Content Strategy for a Cause

In AQ 2013, stu­dents in NMS 509/WRD 530: Mul­ti­me­dia Con­tent Strat­egy part­nered with three non­profit orga­ni­za­tions to explore how organizations can strategically collect and use photographs and video. The course offered students the chance to apply practical and critical readings on content strategy to the real-world cases of their partner organizations. The idea for this course came from Assistant Professor and Director of MA in WRD Lisa Dush’s interest in new media storytelling in organizations.

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Q: What would your dream WRD or NMS course look like?

Did you know Rutgers University offers students a class on Queen Bey? “Politicizing Beyonce” explores the boundaries / non-boundaries between American race, gender and sexual politics, but if this class wouldn’t do it for you, what would your dream course look like? Do you want to learn more on corporate Digital Asset Management (DAM)? Or how about spending 10 weeks exploring rhetoric, sports, and gender? As always, leave your answers in the comments or on FB and we’ll post them next week.

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Grant Writing Class Aids Nonprofits

Students from the WQ2013 course WRD 560: Grant Writing wrote grant proposals that resulted in three local non-profit organizations receiving $33,500 in awards. WRD 560, taught by Antonio Ceraso, Assistant Professor in WRD and Director of the MA in New Media Studies, focuses on the genre of the grant proposal—both the written documents themselves, and the genre as a particular response to the emergence of broader social forms of giving or contribution. As part of their coursework, students partner with local organizations to apply their grant writing skills and, ideally, to help these organizations to secure grants.

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WRD Students Perform High Stakes Research

Performing research in a WRD course takes on a whole new layer of meaning when there are real stakes in the outcome of the research. Students in WRD 530: Workplace Ethnography, taught by Assistant Professor Sarah Read during AQ12, had the opportunity to do qualitative research for stakeholders at Josephinum Academy, a Catholic girl’s high school in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. Read’s course partnered with Josephinum with the assistance of Jean Vipond at DePaul’s Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning.

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