Editing for the Mass Media

Catalog description

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. COURSE OVERVIEW. Explores principles and practices of editing across print, broadcast and digital media, focusing on journalistic style and structure. Covers sentence-level refinement, fact-checking, clarity and consistency review, correction of grammatical and structural errors and adaptation of content for varied platforms and audiences. Emphasizes editorial judgment in tightening text without distorting voice or meaning. Includes headline and subhead writing, style guide application, peer-editing and awareness of how legal and ethical standards apply to editing decisions rather than reporting alone. Builds on media writing coursework by shifting focus from content creation to evaluation, revision and publication-readiness. RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION. Builds advanced competencies central to newsroom, publishing, marketing and content strategy roles, including copyediting, information verification, editorial collaboration and style precision. Reinforces habits essential to academic and professional writing in fields where clarity, accuracy and/or credibility are required. Supports civic literacy by strengthening the ability to assess how wording, structure and omission influence public interpretation. DEEPENING UNDERSTANDINGS. Highlights how editing is not merely correction but interpretation, requiring awareness of audience, tone and implication. Considers how editorial choices shape storytelling, accessibility and fairness as much as writing choices do. Builds recognition of how cultural context, legal obligation and ethical norms factor into seemingly small changes. TOPICS AND THEMES. May include editing for grammar, structure and flow; fact-checking and error detection; AP style and style guide adaptation; headline and SEO writing; tone and audience calibration; legal and ethical considerations in revision; collaborative workflows between writers and editors; and analysis of published examples from news, nonprofit and commercial media. Exercises may draw from real or simulated stories involving sensitive or controversial subject matter, introduced for building skills at accurate and responsible editing practice. Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in JOUR 203 ; enrollment in JOUR major, USLA-BA-JNS concentration or JOUR minor; or approval of program director; junior or senior classification.