I am putting together a syllabus for a class I am teaching for the first time. It’s called the Foundations of Journalism and Mass Communication and is required for journalism majors and is taken as an elective by many sophomores and freshmen throughout the university (about 165 in the class). The course has been taught many ways over the years: as a history course, as a course that highlighted each medium – tv, radio, newspaper – separately, as a “media effects for undergrads” course that dealt with theory. I am including all those things but teaching it as a series of questions or debates that we will look at from a variety of perspectives. Each debate or question will be explored over two weeks. They include: The Wisdom of Crowds or the Cult of the Amateur?; Evolution or Revolution?; Profit or The “Public Good”; The “Right to Know” vs. “Security”; Does media bring us together or keep us apart?; Does media make us smart or dumb?

We will look at each debate from four perspectives: history, power (law and money), technology and ethics.

I welcome any comments or suggestions on readings, audio, video etc. that anyone might have.

Many of my posts in the coming days and weeks will relate to this course