LT135-4-FY-CO:
Practical Reporting, Interviewing and Production (Joint Honours)

The details
2023/24
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 28 June 2024
30
25 September 2023

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

LT231, LT232

Key module for

BA P590 Journalism and Modern Languages,
BA P550 Journalism and Criminology,
BA P551 Journalism and Criminology (Including Placement Year),
BA P552 Journalism and Criminology (Including Year Abroad),
BA P540 Journalism and Sociology,
BA P541 Journalism and Sociology (Including Placement Year),
BA P542 Journalism and Sociology (Including Year Abroad),
BA P510 Journalism and English Language,
BA P511 Journalism and English Language (Including Placement Year),
BA P512 Journalism and English Language (Including Year Abroad),
BA P530 Journalism and Literature,
BA P531 Journalism and Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA P532 Journalism and Literature (Including Year Abroad),
BA P570 Journalism with Human Rights,
BA P571 Journalism with Human Rights (Including Year Abroad),
BA P572 Journalism with Human Rights (Including Placement Year),
BA P580 Journalism and Politics,
BA P581 Journalism and Politics (Including Placement Year),
BA P582 Journalism and Politics (Including Year Abroad),
BA P565 Film and Journalism,
BA P566 Film and Journalism (Including Foundation Year),
BA P567 Film and Journalism (including Placement Year),
BA P568 Film and Journalism(including Year Abroad),
BA P595 Journalism and Language Studies

Module description

This module, the joint honours equivalent of LT131 Practical Journalism but without compulsory work experience, introduces you to the basics of news and of storytelling, core skills for all jobs in journalism. You’ll discuss the nature of news and how to identify a story. You’ll learn how to look for and uncover the information that will make a story; and study the different ways in which that information can be presented.

You will develop skills in absorbing a lot of information quickly, reducing it to its essentials, and producing an accurate and engaging narrative, often against a deadline. You will understand the overriding importance of accuracy in reporting, and the need to check and verify everything that you write. You will learn about elements of style and presentation, the importance of choosing the right word, how to develop your own writing persona and how to edit the work of others.

You will learn the basics of multimedia production, create your own website and start producing content for a variety of online, radio and television outlets – the latter including the use of mobile journalism techniques. You will be introduced to digital audio and video editing tools. Your practical reporting assignments will be given to you from an early stage.

In addition, through the contemporary history series of lectures, you’ll learn about how events of recent years provide perspective and context to today’s news stories. Work experience is not compulsory for this module but is encouraged.

Module aims

1. to provide you with a solid basis on which to build your career as a journalist
2. to help you master the fundamental skills of story finding, story telling, story editing and story presentation.
3. to understand the core skills of good grammar, accuracy and precision, and of reducing a mass of information to its essentials
4. to give you a grounding in the different character and requirements of different media platforms
5. to give you an understanding of how to create content for each of those platforms, including mobile journalism
6. to give you a working knowledge of the tools used in online production and to introduce you to those used in broadcasting
7. to give you a working knowledge of the history of the last 50 years, which will inform and deepen your understanding of current events

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, you will be expected to be able to:

1. demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the different forms of news reporting
2. know how to look for and gather information, and to present it effectively for a variety of media platforms
3. demonstrate a commitment to good writing and to accuracy, both in terms of grammar and spelling, and in terms of reporting faithfully what you have been told
4. do reporting of your own, both within the course environment and in the real world, through work experience with local media organisations
5. edit the work of others for a variety of media platforms
6. use online production tools to a basic standard on your own and group websites
7. set today’s news in its historical context

Module information

General Reading:

Smith, Jon (2007) Essential Reporting: the NCTJ Guide for Trainee Journalists, London: Sage
Randall, David (2016) The Universal Journalist, London: Pluto
Sissons, Helen (2006) Practical Journalism - How to Write News, London: Sage
Hicks, Wynford (2013), English for Journalists, London: Routledge
Hicks, Wynford (2016), Writing for Journalists, London: Routledge
The Economist (2018) Style Guide, London: Economist
Hargreaves, Ian (2014) Journalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Robinson, Nick (2013) Live from Downing Street, London, Bantam
Marr, Andrew (2005) My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism, London: Pan
Calvacoresi, Peter (2008) World Politics Since 1945, London: Routledge
Clarke, Peter (2004) Hope and Glory: Britain 1900-2000, London: Penguin

Learning and teaching methods

Anticipated teaching delivery: The module is taught by a variety of means throughout the academic year. Practical work – the core of the module – is done by means of workshop sessions (roughly six hours a week) and one-to-one tutorials. There are also two hour-long news analysis lectures every week throughout the academic year and two-hour contemporary history lectures/classes every week in autumn and spring terms. Students are expected to attend all lectures, classes and workshops.

Bibliography

This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   300 word news story  17/11/2023  10% 
Coursework   1,000 word news feature   04/12/2023  20% 
Coursework   800 word piece of journalism including original data and infographic   15/12/2023  20% 
Coursework   5 minute podcast OR Photo essay (with 10 photos)   23/02/2024  20% 
Coursework   3 Minute Video News Story with a 30 second Video snippet (30.00%).  02/04/2024  30% 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Idrees Ahmad, email: m.i.ahmad@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Idrees Ahmad
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk. Telephone 01206 872626

 

Availability
No
No
No

External examiner

No external examiner information available for this module.
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 96 hours, 5 (5.2%) hours available to students:
91 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.

 

Further information

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