52645 Digital Journalism Research
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): 24 credit points of completed study in spk(s): MAJ10046 Journalism Major OR 12 credit points of completed study in spk(s): MAJ09478 48cp Journalism Major OR 12 credit points of completed study in spk(s): MAJ09486 48cp Journalism Major
Anti-requisite(s): 54024 The Hive: Collaborative Journalism
Description
This subject introduces students to key research specific to the practice and study of journalism in the contemporary era. By focusing on the theoretical frameworks that illuminate journalism practice and industries, the subject develops students’ academic capacity, helps drive distinctive journalism, and informs critiques of journalism. Students critically reflect on professional practice and examine evolving, innovative news frames and patterns of coverage in Australia and globally. Students learn to use journalism research to break news, find diverse talent, drive innovative in-depth journalism and contextualise current affairs. Digital journalism research empowers students to take a wider perspective on local, elite, and global digital journalism, revealing new pathways of investigation in research and journalism practice.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Critically evaluate relevant digital journalism research |
|---|---|
| b. | Explain and apply key digital journalism studies concepts |
| c. | Select, describe, and apply journalism research methods |
| d. | Develop understanding of professional practices and contexts through research ethics and diversity principles |
| e. | Design, conduct, and present an original digital journalism research project |
| f. | Discuss empirical findings in the light of relevant concepts and previous research |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences:
- Act in a professional manner appropriate to communication industries (1.1)
- Employ appropriate research and inquiry skills to independently gather, organise and analyse information across diverse platforms (2.1)
- Act as reflexive critical thinkers and innovative creative practitioners who evaluate their own and others' work (2.2)
- Apply knowledge of Indigenous issues in professional practices and engage responsibly in communicating with and about Indigenous people and communities (4.1)
- Analyse and act ethically in the personal, political and professional contexts of civil society (5.1)
- Exemplify effective and appropriate communication in different communication industry contexts (6.1)
- Utilise digital literacy and production skills across a range of media (6.2)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject includes a combination of pre-recorded expert texts, independent study, interactive whole-of-cohort workshops and tutorials. Students complete required readings and online activities before they attend workshops to deepen their understanding of the content. Recorded lectures and tutorials introduce key concepts and methods in digital journalism studies and workshops facilitate student presentations in Weeks 10 and 11. Asynchronous Canvas modules support research skills development. Students receive formative feedback on their progress by Week 4.
Content (topics)
Students use critical literature review methods to familiarise themselves with key digital journalism studies concepts, research methods, and innovative approaches to discovering new knowledge of the contemporary field of journalism. These methods develop students’ capacity to critique journalism, detect patterns of local, elite and global coverage, and identify critical absences in need of exploration. Students are expected to engage with a range of concepts from within the digital journalism studies field including, but not limited to, research on news values, gatekeeping, professional identity, gender, race and ethnicity, emotion, diversity, truth seeking, objectivity, censorship, press freedom and computer assisted journalism. Research approaches used to drive award-winning and breaking news journalism are discussed such as data journalism, freedom of information requests, source identification, field mapping, and investigative journalism.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Research Review and Project Plan
| Objective(s): | a, b, c, d, e and f | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 30% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 1,000-word literature review (Part 1) and a Project Plan diagram (Part 2) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Project Progress Presentation
| Objective(s): | a, b, d and e | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 20% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 5-minute presentation | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Final Project
| Objective(s): | a, b, d, e and f | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 2,000 words | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
Attendance at classes is essential in this subject. Classes are based on a collaborative approach that involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas with other students and the tutor to build capacities towards meeting the subject learning objectives. A roll will be taken at each class (whether on campus or online). Students who have more than two absences from class will be refused marking of their final assessment (see Rule 3.8).
Required texts
Links to required subject readings will be available on the UTS Canvas subject site.
Wahl-Jorgensen, K. and T. Hanitzsch (2020). The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York; Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge (available online in the UTS Library catalogue)
O?rnebring, H., Ed. (2020). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (1st ed.). Oxford; Online, Oxford University Press (available online in the UTS Library catalogue)
References
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) (2020) Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research. AIATSIS. https://aiatsis.gov.au
Bebawi, S. (2016). "Investigative journalism in the Arab world: Issues and challenges."
García-Avilés, J.-A. (2021). "Journalism innovation research, a diverse and flourishing field (2000-2020)." Profesional de la información (EPI) 30(1).
Graefe, A., Haim, M., Haarmann, B., & Brosius, H.-B. (2018). Readers’ perception of computer-generated news: Credibility, expertise, and readability. Journalism, 19(5), 595–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916641269
K. B. Jensen (Ed.), (2021) A handbook of media and communication research: qualitative and quantitative methodologies. London; New York: Routledge. Third Edition.
Lewis, S. C. (2020). "The Objects and Objectives of Journalism Research During the Coronavirus Pandemic and Beyond." Digital Journalism: 1-9.
Marconi, F. (2020). Newsmakers: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Journalism. Columbia University Press.
Middleweek, B., B. Mutsvairo and M. Attard (2020). "Toward a Theorization of Student Journalism Collaboration in International Curricula." Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 75(4): 407-418.
Newman, N. (2021). Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2021. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends- and-predictions-2021
O?rnebring, H., Ed. (2020). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (1st ed.). Oxford; Online, Oxford University Press.
Perreault, M. F. and G. P. Perreault (2021). "Journalists on COVID-19 Journalism: Communication Ecology of Pandemic Reporting." American Behavioral Scientist: 0002764221992813.
Song, Y., Z. Huang, J. P. Schuldt and Y. C. Yuan (2021). "National prisms of a global phenomenon: A comparative study of press coverage of climate change in the US, UK and China." Journalism: 1464884921989124.
Wahl-Jorgensen, K. and T. Hanitzsch (2020). The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York; Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge.
Wahl-Jorgensen, K. and M. Pantti (2021). “Introduction: The emotional turn in journalism.” Journalism.
Wake, A., F. R. Martin and B. Backhaus (2020). “A new ERA?: The changing face of journalism research in Australia.” Australian Journalism Review 42(1): 37.
Westlund, O. (2019). “Digital Journalism (Studies)-Defining the Field Scott Eldridge II Kristy Hess Edson Tandoc Jr.” Digital Journalism 7(3): 315-319
Witschge, T., M. Deuze and S. Willemsen (2019). “Creativity in (digital) journalism studies: Broadening our perspective on journalism practice.” Digital Journalism 7(7): 972-979.