Spring 2027

Effects of Mass Communication

Examines the use and effects of mass communication for individuals and societies, including who is affected, what effects occur, media content involved, and situational factors influencing likelihood.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Hernando Rojas

The workload included three simple two-page writing assignments, a five-page final paper, and two exams with tricky questions that required studying lecture slides.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain how media audiences process media.

  • Compare/contrast theoretical approaches to media effects.

  • Explain how individual differences moderate the impact of media on audiences.

  • Evaluate common misconceptions about media effects.

  • Utilize media effects research to design a media literacy intervention.

  • Synthesize prior research and develop theory-driven hypotheses.

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

Junior standing

  • Junior standing
JOURN 565

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Junior standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

HERNANDO ROJAS is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JISOO KIM is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JO FAIR is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KARYN RIDDLE is recorded teaching in Spring 2008, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2024, 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

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

Past student reviews · Hernando Rojas

Students described the course as highly recommended and engaging, with lectures full of video clips and interactive survey questions.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.68 GPA, 87.8% A/AB (n=98 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.96 GPA, 99.0% A/AB (n=97 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.76 GPA, 90.7% A/AB (n=97 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Hernando Rojas

The workload included three simple two-page writing assignments, a five-page final paper, and two exams with tricky questions that required studying lecture slides.

Past student reviews · Karyn Riddle

One student found the discussion assignments to be busy work, though they noted the instructor was approachable and willing to clarify material.

Topics

  • Use and effects of mass communication for individuals and societies
  • Who is affected, what effects occur and how much
  • Different media content involved
  • Situations that make effects more or less likely

Skills

  • Explain how media audiences process media.
  • Compare/contrast theoretical approaches to media effects.
  • Explain how individual differences moderate the impact of media on audiences.
  • Evaluate common misconceptions about media effects.
  • Utilize media effects research to design a media literacy intervention.
  • Synthesize prior research and develop theory-driven hypotheses.

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 3 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.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.12 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.

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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
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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": "6380e275dd3ba34d540acd7d5f4302b6446a29bbe2ccea121882dc74b800f62e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}