Journalism and Media Studies 4 (BJourn final year)
Journalism and Media Studies 4
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JMS 4 2023 |
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Term 1 |
Term 2 |
Term 3 |
Term 4 |
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Media Specialisations (40hrs/week)
Audio - Jeanne du Toit Design - Brian Garman Multimedia Storytelling - Kayla Roux Photography - Harold Gess Writing & Editing - Gillian Rennie Video Documentary – Alette Schoon |
Media Studies (32 hrs/week)
Digital media & society Priscilla Boshoff
Media Specialisations (8 hrs/week)
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Media elective (16 hrs/ week)
Media Specialisations (24 hrs/week)
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Internship/Project (40hrs/week) Internship
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JMS4 Mark allocation
Media specialisation: 50%
Digital media and society: 20%
Media elective: 10%
Internship/project: 20%
Year Co-ordinator: Mr Brian Garman
Room: 210
Email: b.garman@ru.ac.za
Overview
The Bachelor of Journalism (BJourn) final year is an advanced career-focused year of study that is informed by knowledge of contemporary trends within the media. The curriculum does not simply respond uncritically to these trends in order to reproduce media practices as they currently exist. In the fourth year of your BJourn degree we place emphasis on a reflective and critical approach to journalistic and media practices. The course is based on different kinds of knowledges about journalism and media – we combine education about journalism and media practice, education for journalism and media practice, and education in journalism and media practice.
In addition to providing experiential learning which will make you more skilled as journalists and media producers, we also give you the intellectual tools and language to describe and assess how media are being used and for what purposes. The course will give you the intellectual and practical flexibility to join an industry which is in major flux and which needs to be considered leadership in the future.
Even though the BJourn is an undergraduate qualification, this final year is located at NQF Level 8, which is equivalent to an Honours programme. It commands a knowledge base that enables students both to continue their professional development and to pursue further study at Rhodes or other institutions at a Masters level (NQF Level 9).
Courses for 2023
The BJourn course is made up of four components. In the first term you will do your media specialisation for the full 40hrs per week. In term 2, you will do media studies (Digital media and Society) for 4 days per week and your media specialisation for the remaining 1 day per week. In the third term, you will do a media elective (two days per week) and your media specialisation for the other 3 days per week. In the final term you will have the choice of doing a project related to your media specialisation or an internship.
Times and venues
The venues for all JMS4 specialisation modules and courses, are all in the AMM building and the Media Studies course is in the Fine Art lecture theatre next to the AMM.
Semester 1
Media specialisations (term 1)
Monday to Friday: TBA (times and venues specific to each of the specialisations).
Media studies (term 2)
Monday 10:00 to 13:00
Thursday 10:00 to 13:00
Media specialisations (term 2)
Friday: TBA (times and venues specific to each of the specialisations).
Semester 2
Media electives (term 3)
Monday and Tuesday: TBA (times and venues specific to each of the electives).
Media specialisations (term 3)
Wednesday to Friday: TBA (times and venues specific to each of the specialisations).
Media project OR internship (term 4)
Monday to Friday: TBA (times and venues specific to each of the specialisations).
Sub-minimum requirements at JMS4
To complete JMS4, students must pass the media studies component with a minimum of 50% and the media specialisation component with a minimum of 50%. Students must achieve a minimum of 45% for the media elective and project/internship modules.
The courses
Media studies: Digital media and society: a southern perspective – Dr Priscilla Boshoff
Digital media have become a way of life. Digital infrastructures, devices and content provide the ubiquitous material and symbolic “matrix” within which – and by means of which – we experience our day-to-day lives. How we use our devices, the kinds of content they provide, the conversations they support and the social relationships they create, are highly particular and depend on the social and cultural contexts in which they are embedded. In this course we try to understand the relationship between digital media and society from our Southern perspective, a view that is shaped by experiences of colonisation and the associated phenomenon of neoliberalism. In particular, we are interested in the kinds of conversations that digital media – specifically social media – enable. For this reason, the course pays particular attention to the notion of the public sphere, and the ways in which digital affordances support, or challenge, this shared domain. We ask, what constitutes the public sphere in our Southern context and what role might digital media play in its formation? Here, we draw on a range of African scholarship that argues that, if we are to understand the public sphere in Africa, we first need to understand the relationship between digital media and popular culture.
Specialisations
Audio – Dr Jeanne du Toit
Students who choose to specialise in audio in their fourth year will gain an understanding of audio storytelling at an advanced level, both in context of radio and podcasting. Whereas the third year curriculum deals primarily with news and current affairs, students now have the chance to explore a broader range of storytelling formats, both within and outside the world of journalism. The first half of the year places an emphasis on journalistic genre, including the documentary, the round-table debate and the magazine. In the second half of the year, students are encouraged to pursue independent projects. They may, as part of such projects, explore work that falls outside the domain of journalism, such as social awareness campaigns and audio drama. In the final quarter of the year, students are given the option of completing an internship.
