He gave us 24 hours to write a 10 page paper. Enough said. We're all about to have a mental breakdown. Save yourself, and don't take this class.

I'm so freaking pissed with the grade. I thought I was going to get an A- or A but boy, I was wrong. He gave us so much work, I couldn't even catch a breathe with the amount given. He's nice and everything but the work is sooo much. Save yourselves.

The content in this class is very interesting, but that's kind of ruined by the way the professor teaches. It's just very boring in general. There were small homework assignments that could be done in like five minutes, and discussion sections were basically pointless because the TA was more interested in her own research.

Not a very enjoyable class to be honest. I got a lower grade bc he graded lecture attendance, but overall the class is not difficult. He only grades harshly on the final project and you have all quarter to do it. Just need to plan out

This course was fairly easy. Attendance to lecture wasn't mandatory, but encouraged since he thoroughly explains the concepts in class and not so much on his powerpoint slides. He tries to engage with the class, but the way he lectures can get boring at times. Though, I love all of the classes he teaches because the material itself is extremely interesting. The workload isn't too heavy either, just weekly assignments. There's a short answer midterm and research project we worked on throughout the course. We had to collect data and incorporate research articles into our project. Because of COVID, the final exam was online and it was in essay format.

The most boring class I've taken at UCLA. Professor is monotone. If you want an easy A, just attend the lecture and do the assignments. Small workload.

This class sucks because: boring and 5 different TA's who all have very different ways of grading.

The class is boring. I could barely focus.
Worse, the TA's grade drastically different from one another.
The midterm and final are bluebook. My friend and I put nearly identical responses on the midterm (we compared bluebooks in office hours), but they got a D while I got an A-.
The final project is 10+ pages. I got a B- while my friend got an A, again using similar format, studies, etc.

It was so bad this quarter that groups of students requested office hours to go over the exams. Steen said he would RE GRADE EVERYONE because it was so bad. Yet he still used the same 5 TA's on everything else. None of the assignments or final project come with any feedback whatsoever, so you don't even know what you messed up on.

The midterm and final are based off the slides. You'll have to come up with your own examples so be sure to do that.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend. Too much of a gamble. I got lucky in the end, but so many people don't.

I sincerely don't understand how his grading works..... There's no feedback or sth like that for the final paper, just a score. He procrastinated the midterm grade until week8 or 9, and it was graded by the TA who we even didn't know we had one. No, please just don't take this class. You might do well, but if you don't, you don't even know how you failed.

If you're a COMM major and need to do your Mass Media core, I'd recommend this class. You have a bunch of small weekly assignments due online (300-500 words) that you'll get full credit for as long as you put some effort into them. Exams weren't too hard, I think because the material is pretty straightforward, the only thing that's really difficult about them is that you're really pressed for time so you need to know the material well enough that you don't spend too much time on any one question. I just studied his PowerPoints and got A's on both exams, so just give yourself a day or two to memorize the stuff on them and that's really all you need to do to prepare for exams. The final project is a research project about basically anything you want, as long as it's relevant to the class. Attendance isn't required, but you do have to come to class for the peer review session at the end of the quarter, so just keep that in mind. Steen is really nice and genuinely cares!

I agree with other reviews that Prof Steen should be a graduate professor, but I really enjoyed this class. If you put effort into the research project, you will get a good grade. If you visit his office hours to talk about your project, he will treat you as if you are a colleague and never talks down to students.
You conduct your own research on a topic relating to advertising/politics/social media and illustrate your data through graphs/tables. You can choose to be in groups or do it yourself, whatever your preference is.
For Comm majors, I recommend this class as your core mass media requirement.