Minor Requirements

The Magazine and Brand Media minor provides students with an overview of how to tell meaningful stories, deliver reliable information, and communicate effectively with an audience. You'll gain experience in basic magazine writing and editing. You'll also have the opportunity to select from several courses for magazine journalists including options such as web page design, video production, and feature writing.

The minor includes 21 hours of SJMC coursework.

Required Magazine and Brand Media Courses

• JMC 54 News and Reporting Principles – Information evaluation, fact-gathering methods and journalism style, with extensive practice.
• JMC 70 Media Editing – Editing for newspapers, magazines and websites. Heavy emphasis on grammar, usage and Associated Press style. Also includes editing for accuracy, organization, structure, clarity, cultural sensitivity and fairness; headline and cutline writing; coaching writers; and law and ethics. Pre-req: JMC 54.
• JMC 91 Magazine Staff Writing – Professional approach to writing as part of a magazine staff includes story pitches, interviewing, research, writing, peer editing, rewriting, fact-checking, proofreading. Students identify an audience and develop an editorial philosophy and formula to serve that audience. Article writing includes briefs, blogging, profile, travel, features and multimedia production. Pre-req: JMC 54.
• JMC 104 Communications Law and Ethics – Press freedom, ethics, social responsibility, pressures and problems; legal limitations, including libel, privacy, intellectual property and obscenity. Must be junior status. Not open to first-year students or sophomores.

Select one of the following:

• JMC 119 Brand Media Planning – Overview of the magazine industry includes its history, ethics, and social influence, including racial, ethnic and other demographic shifts; market considerations such as advertising, audience research, circulation, marketing, and ancillary revenue; and editorial philosophies and formulas, design principles, and production. Students put concepts to practical use in detailed business plan, including 5-year budget and 18-page prototype for a magazine they create. Pre-reqs: JMC 41; JMC 59; JMC 70 or JMC 91.
• JMC 120 Magazine Freelance Writing – Article writing for specifically targeted media outlets, from print magazines to consumer websites. Includes intensive editing of student work in and outside of class; critiques and analyses of professional work; and strategies on targeting and pitching of potential outlets. Students research, write and rewrite multiple pieces, from profiles to features, essays to reviews. Pre-req: JMC 63, 91.

Select one of the following:

• JMC 55 Digital Media Strategies – Digital Strategies will introduce students to the tools and best practices to cut through the digital din. Students will understand how to grow, engage and maintain a digital audience, creating effective native social content and email newsletters while also using analytics to drive and adapt a multi-platform plan. Students will also delve into the complexities of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), data journalism, and data visualization, as well as investigate the latest tech advances popping in Silicon Valley, on the Silicon Prairie, and from the world at large.
• JMC 105 Web Page Design – Introduces students to the basics of designing pages for the web. Students will learn to write HTML and CSS. They will create a website using a content management system (WordPress). Topics explored include search engine optimization, social media, web analytics, and current trends in digital media.

Select one of the following:

• JMC 59 Introduction to Visual Communications – This course helps students master the fundamental principles of good design, color, balance and contrast using different media to convey a message. Photography, print, and web will be explored. Instruction on using digital cameras, PhotoShop, InDesign and other softwares will illustrate the elements of design and communication for each medium.
• JMC 63 Video for Journalists – Use of video technology to communicate effectively in a journalistic environment, with emphasis on field production. Identification of stories best-suited to video storytelling; basic principles of video storytelling and creation of a compelling narrative; operation of a variety of video cameras and of non-linear video editing software; technical and artistic fundamentals for gathering and editing audio and video; writing specifically for the ear and eye; preparation of video stories for web presentation; on-camera presentation; and use of video as a marketing and branding tool. Pre-req: JMC 54 and JMC 31.