Design – Mr Brian Garman
This course is designed to build on the skills that were introduced in third year and explore new areas of design, both in the practical and theoretical spheres. Students will learn through engagement with a number of different projects in print and digital design which include; type design, campaign management, publication design (primarily magazine and book design), web design, corporate identity, branding and poster design. Other projects may be incorporated as opportunities arise. Many of the components of JMS4 design will require that students conduct their own research into the theoretical and practical complexities of projects. Throughout the course students will be introduced to a variety of designs and design-related theory with which they will be required to reflect on their practical production. There is a strong emphasis on producing in-depth, creative, experimental and well-considered designs.
Multimedia storytelling – Ms Kayla Roux
This course is designed to enable students to become multimedia specialists who can navigate the digital media sphere with confidence. They use a diversity of media to tell stories in different contexts and for different purposes, and think critically about ICT and its role in society. From journalism and personal storytelling to strategic communication and advertising, students will have the chance to apply multimedia skills such as photography, videography, writing, audio production, social media management, and web design in various combinations and contexts. Students will learn how to identify target audiences, how to establish relationships with partners in storytelling processes, and how to plan, design and implement a storytelling project that takes cognisance of appropriate architecture, interface, navigation and functionality. They will graduate with a multimedia portfolio containing video, audio, photography, design text, and original research elements in various combinations from a number of different perspectives including journalism and strategic communication.
Photography – Mr Harold Gess
While the JMS4 course follows on from the JMS3 course, it is very different. Students are expected to take ownership of their learning and, through doing, discover what it is that they need to learn. The relationship with the ‘lecturer’ should be understood as a relationship with a mentor. JMS4 Photography is very much about getting out of your ‘comfort zone’ to be challenged and to challenge yourself. Your days should be inspiring, demanding, tiring, frustrating, joyful, creative, and long! Whenever possible teaching will be done in person, face to face. That doesn’t mean that all the learning will be done in person, face to face. Photography is a thinking subject and a practical subject. The more time you spend doing photography the better you will become. A lot of that time will be outside of the class teaching experience. Photography is best learnt in the world, rather than in the classroom!
Writing and editing – Ms Gillian Rennie
This course helps you go beyond the simple reproduction of vocational skills and knowledge, to develop more imaginative and effective conception, research and writing approaches to a range of story forms. In particular, W&E4 focuses on depth as essential to meaningful storytelling. Some practitioners call the result SloJo (slow journalism). We call it justice. In other words, going to all the lengths demanded by any particular story to tell it compellingly in ways that help our readers make new sense of their world.
Video Documentary – Dr Alette Schoon
The course emphasises using video to make an impact in society and students are encouraged to champion causes they care deeply about. It builds on the video journalism skills developed in the third year and extends these to explore new forms of storytelling using the techniques and grammar of video. These include interviewing, cinematography, editing, sound design, art direction, motion graphics and writing narration. To develop these skills, students engage in a range of assignments including video profiles, music videos and new immersive VR video. The focus of the course is on documentary storytelling, a genre that engages audiences powerfully, particularly character driven documentary and personal documentary. Students eventually pitch and produce a 15 minute documentary as their capstone project.
Media electives
In term 3, students will be given the opportunity to elect short courses which give them the opportunity to gain knowledge and experience of various forms of media practice apart from their specialisation. The elective offered change each year, depending on staff availability and capacity. in In term 2, the electives on offered are made available and the students can apply to do an elective of their choice. Space is limited in each of the elective classes so students may not get into their first choice.
Internship/Project
In term 4, the students will need to make a choice between participating in a self-defined media project or do an internship at a media company.
Internship: Co-ordinator – Dr Jeanne du Toit
The internship module, which runs during the final academic term of the year, provides students with the chance to work in and research a media environment of their choice. To apply for the internship module, students need to identify an appropriate work environment that is prepared to host you and submit that choice for approval by the course co-ordinator. You will spend the first week of the term in class learning about participant observation as a research tool and developing the research question, which will guide your observations and reflections and help deepen your understanding of the community of media practice in which you are based during the internship. You will spend the next 6 weeks at the media company/organisation in which you are doing your internship and as well as producing media for the company, students will be required to approach the internship as an exercise in participant observation, guided by a research question. At the end of the internship period students return to class for a week to produce and present a multimedia research report which includes the media work completed during the internship and the outcomes of your research.
OR
Media project: Co-ordinator – Mr Brian Garman
The media project is primarily a specialisation-based, self-defined project although students can apply to work on projects which work across specialisations. Students will work as individuals or groups to produce a complex media product over the duration of the term. Students doing the media project will spend the first week developing their project idea into a proposal and pitch, and identifying an appropriate supervisor – from among the JMS4 specialisation teachers – to whom they will report during the term. Once the proposal has been accepted, the students can then go on to produce the work over the next 6 weeks. At the end of that period, the projects will be presented in a public exhibition and students will produce a report which reflects upon the creation process and final artefact produced during the term.
Last Modified: Tue, 04 Apr 2023 15:58:03 SAST