Do you teach photojournalism in a university journalism program?

We do not have a photojournalism course in the university where I teach writing and reporting, but we are looking at

starting one. Our art department has a fine-arts photography track, but we're looking to launch something more

appropriate to the school of mass communications, an introductory level course. Student demand is driving this. If any of you are so engaged, I would love to see a copy of your syllabus. Suggestions welcome. Thanks.

<blockquote>

<p> Student demand is driving this</p>

</blockquote>

<p>They must be romanticizing:) It's a dying field imo...</p>

<p>I don't have the syllabus currently available, but I did take 2 Photo Journalism courses while in school. The first course was your Basic Photo Journalism course which delved into subjects such as History, "Who, What, Where, Why and When", Gathering captions, Essays, Law, Ethics & Legal issues, Copyrights, Style, Technique, Spot news, General news, Sports news, etc. You might want to take a look at this book which is the one we used in class: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Photojournalism-Introduction-Fred-S-Parrish/dp/0314045643">http://www.amazon.com/Photojournalism-Introduction-Fred-S-Parrish/dp/0314045643</a> which covers most of those subjects.<br>

The other course I took was Photo Journalism II, which dealt mostly with technique. This course was brutal because the teacher was a former photo-editor for National Geographic Magazine . Also we had to use slides instead of the more forgiving film and digital camera. There were no books in this class just assignments. </p>

Leslie, you are certainly correct -- we teach that it is a dying field. Not just your opinion. However, we also teach journalism as converging media, and that requires today's writers to be equipped to take their own photos -- precisely because photojournalism is a dying field. We want to give them the basics.

Thanks, Harry -- I'll look into that book. That name, Fred Parrish, is somehow familiar to me. Will investigate. Thanks again.

<p>I bought this textbook a few months ago for my own interests. A 2008 publication, don't know if the author is contemplating an update, but this is already the 6th edition. Comes with a DVD included.<br>

http://www.amazon.com/Photojournalism-Sixth-Professionals-Kenneth-Kobre/dp/075068593X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327209856&sr=1-1</p>

Thanks Steve. I'll take a look at it.

<p>Hi Folks,<br>

Since I've been in the business for several decades starting in PJ and ending as a full time pro-photo professor this past 22 years, let me talk about this. Most of the universities have dumped still photography in PJ, it is all videography. It tends to be very weak in lighting, posing, and focal length utilization. Hopefully most of the schools still teach English structure, but based on what I see on TV (local and national), nobody can write or speak a complete or grammatically correct sentence.<br>

Here at Austin Community College, we've taught professional photography for 45 years (40 at ACC, 5 at the Austin Model Project, a federally funded vocational education project). We have been 100% digital for 7 years. This year we have in our program, a major called "Media". The first half is 3 levels of still photography, light room, and photoshop. The second half is fundamentals of videography plus additional courses in editing and other structural video training. This has been carefully crafted by our Photo Technology Dept. and our RTF Dept. We are already having students enrolled in this area of competence. In addition to the necessary academic classes, there are also classes in business.</p>

<p>Lynn</p>

 

<p>Let me add something to this, I have been a big fan of Southern Illinois University for their various visuals programs and I would suggest this to you as well, I've seen some incredible photographers and photojournalists from there as well as Brooks Inst. of Photography which I graduated from in 1960.<br>

Lynn</p>