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50303 Online Journalism 1

UTS: Communication: Journalism Information and Media Learning
Credit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks

Requisite(s): 50115 Journalism 2 OR 50235 Journalism 2
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.

Handbook description

This subject introduces students to the application of internet technologies into journalism practice. It builds on the journalism skills of research, reporting, interviewing and analysis and applies them to the World Wide Web (WWW). The subject explores changes in professional journalism practice and the major issues related to sourcing and publishing journalism on the web, verification, authentication and attribution, and basic web publishing skills using text and stills.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On completion of this subject, students are expected to:

  1. have a conceptual overview of the internet and its functionality
  2. be able to write and construct journalism for the web and to consider their output within the context of an evolving global medium
  3. understand the range of internet resources available for journalism research
  4. have the production skills necessary to build a web publication using text and still images
  5. understand the key usability factors that determine good web design and writing.

Contribution to graduate profile

This subject provides students with:

  • a knowledge and critical understanding of the media
  • a knowledge of the historical, philosophical, ethical and cultural foundations underpinning journalism and strive, throughout their careers, to promote the important role of professional and ethical journalism in the service of the public
  • an understanding of the role of the media in local, regional, national and global contexts
  • a critical understanding of the relationships between technology, professionalism and social change and be able to adapt their professional skills to future change and to new production challenges
  • strong research skills and effectively retrieve and analyse information from a range of sources
  • a critical understanding of issues of gender, racism, ethnicity, disability and class and the way these are linked to issues of media representation, production and reception
  • an understanding and commitment to ethical journalism practice.

Teaching and learning strategies

Online Journalism 1 is a computer lab-based course, which actively uses networking and online media construction tools. Weekly classes take the form of lecture materials with hands-on exercises, discussions, workshop presentations on the use of web production tools and student presentations. The focus of the course is online journalism research, writing and production and is designed to be flexible in its ability to respond to media events as they arise. Guest lecturers will be invited to occasional classes.

A good knowledge of issues, emerging trends and strategies about the online industry is central to Online Journalism 1. Students will be provided with readings and online references which they will be required to read for in-class discussion. Students are expected to maintain regular reading in the media of matters relevant to the internet and its developments. Students will have a logon to UTSOnline, which will serve as a forum for production co-ordination, announcements and posting in-class work.

Content

Lectures and class discussions cover:

  • a broad conceptual understanding of the internet and issues relevant to online journalism practice and new media
  • strategies and trends within online journalism
  • an understanding of writing for the WWW based on professional journalism practice and web usability research
  • the potential for journalism research
  • the scope of the medium and its relationships to mass media and citizen journalisms
  • web design and production skills, digital imaging, network practices; one-to-one support if necessary
  • development of projects, which allow for the production of online journalisms: research, writing, synthesis and production skills.



Assessment

Assessment item 1: Personal Blog

Objective(s): a, b
Weighting: 30%
Task: Create and maintain a blog, starting week one.
Assessment criteria:
  • Maintaining the weblog and contributing to the blogs of your peers as prescribed;
  • Quality of written expression, research and analysis;
  • Relevant and interesting postings staggered across the period of the assignment;
  • Credibility of sources quoted and accuracy of the facts reported;
  • The degree of editorial engagement and readability of the overall blog;
  • Appropriate and relevant use of images and hyperlinks.

Assessment item 2: Web-based class presentation and web publication: individual assessment

Objective(s): b, c
Weighting: 20%
Task: Choose either an online niche publication, or overall journalism site and critically analyse the merits and successes of the site and its use of the online medium.
Assessment criteria:
  • Quality and range of sources associated with the research;
  • Ability to communicate and lead discussion to the class;
  • Ability to analyse, interpret and critically engage with the topic;
  • Appropriate and effective use of the Web as a presentation technology.
  • Evidence of the knowledge of the production processes involved in creating web publications;
  • Successful teamwork.

Assessment item 3: Major Project

Objective(s): d, e
Weighting: 50%
Task: Task i) Working in pairs and using the web, primary sources and a range of resources, research and write and create a packaged story to be posted for publication to the in-class webzine. The work should be non-linear and contain relevant hyperlinks to web resources and original images taken by you and uploaded to your Flickr account.

Task ii) In class of week 13, sub-edit a story posted to the webzine by one of your peers. Check it for accuracy, spelling and grammar and readability: check the facts, the photos, captions, credits and by-lines, ensure all links are live and correct and that content is tag accordingly.

The story topics to be covered by the webzine will be negotiated with the lecturer.

The webzine will be archived and hosted on wordpress.org, at the discretion of the lecturer. All sources must be accurately acknowledged; photographs captioned, credited and copyright permissions sought where necessary. The inclusion of digital images created and captioned by the authors will be encouraged. When using found images on the web, wither seek permission of the copyright holder, use correct attribution under creative commons license, or use license free stock images.

A 250-word project plan/synopsis of each story is required in hard copy in class in week 7 outlining the story proposed, the angles and issues to be covered, persons to be interviewed and the research strategy. Feedback will be given by the lecturer.

