JOMC 602: Mass Communication Education in the Secondary School
| Course Home Page | Instructor's E-mail | Course Description |
| Objectives | Requirements | Texts |
| Assignments and Grading | Quizzes | Final Project |
| Additional Resources | Study Tips | Honor Code |
| Course Mechanics | Schedule | |
Course Description
Welcome to JOMC 602, Mass Communication Education in the Secondary School. The course focuses on many areas of scholastic journalism, with specific emphasis on advising. The course covers basic needs of high school journalism teachers and advisers of newspapers, yearbooks and literary magazines. The information and material is intended to help prepare you for teaching journalism and mass communication in a democratic society and advising a high school publications staff.
Objectives
Mass Communication Education in the Secondary School is designed to impart an understanding of secondary school journalism, as well as an understanding of the basics of news writing, advertising, design and production. The course is structured so that scholastic journalism teachers learn what they need to know in order to teach the tenets of scholastic journalism to students who may also be participating in the production of school publications. Upon successful completion of the course you should be able to:
- distinguish between news and feature writing
- employ basic Associated Press style rules
- exhibit mastery of news writing basics and inverted pyramid style
- describe plans to sell, design and produce advertisements
- explain elements of opinion writing and sports writing
- use principles of design to create modular layouts
- evaluate student progress in scholastic journalism publications or courses
- recognize resources available to journalism teachers
- describe the tenets of journalism education—news writing basics, feature writing structure, Associated Press style, photo composition, design principles, interviewing skills, advertising strategies, media ethics and more.
Requirements
Specific requirements of the course are:
- complete all reading assignments
- complete all written assignments
- complete two quizzes
- explore Web sites for scholastic media resources
- submit a final project that includes lesson plans for teaching journalism in the high school.
For future reference, you may want to:
- keep required reading notes, giving source, title and pages read
- keep further reading notes and Web resources, giving the source, title and pages read
- make a list of the ten books or resources from this course or from other sources that you would find most valuable as a journalism teacher.
Texts
- Scholastic Journalism, Tom E. Rolnicki, C. Dow Tate and Sherri Taylor (Iowa State University Press, 10th edition, 2001)
- The Associated Press Stylebook, Norm Goldstein, ed.
- Online daily newspaper. Suggested newspapers include The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today or The Washington Post. The sites may require you to register, but they are free.
The two textbooks can be obtained from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center in person, by ordering online or by printing and mailing the book order form.
You may also choose to access the Associated Press Stylebook online, by subscription.
In addition, you will be required to read a book of your choice on the culture of news for Unit 10. You need not purchase such a book; try finding one at your library. See Books on Journalism for ideas.
Assignments and Grading
The course consists of readings, quizzes, assignments and a final project. Grades will be determined on the following basis:
- quizzes—25 percent
- assignments—50 percent
- final project—25 percent
Your assignments in Units 2 through 10 include writing news quizzes, each consisting of 10 current events questions you might ask your own students. More information on news quizzes will be available in Unit 2.
Assignments are submitted via e-mail. Each will be given a letter grade.
Quizzes
You will complete two course quizzes. Contact me after Unit 3 and after Unit 8 to receive each quiz.
Final Project
Your final project, which will take the place of a final exam, will consist of a set of lesson plans for teaching basic material in this course to a class of high school journalism students. You are to develop a two-week unit on an area of scholastic journalism covered in this course. The lesson plans should be thorough, as if prepared for a substitute teacher with no background in the area. State the lesson objectives and include step-by-step instructions. Describe in detail any class activities; provide outlines for any class lectures. Include all handouts or other visual aids. Develop and include one test. (The unit plan should include nine separate lessons for nine days, plus one test to be administered on the 10th day.)
The final project will count 20 percent of your course grade. You will submit it after completing all of the other required coursework.
Additional Resources
A number of additional resources available to help you with scholastic journalism are listed in Resources for Educators.
Study Tips
Before you begin your coursework, read over the material on this home page. Then go to the Schedule section and click through several of the unit pages to become familiar with the course requirements. When you are ready to begin, click on Unit 1 from the Schedule and do the following:
- complete the reading assignments
- review the notes
- complete your assignments and submit them as directed.
Follow this pattern for each unit.
Honor Code
Remember that as a student of UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code: “It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity.” An especially serious Honor Code violation is plagiarism. See the Writing Center's handout on this topic.
Course Mechanics
If you change to another e-mail address, notify me and Janice Durham at the Friday Center of the change.
Submitting Assignments
To submit assignments for grading, you must attach your file to an e-mail and send it to the Friday Center and the instructor. You do this by clicking the "Submit Assignment" button provided in each unit and attaching your file. In the subject line of the e-mail, enter SPC JOMC 602 assignment # and your full name.
It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send via e-mail. If your instructor doesn't receive your message, you must have a copy of the e-mail with the attached file, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails as well as the attached files, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.
Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to your instructor, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to your instructor and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.
Other Questions
Contact me with questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. (There is an e-mail link at the top of every lesson page.) Please include “SPC JOMC 602” in the subject line of your e-mail.
Contact the Instructional Designer at the Friday Center about problems with this Web site, including bad links.
If you have any logistical questions as you work through the course (enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal and so on), contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669).
Schedule
The course schedule is up to you. You can regularly complete one unit per week, or you can adjust the pace to fit around your other commitments. It is recommended that you set a reasonable deadline for completing this course, and then consistently work toward achieving this goal.
Unit 1: Course Introduction and Scholastic Journalism Resources
- various online readings
Unit 2: Advertising Basics
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapter 21
- Assignment: Advertising basics
Unit 3: News Values and News Writing
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapters 1–4
- News Writing Style
- Assignment: Understanding news and news writing
Unit 4: Feature Writing
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapters 5–6
- The Associated Press Stylebook
- Assignment: Feature writing structures; AP style
Quiz 1 on Units 1, 2 and 3: When you are ready, send me a message and I will e-mail it to you.
Unit 5: Opinion Writing
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapters 7–9
- The Associated Press Stylebook
- Assignment: Opinion writing
Unit 6: Principles of Design and Photography
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapters 15–18, 20
- Assignment: Design and design evaluations
Unit 7: Spelling, Grammar and Style Essentials
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapters 12 and 14
- Assignment: Evaluating student writing
Unit 8: Staff Recruitment, Organization and Management
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapter 13
- Book of your choice on the culture of news
- Assignment: Organization and grading policies
Quiz 2 on AP style: When you are ready, send me a message and I will e-mail it to you.
Unit 9: Student Media Law and Ethics
- Scholastic Journalism, Chapters 22–23
- Assignment: Student media ethics and law, working with administrators and establishing a network
Unit 10: The Culture of News
- Assignment: Book review
Unit 11: Conclusion
- Final project
Course Evaluation: Please take the time to fill out a brief, anonymous, online form.