This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 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.

AZA4020 - Selected topics in journalism

12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

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

Faculty

Arts

Organisational Unit

South Africa School of Social Sciences

Coordinator(s)

Mr Tula Dlamini

Offered

South Africa

First semester 2016 (Day)

Synopsis

The unit aims to integrate current theories, research methods and specific research topics for journalism students, aimed at developing both critical and analytical skills in their research areas of interest. The unit will concentrate on current debates in journalism and students will examine a variety of topics in line with their research focus which may include social media, digital journalism, journalism and the law, photojournalism in the digital age, the future of feature writing, citizen journalism, political journalism and economic journalism. Students will be active learners through the presentation of seminars and will lead discussions and provide written review of topics that are related to their specific interests. The course delivery will incorporate all lecturers in journalism, who will concentrate on their areas of expertise and interest.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the unit, students should be able to:

demonstrate an in depth knowledge of journalism theories in general and applying them to current debates in journalism;
integrate journalism theories into core research interest;
examine and discuss the underlying assumptions that underpin ideas and research in journalism;
identify key areas of study in journalism and explain their relevance in understanding contemporary debates in journalism;
engage in contemporary debate in selected areas of journalism, specifically focusing on the digital age;
develop a broad capacity to conceptualize an explanatory model for an honours dissertation;
critically review the scientific literature relative to a defined research topic.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 288 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.