TEACHING
As a professor of journalism at Ohio University, Yusuf Kalyango teaches a variety of courses. Specifically, his courses’ contents focus on his areas of expertise drawn from his long career as an international broadcast news correspondent.
A selection of courses taught by Kalyango:
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE (JOUR 4670 AND 5760) This is an advanced international reporting/writing professional course about the work a journalist is assigned abroad and the contemporary challenges of a foreign correspondent. How can international issues of critical importance to world order be reported and made relevant to the American audience? How can we make international events -- particularly those from Third World nations -- important at home? The lectures and documentaries will highlight and evaluate international news coverage. Attempts will be made to invite a foreign correspondent and a roving journalist to speak and interact with students in the class or through the IIJ blog and other new media channels. Learning Outcomes: At the end of the course, students should be able to understand: • How to critically assess the roles and challenges facing foreign correspondents. • How to critically seek newsworthy stories and be aware of cultural differences. • How to report and relate global events to local (wide-ranging) audiences. • The conditions under which embedded scribes operate in wars and other conflicts. • The current trends and criticism of international journalistic roles. • The obstacles faced in complex and unfamiliar regions and dangerous territories. • In addition, students will produce two publishable international news articles in the form of “Special Reports.” |
JOURNALISM STUDY ABROAD TO AFRICA (JOUR 4460 AND 4610)
The Institute for International Journalism, in coordination with Ohio University’s Office of Education Abroad (OEA), administers a journalism program to Africa. The program focuses on specialized journalism, and offers internships in news organizations, advertising and marketing firms, the national parliament, and nonprofit organizations. Students report local stories for the local media, produce a TV documentary, blog and tweet about their experiences, and interact with other local university students in Africa. The program includes, but is not limited to: • A three-day trip to a game preserve to see wildlife • Visits to historical landmarks and cultural sites • Magnificent scenic areas with astounding flora and fauna |

CROSS CULTURAL JOURNALISM (DIVERSITY & BELONGING)
(This course was taught by Dr. Kalyango at the Missouri School of Journalism.)
This is an advanced undergraduate course designed for broader exploration of journalistic work from a cultural perspective in respect to diversity, social justice, relationships, inclusion, personal experiences and other issues. As journalists and professionals, our work helps society and individuals learn about the daily struggles, challenges, conquests, conflicts between groups, failures and achievements of life; news enhances people’s opinions and ideas about important issues and events, as well as national policies that affect their lives.
Journalists, however, are human. All journalists find themselves in a conundrum of providing social bias (implicit and explicit) in their selection of news stories and coverage of stories. This bias is not deliberate. Then there institutional racial and gender bias and other challenges permeating diverse societies. The nature of human lineage – gender, generation, geography, class and ideology, as well as race, contribute to the creation of bias and misrepresentation.
Learning Outcomes:
To foster responsible journalism in the way we communicate issues to diverse socities, how we depict and frame events and in the way we convey the news.
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
• Apply sensitivity and critical thinking skills to their news selection and throughout their professional career as they develop stories and other media messages.
• Define culture and critically analyze how diversity and value systems (with regard to the self and to others) influence their thinking about stories and issues.
• Evaluate media messages that provide cultural and social context.
• Engage and facilitate discussion in their personal and professional life that helps them and others develop universal standards that demonstrate world citizenship.
• Through various activities and assignments in this course, better understand the significance of gender, race and socio-economic status in their lives, in U.S. society in general and in a range of intercultural communication arenas.
INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION (JOUR 1050)
This course introduces students to all forms and practices associated with mass communication including, but not limited to, newspapers, magazines, books, film, radio, television, the Internet, public relations and advertising.
The learning experience is a combination of class lectures, discussions and solving hypothetical mass communication scenarios. Throughout the term, students will critically analyze, evaluate and discuss the power and influence that the media have within the public sphere.
ATHENS MIDDAY TELEVISION NEWS PRACTICUM (JOUR 4580 AND 5580)
Students produce a live half-hour newscast that is broadcast into the Athens (Ohio) community and produce stories for www.athensmidday.com.
This is a learning newsroom environment. Students make mistakes, and they have shining moments – just like any newsroom. Also just like any newsroom, they have responsibilities to colleagues, to viewers and to their work as journalists.
They bring all the skills they’ve learned to a real news experience – the deadlines are real, the viewers are real, and the expectations for each job they’re assigned are real. They are graded on how they meet those expectations, and how they work together as a news team.
BROADCAST RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (JOUR 7920)
• Find newsworthy story ideas and pitch them; shoot video after story approval.
• Write television scripts, edit video and critique peers’ work.
• Attend three technical workshops at the MidDay newsroom.
• Produce at least three TV news packages and other story assignments.
