printer friendly pageCOMM 104W: Reporting, Writing, and Understanding the News
Techniques of news reporting and writing. The value and role of news in democratic societies. Gateway class to journalism. Prerequisite for all
COMM 177/277 classes. Limited enrollment. Preference to COMM majors.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors:
Brenner, R. (PI)
;
Zacharia, J. (PI)
COMM 122: Trust and Safety (CS 152, INTLPOL 267)
Trust and Safety is an emerging field of professional and academic effort to build technologies that allow people to positively use the internet while being safe from harm. This course provides an introduction to the ways online services are abused to cause real human harm and the potential social, operational, product, legal and engineering responses. Students will learn about fraud, account takeovers, the use of social media by terrorists, misinformation, child exploitation, harassment, bullying and self-harm. This will include studying both the technical and sociological roots of these harms and the ways various online providers have responded. The class is taught by a practitioner, a professor of communication, a political scientist, and supplemented by guest lecturers from tech companies and nonprofits. Cross-disciplinary teams of students will spend the quarter building a technical and policy solution to a real trust and safety challenge, which will include the application of AI
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Trust and Safety is an emerging field of professional and academic effort to build technologies that allow people to positively use the internet while being safe from harm. This course provides an introduction to the ways online services are abused to cause real human harm and the potential social, operational, product, legal and engineering responses. Students will learn about fraud, account takeovers, the use of social media by terrorists, misinformation, child exploitation, harassment, bullying and self-harm. This will include studying both the technical and sociological roots of these harms and the ways various online providers have responded. The class is taught by a practitioner, a professor of communication, a political scientist, and supplemented by guest lecturers from tech companies and nonprofits. Cross-disciplinary teams of students will spend the quarter building a technical and policy solution to a real trust and safety challenge, which will include the application of AI technologies to detecting and stopping abuse. For those taking this course for CS credit, the prerequisite is CS106B or equivalent programming experience and this course fulfills the Technology in Society requirement. Content note: This class will cover real-world harmful behavior and expose students to potentially upsetting material.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Grossman, S. (PI)
;
Hancock, J. (PI)
;
Stamos, A. (PI)
...
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Instructors:
Grossman, S. (PI)
;
Hancock, J. (PI)
;
Stamos, A. (PI)
;
Baker, K. (TA)
;
Barrett, K. (TA)
;
Mensah, A. (TA)
COMM 124: Truth, Trust, and Tech (COMM 224)
(Graduate students enroll in
COMM 224.
COMM 124 is offered for 5 units,
COMM 224 is offered for 4 units.) NOTE: offered only at Stanford in New York winter quarter 2022-23. Deception is one of the most significant and pervasive social phenomena of our age. Lies range from the trivial to the very serious, including deception between friends and family, in the workplace, and in security and intelligence contexts. At the same time, information and communication technologies have pervaded almost all aspects of human communication, from everyday technologies that support interpersonal interactions to, such as email and instant messaging, to more sophisticated systems that support organization-level interactions. Given the prevalence of both deception and communication technology in our personal and professional lives, an important set of questions have recently emerged about how humans adapt their deceptive practices to new communication and information technologies, including how communication technology affects the practice of lying and the detection of deception, and whether technology can be used to identify deception.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
COMM 140X: Data Science for Social Impact (DATASCI 154, EARTHSYS 153, ECON 163, MS&E 134, POLISCI 154, PUBLPOL 155, SOC 127)
You have some experience coding in R or Python. You've taken a class or two in basic stats or data science. But what's next? How can you use data science skills to make the world a better place? If you're asking those questions, then "Data Science for Social Impact" is for you. In this class, you'll work in four areas where data are being used to make the world better: health care, education, detecting discrimination, and clean energy technologies. You'll work with data from hospitals, schools, police departments, and electric utilities. You'll apply causal inference, prediction, and optimization techniques to help businesses, governments, and other organizations make better decisions. You'll see the challenges that arise when analyzing real data (for example, when some data are missing, or when the randomized experiment gets implemented wrong). You'll get ideas for an impactful and meaningful senior thesis, summer internship, and future career. Concretely, you'll have weekly problem s
