Course Syllabus
Course: COMM 1910
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New MediaDepartment: Communications
Title: Newspaper Production I
Semester Approved: Fall 2019
Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2025
End Semester: Summer 2025
Catalog Description: Students have the opportunity to engage in an in-depth examination of Journalism and the news writing and design processes. Students are responsible for the planning design, and publication of the Snowdrift, Snow College's student newspaper. This production process will involve feature writing, page/graphic design, typesetting, and business management.
Semesters Offered: Spring
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 2; Lecture: 2; Lab: 1
Justification: This course provides direct training in newspaper production techniques such as page layout, design, headline writing, editing, etc.The goal is to produce a high-quality student paper. This Spring semester course focuses on design elements. The course provides some training in subject and skill areas that would be covered in advanced journalism courses at larger schools. The course will transfer as elective credit.
Student Learning Outcomes:
This course is designed to provide opportunities for students to engage in an in-depth examination of Journalism, the news writing process, and elements of design. Students will demonstrate their skills through written assignments.
Students are responsible for the planning, designing, and publication of the school newspaper. Participation, publication and distribution of paper, and class discussion will be used as an assessment tool for this outcome.
Participation work sessions will constitute a major portion of the production. Participation and class discussion will be used as an assessment tool for this outcome.
Adobe Indesign and layout elements are a key feature of this course. Students will practice and have experiences designing pages. Students will demonstrate their skills through page layout, written assignments.
Content:
Course objectives will be accomplished by providing students with learning experiences in the following subject areas: Non-text design elements, graphics and sidebars, special effects, redesigning a newspaper, editing ad proofreading, advertising, ethics of news reporting.
Key Performance Indicators:
Completion and quality of stories written for publication 15 to 30%
Indesign and Layout assignments 30 to 40%
Distribution of Newspapers on campus 20 to 30%
Class Participation 20 to 25%
Additional Assignments 10 to 15%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Tim Harrower, The Newspaper Designer's Handbook, current edition, Dubuque: WCB Brown and Benchmark.
Local and national newspapers will be analyzed, as well as The Snowdrift and other college newspapers.
Pedagogy Statement:
This is a hands-on class. Students actively participate and produce a student newspaper. Emphasis is placed on active participation, research, production, assessment and presentation skills.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture
Lab
Maximum Class Size: 20
Optimum Class Size: 15