JOUR12039 - News Writing and Reporting

General Information

Unit Synopsis

News Writing and Reporting is designed to extend and develop the knowledge and skills gained in Media Writing. The exercises and assignments provide instruction and practice in news writing and news-gathering for print, online, and broadcast environments. Students will actively engage with their local community, reporting on events and community organisations, local courts, municipal councils and local political issues. Students will also engage with contemporary media issues that impact on news writing, such as ethics, law, representation and ownership.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite: 36 Credit Points

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2024

Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 10%
2. Written Assessment 45%
3. Written Assessment 45%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

No previous feedback available

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Head of Course review
Feedback
The assessment items are practical written assessments with a news journalism focus. Although the topics change from year to year, the style of assessment has remained unchanged.
Recommendation
Undertake a review of the assessments to ensure they remain industry relevant, especially in relation to the manner in which they are prepared and submitted.
Action Taken
Adjustments were made to assessment, however the unit has been identified for closure in 2025.
Source: Head of Course review
Feedback
Journalism as an industry continues to change, and this unit needs to reflect those changes.
Recommendation
Undertake a review of the learning resources and e-reading list to ensure material is current and up-to-date.
Action Taken
Adjustments were made to unit content, however the unit has been identified for closure in 2025.
Source: Head of Course review
Feedback
The structure and navigability of the Moodle site is excellent.
Recommendation
Maintain structure and navigability of the Moodle site.
Action Taken
The structure and navigability of the Moodle site was maintained.
Source: Staff reflections
Feedback
Structure of Moodle site
Recommendation
Continue to maintain the clear structure of the Moodle site to ensure students can navigate their learning materials and assessment tasks easily.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Pitch newsworthy topics for different news writing genres
  2. Apply appropriate news criteria when using news-gathering skills to address news and current affairs in a general news writing context
  3. Write industry standard news articles in a variety of niche journalism genres
  4. Produce a publishable news article in a specialist genre such as broadcast or feature
  5. Reflect on news gathering and writing practice in a contemporary media environment.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Written Assessment
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication
3 - Critical Thinking
4 - Information Literacy
6 - Information Technology Competence
7 - Cross Cultural Competence
8 - Ethical practice
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - Written Assessment
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Written Assessment