Course overview
This course is designed to help you think more broadly about journalism and who you are as a journalist. In this course, we will discuss questions such as why journalism matters? Who is a journalist? What factors influence news production? How do journalists function in different media and political systems? Why does journalism matter in any given society? What are the main issues facing journalism today? And other essential concepts and questions regarding journalism. Journalism is changing (more so during the pandemic than ever before), and you are caught up in it. This course aims to give you a firm grounding in the concepts and traditions of journalism as you know it while looking forward to thinking about journalism and its methods when considering breaking news situations.
Knowing fundamental journalistic and communication theories help enhance your practical abilities by providing useful roadmaps to navigate the world around you. To become a good journalist, you need to think critically about your surroundings. Being a critical thinker does not mean you criticize everyone and everything. Our aim here is to stimulate your thinking about the news and how it’s formed. Thinking about questions such as why is a news story covered a certain way? Or why is a particular group marginalized or a specific topic ignored in the media? This class is designed to help you clear answers to such questions using theory and relevant current affairs examples to discuss and analyze the news.