57196 International and Transnational Journalism

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a 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.

Description

The practice of journalism at local and global levels is changing. This subject explores the sourcing, production and dissemnination of news in different parts of the world. It compares journalism in a range of historical and contemporary contexts. It explores social and media theories relating to journalism, and analyses key factors such as new technologies, the globalisation of media ownership and news flows, public/private sector media, free speech and censorship, changing perspectives on foreign news, the reporting of conflicts, and the expanding role of social media. In each session, the course focuses on current international issues and how they are reported in both national and global contexts.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

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:

• Possess an advanced understanding of the professional skills and techniques in a range of contexts appropriate to contemporary journalism practice (1.1)
• Apply a high level of initiative to create content using multiple techniques and within industry accepted frameworks of accountability (1.2)
• Reflect critically on the theory and professional practice of contemporary journalism (2.2)
• Plan and execute a substantial research-based project, demonstrating advanced communication and technical research skills (2.3)

Teaching and learning strategies

The focus of teaching and learning will be students' engagement with complex ideas, extending their ability to critique ideas and to formulate their own viewpoints, positions and constructs, and then apply these ideas and formulations to their own research and scholarship. Learning activities will centre on lectures, workshops, readings, discussion (face-to-face and online), and independent and group study. There is an emphasis on mutual engagement by students in each other's learning in this subject, in both face-to-face and online environments.

Content (topics)

• Historical and geographical perspectives on debates about the origins and roles of journalism, and their underpinning values, assumptions, traditions, epistemologies, theoretical and professional contexts, arenas of convergence and contest (Objectives a, b, c)
• Comparative analysis of the impact of technological developments and media globalisation in different national and social contexts (Objectives b, c, d)
• The debates in social theory about the relationships between political, economic, legal/coercive and cultural factors in the production of media representations of social events and processes, particularly with respect to debates about technology, globalisation, socio-economic development and national culture (Objectives a, b, c, d)
• Contemporary research and scholarship in Australian and international journalism studies (Objectives a, b, c, d).

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Class news briefing

Assessment task 2: Online global news story

Assessment task 3: Essay (3,500 words)

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to attend and participate in classes and online activities. Work during the semester will be based on the lectures, readings and resources set out in the subject outline. Students are expected to be familiar with the readings and lecture material, and to contribute actively in class by sharing their understandings of the ideas under discussion and by raising questions about the issues covered. Students who have a reason for extended absence from class (e.g. illness) may be required to complete a supplementary assignment to ensure they achieve the subject objectives. Penalties may apply for late submission of work. All assessment tasks, including peer assessment of other students' work in Tasks 1 and 2, must be completed and submitted as required and a satisfactory level overall must be achieved to pass the subject. Tutors will provide written comments on each written assignment to assist students.

References

Artz, L., 2006: The Media Globe: Trends in International Mass Media, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD

Baum, M., 2003: Soft news goes to war: public opinion and American foreign policy in the new media age, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ

Benson, R. and Neveu, E., 2004: Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field, Polity

Blankson, I, and Murphy, P., 2007: Negotiating Democracy: Media Transformations in Emerging Democracies, State University of New York Press, Albany NY

Castells, M., 2009: Communication Power. New York, Oxford University Press USA.

Cottle, S. (2006). Mediatized conflict; developments in media and conflict studies, Open University Press, Maidenhead UK

Curran, J. and Park, Myung-Jin (eds.), 2000: De-Westernising Media Studies, Routledge London

Dahlgren, P. and Sparks, C. (eds) 1991: Communication and citizenship : journalism and the public sphere in the new media age, Routledge, London

De Beer, A. (2008). Global Journalism: Topical Issues and Media Systems, Allyn & Bacon, Boston

Donald, S. et al. (eds), 2002: Media in China: Consumption Content and Crisis, Routledge Curzon, London

Freeman, D, and Thussu, D. (eds.) 2012: Media & Terrorism, Global Perspectives, Sage, London

Galtung, J. and Vincent, R.C. (1992) Toward a New World Information and Communication Order?, Hampton Press, Cresskill, New Jersey.

Gillespie, M., 1995: Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change, Routledge, London

Habermas, J. 1989, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, Polity Press, Cambridge

Hafez, K. (2007). The Myth of Media Globalization. Cambridge UK, Polity.

Hallin, D. (2004). Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.

Hatchen, W. (2006). The World News Prism: global Information in a Satellite Age. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell.

Hayward, P., & Kearney, C. (2023). Zmiinyi Ostrov (Snake Island), Wartime Media Coverage and the Ukrainian-Russian Conflict

Joselit, D. (2007). Feedback: Television Against Democracy. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press.

Lotz, A. 2007: The television will be revolutionized, New York University Press, New York

Luyendijk, J. (2009). Fit to Print: Misrepresenting the Middle East, Melbourne, Scribe.

McLaughlin, G. 2002: The war correspondent, Pluto Press, London

Palmer, N. (ed.) 2003: Terrorism, war and the press, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University

Schechter, D. 1997: The more you watch, the less you know: news wars/(sub)merged hopes/media adventures, Seven Stories Press, New York

Scheuer, J. (2008). The Big Picture: Why Democracies Need Journalistic Excellence. New York, Routledge.

Seaton, J. 2005: Carnage and the media: the making and breaking of news about violence, Allen Lane, London

Seib, P. 2004: Beyond the front lines: how the news media cover a world shaped by war, Palgrave Macmillan, New York

Servaes J. 2002, Communication for Development. One World, Multiple Cultures, Hampton Press, Cresskil

Shanor, D. 2003: News from Abroad, Columbia University Press, New York

Sparks, C. (2007). Globalization, Development and the Mass Media. London, Sage.

Street, J. (2011). Mass Media, Politics and democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Thussu, D. (ed.) 2010: International communication: a reader, Routledge, Abingdon, UK

Thussu, D. (ed.) 2009: Internationalizing media studies, Routledge, Abingdon, UK

Thussu, D., and Freedman, D. 2003: War and the media: reporting conflict 24/7, Sage, London

Sun, W. 2009, Maid in China: Media, Morality and the Cultural Politics of Boundaries, 1, Routledge, London, UK.