• Participate in video and script critiques in class.
• Read all assigned chapters to improve newsgathering language skills.
• Take all quizzes, which test comprehension of the readings in the textbook.
• Write a theoretically driven literature review about an assigned broadcast topic.
(This course was taught by Dr. Kalyango at the Missouri School of Journalism.)
This is an advanced undergraduate course designed for broader exploration of journalistic work from a cultural perspective in respect to diversity, social justice, relationships, inclusion, personal experiences and other issues. As journalists and professionals, our work helps society and individuals learn about the daily struggles, challenges, conquests, conflicts between groups, failures and achievements of life; news enhances people’s opinions and ideas about important issues and events, as well as national policies that affect their lives.
Journalists, however, are human. All journalists find themselves in a conundrum of providing social bias (implicit and explicit) in their selection of news stories and coverage of stories. This bias is not deliberate. Then there institutional racial and gender bias and other challenges permeating diverse societies. The nature of human lineage – gender, generation, geography, class and ideology, as well as race, contribute to the creation of bias and misrepresentation.
Learning Outcomes:
To foster responsible journalism in the way we communicate issues to diverse socities, how we depict and frame events and in the way we convey the news.
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
• Apply sensitivity and critical thinking skills to their news selection and throughout their professional career as they develop stories and other media messages.
• Define culture and critically analyze how diversity and value systems (with regard to the self and to others) influence their thinking about stories and issues.
• Evaluate media messages that provide cultural and social context.
• Engage and facilitate discussion in their personal and professional life that helps them and others develop universal standards that demonstrate world citizenship.
• Through various activities and assignments in this course, better understand the significance of gender, race and socio-economic status in their lives, in U.S. society in general and in a range of intercultural communication arenas.
INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION (JOUR 1050)
This course introduces students to all forms and practices associated with mass communication including, but not limited to, newspapers, magazines, books, film, radio, television, the Internet, public relations and advertising.
The learning experience is a combination of class lectures, discussions and solving hypothetical mass communication scenarios. Throughout the term, students will critically analyze, evaluate and discuss the power and influence that the media have within the public sphere.
ATHENS MIDDAY TELEVISION NEWS PRACTICUM (JOUR 4580 AND 5580)
Students produce a live half-hour newscast that is broadcast into the Athens (Ohio) community and produce stories for www.athensmidday.com.
This is a learning newsroom environment. Students make mistakes, and they have shining moments – just like any newsroom. Also just like any newsroom, they have responsibilities to colleagues, to viewers and to their work as journalists.
They bring all the skills they’ve learned to a real news experience – the deadlines are real, the viewers are real, and the expectations for each job they’re assigned are real. They are graded on how they meet those expectations, and how they work together as a news team.
BROADCAST RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (JOUR 7920)
• Find newsworthy story ideas and pitch them; shoot video after story approval.
• Write television scripts, edit video and critique peers’ work.
• Attend three technical workshops at the MidDay newsroom.
• Produce at least three TV news packages and other story assignments.
• Participate in video and script critiques in class.
• Read all assigned chapters to improve newsgathering language skills.
• Take all quizzes, which test comprehension of the readings in the textbook.
• Write a theoretically driven literature review about an assigned broadcast topic.
Learning Outcomes:
• The course will provide students with the essential awareness and critical assessment of the mass media and how they have evolved over the years.
• Students will gain knowledge of how different mass media platforms disseminate topical and current affairs events to targeted markets.
• They will also identify and deliberate a variety of issues disseminated in all forms of mass communication such as the environment, politics, globalization, domestic and international conflicts, sports, entertainment, trade, diversity and rule of law.
TV BROADCAST NEWS (JOUR 3520)
This course is designed to introduce students to the newsgathering process: storytelling, video editing, interviewing, shooting video, the art of writing TV scripts, crafting the broadcast language, story selection process, and above all, packaging the story.
This is a professional course that carries strict field work ethics; with a call for resilience, confidence and inquisition. It is a combination of lectures and field work.
• The course will provide students with the essential awareness and critical assessment of the mass media and how they have evolved over the years.
• Students will gain knowledge of how different mass media platforms disseminate topical and current affairs events to targeted markets.
• They will also identify and deliberate a variety of issues disseminated in all forms of mass communication such as the environment, politics, globalization, domestic and international conflicts, sports, entertainment, trade, diversity and rule of law.
TV BROADCAST NEWS (JOUR 3520)
This course is designed to introduce students to the newsgathering process: storytelling, video editing, interviewing, shooting video, the art of writing TV scripts, crafting the broadcast language, story selection process, and above all, packaging the story.
This is a professional course that carries strict field work ethics; with a call for resilience, confidence and inquisition. It is a combination of lectures and field work.