blog=graduate school credit?

Is it possible? I got this e-mail from my lovely graduate institution which continually tries to out do its neighboring federal bureaucracies in red tape and generally exceeding large amounts of consumer 'estimated burden' when it comes to student services:

Interested in studying How to Report U.S. Foreign Policy in Washington, DC?

The U.S. Foreign Policy Institute is offering both undergraduates and graduates the opportunity to take a 1 credit course in Summer 2005 on the relationship between foreign policy and the media. Graduate students can count this course as a skills class.

Reporting US Foreign Policy:
Students will attend sessions covering the complex relationship between the media and U.S. Foreign Policy, undertake site visits and improve their technical skills while producing a piece on U.S. foreign policy, such as a short TV report, a radio story, a blog or a newspaper article. Among the issues covered in these sessions by GW faculty and journalists will be:
Government attempts to manage the news cycle & media resistance
First Amendment issues: leaked information and use of classified documents
Global reporting of U.S. foreign policy
The influence of blogs, Internet sites and NGOs in breaking stories
Investigative journalism: sources, networks and methodologies
U.S. Foreign policy in the field: Interpreting U.S. diplomacy beyond the 'staged pageant'
Reporting U.S. foreign policy from war zones
Students will also undertake site visits including:
The State Department daily press briefing
Al Jazeera
The BBC
CNN

In addition to substantive sessions and site visits, students will enhance their media tradecraft by attending sessions on producing and editing and individually working with a journalist mentor to prepare a piece on U.S. Foreign Policy. Studio and editing time (and assistance with technology) will be available for those who need it.


For more information and an application form, please log onto the USFPI website at www.gwu.edu/~usfpi .


Now wouldn't that be rad? I'm sure if I actually did this, I would scare away the few readers I have and somehow get myself fired from work.