2013-2014 academic year

Analising Digital Journalism  (22195)

Degree/study: Bachelor's Degree in Journalism
Year: Third & Fourth
Term: 1
Number of ECTS credits: 4 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 100 hours
Teaching language or languages: English
Teaching Staff: Núria Almirón

1. Presentation of the subject

The nature of technology and journalism is in permanent change. Digitalization has not change the core principles that underlie journalism, yet it has allowed a terrific shift in terms of habits, capacities and expectations of news production and news consumption-and of course of business models-. In this context, working on and checking the set of structures, activities, principals, themes, norms, and routines that appear to aid journalists (or be missing) in their pursuit of digital excellence is a truly meaningful task for students of journalism.

This course is mainly a practical workshop aimed at assessing the quality of the leading digital media in Internet. Quality in online journalism is therefore the core issue in this course. Theoretical content is also provided in order to build practice on it. Hence, students will look for the best practices in international news coverage online through three main levels: corporate, newsroom, and contents. These levels of analyse will be checked in a number of online outlets.

Firstly, students will look at the political economy of the selected media in order to check whether the proper mechanisms for protecting professional independence exist at the structural level. Second, students will investigate what accountability mechanisms are activated in the production level in order to provide guarantees of pluralism and balance and, thus, enhancing quality. Finally, a news' textual analyses will be carried out to check whether the basic quality principles are applied. In this last step, social media use will be scrutinized as well. From the above, students will be able to obtain an objective qualitative ranking of the different international media analyzed.

 


2. Competences to be attained

Multidisciplinary skills:

  • Being able to work and communicate in the English language
  • Being able to skilfully use basic hardware and software tools
  • Being able to work in group, contributing with opinions and achieving consensus
  • Critical appraisal and reflection skills
  • Being able to embrace diversity of views and to respect dissenting views as a fundamental ingredient of academic life
  • Being able to develop a sense of curiosity and the desire to know what is ignored, essential in any learning process and throughout professional activity
  • Being able to apply and adapt the knowledge acquired in new contexts and situations in a flexible and creative way
  • Being able to progress in continuous learning and training processes

 

Degree specific skills

  • Knowledge and application of technologies and systems used to process, and transmit information.
  • Knowledge of English as a form of professional expression in the media.
  • Knowledge of the state of the world and its recent historical development.
  • Knowledge of the structure of the media and its main formats, as expressions of lifestyles and cultures, in relation to social contexts and their changes.
  • Knowledge of ethics and professional ethics of journalism and the communication's laws.
  • Knowledge  of the social impact of the information technologies.
  • Knowledge of the main media debates and events.
  • Knowledge of research techniques applied to the field of social communication, and especially those relating to the analysis of media content.
  • Knowledge of the fundamentals and methods of scientific disciplines that can contribute to a better understanding of the world.
  • Ability to read and analyze texts and specialized papers on any relevant subject.
  • Ability to understand basic information production or communicative, written or visual, in standard English.
  • Capacity and ability to use computer systems and resources and interactive.

 

Specific skills:

  • Ability to assess the journalistic quality of online media outlets
  • Ability to define criteria for analyzing journalistic content and to critically apply these criteria to media coverage
  • Recognition of cultural diversity and international journalistic traditions
  • Ability to networking through the available digital tools

 


3. Contents

 

1. Introduction: what is quality in online journalism?

Theoretical framework. Reviewing existing literature.

  

2. Introducing our objects of study: the leading digital media in Internet

Mainstream, native and non-native leading newspapers in Internet. An overview.

  

3. Corporate level analysis: the political economy of the leading digital media

Theoretical framework. Ownership, business model and challenges for quality in journalism.

   

4. Newsroom level analysis: accountability in the leading digital media

Theoretical framework. Media accountability, transparency, practices.

  

5. Messages and news analysis: best practices in the leading digital media

Theoretical framework. Building a list of best practices and devising mechanisms of assessment.

  

6. Social media uses analysis: best practices in the leading digital media

Theoretical framework. The audience ethics. Building a list of best practices and devising mechanisms of assessment.


 

4. Assessment

 

·         Final individual essay (60%)

·         Course presentations in pairs (20%)

·         Collaborative work (20%)

A second-chance assessment will take place within the time period specified by the Faculty of Communication. To qualify for a second chance assessment students must have uploaded group (in pairs) presentations and the final individual essay within the allotted time. The second examination will consist in a resubmission of the final individual essay.

 


5. Bibliography and teaching resources

·         Ess, Charles (2009): Digital Media Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

·         Fortner, Robert S. & Fackler, Mark P. (eds.) (2011): The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics Handbooks. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

·         Rosenauer, Kenneth L. & Filak, Vincent F. (eds.) (2011): The Journalists' Handbook for Online Editing. New York: Pearson.

·         Siapera, Eugenia & Eglis, Andreas (eds.) (2012): The Handbook of Global Online Journalism. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

  

Paper readings and other resources are provided in Moodle.


 

6. Metodology

 

This course is organized as an online workshop and therefore there aren't classroom master classes. Work will be carried out online by students through the methodology below:

·         Face-to-face & online individual tutoring sessions

·         Audiovisual lectures

·         Collaborative work in group

·         Personal enquiry, individual research and readings

·         Conceptual and applied work

There will be a face-to-face meeting the first week of the course in order to introduce each other and the subject.

 


7. Planning of activities

Week

Activity

Type

1

Face-to-face meeting & Presentation

Classroom

2

Introducing quality in journalism

Online

3

Introducing our objects of study

Online

4

Corporate level analysis

Online

5

Newsroom level analysis

Online

6

Message & News analysis

Online

7

Message & News analysis

Online

8

Social media use analysis

Online

9

Pairs interactive presentations

Online

10

Peer-Reviewing interactive presentations

Online

11

Writing the final individual essay

Online