Fall 2025 Classes
The DeWitt Wallace Center offers over 20 undergraduate courses designed to give Duke students a thorough understanding of the role of the news media in modern society. Our courses are open to all students, but for those students pursuing the Journalism & Media (JAM) minor, the listing is divided into required and elective courses offerings. In the Duke registration system, DeWitt Wallace Center courses are listed under the JAM (Journalism & Media) subject area.
Core Course
This course is open to all students, but is required for students enrolled in the JAM minor. This course must be taken for a letter grade to count towards the minor.
News as a Moral Battleground
JAM 371, PUBPOL 371, ETHICS 259, DOCST 371, RIGHTS 371, POLSCI 375, CINE 371Ethical inquiry into journalism and its effect on public discourse. Issues include accuracy, transparency, conflicts of interest and fairness. Topics include coverage of national security, government secrecy, plagiarism/fabrication, and trade-offs of anonymous sourcing.
Journalism & Media Practicum Course Cluster
The following courses are open to all undergraduates, but students enrolled in the JAM minor must take at least one for a letter grade. For JAM students, these courses can count as an elective if you have already fulfilled the Practicum requirement.
Intro to Podcasting: Podcasting in a Changing Media Landscape- The art, craft and ethics of an emerging medium
JAM 363, DOCST 369Podcasting has exploded in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of shows in production and more than a fifth of Americans listening to podcasts at least weekly. This course will provide a hands-on introduction to the craft of podcasting, combined with critical reflection on various podcast forms. Students will consider the role of podcasts in the changing media equation, including the role of podcasts in local news. They will gain practice with the basics of podcast creation and will apply these lessons by creating podcast episodes focusing on the people, places and issues of Durham, N.C.
News Writing and Reporting
JAM 367S-01, PUBPOL 367S-01Seminar on reporting and writing news and feature stories. Students required to produce news stories based on original reporting and writing, including interviews, use of the Internet and electronic databases, public records, and written publications. Written assignments critiqued in class; final project.
Video Journalism
JAM 365S-01, PUBPOL 365S, VMS 305S, DOCST 367S, CINE 366SThis course will offer students the opportunity to learn how television journalism works. Students will learn how editorial decisions are made and will get hands-on experience weaving the elements of video, audio and the written word into television stories that can inform and inspire. This course is designed for students who may be considering a career in broadcast journalism or other students Who want to better understand how television journalism works and its role in public policy.
Media and Democracy Course Cluster
The following courses are open to all undergraduates, but students enrolled in the JAM minor must take at least one for a letter grade. For JAM students, these courses can count as an elective if you have already fulfilled the Media and Democracy requirement.
Chinese Media & Popular Culture: Politics, Ideology and Social Change
AMES 435S, POLSCI 435S, ISS 435SExamines contemporary Chinese media traditional news press, radio and TV, new media such as the internet and social media, and popular culture, including cinema, popular music and fashions. Uses cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and comparative approach. Focuses on how China views itself and constructs its global images, and how the world views China through media and popular culture. Primary objective is to understand political, ideological, and social changes since the Reform Era that began in 1978. No foreign language prerequisites are required.
Covering the World
JAM 390S-20, PUBPOL 290S-20, ICS 390S-20Today, all international stories are potentially local—and vice versa. Conflicts such as the invasion of Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas War, for example, hold our attention much longer than they used to. Digital platforms such as Facebook and X (and WhatsApp) allow international news to travel with blinding speed. And the rise of citizen journalism has democratized international reporting. In short, the very nature of international journalism has changed. It is faster-paced, more widely distributed, and poses a bevy of ethical challenges for journalists today. With all of that as a backdrop, this course examines how international reporting has evolved in recent years; how journalists handle the complexities that have come with that evolution; how U.S. news audiences consume international news; how American news organizations now treat these stories; and how the global media climate has impacted how people all over the world produce and consume news. One final note: Although most international news tends to be driven by crisis and conflict, we will focus much of our attention on how to cover different cultures (which is a lot of what international reporting is all about) in ways that are smart, fair, sophisticated, engaging, and nuanced.
