| Semester 1, 2022 Springfield On-campus | |
| Units : | 1 |
| Faculty or Section : | Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts |
| School or Department : | School of Humanities & Communication |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
| Course fee schedule : | /current-students/administration/fees/fee-schedules |
Staffing
Examiner:
Overview
At a time when the digital revolution is spawning an unprecedented flood of information and disinformation each day, we need to be able to judge the credibility and reliability of news reports, and we need to understand why that matters.
This course is designed to teach students how to become more discriminating news producers and/or consumers. The course will seek to help students recognise reliable information and teach them how to apply their critical-thinking skills so they can act on such information. As part of their instruction, students also will learn how the journalistic process works and how professional journalists make decisions.
Course learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- identify and describe the concept of news literacy and why it matters;
- critically evaluate information to separate news from propaganda and opinion, and identify bias and fairness, assertion and verification, and evidence, inference and influence in news reports;
- effectively deconstruct written and visual texts, and communicate their judgment of the journalistic process and how journalists make decisions;
- exercise judgment to evaluate the ethical standards in journalistic processes and decisions;
- critically and creatively apply knowledge and skills to appraise and analyse various forms of information, including news.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Power, contexts and functions of news media | 15.00 |
| 2. | Differentiating between news and other forms of media information | 25.00 |
| 3. | Deconstructing print, digital and broadcast news stories | 25.00 |
| 4. | Influences on news credibility and reliability | 20.00 |
| 5. | Journalistic decision-making processes | 15.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
Student workload expectations
To do well in this subject, students are expected to commit approximately 10 hours per week including class contact hours, independent study, and all assessment tasks. If you are undertaking additional activities, which may include placements and residential schools, the weekly workload hours may vary.
Assessment details
| Description | Weighting (%) |
|---|---|
| QUIZ | 20 |
| CASE STUDY & CRITQUE | 40 |
| ONLINE EXAMINATION | 40 |