SOU students looking for their next step in professional and journalistic writing: enroll now in the COMM program's Spring offering of COMM321 - Public Affairs Reporting.
This is a hands-on journalism course. Focusing on current public officials and on-going social issues, students will learn fundamental journalism skills and directly apply these lessons to producing stories. With a particular emphasis on local political and social issues, the students are “the media” is this interactive seminar: Like a real newsroom, students are expected to routinely present articles and news stories in response to assignments. Students also will present reports on specific persons, publications and theories related to public affairs journalism.
Instructor Phil Busse has served multiple editorial roles for alternative weekly newspapers in Oregon, including the Portland Mercury, Bend Source and Rogue Vally Messenger. He is known for his entertaining and provocative style of community journalism, and well-regarded by our students who took this course from him last year, including our Siskiyou editors Caroline Cabral and Erika Soderstrom.
COMM321 is offered in a hybrid format with in-person meetings on alternate Tuesdays at 6pm. This course has a prereq of COMM206 - Multimedia Writing, but we will work with the instructor to waive the requirement for any student with experience writing for student media (in high school or college) or relevant coursework in English, Creative Writing, Outdoor Adventure Leadership, EMDA or others.
