CORE COURSES
Students will take three core courses, with SPTM 3850 and SPTM 4800 required for all Sports Media Certificate students.
Core course 1: Introduction to Sports Reporting and Writing (SPTM 3850)
This class teaches students how to cover sports events on various platforms. Students cover high school, college and professional sports events as part of the class. Topics and competencies covered include: keeping statistics, doing background research, conducting interviews, writing game stories and recap scripts on deadline, covering events on social media, creating infographics, sports style and grammar guidelines, ethics and professional standards.
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- Next offered: Spring 2023
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- Prerequisites: None, but students must apply to get into the class. Applications will be taken every fall semester.
Core course 2: Multiplatform Storytelling for Sports (SPTM 4800)
This class teaches students to tell a variety of sports stories — including profiles and trend stories — across platforms. Students work extensively with text while also gaining competency in video, audio, infographics and photo. Emphasis is on storytelling, although familiarity and basic proficiency with the various platforms is a primary course objective.
Core course 3: Sports Broadcast and Production (SPTM 5820), Social and Digital Media Production for Sports (SPTM 5750), Sports Enterprise Reporting and Writing (SPTM 5800) OR Sports Media Relations (SPTM 5810)
Students choose one of these four courses, depending upon the sports-media specialty they want to pursue.
Sports Broadcast and Production
This classes teaches students how to produce live sports events and sports studio shows. Students work behind and in front of the camera at high school sports events to produce livestream broadcasts. In addition to learning how to do play by play, color commentary and sideline reporting, they work in various production roles and generate in-game graphics and game-related social media content. For the studio show, students create content through reporting and research of UGA sports and Athens-area high school sports. In addition to production roles, they work as hosts, analysts and features reporters. The course includes background on the history of sports broadcasting and sports media partnerships as well as industry trends in sports broadcast.
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- Prerequisites: SPTM 3850, SPTM 4800 (or by permission of instructor)
Social and Digital Media Production for Sports
Students learn how to produce compelling sport-related content for social and digital media through real-world experience. They study how social and digital content affect audience engagement and how these platforms have changed how sports content is created. They analyze how sports media outlets, teams, leagues, athletes, and other stakeholders use and evaluate the use of social media. They explore the efficacy of social and digital content in sports-related crisis communications.
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- Next offered: Spring 2023
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- Prerequisites: SPTM 3850, SPTM 4800 (or by permission of instructor)
Sports Enterprise Reporting and Writing
This class focuses on advanced research, interviewing and writing practices. Coursework is designed around one or two sports enterprise projects, usually in collaboration with professional media outlets. The projects provide a laboratory setting for working with investigative reporting tools (such as data gathering and analysis), for developing long-form writing skills, and for experimenting with various story-presentation platforms.
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- Next offered: Spring 2023
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- Prerequisites: SPTM 3850, SPTM 4800
Sports Media Relations
This class teaches students interested in sports communications/media relations how to build relationships, make story pitches and produce multimedia content tailored to sports-information needs. They also develop skills in effectively using social media and managing in- and out-of-game media demands during a sports event. The class explores these concepts through real-world experience. Previous classes have worked with the UGA Sports Communications department as UGA hosted NCAA tennis championships.
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- Prerequisites: SPTM 3850, SPTM 4800
TOPICS COURSES
Students will take two topics courses from among the choices below.
Sports, Media and Society (SPTM 3800)
Students learn how sports, and the media coverage of sports, can reflect and drive social and cultural change. Course material spans historical and contemporary perspectives. Students critically analyze the intersection of sports and politics; sports and economics; sports and religion; sports and civic pride and national identity; and sports and LGBT, race and gender issues. Students gain a working knowledge of U.S. sports history over the last century, as well as an understanding of how the media affect the impact that sport has on cultural progression.
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- Prerequisites: None; open to all UGA undergraduates
Advanced Topics in Sports Media (SPTM 5880)
These classes focus on topics central to a deeper understanding of issues that influence or converge with sports and/or sports media. Examples include sports law, sports analytics and economics, social change in sports, sports integration, race and gender in sports, and social media in sports. Course titles already offered include “Performance and Health Issues in Sports for Media,” “College Sports and the Media,” and “Sports Communications” (this one is ongoing, offered through the College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s AD/PR department).
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- Prerequisites: Varied; check with department and/or instructor
Students also can fulfill the topics course requirement through select offerings in the
Sport Management program in the Department of Kinesiology. Acceptable selections are classes that examine topics in the broad sense of sport, rather than topics related only to sport management. Some possibilities:
Philosophy and Ethics in Sport (KINS 3415); Managing the Legal Aspects of Sport (KINS 3420); Sport and the Black Culture (KINS 3580); Sport Finance (KINS 4520); Social Aspects of Sport (4820); Sport Policy and Governance (KINS 4830). Classes that focus primarily on sport-management skills, such as
Sport Event Management (KINS 4840), do not fill this requirement.
You must obtain a POD in order to register for classes in the Department of Kinesiology. Please contact Professor Carlo Finlay at carlof@uga.edu for details.
At least one of the two topics courses should be 4000 level or above.
Check with Prof. Finlay for approval of any non-SPTM courses.
CAPSTONE COURSE
The capstone is required for all Sports Media Certificate students.
Sports Media Capstone (SPTM 5900)
This class, usually completed via an internship with a professional media outlet or sports organization, allows students to explore their specific sports media interests and possible career paths in a real-world setting. Instructors provide learning parameters and objectives for the students’ supervisors. The supervisors give critical feedback on student work as the term progresses. Students learn to apply their knowledge and skills in a professional environment. They also learn to adapt to daily demands in the ever-evolving sports media industry.
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- Prerequisites: SPTM 3850; SPTM 4800; SPTM 5800 or SPTM 5810 or SPTM 5820 (or by permission of instructor)
