2014-2015 academic year

Gestión de productos y proyectos de comunicación (22196)

Degree/study: Journalism
Year: 3rd
Term: 1st
Number of ECTS credits: 4 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 100 hours
Teaching language or languages: English
Teaching Staff: Christoph Pasour

1. Presentation of the subject

Working conditions (i.e. working with a contract or freelance) have an important affect on which ideas for a project you may pursue. They define your limits, options and perspectives. Therefore this subject is focusing on describing the situation of the "freelancer" in the communication sector. Nowadays the "freelancer" has arguably become one of the predominant figures within the working environment of the communication sector. Either you chose to work independently, with full risk and responsibility - or it may be the only way to work in that area due to the difficult economic situation.

This subject helps you to understand in how far organizational and financial structure of the communication sector affect the freelancer. Your will learn to know the risks, opportunities and strategies of working as a freelance. Your will learn how to find your position within the working world. Furthermore one crucial part will be to learn to develop and present ideas and projects, which support your business strategy.

2. Competences to be attained

General:

· Be able to communicate properly, both speaking an writing, in English in front of expert and inexpert audiences

· 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

· Be self-disciplined, self-demanding and rigorous when doing academic tasks, and organize your time correctly

· 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 progress in the learning process autonomously and continuously

Specific to the degree:

· Knowledge of the informative and communicative processes, as well as of the theories that support or criticize them

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

· Knowledge of the communication media's structure and of their main formats

· Knowledge of the social impact of the informative technologies

· Ability to communicate in the language of each communication medium

· 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 retrieve, organize, analyze and process information with the purpose of being broadcasted or disseminated

· Ability to identify and analyze all informative products (of any genre, language or medium) in order to study them critically

Specific to the subject:

· Knowledge of the situation of working free-lance in the communication sector

· Knowledge of strategies to organize your working processes

· Knowledge of analyzing the market

· Knowledge of finding your clients and communicating to them

· Ability to identify interesting topics and adapt them to the needs of different clients

· Basic knowledge of structures in the AV sector and in how far this affects your own working strategies

Basic knowledge of structure and situation of communication companies and in how far this affects your own working strategies

3. Contents

BLOCK 1 - 5 sessions - INTRODUCTION AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WORKING AS A FREELANCER

Introduction

Characteristics of working freelance:

· Between freedom and hidden dependencies

· How to organize your working schedule and procedures with different clients. Example

· How to decide if a project is worth the efforts. Example

· Know your client´s dependencies and strategies! Example

· Know your clients internal "structure": decision-making processes, duration of these processes! Example

· How to develop your business strategy - long term contacts, short-term clients. Example

· Different clients, different kinds of contracts. Taking various deadlines, different working procedures and conditions of payment into consideration. Example

· Money! Good money for your job or little money? Not an easy question to answer. Strategies to do a reasonable planning. Example

· Mix of projects - the mixture guarantees your survival. Short term projects, long-term projects. Example

· Where to go? There is no job ladder. So - what to do after many years of work?

BLOCK 2 - 5 sessions - THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT AND HOW IT AFFECTS THE FREELANCER

· Reportage, documentary and magazine - the audiovisual sector as a working environment for the journalist.

· Public and private broadcasters structure and financing in Spain and abroad.

· Private AV companies structure and financing.

· Public financing and European funds for AV projects.

· How these structures and financial situation affects the working conditions of freelancer.

BLOCK 3 - 5-6 sessions - THE NICHE AND THE IDEA

· On the search for the "brilliant idea" - truly innovative or just reflecting your clients interests? Inspiration or hard work?

· How to adapt an idea to the needs and interests of your client.

· How to use the same idea for different products and different clients.

· Learning to ask the right questions: is this the right moment for this idea? Are you working with the right partners? Are you the right person for this project?

· When do clients start to take you seriously?

· The "heart" of a story: How to identify the core idea and develop the project for a final presentation.

· Taking over responsibility for your idea - understand each ideas and projects own logic and needs.

· Analyzing the market: What does the market offer, what is the market looking for? Clients, genres, technology.

· Your "niche" - are we talking about the "market", you abilities or the potential of you idea?

· Analyzing your position within the market.

