Prof. Vicky Sama is a journalism educator and journalist whose research interests focus on the constitutional rights of media professionals and threats to free speech. Her expansive journalism career includes covering drug wars, cocaine cartels and guerrilla groups in Third World countries. In addition to her expertise in media law and ethics, she has taught courses in war reporting, sports journalism, literary journalism, political reporting and environmental reporting.
keywords
Journalism, First Amendment, constitutional rights of media professionals, free speech, drug wars, cocaine cartels, media law, media ethics, war reporting, sports journalism, literary journalism, feature writing, political reporting, environmental reporting
Teaching
courses taught
JRNL 3202 - Covering Political Campaigns
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022 / Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
Provides a blend of theoretical understanding and on the ground experience for students interested in learning about the forces that shape election coverage and the practicalities of reporting on the local and national races for public office.
JRNL 3651 - Media Law and Ethics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Fall 2024
Studies state and federal laws and court decisions that affect the media in order to develop knowledge of media rights and responsibilities and an understanding of the legal system. Provides students with an overview of the theories, ethics, codes, and analytical models that are used in journalism, and introduces students to a variety of ethical issues that can arise in journalism.
JRNL 4004 - The Sports Media Industry
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Examines the business practices and frameworks of the sports that journalists cover. Topics include market-driven journalism, the growth of sports coverage throughout in the 20th century, the technologies impacting sports business today, and the way money impacts coverage. Finally, the class explores the unique issues and challenges posed by the different financial structures of amateur and professional sports and how they influence sports coverage and reporting.
JRNL 4311 - Literary Journalism
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023
Explores the telling of nonfiction stories through the techniques of fiction, through study of American literary journalists, from the New Journalism of the 1960s through current longform narrative multimedia. Students will read and analyze narrative nonfiction from several periods of American history in order to expand their own storytelling repertoire. The class will emphasize in-depth reporting for narrative, character and scene development, narrative arc and structure and the use of dialogue. They will also explore the particular ethical dilemmas faced by writers of creative nonfiction. Same as JRNL 5311.
JRNL 4411 - International Media and Global Crises
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2024
Investigates how media organizations, audiences and other international organizations function during various global crises, such as national disasters, climate change and health epidemics, due to imbalanced distribution of wealth and resources, ethnic tensions and diplomatic failures.
JRNL 4822 - Environmental Journalism
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023
Explores environmental topics including climate change, energy, water, biodiversity, and food. To enrich their skills and approaches, students produce stories on a range of environmental topics and examine media coverage of the environment, discussing the complex issues involved in reporting these stories, and exploring the ways that environmental crises intersect with other stories in the news.
JRNL 4931 - Internship
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024 / Summer 2024 / Fall 2024
Internship
JRNL 5311 - Literary Journalism
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023
Studies the contributions of American literary journalists from Sara Davidson, Joan Didion, Normal Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe; to established writers of nonfiction, including Annie Dillard, Jon Krakauer, Jane Kramer, Adrian Nichole LeBlanc and Terry Tempest Williams; to the newest wave of long-form journalists. Explores the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction and the literary techniques that distinguish creative nonfiction and literary journalism from other reportorial and storytelling forms. Formerly JRNL 6321. Same as JRNL 4311.
JRNL 5651 - Journalism Law & Ethics
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2024
Explores the legal and ethical frameworks of journalistic practice and media production. Covers historical as well as current frameworks used in examining the legal and ethical issues that arise in newsgathering and publication. Examines the relationships between ethics and the law in various media context.
JRNL 5822 - Reporting on the Environment
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023
This class examines media coverage of environmental topics, and explores the ways that environmental crises intersect with other stories in the news. Students read contemporary environmental journalism, discuss the complex issues involved in reporting on the environment, and produce their own stories on topics including climate change, energy, water, biodiversity, and food. Same as JRNL 4822.
