Teaching Plan Information

Presentation

This course is focused on thinking and researching on the changes that digital technologies are operating in the production, consumption and meaning of the news – and of media. We will first define what is digital (or online, or even web) journalism, which are their characteristics, how it was born and evolved, and a state-of-the-art of the research on this phenomenon. During the first half of the course, we will examine major topics, such as business models and financing -including property- of digital news media, both legacy and native media, and we will propose a case study. Then we will focus on production and consumption of the news, including contemporary concerns related to the changes on the professional practices of journalists and active audience, changes on authorship -which include movements to control copyright on the news-, the challenges and risks of artificial intelligence and automated news, the digital gap in accessing news, related, e.g., to age, literacy and economic income. Related to this, we will place in the center of our examination, during the first part of the course, the concept of Information equity, related also to quality, transparency and accountability. We will examine the main methods and tools to do research on both production and consumption of digital news. Nonetheless, we will examine the content of news, both in form (discourse) and in content itself, including in this respect a examination of the main characteristics of the digital language as applied to the news. 

A central part of the course is devoted to discussing, defining and implementing quality of news and, which is more important, information equity, a fair access to quality news – and its implication to democracy.

Associated skills

BASIC SKILLS

• To possess and understand knowledge that lays the groundwork or opportunity for being original in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context.

• For students to know how to apply the knowledge they have acquired and solve problems in new or little-known environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study.

• To be able to integrate knowledge and deal with the complexity of making judgements based on information that may be incomplete or limited, including reflections on the social and ethical responsibilities associated with the application of their knowledge and judgements.

• For students to possess learning skills that enable them to continue studying in a way that may largely be self-directed or autonomous.

GENERAL SKILLS

• To analyse the digital and emerging media, as well as the cultural phenomena around them, using a critical sociocultural perspective with suitable theoretical and methodological development.

• To design, develop and assess a basic, applied or practice-based research process and transform the results into contributions that are of interest to society.

CROSS-SECTIONAL SKILLS

• To develop the ability to assess inequalities on the basis of sex and gender in order to design solutions.

• To collaborate actively on teams to reach objectives shared with other individuals or organisations

• To assess and apply fundamental ethical considerations when conducting research projects.

SPECIFIC SKILLS

• To use the main theories, approaches and methodologies needed to analyse and assess digital culture and the emergence of new media.

• To design and carry out a basic, applied or practice-based research project on the digital culture sector and the emerging media.

• To analyse data obtained from applying qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods within basic or applied research.

• To analyse digital culture and the emerging media and the practices associated with them, addressing their communicative, social, political, technological and economic dimensions.

Learning outcomes

• Chooses appropriate theories and methodologies to study digital culture and the emerging media.

• Applies the most relevant theories and methodologies according to the research objectives.

• Formulates objectives, questions and hypotheses appropriately when conducting research.

• Identifies the strong points and limitations of a research project.

• Analyses the languages of the digital and emerging media and their communicative and expressive specificities.

• Uses a sociocultural perspective to analyse and interpret the texts, communicative/narrative forms and interaction formats characteristic of the digital environment and compares them appropriately with other media.

• Analyses and assesses the experiences and cultural practices of users and audiences in the new media environment, paying attention to the interactive-participative dimension.

• Uses academic and specialised literature databases to review the existing literature and develop theoretical frameworks.

• Creates bibliographies following the format and style criteria appropriate for each research project.

• Identifies and analyses the different dimensions (social, cultural, economic, political, technological) expressed and affected by the digital media and productions.

• Develops texts and documents associated with the different research phases (research project, interim report, poster, scholarly article, conference paper).

• Defends the research orally before a specialised audience.

• Develops effective contingency plans to deal with any critical situations that may arise during the course of research projects.

• Appropriately assesses a research project from an ethical standpoint to identify potential risks, as well as the most suitable protocols to adopt (personal data management, subjects at risk, etc.).

Sustainable Development Goals

GOAL 4: Quality education

GOAL 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure.

GOAL 10: Reducing inequalities 

GOAL 16: Peace, justice and solid institutions

Prerequisites

A good expertise in English is required. The course will be taught exclusively in English. All materials will be accessible only in this language. All students are expected and encouraged to produce all their tasks and deliver all their papers in English. Working group will be composed as suggested by the teacher and combining students from different nationalities. As all communications will be in English only, emails sent to you and any email sent in response must be in English.

Contents

Lesson 1: What is digital journalism?

