Spring 2027

History of U.s. Media

Explores the evolution of U.S. mass media within political, social, and economic contexts, focusing on key people, events, and technologies that shaped media history.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Stephen Vaughn, James Baughman

The course involved a significant volume of readings. Students noted that exams required memorizing term sheets and basic points from the assigned texts.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and explain important people, themes, events, and technologies that shaped media history.

  • Identify and explain historical arguments in secondary literature.

  • Analyze primary sources and know what questions to ask to be able to do that.

  • Produce original historical knowledge through research in primary and secondary sources.

  • Produce research suitable for submission to an academic journal or history magazine.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Junior standing

  • Junior standing
HISTORY/JOURN 560

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Junior standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JAMES BAUGHMAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATHRYN MCGARR is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEPHEN VAUGHN is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · James Baughman

Past students described James Baughman as intelligent, passionate, and entertaining, making the course engaging despite the workload.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.81 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=62 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.77 GPA, 87.4% A/AB (n=95 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.69 GPA, 82.2% A/AB (n=118 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Stephen Vaughn, James Baughman

The course involved a significant volume of readings. Students noted that exams required memorizing term sheets and basic points from the assigned texts.

Past student reviews · Kathryn McGarr

Feedback on Kathryn McGarr varied; one student found her lectures dry and disorganized, while another found them fun and engaging.

Topics

  • Evolution of U.S. mass media
  • Political, social, and economic contexts of media
  • Key people, events, and technologies in media history

Skills

  • Conducting historical research using primary and secondary sources
  • Writing research papers for academic publication
  • Analyzing historical arguments in secondary literature

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 3 recent terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

7 earlier forecasts · 0.19 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3a4b28c70a4e4820afdcd5fba8b6d261e9664378c59ca71b87401fdf010236e1",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}