Course Title: Reporting and Newswriting

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Reporting and Newswriting

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

COMM2092

City Campus

Undergraduate

335H Applied Communication

Face-to-Face

Sem 2 2006,
Sem 2 2007,
Sem 2 2008,
Sem 1 2009

COMM2092

City Campus

Undergraduate

345H Media and Communication

Face-to-Face

Sem 1 2010,
Sem 1 2011,
Sem 1 2012,
Sem 1 2013,
Sem 1 2014

Course Coordinator: Dr Antonio Castillo

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 99255216

Course Coordinator Email: antonio.castillo@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 9.4.55 City Campus

Course Coordinator Availability: Tuesday 3:00-5:00PM or by appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None
In addition to B.Comm (Journalism) students, this course is open to Bachelor of Business students taking a Journalism Minor only.
 


Course Description

This foundation course is an introduction to the basic journalism skills of news gathering, news evaluation and news writing. It prepares you for advanced journalism courses. The syllabus will cover: news sense; the development of hard news stories; finding a news story, researching, structuring and writing a story. Concepts of good professional practice, such as the importance of excellent grammar, spelling and punctuation and adherence to house style, will also be reinforced.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

In this course you will develop the following program capabilities:

  • The cognitive, research, analytical, critical thinking, communication and presentation skills required for undergraduate study and professional practice
  • The ability to apply the ethics and regulations which govern modern media and communication practice.
  • The ability to recognise news and apply critical thinking, analytical skills and ethical practice in the gathering and presentation of news within the context of the professional requirements and demands of the multimedia newsroom.
  • The professional skills to work in a converged, multimedia newsroom and the ability to adapt to future changes in newsroom practice.


Upon successful successful completion of the course, you will be able to:

  • derive information from news sources.
  • identify news values.
  • apply basic industry-standard writing techniques to hard news leads and attribution.
  • assess hard-news story ideas.
  • plan and execute basic news interviews


Overview of Learning Activities

Students will have lectures, practical writing exercises and guest lecturers. Students will find it difficult to grasp the necessary concepts and complete their assessment without participating in the lectures and tutorials.
 


Overview of Learning Resources

RMIT will provide you with the resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems.


Overview of Assessment

You will be assessed on how well you meet the course’s learning outcomes and on your development against the program capabilities.

You will demonstrate learning in this course by successfully completing assessment tasks relating to reporting and news writing and knowledge of current events.
As a journalist, you are expected to act in a professional manner, and your assessments must reflect this. Your work is expected to exhibit and conform to appropriate professional practice standards.

Feedback will be given on all assessment tasks.

If you have a long term medical condition and/ or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or the Disability Liaison Unit if you would like to find out more.

An assessment charter summarises your responsibilities as an RMIT student as well as those of your teachers.

Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies which are described and referenced in a single document.