Spring 2027

Introduction to Sports Communication

Introduction to Sports Communication explores journalism, broadcasting, marketing, and PR in sports, including race, gender, and career strategies.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Adam Schrager3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Justin Doherty

Assignments were described as simple and applicable to real life, though grading was inconsistent because different TAs reviewed each paper.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and explain the core concepts and principles that are part of the practice of sports journalism, broadcasting, advertising and public relations.

  • Recognize the importance of strategic, creative and ethical thinking as applied to context of sports communications.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
JOURN 150 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 2 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.76 GPA, 87.3% A/AB (n=134 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ADAM SCHRAGER is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JUSTIN DOHERTY is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024. 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
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1250

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Justin Doherty

The course connected sports communications to real-world applications through industry guest speakers.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.67 GPA, 78.2% A/AB (n=119 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.75 GPA, 89.1% A/AB (n=110 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.76 GPA, 87.3% A/AB (n=134 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Justin Doherty

Assignments were described as simple and applicable to real life, though grading was inconsistent because different TAs reviewed each paper.

Past student reviews · Justin Doherty

A previous instructor, Justin Doherty, was well-respected and brought in guest speakers for every topic covered.

Topics

  • Sports journalism, broadcasting, marketing communications, and public relations.
  • Intersection of sports and media with race and gender.
  • Career building strategies in sports communications.

Skills

  • Identify and explain core concepts and principles of sports journalism, broadcasting, advertising, and public relations.
  • Apply strategic, creative, and ethical thinking to the context of sports communications.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · 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

1280 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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
JOURN 150 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Sports Communication

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:512:025319",
    "course_id": "JOURN 150",
    "course_uid": "course_9133c096cb8894d84a00176f",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025319",
    "source_subject_id": "512",
    "title": "Introduction to Sports Communication",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
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": "b21b65004d0f8b41d967a2d53857218310a89f5ecb4d2b4b22576e83cbda564c",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}