module specification

This module is designed to equip journalism students with the knowledge of digital journalistic practices and trends and the skills to produce multi-platform pieces of journalism. It aims to build on your core journalism skills and enable you apply these skills in producing journalism across digital platforms. It also aims to give you a critical perspective on journalism, both in its online and traditional applications, and critically examine how technology affects our profession.
Working alongside the News and Features  and Audio and Video Techniques modules, Digital Storytelling  will continue to develop your abilities in sourcing, researching, interviewing, producing and editing original stories. You will learn to apply these skills in digital, multimedia storytelling modes.
To accomplish this,  in the beginning of the module you will examine the conventions of digital publishing and the different digital elements that make up multimedia journalism – from features such as hyperlinks to interactivity and social media options to immersive storytelling design. You will then examine how journalists combine texts with audio, video, images and other modes of storytelling to produce exciting and compelling stories, and you will practice telling your own stories using these methods.
You will have the chance to fully explore  the design on news websites and practice digital publishing, considering how the online environment and online audiences affect how we present texts online, from writing conventions to multimedia elements. You will also investigate  how you can use social media as a journalist and a digital publisher.
Finally, you will get a chance to study the outstanding examples of online journalism and develop an understanding of how factors such as monetisation, non-linear and immersive design and audience interaction affect the journalistic editorial and production processes.
In class you will learn through a combination of lectures and practical classes, with weekly reading and practical tasks.

You will be assessed through a website portfolio of multimedia stories and online journal contributions.

This module focuses on developing the students’ journalistic skills, considering specifically how these skills can be applied in digital multi-platform journalism. It also encourages students to think about their future profession critically and consider the variety of influences on the journalistic production process online: from audiences and social media to funding and technological constraints and opportunities.

Building on the previous modules, the students will continue to learn and apply the central skillset of any journalist: from researching and sourcing stories to interviewing, writing and editing, considering the implications and traditions of digital publishing.

Students will examine the design of news websites on the whole and the layout and digital features of individual journalistic stories, focusing specifically on the two most widespread journalistic genres: news stories and features. [LO1, LO3, LO4]

Students will also examine how digital storytelling works in the sphere of journalism – from the design and use of digital features to combinations of different modes of presenting content (text, images, audio, video, interactive elements). Students will learn to put together stories with multimodal elements and digital features. [LO2, LO3, LO4]

Finally, this module aims to not only provide students with the practical skills, but also analytical skills and knowledge that give them a chance to critically evaluate the journalistic editorial and production processes critically in order to boost their creativity and resilience, give them better understanding of the multitude of journalistic career options, and a chance to imagine better, more inclusive workspaces and outputs. [LO4]

The module will be taught by a programme of weekly sessions, comprising a three-hour block for each of the weeks in which it runs. Learning and teaching strategy will be based on an interactive practice-oriented model.

Teaching sessions will include instruction, practical workshops, blended learning and tutorials. Most weeks, classes will include both lecture and practical elements, and there will be weekly journalism tasks. Students will write and produce stories during and outside of the teaching sessions, and they are expected to attend and encouraged to participate in the sessions by asking questions, seeking and providing feedback from and to their colleagues, and reflecting on their own practice.

Feedback from peers is a valuable teaching strategy as students will play the roles of both authors, editors, and audiences of the writing produced in class. A reflective coaching atmosphere in sessions will aim to foster confidence and creativity in writing.

Tutorials and formative assessments will take place to prepare students for the summative assessments.

Electronic resources, including the university’s VLE and its tools, will be used by students and staff. VLE will contain notes, slides, readings, and weblinks related to the weekly teaching session topics.

Independent reflective study, including reading and writing exercises, will form the backbone of every session.

On successful completion of this module, having completed all the tasks set, students should be able to:

LO1. Demonstrate understanding of how practical constraints associated with and resulting from emerging technologies affect the journalistic editorial production process;

LO2.  Demonstrate understanding of how to select the platforms most appropriate for disseminations of specific journalistic stories and elements of stories;

LO3. Identify and use a range of news and feature writing skills appropriate to selected modes of dissemination;

LO4. Demonstrate practical technical competencies appropriate involved in producing journalistic stories online and be able to criticall evaluate practical journalistic work, including their own;

This list includes both core and additional reading:
https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/AA1EC423-100A-9766-4157-860FE9C637EE.html?lang=en