This page does not replace the IMJ7004 Module Guide. The Module guide contains full schedule details with dates. This weekly overview gives you a fast week by week glance and includes any readings for key seminars. In addition it includes the actual days of the week that sessions will be held and any last moment announcements.
It’s imperative that you view the schedule and complete required seminar readings PRIOR to attending seminars. Please note we call sessions seminars, note lectures. As Masters-level students you should not expect to be lectured at, rather you should form discussions with your tutors and peers. We also include discussion prompts prior to sessions to help you to prepare your ideas.
Please note that after T2 Week 1Song Yi’s sessions will switch day and time from Monday to Friday at 3:30, they will also be delivered via MSN Teams so that all students domestic and international can participate. Song Yi will give you further details.
Week 1 Pre-Production A1: PF Research Sources (2 x 1.5 hour Seminars)
- Key Seminar 1 (Monday 3:30): Intro to T2 & Project Forms
- Post Class Assignment: (Complete by Friday) Research Sources: Students to make a list of reading topics relevant to project work for self-directed research via digital research page. (View Example)
- Key Seminar 2 (Friday 3:30): Students share their digital research page with research sources – and receive on the spot tutor feedback
- Key seminar summary & Reading: The module leader will introduce students to the Module and Project Form. Discuss suitable research sources |Performing self-directed academic bibliographical research & evaluating research sources | Critical thinking & Reading Skills. Concept of research-informed practice | Creating Digital Research pages via Padlet
- Reading: Please view the Module Guide, Assignment Brief & Project Form prior to class
Week 2 Pre-Production A2: PF Research Questions (1 x 2 hour Seminar)
- Key Seminar (Friday 3:30): Context Story & Narrative
- Workshop: Creating a Google Alert.
- Post Class Assignment: Research Sources & Research Questions: Students continue with preliminary academic readings and formulate research questions for review.
- Key seminar summary & Reading: This seminar and readings aim to deepen your awareness of the relationship between context, issue, story, and narrative. As journalists we are often called ‘storytellers’, and the word ‘story’ has been a big buzzword in journalism in recent years. Of course, it’s still our primary job to INFORM the public, but with the overwhelming mass and choice of information online, it’s more important than ever to ENGAGE our audience too. Very often we do this by couching our reporting in narrative stories. Finally, the seminar will focus on CONTEXT and issue, and discuss how, as journalists, we might navigate communicating story, issue, and context to our audience. In visual journalism, narrative is related to the idea of context. No matter how complete or comprehensive a narrative appears it will always be the product of including some elements and excluding others. Inclusion/exclusion is part of what construction is all about, but knowing what is best included or excluded requires an understanding of context. An understanding of context requires visual storytellers to be highly proficient researchers. The seminar will NOT include detailed story & narrative theory as this is covered in the practical modules. You are expected to have completed those sessions prior to this seminar.
- Required Readings to complete prior to class:
- The journalistic method: Five principles for blending analysis and narrative One of the shortest, most useful things I’ve ever read. Pay special attention to point 3 Mapping the discourse.
- This On The Media podcast. Poverty in America Edition. There is a transcript on the same site as the podcast which should help non-native speakers. There are 10 KEY POINTS mentioned in the podcast. These are common problems in media coverage poverty which arise from journalists not fully “mapping the discourse” to place their story in its fullest context. It should focus the student’s minds if to pick out these points before coming to the seminar. We will go through them again and use the misunderstanding around “Poverty in America” as a jumping-off point to brainstorm another issue thats often misunderstood. Also see: Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook: Poverty in America Edition
- This David Campbell article that ties in with his lecture (listen to the lecture here). In the IMJ seminar we draw heavily from this lecture – but aim to simplify and condense the key points. So this article is an important primer, and if you wish they can listen to the whole lecture as a further reading afterwards.
