Basics of News Journalism

2022/2023

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Institute of Media

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

2 year, 1, 2 module

Instructors

Андреева Ирина Витальевна

Бабич Дмитрий Олегович

Поликарпова Виктория Анатольевна

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Television, radio and online news are conversational media. For this reason it is very important to write modern news in a conversational way that would be attractive to a worldwide audience. During the course the students will learn the basics in text writing. Besides, the students will also grasp basic ideas about basic principles of journalism, writing stories, creating powerful headlines. In addition they will learn more about key principles of story planning. They will also learn the tricks of storytelling from reporters with native English.

Learning Objectives

• The students will master their skills in news writing in English for different types of media (news agency, radio, TV, online platforms).
• They will also learn how to find an interesting and powerful angle for angle for the story

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Be able to produce media text suitable for various media in proper English with full understanding of the way the text is perceived in different media and platforms

Course Contents

• Unit 1. What should we know before we start writing news
• Unit 2. Where we get the news from
• Unit 3. What is a short news item?
• Unit 4. Writing stories for the news agency
• Unit 5. Headlines and leads.
• Unit 6: Journalist at the press conference.
• Unit 7: Reporting the news.
• Unit 8: Planning the news coverage

Assessment Elements

• Work during seminars and attendance
• Individual tasks
• Final test
• Attendance
• Work during seminars
• Final assignment

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 2nd module
  0.5 * Final test + 0.2 * Work during seminars and attendance + 0.3 * Individual tasks
• 2022/2023 2nd module
  0.3 * Work during seminars + 0.2 * Attendance + 0.5 * Final assignment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Anand, V. E., & Jayanthi, K. (2018). A Handbook of Journalism : Media in the Information Age. New Delhi, India: Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1739149
• Eide, M., Sjøvaag, H., & Larsne, L. O. (2016). Journalism Re-examined:Digital Challenges and Professional Reorientations : Digital Challenges and Professional Reorientations. Bristol: Intellect. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1406720
• Hernandez, R. K., & Rue, J. (2016). The Principles of Multimedia Journalism : Packaging Digital News. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1018396

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Hartley, J. M. (2017). Journalism Re-Examined: Digital Challenges and Professional Orientation (Lessons from Northern Europe). Nordicom Review, 38(1), 127–129. https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0406