Naming (and conceptualising) the thing

Origin, precedents and evolution of digital journalism

Why (and how) to think digital media

Lesson 2: Business models

News as a commodity

The property of media: who is the owner of news: Legacy media and Digital-born media

Financing the media: Advertising. Reader revenue models: Paywalls and membership. Subsidies, public aids and public advertisement

How to do research on it: Case studies

Lesson 3: Producing the news

Convergence of media: Is transmedia possible?

Newsroom and professional practices’ changes: Journalistic values applied to the digital world. News flows and newsroom organisation. Inequalities in newsroom: Genre, social class, race, education background.

Artificial intelligence and algorithm journalism.

Who is the author of news? Legal movements related to intellectual property

How to do research on news production: Ethnography of news production. Observation (offline and online), In-depth interviews

Lesson 4: Consuming and spreading the news

Practices in news consumption

Misinformation (and other misuses)

Inequal access to the media. Is news a product for everyone? How are young people (and other social groups) consuming the media?

How to do research on news consumption: Surveys. Focus groups

Lesson 5: The content of news

What are digital media talking about?

The characteristics of digital news: Multimediality, Interactivity, Hypertext, Temporality and archive

How to do research on digital news contents: Content analysis applied to the digital world

Lesson 6: Remediation: The quality and equity of news

Quality of information (and how to measure it). Defining quality.

Transparency and accountability of news

Researching quality in digital news: Methods and tools

Towards information equity: From inequality to equity in accessing digital information. Fair access to digital news. The challenge for democracy

Lesson 7: Emerging journalistic narratives and genres

Innovative journalism: new ways of storytelling

Collaborative initiatives

Immersive experiences

Geolocated Narratives

Lesson 8: Networked journalism

Journalism in the digital age: hybrid media system

The digital social networks and the news

Online activism and alternative journalism

Lesson 9: Digital News and platforms

Digital News Life Cycle in social networks

Approach to interactivity in digital journalism: degrees and types

Interface design and platform logics

Cross-/Multi/Transmedia

Lesson 10: Digital news and democracy

The digital public sphere and the role of the active audiences

Digital journalism and gender perspective

News avoidance: a new problem for democratic societies?

Teaching Methods

• Lectures & readings in Moodle

• Personal enquiry, individual research and readings

• Conceptual and applied work

Teaching methods will include face-to-face group sessions, tutorial sessions (which are important) and seminars. Case studies are a teaching method we consider in some lessons (principally, lesson 2, devoted to business models)

There will be a tuition session in weeks 7-8 of the course (optional).

As a fundamental part of the course, tutorial sessions, individual or in small groups, will be organised on a weekly basis and students are expected and encouraged to come to the instructor's office or, depending on the health situation, to have an online session. Tutorial sessions will be held on demand, so please send an email before to the instructors (javier.diaz@upf.edu, laura.perez@upf.edu) to arrange such a meeting, please

Evaluation

SE1 Seminar: Presentation of an essay + Oral presentation. Based on the compulsory and recommended readings, and others that students can obtain on their own to complete the presentation, individually or in small groups students will prepare their presentation and will proceed to discussion and sharing.

SE2 Evaluation of projects and exercises. As a final assignment of the course, students must prepare a research project related to one of the aspects studied in this course, and present it in a reasoned manner.

Bibliography and information resources

Shaping the news online: A comparative research on international quality media by Ainara Larrondo, Koldo Meso & Anna Tous (coords.). The handbook is available online at: http://www.labcom-ifp.ubi.pt/livro/119

Siapera, Eugenia & Eglis, Andreas (eds.) (2012): The Handbook of Global Online Journalism. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ess, Charles (2009): Digital Media Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Muller, Denis (2014): Journalism Ethics for the Digital Age: London: Scribe.

Fortner, Robert S. & Fackler, Mark P. (eds.) (2011): The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Rohumaa, Liisa & Bradshaw, Paul (2011): The Online Journalism Handbook. New York: Pearson.

Rosenauer, Kenneth L. & Filak, Vincent F. (eds.) (2011): The Journalists’ Handbook for Online Editing. New York: Pearson.

Salaverría, Ramón & De Lima Santos, Mathias Felipe (eds.) (2021): Journalism, Data and Technology in Latin America. London: PalgraveMacMillan. 

Nielsen, R. K.; Kalogeropoulos, A. (2019). Social Inequalities in News Consumption. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Redden, J. (2018). “Democratic governance in an age of datafication: Lessons from mapping government discourses and practices”. Big Data & Society. July–December 2018: 1–13.

