Spring 2027

Mass Media in Multicultural America

Introduction to the roles and functions of print, film, electronic, and digital media in multicultural America, including international comparisons of mass media's social and cultural position in diverse societies.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jing Wang

The course required weekly quizzes, five multimodal assignments, and peer work. Students described the workload as easy to manage, noting that the class structure was straightforward despite some confusion over assignment grading.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Differentiate the concept of "race" from "ethnicity" and examine how they have been socially defined in the US context.

  • Connect the histories of racial and ethnic minorities and majorities to their current representations in various forms of mass media.

  • Summarize the roles and functions of mass media in multicultural societies.

  • Analyze the different ways in which mass media create and perpetuate stereotypes of racial and ethnic minorities and majorities, how these images circulate in mass mediated culture, and what impact they may have on individuals and societies.

  • Investigate mass media to differentiate patterns of representation of people, cultures, and ideas.

  • Recognize and question cultural assumptions and knowledge claims as they relate to race, ethnicity, and media.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
JOURN 162 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

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

HEMANT SHAH is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JING WANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. 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 / 00

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 · Jing Wang

Jing Wang taught a caring and accessible course that students found interesting and easy to manage. TAs provided great feedback on assignments, and the professor was easy to reach outside class.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.58 GPA, 74.4% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.87 GPA, 94.1% A/AB (n=119 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.63 GPA, 78.8% A/AB (n=99 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jing Wang

The course required weekly quizzes, five multimodal assignments, and peer work. Students described the workload as easy to manage, noting that the class structure was straightforward despite some confusion over assignment grading.

Past student reviews · Jing Wang, Hemant Shah

Under Jing Wang, students appreciated her care with deadlines, though some found multimodal assignments confusing. Previous students under Hemant Shah reported strict grading and minimal feedback explaining why points were deducted on assignments.

Topics

  • Roles and functions of print, film, electronic, and digital media
  • International comparisons of mass media in racially and ethnically diverse societies
  • Historical connections between racial and ethnic groups and their media representations
  • Creation and perpetuation of racial and ethnic stereotypes in mass media

Skills

  • Examining how race and ethnicity have been socially defined in the US context
  • Analyzing how mass media create and perpetuate stereotypes of racial and ethnic groups
  • Investigating mass media to identify patterns of representation for people, cultures, and ideas
  • Questioning cultural assumptions and knowledge claims related to race, ethnicity, and media

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 162 · Spring 2027

Mass Media in Multicultural America

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": "1274:512:023588",
    "course_id": "JOURN 162",
    "course_uid": "course_945131b2e40017d611bd0d90",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023588",
    "source_subject_id": "512",
    "title": "Mass Media in Multicultural America",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
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": "fb48abe0c6181afd3582af053ac1cb5de3ae49cf6378e2129ccc48c8dff6d781",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}