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2020/2021

International Journalism

Code: 103085 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2501933 Journalism OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Josep Maria Perceval Verde
Email:
JosepMaria.Perceval@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Eulalia Sandiumenge Folch

Prerequisites

As it is a 4th year course, students must be able to express themselves, in writing and orally, in their own languages and be able to work in English. In addition, they must master the writing of different journalistic genres with impeccable orthography and didactic expression. It requires a capacity for initiative and an ability to be up to date on current international affairs.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the subject, it is recommended to have basic knowledge of Law, History, Demography, Political Science, Economics and Sociology, among other disciplines, with which they have been in contact in previous courses. Students who have studied a subject or specialization in International Relations will already have a good base when it comes to applying the main concepts from journalism.

Objectives and Contextualisation

Contextualization

The subject of International Journalism offers the necessary knowledge and tools, both theoretical and practical, for anyone who wants to join the International section of a media outlet, as well as to exercise the profession of freelance, collaborating for different media or participating in long-distance projects. The course will also give tools to the growing number of journalists, with or without experience in international issues, who want to work in universities, NGOs, institutions or international companies. The teaching team will deal with various topics, from the changes in the sector, the historical process of the international journalist's career and his work as correspondent, to the new panorama of international journalism with freelance as a central figure. As well, the called war journalism and conflict analysis on issues such migration and refuge.

The subject starts from a first theoretical reflection on the professional practice of international journalism and its capacity to influence the changing context in which it develops, and on the tools that journalists can use. Aspects related to the geopolitics of information will also be dealt with, as well as geographically specialised topics such as, for example, the United States, the European Union or Latin America. Students should analyse and understand from a critical point of view international conflicts and policies, as well as decision-making mechanisms in international institutions.

Objectives

  1. To identify the main themes and protagonists of international information.
  2. To know and understand the media agenda of countries and international organizations.
  3. To know and deepen in the conflicts and in the socio-economic and political context of different regions and countries of the world (European Union, Africa, Latin America, Mediterranean, United States, China, etc.), as well as in transversal phenomena such as populism or migration and refuge.
  4. To study the work, the responsibilities and the possibilities of incidence of the different professional modalities (correspondence, special trips and coverage, freelance journalism, etc.).
  5. To delve into the different journalistic genres from which international information can work.

Competences

  • Abide by ethics and the canons of journalism, as well as the regulatory framework governing information.
  • Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  • Demonstrate ethical awareness as well as empathy with the entourage.
  • Differentiate the discipline’s main theories, its fields, conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and approaches that underpin knowledge of the subject and its different areas and sub-areas, and acquire systematic knowledge of the media’s structure.
  • Generate innovative and competitive ideas in research and professional practice.
  • Relay journalistic information in the language characteristic of each communication medium, in its combined modern forms or on digital media, and apply the genres and different journalistic procedures.
  • Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
  • Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Use a third language as a working language and means of professional expression in the media.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Conceptualise the theories and techniques of specialised journalism.
  2. Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  3. Demonstrate ethical awareness and empathy with the entourage.
  4. Demonstrate practical knowledge of specialised journalism.
  5. Generate innovative and competitive ideas in research and professional practice.
  6. Incorporate the principles of professional ethics in developing narrative journalism specialised in international political information.
  7. Know how to build texts in a third language that adapt to the structures of journalistic language and apply them to the different theme-based information specialisms.
  8. Relay in the language specific to each communication medium narrative journalism specialised in international information.
  9. Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
  10. Respect the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  11. Use interactive communication resources to process, produce and relay information in the production of specialised information.