Digital Feminism
GSF 265S, SOCIOL 217S, ISS 265S, VMS 286S, COMPSCI 265S, I&E 265S, CMAC 265SThe aim of this course is to critically analyze digital culture from a feminist and gender studies perspective. We will address topics related to digital innovation and its history, unpacking and questioning them through the insights offered by genders studies analytical tools. Subjects such as the rise of the Silicon Valley, gaming culture, social media, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, extraction of data applied to biotechnology, macroeconomic development of IT platforms and the impact of technology on ecology will be discussed starting from a current event or debate, to which we will give a historical, ethical, sociological, theoretical, literary or cinematographic perspective.
Modern Chinese Society and Culture through New Media
CHINESE 331-01Different social and cultural issues that China is facing, including the coronavirus pandemic in Hubei, China’s artificial-intelligence boom, globalization, etc; Content drawn from Chinese broadcast news, blogs and videos, TV shows, and documentary films; A community-engaged course or service-learning course; Engagement includes direct, project-based, or research-focused service with local/global community partners among other engaged practices; Improving language and intercultural communication skills that can be used to comprehend, analyze, and discuss real life topics and issues in modern Chinese society. Prerequisite: Chinese 232 or equivalent proficiency.
Privacy and Ethical Decision-Making in Our Digital Era
SCISOC 614-02, PUBPOL 614-02Emerging technologies and data use in our digital economy affect privacy. We will evaluate the ethical issues raised when emerging tech and data use intersect with Americans’ privacy interests in a variety of current contexts: law enforcement surveillance technologies; the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic; corporate surveillance and the advertising business model; the ways in which our family, friends, and neighbors’ use of technology can affect our privacy (e.g., DNA testing, Alexa, Amazon Ring, Nest); student surveillance; sexual privacy and Section 230; algorithmic decision-making; and employment issues including hiring and monitoring. Spoiler alert: Privacy Isn’t Dead. Note: For undergrads, section 2 (614-02) is reserved for undergrad students.
The Transformation of Media
JAM 390S-10, PUBPOL 290S-10, SCISOC 390S-10This course explores the evolution of media industries by examining the interplay between media technologies, economies, and policy across different communication eras. Anchored around these three central pillars, students will analyze how shifts in technology, market structures, and regulation have shaped media from print and broadcasting to today’s digital platforms. Students will examine the reciprocal relationship between culture and technology, to understand how technological innovation ¬– from the printing press to platforms – emerge out of, and contribute to, economic and cultural dynamics. Through historical case studies and critical discussion, students will learn about the role of regulation and policy in shaping media and technology industries historically. The course equips students with analytical tools to understand current trends and anticipate the future of media
Elective Courses
These courses are open to all undergraduates. JAM students must take at least 3. For JAM students, any courses listed above in core requirements which is not already counted as a core course, can count as an elective. If you find a course you think should be included in this list, please contact Kim Krzywy at kkrzywy@duke.edu.
Data and Investigative Journalism
JAM 375, PUBPOL 343Teaches the tools and techniques used by investigative journalists interested in acquiring and analyzing data to examine public policy and scrutinize systems of power. Students should have basic familiarity with journalism concepts, but no specific technical or mathematical skills required.
Documentary and East Asian Cultures
AMES 511, DOCST 511, ICS 513, CINE 511Focus on documentary films from various regions in East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, studying the specific historical and social context of each while attending to their interconnected histories and cultures. Emphasis on the ethical implications of documentary in terms of its deployment of visual-audio apparatus to represent different groups of people and beliefs, values and conflicts, both intra- and inter-regionally in East Asia. Special attention paid to the aesthetics and politics of the documentary form in terms of both its production of meanings and contexts of reception.
Documentary Photography & the Southern Cultural Landscape
ARTSVIS 216, DOCST 215S, VMS 215S, PHOTO 216SEmphasis on the tradition and practice of documentary photography as a way of seeing and interpreting cultural life. The techniques of color and black-and-white photography – exposure, development, and printing – diverse ways of representing the cultural landscape of the region through photographic imagery. The role issues such as objectivity, clarity, politics, memory, autobiography, and local culture play in the making and dissemination of photographs.
Editing for Film and Video
VMS 356S, CINE 357S, DOCST 288STheory and practice of film and video editing techniques. Exploration of traditional film cutting as well as digital non-linear editing. Exercises in narrative, documentary and experimental approaches to structuring moving image materials.
