I will be teaching an online undergraduate and graduate course in “Social Media and the News” at DePaul University in the spring term.
If you are an instructor at another university, or a student interested in enrolling in either the undergraduate or graduate sections, please feel free to contact me with any questions. The course overview is below.
Graduate Section
JOUR 542: Social Media and the News
DePaul University, College of Communication
Section 301, Class # 36412, Spring Quarter 2018
Online
Undergraduate Section
JOUR 376 “Topics in Journalism”: Social Media and the News
DePaul University, College of Communication
Section 601, Class # 32402 , Spring Quarter 2018
Online
Instructor: Dr. Jill Hopke, Assistant Professor of Journalism
Contact: jhopke@depaul.edu (I strive to respond to emails within one business day, excluding weekends); 312-362-7641 (office)
Office location: 1123 Daley, 14 E. Jackson, Loop Campus
Office hours: TBA (and by email appointment)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillhopke
Twitter: @jillhopke
Course Description
Journalists use mobile devices and social media in newsgathering, distributing content and engagement with active audiences. This course blends the theory and practice of social media to provide you will a hands-on introduction to, and practice on, a digital-first approach to journalism. We will analyze and apply a range of social and mobile media tools.
This course has a duel purpose:
- On a skills level, you’ll be able to hone your professional social media practice and to build your technical skills with social media apps and platforms. By the end of the quarter you’ll have an online professional portfolio and should have developed a “voice” on social platforms for your professional self; and
- We will put a critical lens to social journalism and develop a grounding in social media and news concepts and the application of journalistic ethics to mobile and social media, that you can then apply as you embark on your career in this ever-evolving field.
The course covers emerging theory on social media, including: networked gatekeeping, social listening as applied to journalism, audience engagement and analytics, citizen journalism, visual storytelling, best practices for content curation and covering breaking news events with social tools, as well as verification of social content and ethics. You will develop and implement a professional social media strategy, practice with a variety of mobile journalism and social media tools and curate an online professional portfolio. For your final project, you’ll conduct a social media audit and develop a professional social media plan.
Learning Objectives
Our learning objectives for the quarter:
- Develop a “mobile-first” mindset for your reporting and mobile newsgathering technical skills;
- Describe the changing role of audiences and the impact on journalism;
- Be able to assess user-generated content (UGC) from social media apps and platforms and locate reliable information from social media to use in your reporting;
- Design and actively manage your personal professional “brand” on social media;
- Demonstrate the use of audience analytics to improve your professional social media strategy;
- Assess the effectiveness of news organizations social media strategies and policies;
- Identify how the core journalistic concepts of verification and objectivity apply to mobile journalism and social media;
- Analyze future trends in social, “digital-first” journalism; and
- Complete the Facebook for Journalists Certificate (joint with the Poynter Institute).