Course overview
JRNL 200 Journalism Here & Now is a second year course that offers an experiential learning opportunity and invites students to consider the dynamic, changing, sometimes problematic practice of journalism. This course will explore theoretical understandings of journalism and offer an experience with the technologies and trends that are changing it. This course will provide opportunities to create works of journalism, experiment within journalistic genres and provide frameworks for critical analysis of journalism. The activities in this course will be built around news of the day and will provide students with an opportunity to engage in journalism production and factual storytelling.
We will work with mobile tools (audio, text, graphics, photos and video) to explore how technologies (online, mobile, social, digital, etc.) shape the way news is researched, reported, produced, and shared. We will consider traditional news values and methods, and introduce concepts around emerging expectations (transparency, solutions, reciprocity, community engagement) – all the while exploring the key ethical considerations of truth, independence, accountability, and minimizing harm. Students will produce works of journalism from blogs and vlogs to audio podcasts to photo essays and written stories. We will also consider the needs, behaviours and expectations of audiences with an eye towards understanding public interest journalism.
This course is designed for students who are interested in journalism, media, and storytelling.
The course combines critical thinking and editorial concepts with practical applications of digital storytelling and journalism practice. It will introduce critical issues in journalism and will encourage students to intervene with methods and skills building. By the end of term, students will understand basic journalistic storytelling techniques, the ways in which various media is made, the role of journalism and the methods and practices used by journalists. It will also provide opportunities for students to discover the ways in which industry, citizens, and audiences interact with journalism and media. We will invite a series of prominent media (journalism) professionals (legacy, alternative, experimental media) into our classroom, each will discuss and debate current issues in journalism.
Our approach will be interactive, discursive and creative as it combines practice and theory.
The goal is to encourage students to creatively engage with journalism using digital tools, reading materials and a variety of journalistic examples. There will be in-class discussions, collaborative exercises, guest lectures and opportunities to innovate and interact. Students will create collaboratively and independently throughout the term. There will also be weekly editorial feedback on student productions.
We will meet twice weekly. Day One we will review a key concept and critique specific works of journalism. Students will have completed readings in advance and be guided by preparatory questions. The concept will be introduced and explored in order to prepare students for the experiential learning (practice) Day Two we will provide students with instruction on journalistic production and decision making. Students will experience the creation of journalism from concept (story idea) to research (fact-finding, story development) to gathering media (audio, video, photos, notes) to production (digital tools/editing) to distribution (sharing via social media and other platforms). Our intention is to foster curiosity about media/journalism, and support students to develop basic proficiency in storytelling and journalism. We will use current examples from journalistic publications and explanatory pieces from journalism text books (to be determined).
The teaching team will collaborate on lesson planning and in class discussions, and will work together to provide editorial support and feedback, as students learn to critique and create works of journalism.
Students are expected to complete all required pre-class work prior to each lecture so that lectures can focus on application and advancement of the lessons learned in the pre-class work. Pre-class work will include readings and mandatory assignments in Canvas, or emailed to the students.
Bi-weekly assignments focus on the pre-class work and lectures of each two week period. Submission requirements will be posted on Canvas.
Students will work in groups to apply their learnings to case studies and group projects. There will be opportunities to engage the TA and get extra help.
Resources are available online or assigned by the instructor.
At the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- LO1: Classify news, journalism and “media”
- LO2: Demonstrate and critique key journalistic concepts and methods
- LO3: Analyze the current roles of journalists, news organizations and relationships with news audiences
- LO4: Demonstrate knowledge about the changing roles and practices of journalism
- LO5: Compare and contrast power dynamics in journalism (subject/journalist, journalist/publication, audience/journalist)
- LO6: Create digital journalism using text, audio, video and social storytelling methods
Our assignments are designed to allow students an opportunity to work through projects, while considering and incorporating key concepts to create thoughtful work.