Environmental Issues and the Documentary Arts
DOCST 315S, ENVIRON 35S, CINE 315S, VMC 309S, LATAMER 315SSurvey how filmmakers, authors, photographers, and other artists have brought environmental issues to the public’s attention in the last century, and in some cases instigated profound societal and political change. Examine the nebulous distinctions between persuasion and propaganda, agenda and allegory, point of view and content. Evolve as a viewer of the environment and a maker of documentary art. Initiate your own projects to address and/or depict environmental issues in one form of a broad range of media.
Fundamentals of Web-Based Multimedia Communications
ISS 240S-01, VMS 288S-01, CMAC 240SMultimedia information systems, including presentation media, hypermedia, graphics, animation, sound, video, and integrated authoring techniques; underlying technologies that make them possible. Practice in the design innovation, programming, and assessment of web-based digital multimedia information systems. Intended for students in non-technical disciplines.
Gods and Monsters: The Art and Craft of Sports Journalism
JAM 382SMedia coverage of athletes and teams has morphed into a field that calls for an array of skills, as reporters chronicle the games, personalities and businesses that collectively have such powerful hold on the American psyche. Students will learn the skills necessary to produce a range of sports journalism – game stories, features, analyses, profiles, accountability pieces, and enterprise articles. We will examine the many ways sports now intertwines with, and impacts, how we think about various issues in our society, including race and civil rights, gender, politics, public health (such as the Covid-19 pandemic), and the entertainment world in general.
Information History (History Capstone)
HISTORY 415S, SCISOC 415S, ISS 415SData analytics, machine learning, deepfakes, artificial intelligence, mobile apps: revolutionary as it seems, today’s information landscape is the product of centuries-long global history of information in society. Seminar introduces students to information history, a field scrutinizing information in/as technology, business, labor, governance, culture, politics, and science. Students conduct original research on a topic of their choice and write a major scholarly paper. Course fulfills Capstone requirement for History majors. Also, suitable for non-majors interested in historical perspective on computing and information, as well as prospective thesis-writers exploring topics and archives.
Information Society & Culture: Bass Connections Gateway
ISS 110, PHIL 110, COMPSCI 110, PUBPOL 110Information, Society, and Culture across disciplines. How all aspects of information theory and practice, including computational and mathematical and those from social sciences and the humanities are transforming research, reframing intellectual questions in research and its application, and having an impact on interactions within societies, cultures, ideologies, economics, politics. Modules presented by faculty from all areas and schools, contrasting and comparative perspectives in research-driven modules focused on interdisciplinary project questions and ideas. Lecture/section activities. Course Gateway for the Bass Connections theme in Information, Society and Culture.
Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Intersection of Media, Entertainment and Technology
I&E 275The class will jump into the middle of the change and innovation happening at the intersection of Media, Entertainment and Technology. We will look at how we make, distribute and consume Media and Entertainment. We will focus on entrepreneurs and innovative companies and creators revolutionizing Media and Entertainment, as well as thought leaders and leading companies in the space. The class will feature Cases, articles, speakers, in class discussion along with a term long project.
Introduction to Audio Documentary
DOCST 135S, JAM135S, ETHICS 135SPracticing the research, recording, and digital production of short audio (podcast or public radio-style) documentaries. Through listening in and out of class, exposure to various approaches from journalistic to narrative to artistic. Exploration of audio documentary as a medium for telling stories and examining issues of social and cultural significance and for advancing equity and justice.
Introduction to East Asian Cultures: Narrating East Asia through Word and Image
AMES 107, ICS 144The study of East Asia makes sense not necessarily as a study of shared canons or of ‘civilizational origins’ or, shared ‘Asian values’: rather, modern East Asia can be productively studied in terms of shared historical, political, cultural concerns; the influx of new ideologies; the processes of ‘becoming modern’; and of course, the positioning of East Asian area studies in the academy and the larger world. In this introductory course, we will be looking at “Global East Asia” and its diasporas through all manners of storytelling, focusing on word-image narratives: Asian traditions of manga, manhwa, manhua, as well as graphic novels.
