi-experimental study in which students could follow a traditional route and use the instructor's syllabus, or they could immediately put constructivist learning theory into practice…

Offers an overview of key concepts within hypertext research, discussing its relevance to the theories and practices of journalism. Surveys recent books and articles on new technologies in journalism. Describes a university reporting and writing course that responds to the fundamental challenges of hypertext to contemporary journalism. Examines…

Examines the effectiveness of an ethics education component in a media law and ethics course. Suggests that a short-term mass media ethics study could not develop values considered essential for ethical behavior. Argues that students developed more complexity in their reasoning not measurable by the scale. Suggests a course or module on ethics…

Describes a journalism course that used an integrative approach to teaching about the principles, practice, and effects of civic journalism, combining theory, news writing, and evaluation. Describes the class project on the controversial issue of panhandling. Discusses goals of civic journalism and of the project, journalistic methods used,…

Discusses the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in journalism education. Describes such a course, called "Critical Incidents Analysis." Discusses what critical-incident analysis is, the origin of the course, course objectives, its interdisciplinary faculty and approach, class format, and cases covered. Presents results from a student…

Reports results from a national survey regarding courses on public-relations campaigns. Examines predominant pedagogical strategies and course-management text techniques used; intentions for the course; theory/research elements; the role of management skill and/or interpersonal dynamics in the student campaign both internally and externally, and…

Describes how the author taught a class (called "Editing for Broadcasting") for 19 neophyte newspeople through total immersion: students learned how to run a newsroom while operating one. Notes that students learned the principles and fundamentals of broadcast journalism, including news judgment, writing, editing, reporting, and producing, and…

Finds that most journalism and mass communication programs integrate legal and ethical issues surrounding cyberspace and interactive media into existing courses, especially into ethics and communication law courses, but also into introductory survey courses, communication technology, and reporting classes. Details reasons why some programs do not…

Describes a course at the University of Missouri that gives doctoral students a chance to explore teaching issues in a setting that emphasizes reflection, critical thinking, and individual risk taking. Discusses how the class approaches learning about college students' intellectual development; curriculum design for programs in journalism and mass…

Describes a course in public journalism which emphasizes ways of reporting on the lives of ordinary citizens so that news becomes more relevant and useful to the whole community. States that the "Public Life" course seeks a broader understanding of community life; considers, debates, and tests definitions of news; and reexamines beat structures…

Describes a revised media writing course (required of all journalism majors) at Texas A&M University. States that it meets "scholarship" and "centrality" issues in nine ways: communication theory, personal skills, critical thinking, writing about writing, thematic organization, coaching writing, critiques and revisions, freedom and ethics, and…

Discusses a course aimed at helping students in a professionally oriented program to think critically about journalism by watching movies about it. (RS)

Describes how a public relations sequence at the University of Georgia in Athens "adopted" the offices of development for the University and its own college as the "clients" for students enrolled in a Public Relations Campaigns course. Discusses how students conducted research among donors and nondonors. Suggests a variety of communication…

Describes the requirement (at the Penn State School of Communications) that public relations majors pass a tough journalism gatekeeper course. Discusses briefly the course, its usefulness to public relations students, and the advantages to journalism majors of the presence of public relations students. (SR)