Elkin-Koren, N. (2020). Contesting algorithms: Restoring the public interest in content filtering by artificial intelligence. Big Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720932296

Teaching Plan Information

Presentation

This course is focused on thinking and researching on the changes that digital technologies are operating in the production, consumption and meaning of the news – and of media. We will first define what is digital (or online, or even web) journalism, which are their characteristics, how it was born and evolved, and a state-of-the-art of the research on this phenomenon. During the first half of the course, we will examine major topics, such as business models and financing -including property- of digital news media, both legacy and native media, and we will propose a case study. Then we will focus on production and consumption of the news, including contemporary concerns related to the changes on the professional practices of journalists and active audience, changes on authorship -which include movements to control copyright on the news-, the challenges and risks of artificial intelligence and automated news, the digital gap in accessing news, related, e.g., to age, literacy and economic income. Related to this, we will place in the center of our examination, during the first part of the course, the concept of Information equity, related also to quality, transparency and accountability. We will examine the main methods and tools to do research on both production and consumption of digital news. Nonetheless, we will examine the content of news, both in form (discourse) and in content itself, including in this respect a examination of the main characteristics of the digital language as applied to the news. 

A central part of the course is devoted to discussing, defining and implementing quality of news and, which is more important, information equity, a fair access to quality news – and its implication to democracy.

Associated skills

BASIC SKILLS

• To possess and understand knowledge that lays the groundwork or opportunity for being original in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context.

• For students to know how to apply the knowledge they have acquired and solve problems in new or little-known environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study.

• To be able to integrate knowledge and deal with the complexity of making judgements based on information that may be incomplete or limited, including reflections on the social and ethical responsibilities associated with the application of their knowledge and judgements.

• For students to possess learning skills that enable them to continue studying in a way that may largely be self-directed or autonomous.

GENERAL SKILLS

• To analyse the digital and emerging media, as well as the cultural phenomena around them, using a critical sociocultural perspective with suitable theoretical and methodological development.

• To design, develop and assess a basic, applied or practice-based research process and transform the results into contributions that are of interest to society.

CROSS-SECTIONAL SKILLS

• To develop the ability to assess inequalities on the basis of sex and gender in order to design solutions.

• To collaborate actively on teams to reach objectives shared with other individuals or organisations

• To assess and apply fundamental ethical considerations when conducting research projects.

SPECIFIC SKILLS

• To use the main theories, approaches and methodologies needed to analyse and assess digital culture and the emergence of new media.

• To design and carry out a basic, applied or practice-based research project on the digital culture sector and the emerging media.

• To analyse data obtained from applying qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods within basic or applied research.

• To analyse digital culture and the emerging media and the practices associated with them, addressing their communicative, social, political, technological and economic dimensions.

Learning outcomes

• Chooses appropriate theories and methodologies to study digital culture and the emerging media.

• Applies the most relevant theories and methodologies according to the research objectives.

• Formulates objectives, questions and hypotheses appropriately when conducting research.

• Identifies the strong points and limitations of a research project.

• Analyses the languages of the digital and emerging media and their communicative and expressive specificities.

• Uses a sociocultural perspective to analyse and interpret the texts, communicative/narrative forms and interaction formats characteristic of the digital environment and compares them appropriately with other media.

• Analyses and assesses the experiences and cultural practices of users and audiences in the new media environment, paying attention to the interactive-participative dimension.

• Uses academic and specialised literature databases to review the existing literature and develop theoretical frameworks.

• Creates bibliographies following the format and style criteria appropriate for each research project.

• Identifies and analyses the different dimensions (social, cultural, economic, political, technological) expressed and affected by the digital media and productions.

• Develops texts and documents associated with the different research phases (research project, interim report, poster, scholarly article, conference paper).

• Defends the research orally before a specialised audience.

• Develops effective contingency plans to deal with any critical situations that may arise during the course of research projects.

• Appropriately assesses a research project from an ethical standpoint to identify potential risks, as well as the most suitable protocols to adopt (personal data management, subjects at risk, etc.).

Sustainable Development Goals

GOAL 4: Quality education

GOAL 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure.

GOAL 10: Reducing inequalities 

GOAL 16: Peace, justice and solid institutions

Prerequisites

A good expertise in English is required. The course will be taught exclusively in English. All materials will be accessible only in this language. All students are expected and encouraged to produce all their tasks and deliver all their papers in English. Working group will be composed as suggested by the teacher and combining students from different nationalities. As all communications will be in English only, emails sent to you and any email sent in response must be in English.

Contents

Lesson 1: What is digital journalism?

