Aims

This module allows students:

-To further develop their understanding of the conventions of broadcast journalism.
-To further develop skills in broadcast reporting.
-To further understand the power of pictures and sound in broadcast journalism.
-To undertake training in on-camera broadcast news presentation.
-To further develop an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of journalists working in a broadcast newsroom.
-To manage their time effectively, working to short and long term deadlines.
-To further evaluate the relevance of the audience in broadcast reporting.
-To develop an understanding of the ethical and regulatory considerations broadcast journalists face in a modern newsroom.

This module builds upon the understanding of broadcast journalism skills and knowledge introduced in Stage 2 modules in Radio Journalism and Multimedia Journalism to enable students to make their own broadcast quality visual journalism. Students will work within the ethical and regulatory restrictions for broadcast journalists as currently dictated by OFCOM and demonstrate their ability to apply those ideas to practice. They will be encouraged to make newsworthy content with a specific audience in mind.

Students have already begun to consider the importance of the audience, strong images, news values, broadcast writing and interviewing and these concepts will further underpin the practical work they produce in this module. They will continue to engage with social media platforms as a source of newsgathering and distribution and will further develop their understanding and practical application of online newswriting conventions.

Students will benefit from working with experienced TV journalists, and with those creating video journalism for online, and so begin to understand the differences and similarities between those two concepts.

Students will be given feedback on their work through copy clinics, and through shared discussion of their produced content, which is crucial in terms of the journalistic integrity and the pedagogy of the process. The immediacy of the formative feedback enables students to develop confidence in their ability and finesse their writing and shooting technique.

Outline Of Syllabus

Students will be engaging with their own news and feature content during the course of the semester, so the nature of the topics will change depending on current trends and news values, possibly Covid restrictions - however core factors will remain.

Sessions may include:
- Simulated news-gathering exercises (formative assessments)/learning by doing.
- Collaborative group learning/ learning from each other/ through playback and analysis.
- Advanced shooting and editing skills.
- One to one Presentation Skills Coaching and Mentoring.
- Developing the art of writing to pictures
- Conducting and practising interview skills.
- Constructing broadcast news pieces and analysing them.
- Preparing and producing a longer form news item for the assignment.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Students will experience how it feels to work in a real life broadcast newsroom, with all the pressures and responsibilities which that entails.

Learning activities take a range of forms on this module, each intended to enhance the learning experience, and to help students achieve key learning outcomes in a structured and iterative accumulation of skills and knowledge.

Workshops will help students to develop their critical thinking alongside others in their peer-group, allowing for a more collaborative approach to learning. This pedagogic model also involves a reactive approach to understanding and engagement across the cohort, meaning that the pace of delivery may more easily reflect students' technical abilities and rate of learning.

Small group teaching will engender peer-group learning at a more granular level still.

Skills practice will be a significant feature of this course, and best practice in broadcast journalism (for TV news) will be encouraged both in class time and in independent study.

Reflective learning is a lesser, but nevertheless crucial component of this module; it is essential that students learn to critique 'best practice' in broadcast journalism (for TV news).

Independent study will allow students the opportunity to develop their own understanding or practice, through the body of literature on 'best practice' across a number of aspects of broadcast journalism.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will undertake a combination of formative and summative assessments throughout the semester that are designed to build confidence and capability. The techniques will be new to almost all of them and are quite different from conventional news writing and essay style so the enhancement of learning through formative feedback in copy clinics is crucial.

Formative assessments will be staggered throughout the semester.

Students are required to work in small groups researching, scripting, shooting, interviewing, presenting and editing an extended TV news item/feature. The item will be a minimum of four minutes in duration - up to a maximum duration of 5 minutes.

The groups are required to write a cue that can be read by a presenter, and which will link the extended news items together, as if for broadcast.

Each group’s concept and research will be presented through a group pitch, which will also include detail on the social media, online and audio elements that would form part of the group portfolio. Students will receive feedback on this pitch and an agreed body of work will be defined.

Examples will include for the film to be submitted alongside a written version of the story that would go onto the programme’s page on the website but might also be a standalone story to go onto the news pages of that website- this will vary depending on the nature of the ideas that are pitched and is reflective of industry practice.

The online content should take advantage of the conventions of online copy writing and will usually include a video that demonstrates an understanding of the different conventions of online video in comparison to TV. The portfolio may also include a series of Tweets and/ or series of blog posts with pictures.

The essay will see students reflecting on their own learning journey on the module, but also critically evaluating what they have learned through their experience and how both that experience, and their knowledge of academic media theory, will inform their practise in the future. Essays are to be individual.