Mass Communication and Society

Examines relationships between mass communications and society, analyzing media performance and suggesting changes.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 5

Historical reviews of Lewis Friedland: The course requires approximately 100 pages of reading per week, which is manageable for interested students, with lectures covering main reading points.

Grade history

average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Junior standing; not open to special students

    • Junior standing
    • not open to special students
    take all
JOURN 561

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • All of
    • Junior standing
    • not open to special students

Professors

Fall 2026

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Lewis Friedland: Lewis Friedland is described as knowledgeable, passionate, and approachable, with a calm demeanor and ability to relate material to modern life. Reviewers note his helpfulness and clear passion for teaching, though one finds the class bland.

LEWIS FRIEDLAND is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2018, Fall 2018. 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

Fall 2026

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

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Historical reviews for Lewis Friedland describe a passionate, knowledgeable instructor who connects media studies to modern life, though experiences vary from transformative to bland.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.54 GPA, 78.8% A/AB (n=52 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.81 GPA, 92.6% A/AB (n=95 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.59 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=55 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Lewis Friedland: The course requires approximately 100 pages of reading per week, which is manageable for interested students, with lectures covering main reading points.

Historical reviews of Lewis Friedland: Students report mixed experiences, with some finding the class bland while others criticize the instructor for letting political opinions dominate lectures instead of covering assigned material.

Topics

  • Mass communications and society
  • Media performance
  • Media change

Skills

  • Analyze and evaluate media performance
  • Develop suggestions for media change

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · 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 4 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.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.17 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 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

1289 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.

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
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Model & dataset provenance
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "bf6618cc0070497688269cd67566fd66ab72e0dbfdbb508722500b3af37fe033",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}