Course Title: Journalism: Issues and Principles
Part A: Course Overview
Course Title: Journalism: Issues and Principles
Credit Points: 12
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
COMM1117 |
City Campus |
Postgraduate |
335H Applied Communication |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 2 2006,
Sem 2 2008 |
COMM1118 |
City Campus |
Undergraduate |
335H Applied Communication |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 2 2006 |
Course Coordinator: Josie Vine
Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 3596
Course Coordinator Email:josie.vine@rmit.edu.au
Course Coordinator Location: Building 6, Level 2, Room 18
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
None
Course Description
This course will examine the tasks, methods, privileges and responsibilities of today’s professional journalist in Australia. It will develop understanding of the self-regulatory framework in which journalists work, and an apperciation for the rationale behind journalistic method.
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
- To understand the privileges journalists enjoy in a western liberal democracy
- To consider journalists’ responsibilities to themselves, those they write or broadcast about, their employer and to society.
- To understand the role and nature of Australian journalism’s codes of ethics and self-regulatory system
- To understand the rationale behind journalistic method
- An understanding of the development of Australian journalism’s issues and principles
- An understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of Australian journalism’s codes of ethics and its self-regulatory systems
- An understanding of the diversity of journalistic product
- Skills in basic journalistic method
Overview of Learning Activities
The course materials will be delivered in weekly seminars. These will include:
- Lectures
- Documentaries
- Classroom exercises
- Classroom discussions
Work to be undertaken outside seminars will include:
- A weekly reading program on-line
- Media consumption, which students will be directed towards in seminars
Overview of Learning Resources
- Weekly readings to be delivered on-line
- Media consumption, which students will be directed towards in seminars
Overview of Assessment
Class attendance is not compulsory, but students will find it difficult to grasp the necessary concepts without attending regularly. Students need to reach a satisfactory standard in all components of the assessment to pass the course.
Students will be assessed in practical assignments, in-class exercises and class participation.