COMS102-10S2 (C) Semester Two 2010

The News Machine

18 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 12 July 2010
End Date: Sunday, 14 November 2010
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 25 July 2010
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 10 October 2010

Description

This course provides students with an understanding of the forces that shape the selection and presentation of news. It introduces significant theoretical approaches that seek to explain what is news and the criteria by which it is selected; it explores key aspects of the production of news and analyses specific areas of news (foreign, political, sport and crime) in more depth.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of the course, you should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills:
    knowledge:
  • you should be able to
  • understand the concept of news and news values
  • understand key theoretical ideas about news selection/presentation
  • identify the forces which shape news selection/presentation
  • identify the basis for source selection
  • describe how the characteristics of different media affect news selection/presentation
  • identify ownership of New Zealand media
  • describe how commercial imperatives shape news

    skills:
  • you should be able to
  • discuss and compare theoretical ideas about news
  • discuss the news process
  • explain impacts of ownership on media
  • discuss the relationship of journalists and their sources
  • interpret media content in terms of production dynamics
  • explain media content in terms of commercial imperatives
  • critically analyse media content

Course Coordinator

Jim Tully

Tutors

Kirsten Chambers , Vicki Cran , Michael Anstee and Ali Rafeeq

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Essay 1 11 Aug 2010 30%
Essay 2 06 Oct 2010 30%
Tutorial assessment 10%
Final exam 30%

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Tully, Jim , New Zealand Journalists Training Organisation; Intro : a beginner's guide to professional news journalism ; 4th ed; New Zealand Journalists Training Organisation, 2008.

Course Reader

Course links

Library portal
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Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $672.00

International fee $2,835.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All COMS102 Occurrences

  • COMS102-10S2 (C) Semester Two 2010
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