A LOT of reading, not all of which are required. Lectures are very monotonous and tend to be boring. Mostly based on papers, but TA's give feedback in rounds which helps improvement over time. Only 1 midterm which was most MCQ and some FRQ. Overall, not the best lecturer but if you study and work at it can end with an A or AB.

J201 was a good class to take with Professor Rojas. He was a good lecturer who put everything on the slides. Midterm was a bit tough but finals were chill. Rojas set the class up really well and had interesting guest speakers come to class.

Hernado was a great lecturer and has an interesting class. You have two essays, two speeches and two exams that are not bad if you payed attention in class. The midterm was tough but the "final" was 2 online short-essays (hard not to get 100%). There was also many opportunites to get up to 2% extra credit. Not a bad choice for a comm B.

Dr. Rojas was amazing. He is extremely intelligent and his lectures are fun most of the time. There are 2 speeches in your discussion, but those are easy. 2 essays, but the assignment tells you exactly what he and the TAs expect, so they're easy if you follow the directions. One midterm, one final, both easier than most classes. Highly recommend.

He was a really engaging professor. I feel like I did well in the class. My TA was incredible and helped me with the things I didn't understand. Overall, good class to start the major. The course itself doesn't cover anything related to HOW to be a journalist, though.

Professor Rojas was a pretty good professor. The midterm was hard but the final was optional depending on if you wanted an opportunity to increase your grade. 2 papers, 3 short essays, 2 speeches, his lectures were recorded and posted. Overall, pretty engaging class!

Professor Rojas is a well respected lecturer among the journalism students I have interacted with. He lectures with passion and expertise, making catching up easy. People who rate him bad are probably those that didn't put in effort to make the best use of the extremely applicable, and useful knowledge this class gives.

pretty run of the mill professor, lectures were engaging enough. lots of extra credit opportunities, assignments were easy, and provided a lot of good info and guest speakers on the j school.

Professor Rojas is a fair grader with clear assignments and guidelines. The assignments are long but you get good time to do them. Lots of reading and lectures can get repetitive, but guest lectures help and TA's grade your work.

Prof. Rojas was great... if you're into political communication. The first part of the course is all about journalism and politics which Hernando knows A LOT about, but the strategic communications part is rushed and entirely guest speakers. 2 big essays, 3 short writings, 2 speeches, and lots of reading. Interesting topics but meh lectures.

3 readings every week that are necessary to do well in discussion- vary in length. have to give 2 dis. speeches but are not stressful (coming from someone who hates speeches), 2 big essays, 3 short writings. Sometimes the lectures feel as if they could have been done in an email as they circle and drag, but the concepts are interesting.

J201 was my favorite class I took this semester. The readings, while long and difficult, were consistently interesting and I enjoyed discussing them. Hernando often made me laugh in lecture, albeit likely unintentionally. I honestly rarely attended lecture, and could usually google a short summary of the topics we were meant to discuss in papers.

J 201 was a difficult and very demanding class. The lectures and the discussion sections were like two different classes. Rojas would mostly bring in people to hype up the J school. Also, essays were very long and discussion sections were rough because we had to do prepared speeches and responses speeches, and participate twice in discussions.

Prof Rojas for Intro to Mass Comms was great. The lectures were engaging even though they were online and the readings related to the lectures but weren't boring like in some classes. The discussion sections were engaging too. The papers weren't too bad to write and overall I enjoyed the class.

(Took Journ201) Professor Rojas has really straight forward lectures. Lecture content is what is on the quizzes. Readings are fairly important, about 2-3 every week.

Very middle of the road professor. Nothing terrible, but not amazing either. Class is a wide survey of the journalism profession that covers a lot of topics in not a lot of depth. Rojas is a cool guy, but does not do much to inspire students

I really enjoyed Professor Rojas' lectures. At times the material could be a bit dry, but he gave interesting examples to help students understand. Lecture wasn't mandatory, but if you only look at the lecture slides and don't attend you won't know all the information you'll be tested on. Attendance and participation in discussion section is key!

It seemed like half of the lecture was filled with Rojas' "erms." Rojas isn't a good speaker, and the content is bland. It seemed like he never had enough legitimate material to fill a 50 minute period, and the discussion section is like a totally separate speech class from the lecture material. Nonetheless, tons of extra credit, easy A.

Prof Rojas is lovely! His lectures are easy to follow and the class has an insane amount of extra credit opportunities.

Rojas is a super fun guy and I think I would love to have him as a mentor or advisor, however, his borings are super boring. He tried his best with a crowd of 300 kids, but at the end of it, I was always watching the clock. Lots of EC though. There's also alotof reading and no study guides for exams, which is super rough. Overall good dude

lol one of the worse professors at explaining things and creating slides, but overall a gem. very quirky and wholesome. never not an amusing day when i decided to actually attend his lecture. love u hernando

His lectures were so confusing but they didn't have to be and that is why I hated his class. It seemed like he was using confusing language on purpose. The ideas and topics he discussed didn't seem that difficult but when he tried to explain them he would take for twenty minutes and use super confusing scientific words. Hated his class.

Prof Rojas lectures were not necessary to attend. He posts the slides online and they say pretty much anything you need to know. Discussions were ridiculous with busy work assignments that don't coincide with the course. The class is easy, just has a lot of dumb assignments that aren't really beneficial to anybody. Easy A though, lots of EC.

