Module description
What is digital journalism? How are digital technologies changing journalistic practices, and with what consequences? What can research about digital journalism tell us about the role of digital technologies in society?
This module provides an introduction to digital journalism, including the current state of this field as well as different ways of studying it. It examines different responses to the emergence of digital journalism, including how digital technologies are said to change who makes the news, who is able to access it, who is given voice, who participates, how news content is produced, how news audiences are measured and quantified, how content is paid for and who makes money from the news.
These issues will be explored through a combination of lectures, readings and empirical analyses of existing digital journalism projects. Please note that while students will indeed gain some digital skills and an understanding of digital journalistic practices from this module, its focus is academic rather than vocational.
Assessment details
Coursework - Digital journalism project - 100%
Educational aims & objectives
| Educational aims |
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This module aims to:
- Provide an introduction to research and debates around how digital technologies are changing journalistic practices;
- Develop skills to design, implement and reflect on research projects on digital journalism, including through group research activities. That includes defining the concept of the project; developing the business model for the project and its organizational structure; critical analysis of the opportunities for data collection and data analysis relying on various digital affordances and considering various strategies for data presentation, promotion and audience engagement.
- Explore how digital methods may be used to study digital media in the context of journalism.
- Explore how future digital technologies may have an impact on the development of digital journalism.
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Learning outcomes
By the end of this module, students will be able to:
- Understand and engage with recent research and debates about digital journalism;
- Design and implement an empirical study on the role of digital technologies in journalism – including through the use of digital methods for assembling, analysing and visualising data;
- Reflect on the broader relevance of digital journalism in society, including on the social, cultural, political and economic consequences of objects such as online platforms, data, algorithms, bots and “fake news”.
- Have the set of skills in order to conduct a critical analysis of existing digital journalism projects, including the analysis of the general concept and the goals of a specific project; business model and organizational structure of the project; the approaches for data collection and data analysis; as well as the potential impact of future digital technologies for the development of that project.