JOU4424 - Practical Journalism 1

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Identify local news sources, and possible news angles and stories, for print, online, TV, radio and digital media.
Demonstrate an ability to identify relevant sources and interview effectively, also identifying relevant information and direct quotes.
Write basic news stories in an appropriate style for print, online, TV and radio.
Work effectively in a team.
Demonstrate a basic competence in both radio and television news production, location sound recording and editing.

Content:

Students will learn how to find, research and write news stories in an appropriate style for different platforms. They will learn and practise interviewing skills. The sessions will be partly classroom-based in workshops but will include a lot of live reporting, and students will build a portfolio covering key skills. This module includes teamwork in the TV studio, video journalism, radio and digital skills.

Learning and Teaching Information:

This module will be taught in workshop sessions, where students have the chance to use their growing skills in practical scenarios and in real-life situations. There will be opportunities to cover real-life events and to get out and about to hone their developing skills.

We will use some formal taught material, discussion, real-life scenarios in class, practising writing from prepared and real-life material, using social media and online platforms to publish, going to live events and reporting from them.

Formative feedback will be a high priority throughout semesters 1 and 2.

Broadcast Journalism students will be given voice coaching in a mixture of group and individual sessions.

News workshops / supervision
Hours:80
Intended Group size: 25

Guided independent study
Hours: 320

Intended Group size: Cohort plus individual
Voice coaching (broadcast students only)
Hours: 2

Further details relating to assessment
Do all individual components need to be passed to pass the module overall? No
Is this module exempt from condonement of marginal failure? Yes

Both portfolios will typically include a range of assessed classroom and live production tasks set throughout semester 1. Portfolio 1 will also include assessments set during Journalism Week.

Directed activities: these consist of weekly tasks that must be completed and submitted for inspection at timetabled sessions each week. The assessment will be assessed on a pass/fail basis with a pass requiring at least 75% of all weekly tasks to be completed successfully. A pass will lead to the full award of 10% towards the final module mark. A fail in directed activities will contribute 0% to the final mark.

Assessment:

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Rebecca Whittington
Level - 4
Credit Value - 40
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered -

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