Critical examination of the development of ethical standards for journalists. Areas covered include deceptive practices, conflict of interest, privacy, sources, and the coverage of terrorism and victims of crime.

Introduces the student to the history and development of the various mass media in America, including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, with emphasis on news media. Students also discuss current issues and trends within the context of the new communications environment created by digital information technologies. Attention is given to the role of advertising, public relations, media ownership, and the public in shaping the content of mass communication.

Provides students with an understanding of the need to balance absolute freedoms of speech and press with other societal rights. Students study key court cases, statutes, and administrative rules in the areas of defamation, privacy, access to information, broadcast regulation, and journalists' protection of confidential sources, along with the government's use of prior restraint to protect national security, the role of the FTC in protecting the public from false and deceptive commercial speech, and the balance between a free press and a fair trial.

Contemporary and historical look at the way in which the American mass media cover the American political process. Special attention to coverage of the White House, the executive agencies, Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, conventions, campaigns, and elections. Examines the Washington press corps, the press conference, the press secretary, and governmental secrecy for their impact on the quality of coverage. During election periods, evaluation of media coverage of candidates for high office.

Coverage of minorities and the relatively powerless continues to be one of the most sensitive areas in American journalism. Topics include the traditional basis of such coverage, how it changed during the civil rights upheaval of the 1960s and early 1970s, what the prospects are for further change, and whether the mass media can ever truly serve and be responsive to the needs of a socially and economically diverse society.

Studies mass communication and its wide-ranging effects on society through its history and development. Covers the cultural and political consequences of changes in the means of communication, from clay tablets to Gutenberg's press and the spread of the printed word, the development of newspapers, the broadcast media, and the revolution in video technology. Particular attention is paid to the implications of literacy, the relationship between communication and authority, and the nature of news.

Students read the best reportage and nonfiction literature from historical times to the present, with emphasis on the literary roots of modern journalism. Surveys a wide range of journalists and genres, including travel and war reporting, profiles, essays, autobiography, and classic reportage. An intensive reading course that applies literary technique to nonfiction narrative and exposition.

Laboratory course in gathering and writing the news for newspapers, including news evaluation, reporting and writing techniques, and specialized beats. Students write stories under newsroom conditions. Designed to give the journalism student extensive practice. Covers how reporters are assigned stories, how stories are planned and written, and journalism ethics and responsibilities.

Students learn TV and radio writing styles and write stories on deadline. Covers how broadcast newsrooms work and broadcast journalism ethics and responsibilities.

Overview of the process and effects of communication as they are studied through the theories and methods of the social sciences. Emphasis on the components of the communication process and the effects of the mass media. Studies nonverbal, interpersonal group, organizational, and mass communication. Students develop a working knowledge of the key concepts, approaches, and findings of the study of communication.

Demonstration laboratory for the beginning photojournalist, involving the use of camera and lens, exposure, film characteristics, and processing. Composition, design, and content are studied through shooting assignments typical of those encountered by professionals. Class critiques are an essential part of the course. A camera with adjustable focus, shutter speeds and f/stops, and a flash are required for the course.

Here's your chance to work for NYU's own international news service: Livewire. Students in this course will conceive, report and write news feature articles for publication, on subjects young people want to read about -- from up-and-coming artists to new trends in politics to consumer issues and the challenges of living in and outside of mainstream America. Students should be prepared to file frequent stories on firm deadlines, go through intensive revisions and edits, and aim to get pieces picked up by Livewire subscribers. Prerequisite: Reporting I. Not required but highly recommended: The Feature Article (previous or concurrent).

Familiarizes students with the skills of a copy editor, including editing for accuracy and news value, publication style, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and newspaper headline writing.

Theory and practice in preparing for, arranging, and conducting the journalistic interview. Topics: how to get an interview, why people permit themselves to be interviewed, the mechanics of interviewing, the psychology involved, how to handle special assignments and beat interviews, and methods of overcoming special problems. Extensive fieldwork is required with written reports on outside interviews.

This course is designed to help you master the art of feature writing. You will complete one long and four to five shorter newspaper articles during the course of the class. Every student should leave with at least one publishable piece. A large portion of the class will be spent writing articles and learning how to identify, pitch, and execute good feature stories. Your stories will be vigorously edited. Expect many rewrites. There will be many writing assignments for you to complete in the class and outside of class. This will be a very hands on class during which you can expect to enjoy the company of a few guest speakers.

In this course students will learn what blogging is, and review its history. They will visit the debate in journalism circles about the rise of the bloggers and about online journalism generally. Students will familiarize themselves with the top news-related blogs and how they work; they will also survey the strides that blogging has made within traditional news organizations. They will gain familiarity with blogging software and other web tools. But mostly, students will learn how to write for, edit and run successfully a live weblog on the Journalism Department site, created specifically for this class. It will be reporting-based (not just opinions or snark) and the subject matter will be related to journalism or new media somehow. The goal will be get read, get linked to, and get noticed. In addition to all that, the class will contribute special projects to PressThink and tap into its user base (1.25 million visits so far.) By the end of the term students will be fully literate in the blog revolution and why it matters to young journalists.

"I went to mattress.com, did the research, and ordered my bed the same afternoon."