Rojas himself is a very good lecturer for a class of people either wanting to get a start in the field and those who want to fulfill their Comm B requirement. Going to lecture is by no means mandatory (slides are posted online), but it helps with doing well on the midterms and essays. Warning, this class is graded by TAs in mandatory discussions.

Rojas is a solid professor and I consider him to be pretty good at his job. The lectures really dive into the topics in depth so missing lecture may mean missing understanding of some of the harder concepts the class covers. There are a few short writing assignments and long essays but they are spaced out and the content is straight forward.

He is a very nice professor, however a lot of the material in lecture does not pertain to the class. He tends to have guest lecturers come in, but that is only to promote the journalism school. They usually do not have anything really to do with the class itself. Not clear on criteria for papers and tests. Discussion heavy class.

Discussion heavy class. Took the honors section. It was pretty easy. The tests were ok, and we usually got points back. You need to either print all the readings out or buy the book from student print because you give presentations every week in discussion.

Fairly easygoing guy. He knows his stuff, and he makes the class interesting, I wouldn't make a habit of missing classes, but if you miss a few you'll be ok

Hernando's lecture were interesting and relevant. He kept the class engaged and was light-hearted. There were only 2 papers each being only

His 2 exams were absolutely ridiculous. Both exams asked trick questions and were questions irrelevant to the material(s) he told you to study (mainly his lecture slides). He is a terrible professor that gives dull lectures and administers exams clearly with the intent to trick people. Stay away if possible...

Exams were absolutely ridiculous. Not relevant at all to lectures or sections. Sections are so detached from lectures -no reinforcement of material, rather just students giving speeches. Stay away, will be stressed out of your mind not necessarily because of its difficulty but because there are no set notes, expectations, grading system, etc etc...

Really hard tests and doesn't tell you anything about them.

Was not a fan of Rojas. Lectures were incredibly disjointed and slides were just graphs, so when you go back to review, there's nothing there. Lectures are boring and he doesn't do anything to really make them entertaining. Would recommend waiting until the Spring to take this with another professor.

Did not like this class overall, or Rojas as a professor. His lectures are so unrelated to the sections that you sometimes wonder if you're taking 2 different classes. The sections are students (3/each) giving speeches. Do not expect sections to help you what so ever in understanding content. This course and its structure needs a complete makeover

Professor Rojas is an interesting and compelling lecturer. He is really passionate about what he does and extremely knowledgeable. The class has a lot of reading and you need to participate in discussion. But overall, it was a great class. The tests were fair and the essays were not too demanding. I definitely recommend!

Rojas is on of the best professors for the J-school. He was very clear in his lectures and topics were organized well. Quizzes and tests reflect lecture powerpoints which are found online. Discussion mandatory and lecture highly encouraged because he gives test answers. One of the best.

I just finished up my first semester at Madison and really enjoyed Hernando's class. He uses powerpoints with basic bullet points that he also posts on the class website, but it's important to go to lecture and take notes so you know details. He makes lecture very interesting even when it's boring and is super caring. You have to work hard for an A

I really like Professor Rojas. He is a great lecturer and I learned a lot from him. He's always open to questions and free at office hour. His reading and writing assignments are very interesting and I really enjoyed them. Also, TA is important for this class since all your assignments are graded by TAs.

Hernando is a pretty average professor. He is very kind and knowledgeable, and a fairly good lecturer, but there is nothing special about him. He does what he needs to do to expose students to the introductory journalism concepts. His lecture slides were somewhat disjointed, but he was able to communicate what he needed to. Should be an easy A/AB.

Professor Rojas is very knowledgable about journalism and communication arts. His lectures are interesting, but the information is very elementary. He does post all of the lecture slides. The discussion section is where most of the work is done: graded speeches, discussion leadership, quizzes, etc. Very easy course overall.

Very good understanding of subject material, well organized slides and informative lectures.

All notes, online but you should go to class because he explains his slides with depth Discussions are fun if you have a talkative class that likes conversation. Two papers and two tests, readings are good, daily 500 word write-ups. Great class and I learned a lot. Would 100% take this class again.

Fantastic lecturer and somehow found a way to make sometimes boring topics interesting and relevant. Professor Rojas really knows the material well and is a very effective communicator. Highly recommend taking J201. The course load is manageable and helps build effective writing skills.

Many guest lecturers which can be annoying, but Rojas himself is a really engaging professor who makes lectures interactive and engaging. Expect a decent amount of reading every week, but other than that, homework isn't too bad besides a few papers. Do the extra credit. TAs are helpful. Easy A as long as you show up and put in some effort!

Rojas does not seem invested in his classes at all. Discussion sections don't correlate with lectures at all and he assigns a lot of very long and tedious readings each week. I wouldn't recommend the class unless you're interested in applying to the J School.

the lectures get long sometimes, but rojas is good at getting the class involved and making them seem a little shorter. Very energetic, knowledgeable about the subject and encouraging of student participation. exams and assignments weren't bad at all. the final project was tough, but fun if you're interested in media effects research

Rojas is really knowledgeable and excited about teaching the subject matter. Lectures are long and dry and often get off topic, but if you can find the main points, it's not so bad.For the exams if you just know the theory and an example, you get an A. The papers are the exact same deal. Make sure you get Rojas as your TA too, he grades easier

Hernando is clearly very passionate and interested in the subject matter. Lectures can be a bit muddled but full of video clips and cell phone survey questions. 3 simple 2 page writing assignments and a 5 page final paper. The 2 exams had tricky questions, but just study the lecture slides. Highly recommended class! Steph Edgerly was a great TA.