Naming (and conceptualising) the thing

Origin, precedents and evolution of digital journalism

Why (and how) to think digital media

Lesson 2: Business models

News as a commodity

The property of media: who is the owner of news: Legacy media and Digital-born media

Financing the media: Advertising. Reader revenue models: Paywalls and membership. Subsidies, public aids and public advertisement

How to do research on it: Case studies

Lesson 3: Producing the news

Convergence of media: Is transmedia possible?

Newsroom and professional practices’ changes: Journalistic values applied to the digital world. News flows and newsroom organisation. Inequalities in newsroom: Genre, social class, race, education background.

Artificial intelligence and algorithm journalism.

Who is the author of news? Legal movements related to intellectual property

How to do research on news production: Ethnography of news production. Observation (offline and online), In-depth interviews

Lesson 4: Consuming and spreading the news

Practices in news consumption

Misinformation (and other misuses)

Inequal access to the media. Is news a product for everyone? How are young people (and other social groups) consuming the media?

How to do research on news consumption: Surveys. Focus groups

Lesson 5: The content of news

What are digital media talking about?

The characteristics of digital news: Multimediality, Interactivity, Hypertext, Temporality and archive

How to do research on digital news contents: Content analysis applied to the digital world

Lesson 6: Remediation: The quality and equity of news

Quality of information (and how to measure it). Defining quality.

Transparency and accountability of news

Researching quality in digital news: Methods and tools

Towards information equity: From inequality to equity in accessing digital information. Fair access to digital news. The challenge for democracy

Lesson 7: Emerging journalistic narratives and genres

Innovative journalism: new ways of storytelling

Collaborative initiatives

Immersive experiences

Geolocated Narratives

Lesson 8: Networked journalism

Journalism in the digital age: hybrid media system

The digital social networks and the news

Online activism and alternative journalism

Lesson 9: Digital News and platforms

Digital News Life Cycle in social networks

Approach to interactivity in digital journalism: degrees and types

Interface design and platform logics

Cross-/Multi/Transmedia

Lesson 10: Digital news and democracy

The digital public sphere and the role of the active audiences

Digital journalism and gender perspective

News avoidance: a new problem for democratic societies?

Teaching Methods

• Lectures & readings in Moodle

• Personal enquiry, individual research and readings

• Conceptual and applied work

Teaching methods will include face-to-face group sessions, tutorial sessions (which are important) and seminars. Case studies are a teaching method we consider in some lessons (principally, lesson 2, devoted to business models)

There will be a tuition session in weeks 7-8 of the course (optional).

As a fundamental part of the course, tutorial sessions, individual or in small groups, will be organised on a weekly basis and students are expected and encouraged to come to the instructor's office or, depending on the health situation, to have an online session. Tutorial sessions will be held on demand, so please send an email before to the instructors (javier.diaz@upf.edu, laura.perez@upf.edu) to arrange such a meeting, please

Evaluation

SE1 Seminar: Presentation of an essay + Oral presentation. Based on the compulsory and recommended readings, and others that students can obtain on their own to complete the presentation, individually or in small groups students will prepare their presentation and will proceed to discussion and sharing.

SE2 Evaluation of projects and exercises. As a final assignment of the course, students must prepare a research project related to one of the aspects studied in this course, and present it in a reasoned manner.

Bibliography and information resources

Shaping the news online: A comparative research on international quality media by Ainara Larrondo, Koldo Meso & Anna Tous (coords.). The handbook is available online at: http://www.labcom-ifp.ubi.pt/livro/119

Siapera, Eugenia & Eglis, Andreas (eds.) (2012): The Handbook of Global Online Journalism. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ess, Charles (2009): Digital Media Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Muller, Denis (2014): Journalism Ethics for the Digital Age: London: Scribe.

Fortner, Robert S. & Fackler, Mark P. (eds.) (2011): The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Rohumaa, Liisa & Bradshaw, Paul (2011): The Online Journalism Handbook. New York: Pearson.

Rosenauer, Kenneth L. & Filak, Vincent F. (eds.) (2011): The Journalists’ Handbook for Online Editing. New York: Pearson.

Salaverría, Ramón & De Lima Santos, Mathias Felipe (eds.) (2021): Journalism, Data and Technology in Latin America. London: PalgraveMacMillan. 

Nielsen, R. K.; Kalogeropoulos, A. (2019). Social Inequalities in News Consumption. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Redden, J. (2018). “Democratic governance in an age of datafication: Lessons from mapping government discourses and practices”. Big Data & Society. July–December 2018: 1–13.

Elkin-Koren, N. (2020). Contesting algorithms: Restoring the public interest in content filtering by artificial intelligence. Big Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720932296