Past Features

April 21, 2008 (Vol. 7, No. 7)

New Summer Journalism Course to Focus on Newsrooms in Films

Miguel Perez
Professor Miguel Pérez
This summer, the Department of Journalism, Communication, and Theatre will offer a new course, titled "Journalism in the Movies." The course will be taught by award-winning journalist Professor Miguel Pérez.

"Journalism in the Movies" (COM 452.01B; code #0732) is a 3-credit course that will meet during the Summer II session (July 7-Aug. 5), from 2-4 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

"Our objective with this course is to motivate our students, to get them excited about pursuing careers in journalism," Pérez said. "Through these movies, they will be able to see how TV, radio, and newspaper newsrooms really work, how reporters strive to get the right facts and to meet their deadlines. But most importantly, they will see how exciting this career can be."

Pérez said students will learn about the workings of newspapers, investigative reporting, television production, talk-radio dynamics, and journalism ethics by watching "some of the best journalism movies ever made," including The Paper, Broadcast News, All the President's Men, and many others. Each movie will be followed by a class discussion, he said, noting that this is the first time this course is offered at Lehman.

Professor Pérez is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Creators Syndicate www.creators.com, and writes a weekly column that often deals with Latino-related issues. He is also a CNN Contributor, appearing as a commentator at least once a week on Lou Dobbs Tonight and other programs. Professor Pérez has been a reporter for The Tampa Times and The Miami Herald, a columnist for the New York Daily News and The Record of Hackensack, N.J., and the host of three radio shows and three television programs in both English and Spanish.

For more information on this course, e-mail Professor Pérez at miguel.perez01@lehman.cuny.edu.