2022/23 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

COMM2385 Digital Journalism

20 creditsClass Size: 45

Module manager: Ian Bucknell
Email: I.Bucknell@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2022/23

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module prepares students for the challenges of digital news production in a professional environment. Participants will understand how journalism is shaped by the larger digital media environment, as well as the ways that journalists can take advantages of new technologies to produce new forms of journalism. They will produce multimedia and interactive webpages, live blogs, digital short videos, social cards and other appropriate story formats. They will understand the ways that different journalistic goals such as professionalism, objectivity, and speaking truth to power are refracted by larger digital media developments.

Objectives

This module aims to provide students with an understanding of both the theory and practice of digital journalism, with “the digital” being one of the major socio-technical forces shaping journalism today. It asks them to create a work of digital journalism which will be available in a range of digital formats, as well as to complete a theoretical essay looking at one of the major issues in digital journalism today.
The module will
1. provide students with comprehensive practical instruction on how to select, research, and develop news stories for digital journalistic media;
2. teach students the writing and production skills they need to produce news reports for digital platforms;
3. familiarise students with a professional working environment and the organisational structures that underpin a digital or largely digital newsroom;
4. Ensure that students comprehend the manner in which increased digitization is affecting the work routines, economic underpinnings, political pressures, cultures, and technological affordances of news;
Tie the above intellectual problems into both the work of news as well as current political and social events

Learning outcomes
At the end of the module students should be able to:

1. Identify, research and develop news stories suitable for digital output;
2. Apply appropriate digital news skills to publish stories using a range of formats;
3. Grasp the history of digital technology’s relationship with news, and the different ways that news organizations have tried to grapple with technological change;
4. Understand how the politics, work routines, culture, and economics of news are changing and are NOT changing because of digital technology;
5. Examine specific present-day issues and current events in politics, economics, and media and apply these to larger academic scholarship on digital news.

Syllabus

This module sees students begin to understand the different ways that changing technological circumstances are impacting the work they do as journalists, and practice and develop specific journalistic skill sets that will allow them to produce a variety of digital news products. As they produce these products, they will also understand how different digital forms and formats involve trade-offs in what can be done journalistically. The module is designed so that students develop an integrated understanding of the relationship between journalistic theory and journalistic practice, and will tie both of these concepts into current events. In order to do this:
• Scholarly workshops cover basic theoretical concepts. Each day is tied into a current news event, which allows the students to understand how the theoretical concepts are reflected in intellectual and ethical issues real journalists struggle with every day;
• Small group practical workshops track, as closely as possible, these theoretical lectures, allowing students to see how digital news skills relate to larger topics they are discussing. Students will learn how to source, research and develop stories suitable for digital production. They will also attain the technical and journalistic skills required to create news reports for online and social media dissemination, whilst becoming familiar with and experimenting with digital storytelling formats.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	16	2.00	32.00
Private study hours			168.00
Total Contact hours			32.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Private study should be dedicated to:
• Readings in preparation for workshop discussions: 32 hours
• Practicing technical skills: 22 hours
• Research and completion of essay: 57 hours
• Research and development of digital news report: 57 hours

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Monitoring of student progress will be carried out by means of assessing participation in discussions and the completion of classroom-based exercises. Students will receive on-going feedback through each stage of the completion of both formative and summative tasks. Formative exercises will include the production of a 500 word multimedia and interactive webpage.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	2500-3000 words	50.00
Portfolio	Digital Journalism Portfolio, equivalent to 2,500-3,000 words	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 15/08/2022

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