Spring 2027

Mass Communication Practices

Mass Communication Practices builds communication skills like writing, editing, and data work for media careers in journalism and strategic communication.

offering recorded6 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Stacy Forster Benedict

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Lucas Graves

The course involved many deadlines and assignments to track, though the learning management system was well-maintained to help manage this volume.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Write clearly, concisely, effectively and efficiently for a variety of media platforms and formats

  • Think critically (asking the right questions in interviews, collecting and analyzing information, and assembling ideas)

  • Review and synthesize information and develop appropriate messages

  • Create professional, ethical work that uses proper grammar and style

  • Work well in collaboration with other students and instructors

  • Speak and write clearly about current events and trends by integrating knowledge across subject matter arenas and incorporating multiple sources

  • Meet deadlines and manage competing demands

  • Evaluate how to best present stories in a variety of formats, including audio, video and online, and produce those forms

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

Declared in a Journalism undergraduate program and JOURN 201 and concurrent enrollment inJOURN 203

JOURN 202 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

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.53 GPA, 79.0% A/AB (n=119 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.58 GPA, 82.3% A/AB (n=113 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.64 GPA, 91.3% A/AB (n=115 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

STACY FORSTER BENEDICT is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. 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 / 1200
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 305Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 306Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 307Classroom Instruction0 / 150
LAB 308Classroom Instruction0 / 150

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 · Lucas Graves

Students found the pre-recorded lectures informative and helpful for understanding course content, noting that the online format limited direct interaction with the instructor.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.58 GPA, 82.3% A/AB (n=113 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.70 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=118 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.64 GPA, 91.3% A/AB (n=115 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Lucas Graves

The course involved many deadlines and assignments to track, though the learning management system was well-maintained to help manage this volume.

Past student reviews · Lucas Graves

Assignments and projects were described as realistic, providing useful preparation for real-world work environments.

Topics

  • Communication skills: writing, editing, information gathering, data work, and story presentation
  • Media influence on message design and audience reception
  • Conceptual and practical skills for journalism, strategic communication, and hybrid media work
  • Producing stories in audio, video, and online formats

Skills

  • Writing, editing, gathering information, working with data, and presenting stories through varying media forms
  • Understanding how different media influence message design and audience reception
  • Critical thinking and advanced writing skills
  • Creating professional, ethical work with proper grammar and style
  • Collaboration with students and instructors
  • Meeting deadlines and managing competing demands

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 5 same-season 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.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.06 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 · 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 202 · Spring 2027

Mass Communication Practices

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": "1274:512:021347",
    "course_id": "JOURN 202",
    "course_uid": "course_8c415c48c30aa3c408c52e59",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "021347",
    "source_subject_id": "512",
    "title": "Mass Communication Practices",
    "credits_min": 6,
    "credits_max": 6,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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": "ef49744cb6d4e71cc1639ebd4a6afb5ffbde17738e2bddbc9d65625143b7e2b8",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}