Before we can write, we need to know, and this class is about gathering information—online and off. More specifically, it's about self-education and how to develop a comprehensive understanding of a subject. The great seduction of internet search engines is the thought that if we follow all the links on the first page or two of hits, we'll have expertise. Why might that be wrong? When is it necessary to open books in a library, or to speak with real people? How can we decide who and what is authoritative—and why would we wish to look beyond the usual suspects? Finally: if a story is dull, it might be because the research was, as well. How can creative thinking make research original and exciting?

Mattresses, as it happens, are quite difficult to research. But we'll dig into a number of other subjects with the goal of producing not polished pieces of writing, but rather the foundations of knowledge that are the preconditions of all good journalism.

This course will explore the evolving world of digital journalism, including blogs, online magazines and other aspects of publishing on the web. Students will experience the roles of researcher, reporter, writer, producer, and web analyst. Each student will write and post updates to a media industry-related blog, and interview leading figures in digital journalism for an online magazine. This course will be instructed by Patrick Phillips, founder of the media industry site I Want Media.

Principles and methods of magazine editing and production. Includes practical training and instruction in editorial work such as editing stories, layout, proofreading, planning issues, and desktop publishing. The main assignment is a class project editing and designing the departmental magazine, Manhattan South.

The nonfiction magazine article in theory and practice, including style, technique, and research methods. Students select topics that interest them but that also, in the view of the instructor, are marketable. Articles are written under deadline conditions, then carefully read and criticized by the instructor, who acts as editor.

Basic introduction to media criticism. Techniques for critical inquiry into the structure and function of mass media: research, content analysis, and analytical presentation of results.

Writing and producing TV news programs. During the term, students produce 12 complete broadcasts that are fed live to residence halls and other locations on campus. Many of these casts are also fed to the Internet for online viewing. Responsibilities include all aspects of TV news: story selection and development, field production, anchoring, reporting, operation of all studio and control room equipment, writing, copy editing, and directing. Deadline realities are emphasized as live broadcasts begin on an exact-time basis.

TV field reporting. Students learn location reporting skills, including interviewing and editing. Students work in small groups, and at term’s end, each student produces a three-minute final project. There is a four-hour lecture and a three-hour production lab.

Advanced TV news on-location reporting class in which students develop skills under the real-time pressures of a same-day production schedule. The stories are fed into the TV Newscast course. Class meets twice a week. There is an editorial meeting on Tuesday and production day on Thursday.

Superior students are given an opportunity to work 12 hours a week with cooperating metropolitan New York publications and broadcast stations. Their work is edited and evaluated by staff supervisors of the participating media. Emphasis is on professionalism.

Students who, in the opinion of the department, possess intellectual independence and ability are permitted to carry on individual work in a field of study selected in conference with members of the faculty. To register in this course, a student must have written approval of the department.

This course will give you intellectual weapons that surprisingly few journalists have in their arsenals: numbers. Numbers are weapons that are becoming increasingly important in modern journalism; they refine and extend your common sense and give you a way of sniffing out falsehoods. But because numbers are scary to journalists--most of whom come from liberal-arts backgrounds--it's rare to see a journalist who can wield the power of numbers.

Don't worry. This course will be fun and exciting even to the most hardbitten mathphobe. I've made my name on making math and science accessible to the public. My first book, Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, won a PEN award for just this reason. (One reviewer mentioned that "...Seife has a talent for making the most ball-busting of modern theories ... seem fairly lucid and common-sensical.") I promise that this course will be just as easy to understand, as interesting, and as mindblowing.

We're going to use numbers to get the real stories behind the headlines: we'll examine natural disasters and manmade catastrophes; we'll look at polls, surveys, and whether elections are fair; we'll figure out how effective birth control methods really are; we'll figure out what really caused the blackouts in California; and we'll even explore the probability of whether or not God exists. Each of these stories requires a mathematical tool to unravel--probability, hypothesis testing, logic--tools that you will acquire by analyzing the news in depth and by completing assignments. These assignments will include in-class demonstrations, exercises, and games; and weekly problem sets (which won't be too arduous).

Even more importantly, will also be using our mathematical knowledge to do a group research project. If all goes well with this project, we might make some headlines. I will explain the nature of this project in class, but it has the potential to affect public debate about a serious social issue.

Not only will you come out of this course with a research project under your belt--one that few journalists can do--you'll have a set of powerful mathematical methods that you can use to see through lies and uncover truths. These methods will give you a tremendous advantage when you begin your journalistic careers.

How we educate our children in this country is one of the most important and often contentious issues that we, as Americans face. In fact, it is a whole bunch of overlapping issues. You have undoubtedly heard parents, politicians, teachers, and administrator's rail against the state of our public schools. Perhaps you have joined in. In this honors seminar we will explore public education, with an emphasis on New York City's school system. What we learn here will, in many cases, be applicable to other urban systems...even some suburban ones. I wanted to teach this particular course because I believe that many newspapers and broadcasters do not devote the space/time and commitment to public education. So let us see what we can do about it. We will research, write, read, discuss, and, I hope, come to a better understanding of what is involved in educating our children. Moreover, just maybe, down the road, we can nudge print and broadcast companies to increase their commitment to covering public education.

A collaborative seminar that examines the complex relationship (or different contradictory relationships) between those humans we call "women" and those forms of discourse we call "media." Considers women both as subjects and objects, as creators of media in its many forms and as media's creations. What does our culture's media tell us about its ideas of gender? What, if anything, does our gender tell us about our readings of "media"?