- Good stories provide context | The American Press Institute
Optional further reading post class:
- “Don’t read me the news, tell me the story”: How newsmakers and storytellers negotiate journalism’s boundaries when preparing and presenting news stories
- Photographic Storytelling: A Poverty of Theory
- How journalism is turning emotional and what that might mean for news
- Re-listen to the On the Media podcast. It delivers important lessons about ‘UNICORNS’ – Stories about exceptional people are inspiring and important. But… “The problem is that if you aren’t showing through the body of your work what it really takes for most people and the kinds of obstacles they are up against, the odds they face and the lack of good policy that’s making it harder for them the problem is you look at these exceptional stories and you think – oh yeah, it’s about hard work and so the people that aren’t getting out of poverty are failing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps” – Greg Kaufmann. In the past we had students do ‘hero’ stories about people living with disabilities – a positive story about disability, with the voices of the community speaking about their own experiences is likely to be a valuable piece of reporting – but students should take caution that in your bigger body of work – you make it clear that the individual is an exception and that most people are not hampered by lack of work, ambition or dreams, but by pervasive and systematic inequality.
- Journalism That Stands Apart
- Tips for multimedia storytellers
- This is about fictional storytelling but is still useful for understanding the difference between story and narrative for non-fictional stories. Story vs. Narrative
- What is Narrative, Anyway?
- There is an interesting tangential discourse that is worth thinking about, especially in todays current climate where ‘storytelling’ and ‘narrative’ are strongly emphasised in journalistic practice. Is there are risk, when journalists try too hard to achieve the perfect story, that the story overrides the actual reporting? Personally, I (Sharron) believe this is a real danger that we should be alert to. I absolutely think we need to keep viewers engaged in our stories and that storytelling is a powerful tool that we should use – but that we should also remember that our central goal is to inform not to entertain. You students can form your own opinions – here are a couple of recent real cases which demonstrate the danger of the ‘tyranny of narrative’: Rolling Stone and the Temptations of Narrative Journalism and also this piece ‘New York Times’ Retracts Core Of Hit Podcast Series ‘Caliphate’ On ISIS. Here’s a quote from the second article “We fell in love with the fact that we had gotten a member of ISIS who would describe his life in the caliphate and would describe his crimes,” New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet tells NPR in an interview on Thursday. “I think we were so in love with it that when we saw evidence that maybe he was a fabulist, when we saw evidence that he was making some of it up, we didn’t listen hard enough.” For the second case (byt Rukmini Callimachi NYT). The Guardian notes that when Callimachi arrived at the New York Times in 2014 she rapidly became a rising star at a paper which was seeking to transition “from the stodgy paper of record into a juicy collection of great narratives”. The cases are worth looking at and can teach lessons in how to not allow the story to detract from the truth.
Week 3 Pre-Production A3: PF Research Sources & Questions (1 x 2 hour Seminar)
- Key Seminar: (Friday please check time with Song Yi) Context Story & Narrative
- Project Form Section: Research Sources
- Post Class Assignment: Research Sources & Questions: Students continue research + readings with special attention to ethical considerations.
- Key seminar summary & Reading: (This seminar is a follow up seminar to the recorded Context, Story & Narrative Seminar – here you will be discussing how the seminar relates to your own stories. Which are the key contexts surrounding your own Assignment? What are the key discourses? How have you researched and educated yourself about the issues surrounding your work? What have you learned? How does this impact the way you will tell your story? Which context will you bring into the story – and which will you leave out? (Which context is essential to the audience and which is best left to your own knowledge?)
- Reading: Prior to the seminar, please do finish the reading assignment on story, narrative and context (see last weeks readings). Meanwhile, do watch Graeme’s recorded seminar and listen to an audio lecture on this topic. By reading and watching/listening to these. The recorded seminar and the audio lecture are available on Baidu Cloud. Here’s the access info: 百度云盘的链接：https://pan.baidu.com/s/1FOGqn6oJ94ECELaxbacbTw 提取码: 58ib. On Friday, Song Yi will hold a group seminar about your self-study and comprehension of the materials – and more importantly how they relate to yourr own specific assignment.
