certificate

The Policy Journalism and Media Studies Certificate

 

The study of communications, mass media and journalism is increasingly relevant in our globalized, interconnected world.  The mission of The Policy Journalism and Media Studies Certificate  is to meet the needs of students preparing for careers in media policy, journalism, or any and the associated professions, as global communications enters into a period of rapid and profound change.

For this reason, the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, part of Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, utilizes an approach to the discipline emphasizing the analysis and understanding of public policy, and the complex relationships between media and public policy making, supported by courses in effective media writing and production.

The certificate has interrelated learning objectives:

• To be an interdisciplinary approach to the study of media and communications processes
• To investigate the machinery of contemporary media policy-making and its impact on the practice of journalism, and to understand the broad political dynamics which have conditioned both U.S. and International media policy, past and present
• To familiarize students with the institutional, economic, social and political complexities of media policies worldwide through the study of the interaction between the key players in media policy making, journalism, media-related non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academics specializing in media studies
• To explore the cultural and ideological underpinnings of contemporary conceptions of media, media policy, and journalism in a global market, as well as the current educational challenges facing journalists whose knowledge need to be increasingly specialized in order to explain increasingly complex global situations to their audiences
• To apply what is learned in the classroom to real world experiences

 

Certificate Requirements

The certificate draws upon established courses relating to media policy, journalism, global culture, and communications; it also recognizes the inspired contributions to media studies originating in the disciplines of history, law, literature, economics and sociology.

The Policy Journalism and Media Studies Certificate is open to all Duke undergraduates.

• Successful candidates must complete the prescribed combination of 6 courses: one core course on journalism ethics, one practical course, three elective courses and a capstone/internship course.
• No more than four courses may be in a single department (3 of these are the core courses in PPS, which means that student may take only ONE more PPS course that will count toward the certificate; the other 2 electives must be outside PPS and they cannot be cross-listed with PPS).
• At least four courses must be 100-level or above
• A progress requirement: a minimum of 3 courses must be taken by the end of the junior year
• Students must complete an internship with a media-related organization. Students should complete the internship before the capstone course. Students will make a presentation on their internship experience during the capstone course and should keep this in mind while doing the internship. Students should return to Duke with print, audio or video clips resulting from the internship. These do not have to have the student's name on them, but should represent work the student has done.
• Students must take PPS 202S, the certificate capstone course. This course cannot be taken pass/fail. The capstone course will consist of a major research paper that integrates ideas and concepts learned in all previous coursework with the hands-on experience from the internship that the students have already done.

Core courses may be chosen from the list below. (New courses, special topics courses and independent study courses may be approved as well.)

Core Course:
PPS 125S.01 News As Moral Battleground (Journalistic Ethics)

Journalism Practical Core Course Cluster (students must take one of the following):
PPS 118S.01 Television Journalism
PPS 119S.01 Magazine Journalism
PPS 120S.01 News Writing and Reporting

Capstone Course (students must take the following):
PPS 202.01 Policy Journalism and Media Studies Capstone Course (NOTE: not offered Spring 2010)

Elective Courses offered Spring 2010:

Others may be offered (if you find one that you think could count as an elective, please contact Ken Rogerson rogerson@duke.edu)

Elective Courses offered Spring 2010:

(These courses are open to all undergraduates, but Certificate students must take 3)

 

AMES 250S                    Chinese Media & Pop Culture                        Liu, Kang

ARTHIST 250S                Critical Studies in New Media                       Hayles, N. Katherine

ARTSVIS 158S                Small Town USA                                            Post-Rush, Anna S.

DOCST 111S-01             Documentary Writing                                    Murrell,Duncan

DOCST 141S                  Editing the TV Documentary                         Cutler, Bonnie

DOCST 190S.04             Documentary and South Africa                     Lucey, Roger John

ENGLISH 181S               Duke in New York Program, Making Media course 

                                     Courses taken at NYU can be approved as electives

HISTORY 188A-01          Genocide In 20th Century                             Koonz,Claudia

ISIS 140 – 01/02           Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Comm. Lucic, Richard

POLSCI 114                   Public Opinion                                               Staff

PUBPOL 142S                Intellectual Property Law & Policy              Frey, Kip

PUBPOL 196S.05           Science In Media                                           Angrist, Misha

PUBPOL 196S-10           Muckraking to Data Mining                           Cohen, Sarah H

PUBPOL 196S-12           Narrative Journalism & the Web                  Bennett, Philip Francis

PUBPOL 196S-13           Islam and the Media                                      Bennett, Philip Francis

PUBPOL 196S-20           Crash: Politics, Policy & Media                     Schoenfeld, Michael

PUBPOL 196S.98           Inside Polling                                                 Mickiewicz, Ellen

PUBPOL 243-01             Media in Post-Communist Societies             Mickiewicz, Ellen

PUBPOL 268-01             Media Policy and Economics                         Hamilton, James

RUSSIAN 125-01            Easterm European: Markets/Media/Mafia   Newcity, Michael

SOCIOL 160D                 Advertising/Society: Global                         O'Barr, William

 

All Elective Courses: This page lists all elective courses that might be taught. Not all are taught every semester.

Journalism Jobs: This page lists some links to web sites that have journalism job postings.

Public Relations Opportunity

Duke students interested in Public Relations have been invited to join the UNC-Chapel Hill Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. Students would need to join the national organization and could then participate in the activities of the local student chapter. If you have any questions or for more information, please contact the chapter's faculty advisor: Larry Lamb at llamb@email.unc.edu or 919-843-5851. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of every month in room 33 of Carroll Hall at 7 pm.