Introduction to Oral History
DOCST 110S-01, HISTORY 126S-01Introductory oral history fieldwork seminar. Oral history theory and methodology, including debates within the discipline. Components and problems of oral history interviewing as well as different kinds of oral history writing.
Long-form Journalism
JAM 366S, DOCST 356S, PUBPOL 366S, Writing 366SThis hands-on course will introduce you to the world of longform journalism. We’ll read and analyze some of the best writing of the past 30 years, and you’ll learn advanced interviewing skills, document research, writing, revising, and editing. We’ll talk with contemporary journalists. And you’ll spend the semester producing a high-quality longform story, with guidance from your professor and your peers. You’ll read and write a lot, but none of it will be academic; this class is about writing that stokes imagination, outrage, catharsis, empathy, and delight.
Medicine & the Vision of Documentary Photography
ARTSVIS 213S, DOCST 215S, PHOTO 216S, PUBPOL 377SThe intersection of healthcare and documentary photography. Explore work of established photographers engaged with healthcare topics. Produce semester-long documentary photography project and 5-10 page documentary essay on healthcare related topic. Students must have or quickly develop proficiency in the use of a digital SLR camera and Adobe Lightroom. Course materials include photographs, articles, and books. Class sessions combine critique of student work, discussion of course materials, and discussion of ethical questions involved in documentary representation of healthcare-related topics.
Social Marketing: From Literary Celebrities to Instagram Influencers
I&E 253, CMAC 253, ISS 253, VMS 255You’ve surely heard the platforms described as “revolutionary,” and you’ve also heard them described as “time wasters.” What you probably haven’t thought about is how similar they are to previous “revolutionary” communications technologies like novels, newspapers, and even language itself. This course explores ways in which studying the masters of previous “social” media technologies—the Shakespeares, Whitmans, and Eliots of the world—can help us understand how influencers on digital social media leverage the same platforms you use every day to market themselves, build their brands, and grow their audiences.
Style, Voice, Editing: Rhetorical Choices & the Art of Effective Writing
WRITING 240SApproach style as a rhetorical art of selection influenced by audience, purpose, genre, and context. Analyze grammar and syntax through aesthetic and rhetorical lenses. Experiment with different writing styles from various literary works, rhetorical traditions, and disciplinary genres individually and collaboratively. Instruction and practice in methods of developmental editing and copyediting. Analyze values, judgments, preferences and epistemologies inherent in individual, generic, and disciplinary stylistic choices and standards.
The Art of Criticism
JAM 390S-30, ENGLISH 290S-4-30, PUBPOL 290S-30, VMS 390S-30, WRITING 390S-30One of the most treasured and commercially viable genres of journalism is the review or appraisal of the arts – literary, cinematic, culinary and more. One of the most respected kinds of journalist is the critic. But what constitutes good criticism and what tools does a writer need in order to become a widely read critic? This course, taught by a professor whose resume includes years as a movie critic and then a restaurant critic, will answer those questions as it teaches students how to write journalistic reviews. Students will read many examples of superior criticism, hear from successful critics and, above all, try their hands at criticism, their focus (e.g. movies, television, restaurants, music, books, etc.) dependent in part on their own passions and existing knowledge
The Art of Profile Writing
JAM 390S-10, PUBPOL 290S-10, DOCST 390S-10By exploring one of the most popular and useful formats in journalism—the profile—students in this course will learn to report, write, workshop, and revise a profile of their own. Readings will be newspaper (New York Times, Washington Post) and magazine (New Yorker, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, WIRED) profiles of actors, artists, athletes, scientists, lawyers, activists, politicians, and a wide array of “ordinary” people who found themselves in extraordinary situations. Class discussions will focus on interviewing techniques, the ethics of the writer/subject relationship, narrative structure, and how best to unravel the mysteries of human motivation. No reporting experience required, but a willingness to talk to strangers is always a plus.
The Documentary Experience: A Video Approach
DOCST 105S-01, CINE 331S, CULANTH 106S, HISTORY 125S, POLSCI 105S, PUBPOL 170S, VMS 106SA documentary approach to the study of local communities through video production projects assigned by the course instructor. Working closely with these groups, students explore issues or topics of concern to the community. Students complete an edited video as their final project. Not open to students who have taken this course as Film/Video/Digital 105S.