Fall 2026

Special Topics in Mass Communication

JOURN 676 is a special topics course focusing on the in-depth analysis of a conceptual mass communication issue.

offering recorded1–4 credits

Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Tomas Dodds Rojas

Summary

1 / 6

Historical reviews of Stephen Vaughn: One reviewer reported a huge research paper assigned at the start, with daily changes to requirements and an expectation of website coding skills.

Grade history

↗

average GPA
letter grades

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Junior standing

Junior standing

JOURN 676

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

Prerequisite text tree

Junior standing

Professors

Fall 2026

Tomas Dodds Rojas

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=16 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews for Dominique Brossard describe her as a great professor who is very concerned about her students. These reviews highlight her supportive nature and high quality of instruction.

DOMINIQUE BROSSARD is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Spring 2009. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEPHEN VAUGHN is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TOMAS DODDS ROJAS is recorded teaching in 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

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

Section	Mode	Enrolled / capacity	Waitlist
LEC 064	Classroom Instruction	13 / 25	0

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

Historical reviews for Stephen Vaughn show conflicting experiences, ranging from a rough, dominating class with irrational expectations to a fun, easy course with student freedom.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.81 GPA, 89.6% A/AB (n=67 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.73 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=55 letter grades); Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=16 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Stephen Vaughn: One reviewer reported a huge research paper assigned at the start, with daily changes to requirements and an expectation of website coding skills.

Historical reviews of Stephen Vaughn: Another reviewer found the class fun, citing freedom for independent research projects, peer critique, and a final presentation as the only major requirement.

Topics

Mass communication
Conceptual mass communication issues

Skills

In-depth analysis of conceptual mass communication issues

Grades

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 3 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.

7 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Fall 2026 in UW–Madison.

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 676 · Fall 2026

Special Topics in Mass Communication

Recorded 2026-09-07

JOURN 676 · Fall 2026

Innovations in Journalism

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": "1272:512:010766",
    "course_id": "JOURN 676",
    "course_uid": "course_12cd95ac5e46e8b391c94d96",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "010766",
    "source_subject_id": "512",
    "title": "Special Topics in Mass Communication",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:512:010766.64",
    "course_id": "JOURN 676",
    "course_uid": "course_12cd95ac5e46e8b391c94d96",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "010766.64",
    "source_subject_id": "512",
    "title": "Innovations in Journalism",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "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

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": "0572e39699bb76cdcda815415b0021f681e1e9fed5ae90285dd70494f03dc8e8",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}