Schedule

Note: This course schedule is preliminary and is subject to change

Jan. 24
[Lecture] Introduction. What is journalism? Why do we need journalists? What do we learn and discuss in this course?

Jan. 31
[Lecture] Information neighborhood. What is information? Why is it powerful? What makes journalism different from other kinds of information? Is infotainment journalism? How is news different from gossip?

Feb. 5/6/7
[Tutorial] Information grid. Discussion on information neighborhood.
[Lecture] News as narratives. What makes news? Who decides what news is?

Feb. 19/20/21
[Tutorial] Front page news. Discussion on story values and news selection.
[Lecture] Fairness and bias. Is news media always balanced and fair? Can anybody be truly objective? How can a news consumer detect bias? What are media bias, audience bias and rashomon effect?

Feb 26/27/28
[Tutorial] Discussion on a case study (Open day at Shatin racecourse).
[Lecture] Truth. Does ‘truth’ really exist? What is journalistic truth? What are the differences between direct and indirect evidence, assertion and verification, evidence and inference? What is observer effect?

Mar. 5/6/7
[Tutorial] News stories and sources. Discussion on sources of information. Profile story grouping. Twitter assignment for February due in class.
[Lecture] Deconstruction of news. How do we evaluate and judge the quality of news reports? What determines credibility and reliability?

Mar. 19/20/21
[Tutorial] Presentation topics and grouping.
[Lecture] Photojournalism and visual storytelling. Is seeing believing?

Mar. 26/27/28
[Tutorial] Discussion on ethical issues in photojournalism. Profile story and Twitter for March due in class.
[Lecture] Being a journalist. Reflection on profile story assignments.

April 2/3/4
No Tutorials. Please make use of the time to prepare for presentation.
No Lecture (public holiday)

April 9/10/11
[Tutorial] Presentation 1
[Lecture] TV news. How is TV news different? Why does it matter?

April 16/17/18
[Tutorial] Presentation 2
[Lecture] Lecture: Internet and news. Are citizen journalists really journalists? How has the mobile technology changed our news consumption patterns?

April 23/24/25
[Tutorial] Presentation 3. Twitter assignment for April due in class.
[Lecture] Internet and news (continued). How has social media changed the industry? Is online journalism different from other journalism? What is news aggregation and curation? How can we be a smart news consumer?

April 30/May2
No tutorial.
[Lecture] Semester review. Final take-home exam due on May 13th.