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Home > England > London > Programs > Program Overview > Course Requirements > Course Description
Multimedia Journalism: The London Experience - 2MSS501
University of Westminster
London, England
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Level(s) |
Instruction in |
Credits |
Contact Hours |
Prerequisites |
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Media, Arts, and Design
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200
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English
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4
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50
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Print Journalism
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This class offers an opportunity to extend and consolidate core journalistic skills – researching, interview and writing news, features and comment – and then develop an understanding of how to apply those skills to create accurate and compelling content for the web.
Students are taught the more technically complex skills required for working online. They learn net research, publishing online, audio and video newsgathering and the basics of multimedia journalism. They are also introduced to basic web content management techniques and get a chance to demonstrate their skills by producing an individual and a group weblog.
CLASS AIMS
The class aims to use London as the focus for a journalistic project that explores one of the world?s great capital cities from the perspective of an international student and introduces students to the different ways interactive technologies are changing journalism.
Students will be taught techniques for researching, interviewing and writing news, features and comment. They will then adapt and extend those techniques so that they are able to create compelling multimedia content for the web.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the class the successful student will be able to:
1. Write news, features, comment and listings, with a developing understanding of professional standards
2. Research, write, create and publish material on a range of topics on an individual blog
3. Effectively combine different types of multimedia content in to create newsworthy, compelling stories
4. Demonstrate a developing understanding the distinctive features of online and multimedia journalism
5. Work as a competent member of a team producing an online weblog
6. Critically evaluate their own journalistic performance and that of others
INDICATIVE SYLLABUS CONTENT
- Writing and reporting assignments, conducted in a realistic newsroom environment using real-time events
- Reporting assignments in chosen parts of London, exploring current issues of importance and interest
- Online and multimedia journalism assignments, using current techniques, from blogging to video to cover the cultural scene in London
- Web production/content management classes teaching students how to produce quality material using different blogging services
TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS
Lectures, workshops, seminars, visits to news media organisations, talks by industry professionals, reflective tutorials
ASSESSMENT RATIONALE
The assessments are designed to test students? technical and craft abilities plus their capacity to work in a small team.
For Assignment 1, they will produce a portfolio of their own individual work on an individual blog - news stories, features, opinions pieces, pictures and video. This work will demonstrate their ability to engage with the teaching, to acquire new skills, both conceptual and technical, and to apply those skills to create journalism that demonstrates a developing understanding of the potentials of online multimedia. This assignment will help to assess whether students have meet Learning Outcomes 1 and 2.
For Assignment 2, students will work in a small team to produce a group weblog covering an aspect of London life. They will create stories for the site, gather audio/video material and take pictures and use all this on their blog. Students will be assessed on their individual work, on the role they play and their input to the team project plus the overall standard of the work produced by the group. This assessment will test students? understanding of multimedia and online journalism and allow them to demonstrate the new technical and conceptual skills they have developed. It will help assess whether they have met Learning Outcomes 3, 4 and 5. Assignment 2 is a group project. This will be assessed via tutor observation of the group as it works, by individual contributions to the group project and via Assignment 3 – the reflective log, in which students will be asked to document their contribution to the group blog and reflect critically on group dynamics and organisation.
For Assignment 3, students write a reflective log that covers the work done on the class, their individual blog and the group effort. It will enable assessors to determine the extent to which they have developed both new technical and craft skills and the ability to apply those skills to create more complex forms of online multimedia. This will help to assess whether they have met Learning Outcomes 4, 5, and 6.
ASSESSMENT METHODS AND WEIGHTINGS
Assignment 1 Portfolio of work for the individual blog 60%
Assignment 2 Contribution to group blog 30%
Assignment 3 Reflective log 10%
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Students' work will be assessed according to whether it demonstrates:
1. A firm grasp of core journalistic skills, from researching and interviewing to writing features, news and comment.
2. An ability to use blogging services that goes beyond the basics and indicates a developing awareness of their journalistic potential
3. A developing and informed ability to produce a range of online and multimedia journalistic work in relation to briefs given covering news, features, reviews and opinion writing.
4. A professional approach to work and deadlines, whether working alone or in groups, one that makes a sustained contribution to producing a coherent product that is of publishable standard.
5. Evidence of an informed and increasingly critical understanding of a range of journalism techniques, in particular the new flexible approaches demanded by online multimedia
SOURCES
Convergence Culture – Henry Jenkins (New York University Press)
Online News: Journalism and the internet – Stuart Allan (Open University Press)
Writing for the Web – Susanah Ross (Chambers)
Jakob Nielsen – Prioritising Web Usability (New Riders)
Harold Evans – Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers (Pimlico)
The websites of the key British national newspapers (e.g. The Times, The Daily Mail, The Sun)
The websites of key British Sunday newspapers (e.g. The Observer, The Sunday Express, The Sunday People)
The websites of key news media organisations (e.g. The BBC, Sky News, ITV, CNN, The New York Times)
International news magazines (the Economist, Time, Newsweek) and their websites
London newspapers and magazines and their websites (e.g. Time Out, The London Paper etc)
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