JMC 2033 Overview

Before entering the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma, students must pass two prerequisite classes, one of which is JMC 2033 - Writing for the Mass Media. Whatever a student's intended major is within the college, Writing for the Mass Media will develop their writing skills and make them a more effective communicator.

The course is intended to serve as an introduction to journalistic writing, although it is not only a journalism class. It’s a class about using words to achieve professional goals whether you are a print or broadcast journalist, an advertising professional, a public relations practitioner, a documentary filmmaker or a novelist. No matter which of the mass media fields you are preparing yourself to enter, you must develop your abilities to gather information and use it to create media messages that serve the needs of specific audiences.

Writing for the Mass Media strives to meet several basic goals: to improve students' writing, to understand the specific conventions of media writing, to understand the core values of mass media professions, to build media literacy, to practice various types of media writing, to develop professional skills, and to begin defining students' interests.

The class is divided between lecture and lab sections. Most lectures will focus on specific concepts and skills necessary for thinking and performing as professional communicators. The lectures provide the framework to be successful in labs, which will allow you to practice and hone your language and writing skills while teaching you the basics of reporting, including interviewing and other forms of information gathering.

Whatever field of mass media you end up in, whether you are informing, persuading or entertaining, you will have to use words well. This course will help you learn to do that.