Journalism & The Information Science (21308)

Degree/study: Journalism 
Year:  2nd
Term:  2nd
Number of ECTS credits: 6 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 125 hours
Teaching language or languages: Catalan / Spanish, with teaching material in Catalan, Spanish and English 
Teaching Staff: Lluís Codina, Cristòfol Rovira, Rafael Pedraza

1. Presentation of the subject

Collection of concepts, abilities and competences of the Information Science applied to Social Communication and to Journalism.

The subject gives the would-be journalists tools, concepts and knowledge about digital information systems that will prepare them to produce high-quality journalistic writings. It also takes into consideration the aspects of information architecture that guarantee that the would-be jorunalists will have the necessary competences to handle high-quality publication projects.

2. Competences to be attained

- General:

•·         Develop the sense of curiosity, wanting to know what we don't know, which is an essential competence in all teaching processes and in all professional activities

• Ability to apply and adapt the acquired knowledge to new contexts and situations, with flexibility and creativity
• Ability to progress in the learning process autonomously and continuously

- Specific of the degree:

• Understand, analyse and interpret adequately and logically written texts of an academic level about any relevant subject
• Ability to use the English language properly
• Ability to work with the computer tools and knowledge of their essential applications to regular academic activities
• Ability to work in groups, participating actively in the assigned tasks, making decisions and discussing your opinions with others until you come to an agreement
• Ability to think autonomously and critically when talking about controversial subjects
• Accept that there may be different points of view from yours and respect them
• Be self-disciplent, self-demanding and rigorous when doing academic tasks, and organise your time correctly

•·         Knowledge and application of the technologies and systems used to process, produce and transmit information

•·         Knowledge of the English language, as it is a form of expression in the communication media's world

• Ability to read and analyse specialised documents and texts of any relevant subject
• Ability to use the informative and communicative technologies and techniques
• Ability to use the computer systems and resources, and knowledge of their interactive applications
• Ability to look for, choose and organise any source or document (written, audible or visual) useful to elaborate and process information
• Ability to retrieve, organise, analyse and process information with the purpose of being broadcasted or disseminated
• Ability to use information and statistics properly and make them understandable for almost all publics

- Specific of the subject:

• Know and know how to apply standard organisation and publication principles in digital publications
• Knowledge and ability to analyse the structural components that matter in digital publications and ability to assess them
• Acquisition of abilities of use and knowledge of concepts about the main information systems of journalism documentation: use and exploit press databases and image and video banks
• Knowledge of concepts and practical abilities about the optimization of websites and digital publications in relation with Web search engines

3. Contents

This subject consists of three main thematic areas (or Didactic Units), which are:

0. Didactic Unit 1: Architecture of Information and standard web design
   0. Principles of the standard web design
   0. Principles of the architecture of information
   0. Edition of Source Code
   0. Use of contents' editors
0. Didactic Unit 2: Conception and Optimization of websites
   0. Quality in websites: components and assessment
   0. Documentation about the conception and design of websites: characters, wireframes, blueprints, models
   0. Optimization of Web Search Engines
0. Didactic Unit 3: Systems of looking for journalistic documentation
   0. Press databases: MyNews Oline, Factiva, Nexis/Lexis
   0. Image and video banks: AGE Fotostock, Getty, Corbis and Creative Commons systems

4. Assessment

We will be assessing 4 things in this subject:

• Tasks in class
• Tests
• Individual tasks
• Task in groups (final task)

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

Fernando Maciá y Javier Gosende.  Posicionamiento en Buscadores. Madrid: Anaya, 2009.

Lluís Codina. Documentación Periodística. Barcelona: UPF, 2010 [Llicència Creative Commons, estarà disponible a l'Aula Global].

Mario Pérez-Montoro. Arquitectura de la Información en Entornos Web.  Guijón: TREA, 2010.

5.2. Complementary bibliography

Christopher Murphy, Richard Clark and Oli Studholme. Beginning HTML5 and CSS3: Next Generation Web Standards. Apress, 2010.

Cristòfol Rovira, Lluís Codina, Mari Carmen Marcos y Rafael Pedraza. Máster Online en Buscadores: Selección de Unidades didácticas 2007-2008. [Llicència Creative Commons, estarà disponible a l'Aula Global].

Dan Brown. Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning. New Riders, 2007.

Douglas Freer. Microstock Photography: How to Make Money from Your Digital Images. Burlington: Focal Press, 2008.

James Kalbach. Designing Web Navigation. Sebastopol (Calif.):  O'Reilly, 2007.

Jeffrey Zeldman. Designing with Web Standards. Berkeley: New Riders, 2009.

John Allsopp. Developing with Web Standards. Berkeley: New Riders, 2009.

Mark Pearrow. Web Usability Handbook. Boston: Charles River Media, 2007.

Peter Krogh. Gestión del archivo digital para fotógrafos. Madrid: Anaya, 2009.

Stephen Quinn and Stephen Lamble. Online Newsgathering: Research and Reporting for Journalism. Burlington: Focal Press, 2007.

5.3. Teaching resources

• Moodle
• "CRAI Campus de la Comunicació" databases
• Classrooms with computers and website-editing software
• Collection of e-books in "CRAI Campus de la Comunicació"
• Web tools 2.0

6. Metodology

Generally, the teaching-learning methodology of this subject will be based on the presentation of a topic and the later practical activities. For each topic of each Didactic Unit, the teacher will spend approximately a third part of the time presenting it and the rest of the time will be for the students to do a supervised practical activity.

There will also be activities that will not be done in class; the students will have to study cases and perform comparative analysis of the topics to study.

Eventually, at the end of each Didactic Unit, the students will need to pass a test. There will also be a Final Task of the Subject, done in groups.

7. Planning of activities

The activities are organised in groups of 2 to 3 weeks. We intend to do the following activities in each group of 2 to 3 weeks:

• Task in class (about the topics related to the Didactic Unit)
• Study of cases and comparative analysis
• Tests, quizzes, participate in forums, a thematic memory or a review of some books' chapters or articles

This is the distribution in weeks:

• Weeks 1-2: Didactic Unit 1: Architecture of Information and standard web design
• Weeks 3-4: Didactic Unit 2: Conception and Optimization of websites
• Weeks 5-8: Didactic Unit 3: Systems of looking for journalistic documentation
• Weeks 9-10: Final Task of the Subject