Tags
JOUR
Admissions requirements
None.
Description
This is an introductory course in video journalism teaching students the basics of producing, filming and editing TV news reports as well as videos for the web. It familiarizes students with different ways of telling a story visually in the digital age. How is a TV news report different from a documentary style web video and how can video be combined with other ways of storytelling in an online context?
Lectures and seminars will concentrate on the various crafts and skills needed for video reporting, including how to shoot and edit video, scripting, interview techniques, how to deal with sound and how to voice your own reports for TV and the web. The main emphasis of this course will be on students doing it themselves. Student produced videos will be shown and discussed in class.
Aside from the crafts and skills learned, students will also be reading about and discussing various theories about the value (or not) of audiovisual journalism, its strengths and limitations and the ethical dilemmas reporters face as well as reflect on changes in the media landscape brought about by transitions from the age of print to the age of television followed by a transition to online news reporting.
Course objectives
After successful completion of this course, students are able to:
produce TV news reports and web videos – in terms of filming, getting natural sound, interviewing, editing, writing and voicing such reports.
explain how and why decisions are made in television news, including the ethical dilemmas faced by executives and reporters.
understand the strengths, and the weaknesses, of visual communication through television reports and web videos.
Timetable
Once available, timetables will be published in the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
Lectures will be combined with seminars on the various skills and crafts needed to produce video reports. Student produced videos will be shown and critically discussed in class.
Assessment
In class participation: 10%
Interview assignment: 15%
Visual storytelling assignment: 15%
TV News Report: 20%
Web video: 20%
Essay on Neil Postman’s book (1500 words): 20%
Blackboard
There will be a Blackboard site available for this course. Students will be enrolled at least one week before the start of classes.
Reading list
Amusing Ourselves To Death – Neil Postman
Peter Stewart and Ray Alexander, Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News (New York: Routledge, 2016).
Other material will be made available through Blackboard.
Registration
This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Curriculum Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.