Content

Subject Overview

 

  1. What defines international journalism within specialized journalism? Overcoming the dialectic between news from official agencies and international analysts of hegemonic thought. What is today a correspondent, a special or occasional envoy, an analyst, a specialist in international politics?
  2. The international information agenda: how it is built, what interests it responds to, different worldviews. Stereotypes and prejudices: xenophobias and postcolonial ethnophobias, special incidence in Islamophobia.
  3. International communication in a globalized world: capital and information movement, prohibition of people movement.
  4. Explanations or analysis. Overcoming international journalism as journalism from places in conflict. Answer the questions without falling into the topic trap. The new relationships between journalists, social networks and Oenegés.
  5. Construction of the professional as an international journalist in the newsrooms and in the place of the news: techniques and method of investigation at short and long distance, sources, structure of each story, management of narrative resources,
  6. The reporter's route. The practice of international journalism in the newsroom and on the ground: agencies, correspondents, freelance journalism, coverage of conflicts, humanitarian journalism.
  7. Big issues: migrations and refuge; populisms and extreme right; ‘Technopolitics’ and revolts. How digital tools are used for activism and collective organization, from the origins with the anti-globalization movement to Hong Kong and the “Arab Spring”, of which this course is ten years old.
  8. Major players in international politics (this course focuses on the US presidential elections in November).
  9. Destiny. Information and release of previous prejudices. On-site experience through informants, networks and constant verification of sources.
  10. The construction of gender relations at the global level: contextualize the feminist movement in each country and analyse large cross-sections such as the #metoo movement or the structuring of LGTBIQ rights.

 

Methodology

The calendar will be available on the first day of class. Students will find all information on the Virtual Campus: the description of the activities, teaching materials, and any necessary information for the proper follow-up of the subject. In case of a change of teaching modality for health reasons, teachers will make readjustments in the schedule an.

 

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Seminars. Practical activities. 27 1.08 9, 8, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 7, 11
Theory classes 15 0.6 1, 3, 2, 6, 10
Visits to entities or institutions 6 0.24 1, 5, 6, 11
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring 6 0.24 9, 8, 4, 5, 7, 11
Type: Autonomous      
Search, selection and reading of bibliography and other resources. Personal study. Planning and individual work / teamwork. 93 3.72 9, 8, 1, 3, 4, 2, 6, 10, 7, 11

Assessment

The activities that are excluded from the recovery process of a subject cannot jointly exceed 50% of the weight in the final grade.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any

disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and

class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

- Activity A. Practical activities: 30% of the final grade;

- Activity B. Individual exami: 30% of the final grade;

- Activity C. Team coursework: 40% of final grade.

*Any work or written test that includes five spelling mistakes, grammar and/or barbarisms (adding five errors in total) will get a score of 0.

To be able to pass the subject, it will be necessary:

a) To have carried out and submitted all the assignments (activities A, B and C). In case of justified absence for reasons of force majeure, the corresponding proof must be presented to the professors; otherwise, the activities will be considered as Not Completed.   

b) Obtain a minimum grade of 5 in each of activities A, B and C.

c) In the teamwork, the teaching team may adopt control measures to verify the participation of each member in the common work. Therefore, the grades may be different for members of thesame team, which could mean that one or more members suspend the evaluation, while the others approve it.

Reevaluation

The student will have the right to the reevaluation of the course if he/she has been evaluated of the set of activities, the weight of which equals a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade of the subject.

Activity C is excluded from the reevaluation process.

Second enrolment

In the case of a second enrolment, the student may request the possibility (non-binding) of carrying out a single synthesis test on the entire subject matter. The grade of thesubject will correspond to the grade of the synthesis test.

Students who wish to take this single test should contact the subject coordinator during the first week of classes. Each case will be analyzed individually, considering the grade obtained in the previous registration, number of activities carried out, etc.

Plagiarism

The student who performs any irregularity (copy, plagiarism, identity theft, etc.) that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an act of evaluation, will be qualified with 0 on this act of evaluation. In case of more than one irregularity, the final grade of the subject will be 0.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final exam 30% 3 0.12 8, 1, 3, 10, 7
Individual practical assignments 30% 0 0 9, 8, 3, 4, 2, 5, 6, 10, 7, 11
Teamwork 40% 0 0 9, 8, 3, 4, 2, 5, 6, 10

Bibliography

 Mandatory bibliography will be presented on the first day of class and changes may be applied throughout the course.