Entrepreneurial Journalism

Catalog description

This course provides an overview of entrepreneurship and innovation in journalism and teaches students how to recognize and act on opportunities to innovate and launch journalism-related enterprises. Active learning pedagogies are emphasized to support student learning and skill development. First students learn trends, concepts, theories and/or current best practices and then apply them in assignments and major projects. Topics may include innovation in the news business, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and self-employment/freelancing in media, disruption caused by technology, globalization, competition and changes in customer/user news habits, opportunity recognition and idea assessment, customer discovery, value proposition design, lean methods, rapid prototyping, due diligence, analyzing/researching markets and competition, negotiation skills, pitching ideas to investors, financing and marketing for start-ups, and digital branding. Students apply what they learned in projects that could include developing and assessing their own news enterprise idea with a completed business plan or lean canvas, conducting primary market research, designing and implementing a digital brand, practicing negotiation techniques and pitching their idea to potential investors and/or customers.