Fall 2026

Media and the Consumer

MEDIA AND THE CONSUMER examines mass media content from the consumer's perspective, focusing on information needs, media evaluation, and effective use guidelines.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Douglas McLeod3.9/5Brule Woods3.7/5Hyerin Kwon

Summary

1 / 7

Students report multiple readings weekly, five exams, a final paper, and a semester-long group project, requiring consistent preparation and time management.

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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Prerequisites

Course map

Junior standing

  • Junior standing
JOURN 564

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Junior standing

Professors

Fall 2026
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.50/5 from 8 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.

For this course: 4.5/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

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

Reviewers describe Douglas McLeod as engaging and caring, noting his lectures connect well to real-world applications. However, they also characterize the course as difficult due to a heavy workload. Specific complaints include five exams, multiple papers, a group project, and long online lectures that require significant effort.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 1 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.

No course-specific feedback yet.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.60 GPA, 76.4% A/AB (n=72 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

HYERIN KWON is recorded teaching in Spring 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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
DIS 301Classroom Instruction25 / 250
DIS 302Classroom Instruction25 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction25 / 258
DIS 304Classroom Instruction25 / 250
LEC 001Classroom Instruction100 / 1008

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

Douglas McLeod delivers engaging, real-world lectures that students praise, but the course demands significant effort due to heavy reading, five exams, and a group project.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.60 GPA, 76.4% A/AB (n=72 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=97 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.75 GPA, 80.4% A/AB (n=97 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Students report multiple readings weekly, five exams, a final paper, and a semester-long group project, requiring consistent preparation and time management.

Reviewers appreciate McLeod’s caring nature and clear explanations, though one student notes long online lectures and another warns that tests allow little room for error.

Topics

  • Mass media content and advertising
  • Consumer information needs and opportunities
  • Consumer movement implications

Skills

  • Evaluate media performance
  • Apply guidelines for effective media use
  • Identify alternative information sources

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 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.

6 earlier forecasts · 0.12 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 · 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

1320 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
JOURN 564 · Fall 2026

Media and the Consumer

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:512:009791",
    "course_id": "JOURN 564",
    "course_uid": "course_5157c076381f70c3511622ec",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "009791",
    "source_subject_id": "512",
    "title": "Media and the Consumer",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "3c2428657b55906d84e20102b7240a2f52429d236b3ab7df6fbd78a62d42565b",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}