Overview

This unit provides students with the core skills necessary for journalistic practice, as well as an understanding of how the news industry is changing. You will learn how to interview participants in the news and how to research stories from documentary sources. You will be given practical exercises and detailed feedback to help you communicate your research clearly so that it is easily understood by the audience. You will learn news writing skills as they apply to print and online media. And you will learn how new technology is driving changes in journalistic practice.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
03-March-2025
01-June-2025
Last self-enrolment date
16-March-2025
Census date
31-March-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
24-April-2025
Results released date
08-July-2025

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Apply a critical understanding of the impacts of organisational, technological and cultural disruption to research on changing professional identities and practices in journalism
  • Discuss innovative responses to disruption in journalism, including new business models, new media roles and practices, and indigenous media perspectives
  • Identify contemporary news values, diverse sources and inclusive production and editing techniques in the development of news writing across print and online mediums
  • Apply novice journalistic practitioner practices to conduct basic journalistic research and write a clear and concise news story across print and online mediums

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On Campus
Class		 2.00  12 weeks  24
Online
Lecture (asynchronous)		 1.00  12 weeks  12
Specified Activities
Various		 3.00  12 weeks  36
Unspecified Activities
Various		 6.50  12 weeks  78
TOTAL     150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Case Study Group  30%  1,2 
Class Exercises Individual  30%  3,4 
Practical Assignment Individual  40%  1,2,3,4 

Content

  • Introduction to journalism as a changing practice, profession and ideology
  • Journalism’s professional identity in a disrupted industry
  • The changing newsroom – new roles, stakeholders and practices in the news industry
  • Identifying news values and inclusive journalistic storytelling
  • Journalistic research and investigation
  • Misinformation, disinformation and verification in digital news formats
  • Introduction to news writing across multimedia formats
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Collaboration and negotiation
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Teamwork roles and processes
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.