Curriculum
In Television: Courses Faculty Careers Events
Television Courses
The following Television courses are being offered for the Fall 2009 semester:
J200: Reporting the News - Gorney/Platoni
This course, an intensive 15-week workshop, provides the foundation for the rest of the curriculum and will take up the majority of your time during the first semester. J200 stresses hard news reporting, writing, and editing. Faculty members with extensive experience in newspaper reporting run their classes much like newsrooms. The aim is to produce publishable newspaper stories and many class assignments do end up in print, often in local dailies, weeklies, and regional newspapers. This course is considered the most important of your J-School career. Plan on about 20 hours of outside reporting time each week.
J219: Videography
Description Forthcoming.
J219: Picture and Sound
J 219 Picture and Sound focuses on advanced production (camera, sound and editing) techniques that will raise Television and Documentary Masters Projects to professional standards.
First class will meet 8/31 in TV Lab NGH 101 after that meet in UNR 106.
J255: Law and Ethics
An introduction to the legal and ethical conflicts faced by working reporters. Half of the semester will concentrate on First Amendment and media law, including libel and slander, privacy, free press/fair trial conflicts, and civil lawsuits arising from controversial reporting methods. The remainder of the semester will focus on ethical dilemmas faced by reporters and editors. Using case studies, in-class argument, readings and guest lecturers, the course examines some of the murkier conflicts that don?t necessarily make it to court but nevertheless force difficult newsroom decision-making.
J282: Introduction to TV News
J282 is the introductory television production course where students learn digital shooting, Avid editing, lighting and sound as wells as basic writing, interviewing and team work skills for television. At the end of the semester students produce a half-hour television news program in the J-school studio. The program is cablecast in Berkeley and by satellite through UCTV.
J254: Opinion Writing: The Reported Column
So you know how to write a news lead, a sassy blog, and maybe even the not-half-bad-top of a feature. Now you need to think about writing with perspective and authority, about how to go one level deeper in a voice very different from the neutral (or snarky) one you've developed so far. This is an advanced reporting course designed to help students sharpen their writing and analytical skills in a format that demands clarity of thought and economy of words. We will begin where all good writing begins, with solid, efficient reporting on a range of social and cultural topics. We'll experiment with voice and style to see how pithy, insightful and profound we can be - about big issues and small ones - in about 400 (for broadcast commentary) to 850 polished words each week. Columnists, editorial writers and OP-Ed page editors and a radio producer will be popping in to critique our offerings. The idea is to develop both a body of work and a base of outlets who like what we have to say. The first assignment is a reported RANT, so come to class all worked up about something.
J298: Journalism in a time of disruptive change
With the long-standing economic foundation for much of journalism under assault, students planning media careers must understand the business of the businesses that support journalism. Further, they need to learn the new roles and innovative skills that will equip them to contribute to the future vitality and viability of a strong and independent press. This course will acquaint students with the economic fundamentals of the media business and then concentrate on providing them with a deep and practical understanding of the three factors that define the success for any media venture: Audience building, content development and revenue generation.
J294: Master's Project Seminar
J294 is a 2 semester course (1 unit/Fall, 1 unit/Spring). You must register for both semesters and it must be taken for a grade.
J298: Key Issues with Faculty and Campus Experts
Class Begins September 18th.
The difference between an adequate journalist and a good one is knowing enough to find the powerful stories and knowing how to anchor those stories with more than just quotes from the usual suspects. KEY ISSUES will give you an overview of subjects you'll be covering in one way or another for the rest of your career. With support from the Carnegie Foundation, we've brought together JSchool faculty members, other UC professors and professionals to give you the background you need on local state and federal budgets, economics, health care policy, immigration issues and foreign policy.
Each segment will have a set of reading materials and/or videos to view. Those will be posted on the Key Issues website that you'll all have access to in the next week or handed out as readings by the GSR's attached to each J200 section. Attendance is mandatory; students will be asked to sign in for each class.
The first class begins September 18, and don't forget that we meet in Room 3108 Etcheverry Hall, the building across the street.
Here is a list of lecture topics and speakers. Please contact Lydia Chavez or Susan Rasky if you have any questions.
Friday, September the 18 The first session: Nexis Searching, Rob Gunnison, Tom Peele
Friday, September25 State and local Budget Basics - Jean Ross, California Budget Project, John Decker, CA State Treasurer's Office.
October 2 – Ellen Weiss from NPR - location to be determined
October 9 The economy Part 1 Dr, Martha Olney, Econ Dept lecturer, UCB
October 16 The economy Part 2 Martha Olney
October 23 Heath Care Reform Policy— Prof. Steve Shortell, dean UC Berkeley School of Public Health
October 30 Health Care Reform Politics - Measuring and Manipulating Public Opinion - MollyAnn Brodie, Dir. Surveys and Public Opinion Research Kaiser Family Foundation
November 6 Immigration Overview - Tyche Hendricks
November 13 Foreign policy - Latin America - Spkr tbd
November 20 Foreign Policy Pakistan and Afghanistan: Spkr tbd
November 27 Thanksgiving NO CLASS
December 4: TBD