Stories must contain interviews and quotes from primary sources and all references to quotes, comments and materials must be fully attributed. Transcripts and full documentation of the research and interviews undertaken for the project must be retained and made available to the lecturer in Week 14. Retain your audio files and upload to savefile.com

Webzine production schedule:
  • Submit 250-word project plan/synopsis: Week 8
  • Full production briefing; site structure and navigation: ongoing
  • Report to peers on work-to-date: Week 11
  • Package and post articles and images to webzine backend before class Week 13
  • Sub-editing and fact-checking in-class: Week 13
  • Final completion of webzine and presentation to class: Week 14.
All aspects of this assessment task are assessable.

Penalties may be applied for late submission of work at all stages.
Assessment criteria:
  • Satisfactory submission of a synopsis/project plan;
  • The quality of writing;
  • Accuracy of reporting, fairness and balance;
  • Evidence of skills in analysing and researching information;
  • Evidence of subediting skills: spelling and grammar, headlines, subheads, fact-checking, captions, credits and by-lines;
  • Evidence of effective and well integrated visual components;
  • Evidence of well developed skills in electronic publishing, imaging and editing software;
  • Satisfactory integration of the different elements of the work into an interesting online package;
  • Observance of all deadlines.

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

Bolton, Trish (2006); News on the Net: A critical analysis of the potential of online alternative journalism to challenge the dominance of mainstream news media; Scan Journal Vol 3 (1), Macquarie University, June 2006 http://www.scan.net.au (viewed 13Feb07)

Bruns, A; (2006); Wikinews: The Next Generation of Alternative Online News? Scan Journal, Macquarie University, Vol 3 (1), June 2006. http://www.scan.net.au Viewed 3Feb07.

Bruns, A; (2007) Methodologies for Mapping the Political Blogosphere: An exploration Using the IssueCrawler Research Tool; http://www.firstmonday.org/ issues/ issue12_5/ bruns/

Chan, Anita J; 'Collaborative News Networks: Distributed Editing, Collective Action, and the Construction of Online News on Slashdot.org'; http://web.mit.edu/ anita1/www/ thesis/ Index.html

Cobcroft et al., (2006) https://olt.qut.edu.au/ udf/ OLT2006/ gen/ static/ papers/ Cobcroft_OLT2006_paper.pdf

Chung, Deborah Soun (2007); Profits and Perils: Online Producers' Perceptions of Interactivity and Uses of Interactive Features in Convergence, Vol 13(1), pp43-61, Sage Publications.

Dee, Jonathan; Article Tools Sponsored By, NYT.com, July 1, 2007-07-03

Dube, Jonathan; RSS for Journalists; http://www.poynter.org/ column.asp?id=32&aid=78383

Gillmor, D. We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2004.

Goggin, G. (2004) (ed.) Virtual Nation: The Internet in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney.

Haas, T. (2005) From 'Public Journalism' to the 'Public's Journalism'? Rhetoric and reality in the discourse on weblogs; Journalism Studies Vol.6 No.3 pp.387-396.

Huang, Edgar (2006); Facing the Challenges of Convergence: Media Professionals' Concerns of Working Across Media Platforms; Convergence Vol 12 (1), pp.83-98, Sage Publications.

Kingston, M. (2005) 'Diary of a web diarist: ethics goes online';

http://margokingston.typepad.com/ harry_version_2/2005/09/ post_1.html#more

Palser, B. (2005) 'Journalism's Backseat Drivers', American Journalism Review (AJR); August/September. http://www.ajr.org/ article_printable.asp?id=3931

Quinn, S. & Filak, V.F. (eds) (2005) Convergent Journalism an Introduction, Focal/Elsevier, MA.

Rogers, Richard; Six arguments against news by Richard Rogers at:

http://www.issuenetwork.org/ node.php?id=46#1c Viewed 6July2007.

Reporters Without Borders, Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents, September 2005; http://www.rsf.org/

Schiff, F. (2006): Trends emerging more clearly: business models of news web sites, June 2006. http://www.firstmonday.org/ issues/ special11_7/ schiff/ index.html

Recommended web resources

ABC: Cultures of Journalism: The Art of the Interview www.abc.net.au/rn/learning/lifelong/stories/s1174641.htm (transcript, audio available)

Alternet: www.alternet.org/mediaculture

Columbia Journalism Review: www.cjr.org

Cyberjournalist.net: www.cyberjournalist.net

Current TV: http://current.tv

First Monday: www.firstmonday.org

Hugh Martins' blog: www.hugh-martin.blogspot.com

Online Journalism Review News Blog: www.ojr.org/ojr/blog

Online Journalism Review: www.ojr.org/ojr/page_one/index.php

Poynter Institute: www.poynter.org

Poynter Ethics Journal: www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=53

Stevens, Luke; (2006) Online news design — awful or brilliant?

http://design2-0.com/articles/online-news-design-awful-or-brilliant

Stevens, Luke; (2006) Breaking the rules in news design http://design2-0.com/articles/breaking-the-rules-in-news-design

Self learning and web development resources

HTML Goodies: http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/

Search Engine Watch:http://searchenginewatch.com/

Jakob Nielsen's Website: http://www.useit.com/

Tucows download freeware and shareware: http://www.tucows.com/

Weinmann, E & Lourekas, P; (2007); Photoshop CS3 for Windows and Macintosh,

Visual QuickStart Guide. WebMonkey: http://hotwired.lycos.com/ webmonkey/

Williams, Robin (2004); The non-designer's design book: design and typographic principles for the visual novice; Berkeley, California: Peachpit Press.