- You have a deadline this week: Draft deadline: 05/03 Submit Project Forms with Research Questions completed. Plus Digital Research Page in progress | You will receive feedback from Song Yi in week 4 via online Focus Group Tutorials (20 mins per student). By complete we mean comprehensive for the current stage. PF’s are an iterative process and further research sources should be added on a regular basis until the project is complete and submitted.
Week 4 Pre-Production A4: PF Research Sources & Questions (Individual Tutorials 20 mins per student)
- Tutorials: Individual feedback for research sources & questions – plus suggestions for adjustments and further research
- Please alert Song Yi if you have not recieved notification of your tutorial time in Week 4. Tutorials are not optional and each student must attend
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class Assignment: Independent Research / Writing
Week 5 Production A1: PF Research Sources & Questions & Reflective Diary (1 x 1 hour Seminar)
- Key Seminar: Reflective Writing
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions & Reflective Diary
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing
Week 6 Production A2: PF Research Proposal (Independent Research / Writing)
There is no seminar or tutorials this week students work independently on their Research Proposal. Students should write an outline for their research proposal this week.
Week 7 Production A3: Full Project Form (Each student receives Written Feedback 30 mins pp)
- You have a deadline this week: 29/03/2021 Submit a complete Production Form draft for critical feedback to help you complete your final edit.
- Feedback: Written Feedback delivered by Module Leader by 01/03/2021
- For students that do not meet the deadline, you will not receive feedback unless you have mitigating circumstances. We will not make any exceptions so if you hand in one or two days late you should not expect any feedback.
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing
Week 8 Intensive Prep Week: Research Sources & Questions (Independent Research / Writing)
- Key Content: There is no seminar this week. Students will take a ‘Reading & Revision Week’. All students should start their preliminary research for Assignment B. Consider which story or project you would like to explore next.
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing. Students do some preliminary reading for Assignment B
Week 9 Intensive Week 1: PFA Seminar to address common strengths, weaknesses & errors (1 x 2 hour Seminar)
- Key Seminar: Common strengths, weaknesses & errors in PF A Plus pointers to improve the second Project Form in assignment B
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing. Students continue preliminary reading for Assignment B
Week 10 Intensive Week 2: PF Research Sources & Questions (Independent Research / Writing)
- Key Content: There is no seminar this week. Reading & Revision Week
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing. Students continue preliminary reading for Assignment B
Week 11 Pre-Production B1: PF Research Sources & Questions (1 x 2 hour Seminar)
- Key Seminar: Native Platforms & Losing Control over Distribution
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing
Week 12 Pre-Production B2 – PF Research Sources & Questions completed (Individual Tutorials 30 mins per student)
- You have a deadline this week: Draft deadline: 12/05 Submit Project Forms with Research Questions completed. Plus Digital Research Page in progress | Feedback on Thursday & Friday via online Focus Group Tutorials (20-30 mins per student) * By complete we mean comprehensive for the current stage. PF’s are an iterative process and further research sources should be added on a regular basis until the project is complete and submitted.
- Tutorials: Individual feedback for research sources & questions – plus suggestions for adjustments and further research
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing
Week 13 Production B1 – PF Research Proposal & Diary (Independent Research / Writing)
- Key Content: No seminar, this is a Reading & Revision Week
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing.
Week 14 Production B2 – PF All sections (Independent Research / Writing)
- Key Content: No seminar, this is a Reading & Revision Week
- Project Form Section: Research Sources & Questions
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing.
Week 15 Production B3: PF Full Project Form (Written Feedback 30 mins pp)
- You have a deadline this week 31/05/2021 Submit a complete Production Form draft for critical feedback to help you complete your final edit. Hand your work in on time and with a good level of English.
- Tutorials / Written Feedback from Song Yi delivered by 02/06/2021
- Please alert Song Yi if you do not receive written feedback by 02/06/2021, you will need feedback prior to your submission.
- Project Form Section: All sections
- Post Class: Independent Research / Writing
IMMJ 