I like Professor Kernell. She is generally very knowledgeable and helpful. Her presentations were well-prepared and she fostered good class discussions. Lecture was a bit monotonous at times, but I think that just comes with the material. I also think lecture could be just a bit slower.

Your grade is based on a midterm (20%), final (28%), in-class reading quizzes (5%), participation (12%), and a group commercial project (35%).

You have clicker questions at the beginning and middle of each class so you can't really afford to miss; you'll get 12% for just showing up for each clicker question and the extra 5% comes from how many you get right over the course of the quarter.

I feel like the workload for this class was a bit much. We had a heavy amount of reading each week, in addition to the large commercial project we had to complete. It's definitely more than I have for my other classes, and I think this could be remedied with just a couple fewer readings each week. That being said, I understand that some classes just require more work and that this is a practicuum class so I understand to some extent why the workload is as it is.
The exams are fair but only if you study a lot for them.

You have a commercial project in which you have to make two 30-second ads; one positive and one negative about political candidates. I have mixed feelings about this project. I feel like I learned a lot and generally think it's a good exercise, but I think my problem with it is that our grade largely depends on our creativity, or lack thereof. That being said, both the professor and TA (if Joe is still TAing, he is so great!! We all loved Joe) and were willing to give advice and feedback so I can't complain too much.

Also, the reason this class counts as a practicuum is because you are supposed to learn video editing skills; the professor incorporates this by making you watch an online video tutorial for iMovie (which you can also test out of by proving proficiency).

My last note about this class is that I wish it was a little less about news/journalism and a little more about communication between/among officeholders. This is what I expected going in and was a little disappointed. I know there is some overlap, in terms of how the press covers the government, but I think to call it political comm and then discuss mainly the news is a little misleading.

This class was honestly falsely advertised. I felt the syllabus and what the professor said would be covered in the class didn't actually correlate with the lectures, and the content turned out to be extremely dry and boring. Additionally, the professor wasn't very clear in her communication (ironic that she's a comm professor) and I felt like I could have learned everything literally from just doing the readings. If there wasn't a clicker question at the beginning of each class there's no way I would have ever gone.