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Courses
Here is a partial list of IMC courses offered:
INAF6921 Magazine Writing with an International Dateline
Taught by Claudia Dreifus
Thisis a non-applicationwriting workshop andit isaimed at professional or pre-professional writersand media workers with a deep interest in international affairs.The course is designed to give students exercises and real-world experiences in writing feature articles on international affairs topics. The aim is for each participant in the workshop to produce at least one (hopefully)professional level magazine article by the end of the semester. Synergy with SIPA publications--Communique, SIPA News, IMC News, the Morningside Post, is encouraged. Our source material will come from the great international city that is New York and from the international resources available here at SIPA.
INAFU6059 The Wired World: An Introduction to New Media Communications and Online Journalism
Tom Glaisyer, Jed Miller and Anya Schiffrin
New media provides many opportunities for journalists and communications advocates. This course will provide an introduction to new media tools and help SIPA students write and report stories for publications online. Through a combination of hands-on introductions and presentations on best practices, students will learn the practical skills of new media, includingblogging, audio and video.The course will also require research, writing and creation of timely and relevant content geared to a non-academic audience. Reporting andnew media skills will begrounded in a larger theoretical framework that considers the relationship between new technologies and modern media. The course will also examine advocacy communications and the way readers gather and digest information
INAF6212 New Media and Development Communication
Anne Nelson
This interdisciplinary course will introduce students to concepts of communications and policy with an emphasis on their application to new media in developing countries.
The course will explore influential new practices and technologies,
such as social networking (Web 2.0), cell phones, satellite
television, and blogging, to assess when they advance broader social
and economic goals, and when they impede them. Class research teams
will combine traditional reporting with web and field research to
advance our collective understanding of this rapidly changing field.
INAF8183 Tools for Advocacy
“Tool for Advocacy: Understanding How the Media Works and How to Use it to Promote a Cause or Institution” provides students of international affairs and public policy with a set of practical communications skills for use in their everyday work. Students will learn how to function effectively in our fast-changing contemporary media environment. Students will learn how to craft powerful messages, create compelling material for the media and refine their presentations techniques for interviews. They learn how to use the media to deliver messages to key audiences and how to conceive and execute an advocacy campaign as part of an organizational mission. Communications professionals from a variety of fields visit the class during the course of the semester. Students produce advocacy materials including a press release, an op-ed and some form of Internet content
U8008 Radio without Borders
Marty Goldensohn
Radio Without Borders teaches students both how to produce radio stories and acquaints them with how radio is being used as a tool for communication and democracy in developing countries. Student learn to gather sound in the field and from abroad via voice over IP (Skype.) Each student writes, voices, edits and mixes radio pieces using Protools software. Guests who promote and produce radio in Africa, Asia and elsewhere visit the class. Equipment can be shared, but students who can invest in recorders or editing software can sometimes be more flexible and productive.
INAF U6034 Topics on International Business and Economics
Anya Schiffrin
As the journalism job market tightens, business reporting is one of the few areas where it’s still possible for a beginner to get a job and even be sent overseas. This class is an introduction to the basics of international business and economic reporting. It will be suitable for students planning to work overseas for a newspaper or wire service, covering breaking news about economics. Topics covered will include: covering labor issues, and macro economics, trade, International Financial Institutions and reporting on the foreign exchange, fixed income, stock, bond and commodity markets.
INAFU6214
Web Communications for International Affairs
Mary-Lea Cox and Ravi Rajakumar
This course will provide a hands-on introduction to building a successful Web site for an international or public service organization. While the course will be suitable for students intending to pursue careers in media and communications, it has been designed to meet the needs of all international and public affairs students. In the world of 24/7 communications, all international and public affairs professionals need to possess a working understanding of the uses of the Web in enhancing their organization's service, public policy and fund raising goals. The classroom will be run as an online communications laboratory. Through reference to specific Web sites and through role-playing exercises, students will learn the key steps for successful Web site building, including: Web design and technology; strategies for online PR, advocacy, fund raising and community building; and principles of Web writing. They will develop a catalogue of successful and unsuccessful Web communications strategies for "dot orgs."
Short course:
INAFU8799
Tom Lansner 1.5 credits
Reporting Conflict: Media & Policy
Examine and understand the ongoing struggles—and sometimes cooperation—among media and militaries and governments to control access to and information from conflict zones and to shape reporting that reflects their positions most favorably.