Undergraduate - UnitATS2647 - Journalism: War and conflict

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Journalism
Offered	Not offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)	Dr Fay Anderson

Synopsis

This unit provides students with a critical engagement with contemporary scholarship on the reporting of war and civil and international conflict. The subject explores the reporting of wars and civil conflicts including the World Wars, Vietnam, conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, Rwanda and Somalia, East Timor, Bosnia, post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Arab Spring, Within these contexts, the subject considers the rich history of war journalism (print, photography, broadcasting and more recently online), the evolution of the industry, censorship, the extent of media influence, how the media shape public perceptions, the prevailing representations, photography and the new media. It canvasses key theoretical concepts related to war coverage including 'othering', compassion fatigue, peace journalism, global journalism, liberation journalism, the Vietnam syndrome and the CNN effect. This subject requires a strong interest in news and current affairs along with a thoughtful and flexible approach to some of the key issues raised by media coverage of war and conflict.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students should be able to

demonstrate a satisfactory knowledge and capacity to make effective usage of the academic literature in the field of journalism about war and violent conflict.
demonstrate an ability to research, discuss and analyse scholarly issues in a clear, concise and rigorous way
collaborate constructively with fellow students in learning and discussion processes, including online forums
produce their written work to deadline making effective use of the conventions of scholarly presentation (references, bibliography, etc)
work independently and in groups to achieve their learning outcomes
demonstrate a critical awareness of the strengths, limitations and socio-professional implications of scholarly practice in journalism studies

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Fay Anderson

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Journalism studies

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units. It is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two first-year level units in Journalism.

Prohibitions

ATS3647