COMM420

This is a 400-level capstone course designed to help students explore diversity and its journalistic role in covering the total community in the 21st Century. Students will research, report and write stories about an underreported community in New Jersey. In the process, students will learn the broader definitions of diversity, including historical context and meaning. They will become more aware of the changing demographics of the U.S.--both locally and nationally--and analyze the role that journalists play in shaping public opinion about emerging and underreported communities. Students will think critically about the role media plays in conveying accurate coverage of diverse groups and, in the process, examine their own views about race, ethnicity, and class among other diversity fault lines used by professional journalists. This course emphasizes the process of finding and developing diverse sources, not only for racial and cultural stories, but general stories as well. Lab Fee.