BLOCK 4 - 3-4 sessions - PRESENTATIONS AND CRITICAL DISCUSSIONS

· Presentation of students´ projects

· Critical discussion of results

Mutual working on the presentation and improvement

4. Assessment

There will be a continuous assessment consisting of two parts: presence and active participation (50%) as well as a student's presentation at the end of the course (50%). The presentation will consist out of a 20 minutes presentation of a communication project plus critical discussion in class and proposals to improve the project.

Important: The minimum requirement for the assessmentof the student is a 60% attendance to the sessions and a successful presentation at the end of the course.

In the case of a failure of the presentation the student has the right to hand in/present the final work up to 5 weeks after the end of the course. In the case of an attendance rate that is below but close (!) to 60% the student has the right to ask for an additional work to be done. This guarantees a comparable effort for this course for all students.

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

Deuze, Mark "Media Work" 2007 PolityPress

Deuze, Mark "Managing Media Work" 2011, SAGE

DRAU, J., SANCHEZ, L. (eds) (2008) "Industrias de la communicación

audiovisual"

Francés i Domènec, Miquel (2009) "Hacia un nuevo modelo televisivo"

MARZAL FELICI, JAVIER (eds)(2008) "Teoría y técnica de la producción"

Murray, Emma/Wilson, Charlie "Howtosucceed as a Freelancer in Publishing" 2011 howtobooks

Rusch, KristineKathryn"TheFreelancerSurvival Guide" 2010 WMG Publishing

5.2. Complementary bibliography

Bandrés, E.; GarcíaAvilés, J.A.; Pérez, G. i Pérez, J. (2000): El periodismo en la televisión digital. Barcelona: Paidós.

Block, Mervin (2000): Writing broadcast news. Shorter, sharper, stronger. Chicago: Bonus Books.

Boyd, Andrew (2000): Broadcast Journalism. Techniques of Radio and TV News. Oxford: Focal.

García Jiménez, Jesús. (2000): Informaciónaudiovisual, volumen I. Madrid: Paraninfo.

Kwiatkowski, Angel/Buczynski, Beth"Coworking: HowFreelancersEscpaethecoffee shop Office and Tales of communityfromIndependentsAroundtheWorld" 2011www.theblankwhitepage.com

LIPOVETSKY, Gilles; SERROY, Jean (2009) "La Pantalla Global"

Marín, Carles (2006): Periodismoaudiovisual: información, entretenimiento y tecnologías multimedia. Barcelona: Gedisa.

MartínezAbadía, J.; Vila, P. iotros (2004): Manual básico de tecnología y técnicas de creación, emisión y difusión de contenidos. Barcelona: Paidós.

MONACO, James (2009). "Howtoreada film"Oxford UniversityPress

Oliva, LlúciaiSitjà, Xavier (2007). Las noticias en radio y televisión: periodismoaudiovisual en el siglo XXI Barcelona: Omega (5a. Ed.).

Ortiz, M. A. i Pérez-Ornia, J. R. (2006): Claves paraelaborar la información en radio y televisión. Madrid: InstitutoOficial de Radio y Televisión.

Peralta, Miquel (2006): Teleinformatius. La transmissióinformativa de l'actualitat. Barcelona: Editorial Trípodos.

Pérez, Gabriel (2003): Cursobásico de periodismoaudiovisual. Pamplona: EUNSA.

Rodríguez Pastoriza, F. (2003): La mirada en el cristal. La información en televisión. Madrid: Fragua.

VILCHES, Lorenzo (coord) (2009) "Mercados globales, historias nacionales"

6. Metodology

Basically this is more a practical than a theoretical course. It is supposed to prepare you for the reality of the working world, with practical information, concrete examples, exchange of ideas and collaboration on developing ideas and projects.

The learning will be organized in:

· Lectures: plenary sessions where the content of the subject will be explained. This will always have the form of an open discussion. Students are invited to ask questions and express their doubts during the session.

· Tasks in class: seminar sessions to do exercises based on the contentwe talked about previously.

· Meetings: in the seminars, to supervise all tasks (both individual and in groups).

· Tasks at home: preparation of the final presentations based on the contentof the subject.

7. Planning of activities

Week

Activities in class

Option: Activities at home

Week 1

Block 1

1. Introduction and Lecture

2. Lecture