As the ‘social’ part of ‘social media’ would suggest, so much of being successful in the digital space is about engaging and building communities. In this course students construct a StoryWorld around cross-platform storytelling endeavours, whether for personal branding, business or a project. This will include utilizing WordPress to build a professional website, social media engagement, niche audience building, creating a digital storytelling campaign, and developing a long term strategy for continued community engagement.

From traditional broadcasting to podcasting and viral video, new methods of reaching an audience are developing all the time yet good storytelling and pure human communication will never become obsolete. The focus of this course is creating compelling and powerful content that will stand out in this cluttered new media landscape.

This course provides a broad overview of journalism with a focus on news programming in the electronic media. Students examine how radio, television, and online news stories are covered, written and produced. There is much hands-on learning, including exercises in news writing, announcing and reporting. This fast-paced course also explores interview styles, media law, editorial writing, and on- camera performance.

While its true most of us have set up social media accounts, are you aware of the subtle nuances of using your social media effectively? Do you know how to stand out in the digital space over the non-stop buzz of social media noise? Ultimately, understanding the story you wish to tell is key, along with the art of being able to tell a good story. The focus of this course is identifying the story you wish to tell and learning to manipulate social media tools to better tell it. This skill set includes building your (or your business’) social media presence, identifying the best social media platforms for your story, and learning social media time management around your digital storytelling.