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You have some experience coding in R or Python. You've taken a class or two in basic stats or data science. But what's next? How can you use data science skills to make the world a better place? If you're asking those questions, then "Data Science for Social Impact" is for you. In this class, you'll work in four areas where data are being used to make the world better: health care, education, detecting discrimination, and clean energy technologies. You'll work with data from hospitals, schools, police departments, and electric utilities. You'll apply causal inference, prediction, and optimization techniques to help businesses, governments, and other organizations make better decisions. You'll see the challenges that arise when analyzing real data (for example, when some data are missing, or when the randomized experiment gets implemented wrong). You'll get ideas for an impactful and meaningful senior thesis, summer internship, and future career. Concretely, you'll have weekly problem sets involving data analysis in R or python. You'll learn and apply techniques like fixed effects regression, difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, regularized regression, random forests, causal forests, and optimization. Class sessions will feature active learning, discussions, and small-group case studies. You should only enroll if you expect to attend regularly and complete the problem sets on time. Prerequisites: Experience programming in R or python, or willingness to learn very quickly on your own. A basic statistics or data science course, such as any of the following:
DATASCI 112,
ECON 102 or 108,
CS 129,
EARTHSYS 140,
HUMBIO 88,
POLISCI 150A,
STATS 60 or 101,
SOC 180B, or MS&E 125.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-AQR
COMM 145: Personality and Digital Media (COMM 245)
Personality describes people's characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. This course will introduce students to the ways personality is expressed in digital devices (e.g., computers, smartphones) and platforms (e.g., social networks, virtual worlds). Readings and lectures will introduce students to theories of personality, the practice of assessing personality, and the broader societal implications of having mediated personalities. Course assignments will require students to apply the course concepts to explore personality expression in various digitally mediated contexts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
Instructors:
Harari, G. (PI)
;
Hu, Z. (PI)
;
Soh, S. (PI)
;
Vinoya, N. (PI)
;
Hu, Z. (TA)
;
Soh, S. (TA)
;
Vinoya, N. (TA)
COMM 173A: Media, Mind, and Black Mirror (COMM 273A)
In this course, we will examine the ways in which near-future science fiction - with a focus on the Black Mirror series - can help us think more creatively about research on the ways that people use and are psychologically influenced by communication technology (i.e., media psychology). We will read and connect influential research publications from this field, many of which were written by Stanford professors, to Black Mirror episodes which depict relevant themes. Weekly assignments will focus on synthesizing these research publications and Black Mirror episodes with relevant news stories and personal media use. The main course project will be to generate a research proposal, inspired by a Black Mirror episode or other work of science fiction, which creatively examines an issue of media psychology with societal importance. In line with the theme of the class, students will be encouraged to use any advanced media technology at their disposal, including generative AI tools, to develop the assignment content (e.g., writing, images). Grading will not focus on the mechanical output of the work, but instead will focus on project creativity, synthesis between topics, connections to personal experiences, and ability to present ideas verbally.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Ratan, R. (PI)
COMM 176: Advanced Digital Journalism Production (COMM 276)
(Graduate students register for 276.
COMM 176 is offered for 5 units,
COMM 276 is offered for 4 units.) In-depth reporting and production using audio, images and video. Focus on an in-depth journalism project with appropriate uses of digital media: audio, photography, graphics, and video. Topics include advanced field techniques and approaches (audio, video, still) and emphasis on creating a non-fiction narrative arc in a multimedia piece of 10-12 minutes.
Comm 104 or some reporting experience OR audio/video production experience. Contact instructor: jrnicol@stanford.edu
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors:
Migielicz, G. (PI)
COMM 177A: Advanced Data Journalism (COMM 277A)
In this course, students will learn about and experiment with a variety of advanced data and computational techniques used in the news industry to hold powerful individuals and institutions to account. Topics may include geospatial analysis, image classification and entity extraction. Students will learn how these techniques are used to develop and tell stories, and then apply that knowledge in small-scale, novel exercises.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Tumgoren, S. (PI)
COMM 177C: Specialized Writing and Reporting: Science and Environmental Journalism (COMM 277C, EARTHSYS 177C, EARTHSYS 277C)
Practical, collaborative, writing-intensive course in science-based environmental journalism. Science and journalism students learn to identify, report, and write engaging stories about environmental science and related issues; to assess the quality and relevance of environmental news coverage; to cover the environment and science beats in journalism; and to build bridges between journalism and science. Limited enrollment: preference to Environmental Communication and Journalism MA students and to advanced students in the natural and environmental sciences. Prerequisite:
COMM 104,
EARTHSYS 191/291, or consent of the instructor. Admission by application only, due March 21, 2025 -
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1-rNKS8KY_Sw92nQ_lgDWvUQxeD0f1Rb3ua3VCLULSrSZ-g/viewform
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Hayden, T. (PI)
;
Swidey, N. (TA)
COMM 177D: Specialized Writing and Reporting: Narrative Journalism (COMM 277D)
(Graduate students register for
COMM 277D.
COMM 177D is offered for 5 units,
COMM 277D is offered for 4 units.) How to report, write, edit, and read long-form narrative nonfiction, whether for magazines, news sites or online venues. Tools and templates of story telling such as scenes, characters, dialogue, and narrative arc. How the best long-form narrative stories defy or subvert conventional wisdom and bring fresh light to the human experience through reporting, writing, and moral passion. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors:
Brenner, R. (PI)
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