Course Description

Just a few decades ago, the American news media environment was dominated by the daily newspaper and three TV networks. Today, we’re engulfed by hundreds of TV channels, the internet, cell-phones and email, while newspapers and magazines are finding new ways of delivering information. Successful navigation of this environment is challenging for anyone—and yet for people in leadership it is imperative. From campaigns for political office to plans for addressing transportation or health crises to deciding whether particular sports franchises have a future in a large Northwestern city, the news media are crucial in shaping public opinion. With recognition of this reality, people in leadership often tend to start sweating whenever a journalist calls. But it doesn’t need to be so.

 

Journalists—from the grizzled newspaper reporter to the just-rolled-out-of-bed blogger— are often driven by the same commitment to the common good that motivates people working in leadership positions, whether at private companies, non-profit organizations, or everything in between. In this course we will delve into the values and practices that guide today’s 24/7 information age, considering both the dynamics of traditional journalism and the rise of a new-media culture in which anyone can participate in public discussion about social issues. At the heart of our work together will be an emphasis on the need for leaders and organizations to identify a small number of culturally resonant values and then to emphasize those values consistently in their public communications.

 

For example, Microsoft Corporation built its public defense against anti-trust allegations around the idea of “innovation,” arguing that innovative business practices are part of what make America great. The idea of “innovation” didn't magically appear: it was an articulation of Microsoft’s organizational values and it fit many people’s conceptions of the nation and company leaders emphasized it over and over and over. Similarly, President George W. Bush and Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama built political followings based upon consistent emphasis of a small set of values: for Bush it was freedom and security, for Obama it has been hope and change. In these and many other instances, organizations and leaders successfully worked with news media to promote their goals.

 

Learning Objectives

The central theme of this course is that people who wish to effectively lead and to shape others’ impressions and attitudes must understand how today’s information culture works. There are patterns—that is, norms and habits—which drive journalists and new-media commentators, and in this course we’ll discuss these patterns and provide some roadmaps through this 24/7 milieu. The approach will be highly interactive and hands-on: The goal is to help you identify and pursue your or your organization’s goals by gaining a deeper understanding of how to work with media writers and reporters. In so doing, the course will merge scholarly expertise with concrete, realistic, and applied understandings of contemporary media, politics, and public debate. This course will include these specific elements:

 

• discussion of dominant trends in today's U.S. media culture
• analysis of the kinds of values and ideas that capture media interest
• emphasis on specific meta-techniques for presenting one's message
• connection of goals, language, and messages in media plans

 

Lead Instructor
David Domke is a professor and Head of Journalism in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. He worked as a journalist for several newspapers in the 1980s and early 1990s, including the Orange County Register and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, before earning a Ph.D. in 1996. His research and teaching focus on how political leaders strategically craft their public communications and how news media and the public respond to these messages. He is the author of a 2004 book that examines the religious rhetoric of the Bush administration and the mainstream press’s response, God Willing?: Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the “War on Terror,” and the Echoing Press (Pluto Press). His new book, The God Strategy: How Religion Became A Political Weapon in America, was published in January 2008 by Oxford University Press. In the last few years he has spoken about politics and communication with academic, political, media, and public audiences around the country. In 2002 he received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest honor for teaching. In 2006, he received the Hiller Krieghbaum Under-40 Award, given by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, for outstanding early career accomplishments. Also in 2006 he was named the Washington state Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. And in spring 2008 he was selected as the favorite professor of the UW graduating class.

 

 

Course Location, Date, and Tuition

Date		Friday, November 21, 2008
Course Times		8:00a.m. to 4:30p.m daily
Course Code		08Media
Tuition	Early / Evans	$400
	Regular	$450
Early Registration Deadline		September 22, 2008
Cancellation Deadline		October 31, 2008
Location		Talaris Conference Center, Seattle, Washington

 

Click here to register

Click here for PDF version of course description

Return to course listing

 

Site map | Home | Contact Us | Top