module specification

This module is designed to equip fashion journalism students with the knowledge of mobile journalism practices and trends and the skills to produce fashion and lifestyle themed features. It aims to build on your core journalism skills that you gained in year 1 and enable you apply these skills in producing fashion and lifestyle features with the use of mobile technology. You will also understand the main promotoion mechanisms in journalism and will explore how to promote your work and enable it to reach wider audiences. It aims to give you a critical perspective on fashion journalism and the way digital content is produced, and by who.
Building on year 1 modules Reporting: News and Features and Audio and Video Techniques, this module will continue to develop your abilities in sourcing, researching and interviewing, as well as producing and editing original features stories, and you will learn how to use your mobile phone to produce editorial-quality content.
This way, in the beginning of the module you will examine the conventions of mobile journalism for digital publishing – from photography and video to short and long-form audio.
You will also refresh your knowledge of feature journalism with a specific focus on fashion and lifestyle stories, and then develop your practical skills to produce mobile journalism content to enhance your feature-storytelling. For this, you will practice interviewing, shooting and recording on a mobile shone, and turning the resulting content into good text and multimedia for fashion and lifestyle publications.

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 portfolio of mobile journalism and online journal contributions.

This module focuses on developing the students’ journalistic skills, considering specifically feature-writing for fashion journalism and producing multimedia content using mobile technology. Students will also critically examine the production of features on fashion topics within the journalism industry, reflecting on the producers (journalists) and the process of production.

Building on the previous modules, the students will continue developing the central skillset of journalists with particular attention to writing features and mobile journalistic production.

Students will review the genre conventions of features with a focus on lifestyle and fashion topics, practice identifying and researching stories, interviewing a wide range of people, shooting and recording photo-, audio- and -video content using mobile technology. [LO1, LO2]

The practical elements of sessions will build on the broadcast training the students received in year 1. Student will practice a variety of techniques of shooting and recording on mobile phones and discuss how different modes of mobile content can enhance feature stories on fashion and lifestyle topics. They will discuss what kind of multimedia content is appropriate for editorial purposes, and how the technical and creative standards of editorial work can be achieved using mobile phones. [LO2, LO3]

Finally, this module aims to not only provide students with the practical skills, but also analytical and commercial 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. In this regard, students will look at who produces fashion features, how they are constrained by technical means and resources, and how this affects the stories that reach the audiences. [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 discussion and practical 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 the conventions of feature-writing in fashion and lifestyle journalism and how to use audio, video and photos within features in fashion and lifestyle journalism;

LO2. Use appropriate techniques for interviewing a wide range of people on fashion-related topics, and use interview content appropriately to produce journalistic features and demonstrate technical competencies in shooting and recording audio-, video- and photo-content;

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

LO4. Be able to critically evaluate practical journalistic work, including their own.

This list includes both core and additional reading:
https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/C93DBD66-F328-B3B0-A9B4-60BEED8B7B96.html?lang=en&login=1