JRN4300EN - Fundamentals of Digital Journalism

Course description

The course provides a broad view of the development of media content for multiple platforms, which empower a new media generation of practices in digital media, as journalists and storytellers. Media convergence heralded the breaking down of walls between the different specializations in journalism. The industry’s expanding wave of integrated media is covered in this course. Students are exposed to topics in print journalism, photojournalism, broadcast and digital journalism, including media writing and reporting, podcasting, producing video for social media to align with the expansion of live broadcasting on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which are readily available to growing audiences on mobile devices, making access to news content more personalized than ever before. An iPhone, smartphone, iPad or tablet, for example, are able to shoot amazing high definition video, act as a basic editing suite, applying professional-looking finishes, which can be instantly distributed around the globe. Discussions focus on how to overcome the inherent limitations in nonprofessional, nontraditional settings. These abilities has immensely outpaced the capabilities traditional media and democratized of news distribution, birthing a category of citizen journalists. The approach taken in this course presents a huge opportunity for people seeking to develop messages, working outside of a structured media environment.

How this course benefits students

Students are exposed to best practices for telling stories to an online audience—through social media, on the web and to a mobile audience. They learn to engage with video, digital photography, audio recordings, and data visualizations. You’ll have the tools and storytelling skills to produce, edit and post content 24/7. To maintain a strong digital presence content creators must have the skills to produce visual stories with video, images, graphics and text.

Why this course is important

Skills learned in the Multimedia Journalism course developes investigation skills that can benefit interaction, and build an openness to issues people face in their daily lives.

Credit hours
3 hours
Subject area
Journalism
Educational level
Bachelor
Learning type
Instructional
Prerequisites
None
Upcoming terms
Pending
* Schedule subject to change. Please contact the Registrar's office with schedule questions.

How this course relates to missional core values

Biblically based

In the Bible the deliverer of good news was Jesus, the son of God. That was his mission. He faced so much adversity and disbeleif. He died the realize his goal. Messengers are often sacrificed for the message. Journalists who work in war zones or who are put on dangerous missions will confirm this.

Missionally driven

There is real need in many parts of the world that can derail missional goals. What does a mission feed, and in what order? The body, the mind? the soul" Can people be converted when they are in strife, when is life is ravaged by social challenges?

Contextually informed

Journalists working in global media seek to expose issues in places where they are unfamiliar with they ways people live their lives. Sometimes the issues that plague people's live are chronic and long-standing. They may not know any other way of life. A cultural outsider may see some realities as unsustainable based on an extra-cultural cultural stance they take. Problems and solutions are different things to different people.

Interculturally focused

Multimedia the focus on the work of journalists is to expose injustice in all settings. Post the 2017 election we see how people from all walks of life respond to what seems to them a single message, one that excludes more than it includes. Though that may not have been the intent of the message sender, it still has vast implications, and demonstrates that in some settings, the way a message is constructed may be more important than what it contains.

Practically minded

Applying the skills learned in this multi-cultural journalism course to missional work is not a one-size fits all exercise. In some cases there is a need for an interpersonal application. Tthe design of the way the message is delivered can take a number of different approaches.

Experientially transformed

We have all seen the phrase "embedded" used to describe the way a journalist is located inside a deployment of troops in a war zone. This strategy is used to give the journalist access to the frontlines, and a level of protection and security while they gather information on the ground in a conflict. It is a very dangerous position to be placed in, but it enables the journalist to get first hand understanding and experience on what is happening in the surroundings. This primary experience is valuable in newsgathering, and news minute-by-minute news reporting. Emerging oneself into the lived experiences of people in a global setting is a benefit for opening people up to our messages, and for primary experiences in humanity.