Social Journalism

Objectives

The objectives of the Social Journalism course are, on the one hand, to enable students to describe and interpret news which are related to society; and on the other hand, to make it possible for students to tell stories using a variety of elements (primarily words, sounds and photos) about topics related to social life or society in general (travel, immigration, NGOs, courts and the legal system, gossip, health, education, environment, religion). Thus, the course is designed to provide students the basic skills to report and write on social topics and to enable them to perform as social journalists through researching and reporting on stories related to society.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will have the basic skills to be able to:

• Think critically and creatively in the social journalistic field.
• Read, comprehend and analyse social news as reported in the different media.
• Speak and write about important issues in social journalism.
• Accurately assess the credibility of a potential source (web page, press release, etc.).
• Produce a basic journalistic piece (from different genres) in English.

Competencies

General skills

• Organise and plan tasks related to professional performance through proper time management and timing of these tasks.
• Use analysis and synthesis strategies in the treatment of information and in professional practice.

Specific skills

• Analyse authentic practical cases through an understanding of the state of the world, recent historyn and the main paradigms of sociology.
• Analyse the structure of the media, and the social and communication context, and its main formats, in relation to social contexts and change, and also the main issues in the information society, identifying the protagonists, institutions and social structures.
• Master the discourse of traditional media (press, photography, radio and television), digital, multimedia and hypertextual media, and express oneself fluently and effectively, orally and in writing, in Spanish, Catalan and English.
• Master the main skills of journalism as a profession, such as verifying information on the basis of one's own sources, information searches, cross-checking and ordering information, and knowledge of different journalistic genres (information, analysis and opinion).

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigour and quality.
• Become the protagonist of one's own learning process in order to achieve personal and professional growth and acquire all-round training for living and learning in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural, gender and economic diversity.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Introduction. Social journalism within the communication media. Delimitation and scope of social journalism. Levels of specialised communication and description of civil society
2. Social journalism and its diffuse borders with other journalism areas. The process of news building and the different perspectives depending on the journalist's specialisation
3. Genres in the Social Journalism domain. From a brief piece of information to an in-depth report. The article as a fusion between journalism and literature. Opinion genres in society news
4. Traditional sources of information: public and private institutions, NGOs and press offices. Emerging sources: social media and digital networks
5. Domains of specialisation within social journalism: events, community, children, education, health, environment, immigration, travel, celebrities, science and technology, history, cooking, etc.

Evaluation

The quality of the student's work will be judged by continuous assessment. The final mark will be the result of the following pieces of work:

• Classroom work during each week. It can be a reading comment, a short oral presentation of a topic or question for discussion, information searches, etc. (30% of the final mark).
• A written or audiovisual report in groups of up to 4 students about immigration or any social issue. The students should do some field work, talk to people involved in the topic, take pictures or record images, etc. (40%).
• Press clipping and presentation (20%). Students will have to prepare a press clipping of one of the topics studied in the Social Journalism course (immigration and refugees, NGOs, travel and celebrities) and deliver an oral presentation on the press clipping.
• Attendance (10%). If a student attends a minimum of 80% of the lessons, s/he will get 1 point out of ten. If the student attends between 70 and 79% of the lessons s/he will get half a point. If the student attends less than 70% of the lessons s/he won't get any points for attendance.

Methodology

The objectives cannot be achieved or met through a single lesson. Students, through a variety of developmental learning experiences, will gradually grow toward the achievement of the basic objectives of social journalism.

The course is strongly oriented towards the practice of social journalism but it also covers the theoretical descriptions and explanations needed to acquire the necessary basic concepts the social journalist deals with.

The course provides the student with a theoretical background (given by either teacher's lectures or talks given by professionals invited to some of the course sessions). Practical sessions complement the theoretical parts and may consist of group-discussions, role-playing, interviewing practice, reading, analysing or producing journalistic pieces, etc.

Bibliography

Bibliography

• Holmes, Tim; Hadwin, Sarah & Mottershead, Glin (2014). The 21st Century Journalism Handbook: Essential Skills for the Modern Journalist. Routledge.
• Hudson, Gary & Rowlands, Sarah (2007). The broadcast Journalism Handbook. Pearson Education Limited.

Reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.