I'm not sure why there are low-ish reviews for this class. The material is incredibly straightforward, Rossman is very accommodating, and there really isn't that much material. The topics are pretty interesting to think about and the exams are non-cumulative. The assignments are pretty much graded for completion as well.

I've heard this is the easiest way to fulfill the mass communication requirement for the Communication major, and after completing it, I can definitely see that. I had Yeritsian, who wasn't listed on the options of professors, and I feel like the class was overall good. The content can be boring and seem self-explanatory, but it's essential to go to every lecture and take decent notes to study from. The grade was entirely based off of 3 exams, spaced evenly throughout the quarter. The exams were 30 multiple choice questions and 2 essay questions (chosen from 3 options). The questions weren't too hard and he curves the grades because the class tends to not get the highest grades overall. Everything considered, it was a pretty easy way to fulfill a requirement because the only time I ever spent outside of class was a short study session before each exam.

Whatever hype has been said about this man, forget about it. I cannot stress enough how sloppy and egotistical this tenured professor is. During our quarter, we had a mass shooter threat the same week we transitioned to in-person learning from fully remote. The shooter threat came from an old Philosophy instructor and he wanted to target Dodd Hall. Rossman was the only professor hesitant to cancel class and supported his reasoning by claiming the locks were “efficient” enough and there hasn’t been a reported incident of a shooter breaking into the specific locks. This happened during his midterm exam and pressured students to show up in Dodd to take the test or else take a vague 15 paged-paper version as an alternative. His exams usually are 4 short answers on lecture summarization with 4 multiple choice about all the dense readings he assigns each week. I’m telling you all, if you value your GPA, DON’T take this class with him because he does not curve and your best chance is a grade book error if you have a percentage close enough to the next letter grade. We had two TA’s and they graded the 5 required 1000 word reading memo summarization subjectively. Everything in this class is graded randomly and subjectively as well, so beware. Save yourself the stress, because the content is boringly taught and not worth the trouble.

I loved this class so much! As of today, this is the best sociology class I've taken at UCLA. Professor Rossman is a great lecturer. All the topics we read were extremely engaging. I really do recommend this class! If I had the chance to take this class again I totally would.

Rossman is legit such a GREAT professor! He's super funny and woke, but sometimes lectures pretty fast. He doesn't use slides most of the time and can go on tangents which can be confusing, but he's generally pretty good at summarizing his main points at the beginning and end of lecture. Carmella (our TA) was also really great at helping us to clarify what was important in the lectures.

Overall, not terribly difficult if you're going to lecture, and honestly super interesting content that changed my perspective on the entertainment industry.