Journalism Project (JOUR3401)

For the Journalism Project Plan assessment you are creating a plan for your final Journalism Project assessment.

Your Journalism Project Plan should detail the newsworthy angle and issue you will pursue for the Journalism Project assessment. Provide details on the viability of the issue, conflict and people around the story. The plan should show how the story and issue you will pursue is newsworthy, true and supported by facts. It should reveal something we do not know or offer a fresh perspective on a situation.

The Journalism Project Plan should be supported by initial research and investigation that includes what people have said about the issue and what is revealed in documents. This means you should have spoken to key primary sources, read relevant documents and observed or attended locations and events and include analysis of these in your plan.

Outline how you plan to develop the stories for the Journalism Project.

• Pitch a fresh hard news story angle for the Hard News Story component of your Journalism Project. Show how this fulfills the criteria of being a hard news story using elements of news (timeliness, proximity, etc) and what primary and secondary sources will be used.
• Give details of the treatment for the In-Depth Journalistic Story Treatment component of your Journalism Project. Think about how you will tell this longer feature format story. Identify medium and examples of published journalism that demonstrates practices you will try to emulate: identify people to interview, documents to access, observations to complete, etc.
• Give examples of relevant outstanding reporting that you are inspired by.
• Include a statement on safety and ethical risks associated with your project, ie: state that your plans fall within the scope of the School’s generic risk assessment guidelines if it does and that the project adheres to the MEAA Code of Ethics, while identifying any other potential risks.

Good journalism tends to feature people in conflict with a system, struggling in a situation or having a novel experience. It aims to reveal new information and prompts us to think about bigger questions or universal issues. Ask yourself:

• What is new and interesting here?
• Why does anyone care about this?

The plan should be referenced using APA style.

Risk: Your plans must fall within the scope of the School’s generic risk assessment guidelines. Students must not pursue projects that carry political, social or health risks. This will be discussed in class. Please refer to the Assignment Brief on Blackboard for more guidance.

This assessment task evaluates students' abilities, skills and knowledge without the aid of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Translation (MT). Students are advised that the use of AI or MT technologies to develop responses is strictly prohibited and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

For the Journalism Project Pitch assessment you are going to create a video where you will pitch your plan for your final Journalism Project assessment.

You have flexibility in how you want your pitch video to be shot and edited, including the use of any graphical elements and video styles. Aim to create a compelling and creative pitch video that will showcase the newsworthy nature of your Journalism Project. You are required to appear in the video and use your own voice for narration.

Your pitch video should cover the following elements.

• Attention: Start with a compelling fact, quote, or question to grab attention.
• Need: Explain why your story matters.
• Satisfaction: Present your story as the solution.
•  Visualization: Help your audience see the benefits.
•  Action: Tell your potential pitch audience what you want them to do.
• Your origin statement, which should explain who you are, why you’re interested in this story, and why you’re the right person to tell it.

Include a slide with text at the end of the video to which you can add additional notes and an APA reference list for any references made within the video.

Risk: Your plans must fall within the scope of the School’s generic risk assessment guidelines. Students must not pursue projects that carry political, social or health risks. This will be discussed in class. Please refer to the Assignment Brief on Blackboard for more guidance.

This assessment task evaluates students' abilities, skills and knowledge without the aid of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Translation (MT). Students are advised that the use of AI or MT technologies to develop responses is strictly prohibited and may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

For your Journalism Project assessment you are required to produce:

1. A Hard News Story – 300 words (10%).
2. An In-depth journalistic story - 1,500 words or equivalent (40%).
3. Exegesis - 1,000 words) (10%).

1. Hard News Story

Write the news story you proposed previously for the Journalism Project Plan assessment. Any changes must be discussed with the tutor in class and approved.

The story should be newsworthy and based on facts. It should reveal something we do not know or offer a fresh perspective on a situation. It should not simply tell us what is already in the public domain.

The story should be fully sourced and should demonstrate original reporting including: interviews, observations and original analysis of secondary data.

The story should be written in an inverted pyramid style and read like a news report for a print or online publication. It should have a headline that is no longer than eight words and that contains a verb.

The story must be original. Do not rework a story that has been submitted in another course or in any other forum, e.g: internship, ABC Pitch.

The story should be written as a piece of publishable journalism. It should use journalistic attribution, style and form.

2. In-depth journalistic story

Produce an original, in-depth piece of journalism in a medium and style of your choice. The story should be the one you proposed previously for the Journalism Project Plan assessment. Any changes must be discussed with the tutor in class and approved.

We are looking for a strong story in terms of research, narrative, and treatment. We want to see that you can produce work of a professional standard and defend your decisions.

Options include, but are not limited to:

• Written feature story or series of linked, shorter stories with images;
• Photographic essay with extended captions and introduction [15 images];
• Mini audio documentary (10 – 15 minutes)
• Mini video documentary (7 - 10 minutes).

Originality: Students are expected to produce original material, based on original research. Stories should be properly sourced. Using the work of others may be considered a form of plagiarism. Include an appendix that lists all sources, primary and secondary, used in both stories. Please see the Assignment Brief for guidance on what should be included.

Attribution: Follow the ABC Style Guide regarding sourcing. Do not use academic referencing. Instead, include a list of primary and secondary sources. Please refer to the Assignment Brief on Blackboard for more guidance.

Risk: Your project must fall within the scope of the School’s generic risk assessment guidelines. Any activities outside of these parameters must be approved via the University’s Risk Assessment process. Students must not pursue projects that carry political, social or health risks. This will be discussed in class.

3. Exegesis

An exegesis is an essay that critically discusses a creative work in light of contemporary or emerging practice. It should draw on both theory and practice, both your own and that of others. We suggest you maintain a journal throughout the course. We suggest the following structure:

• Introduction: a brief outline of the work you are writing about, why it is important, and what aspects you will concentrate on.
• Context: outline the relevant journalistic context: practical, methodological, or theoretical. What are the established and emerging ways of approaching this type of narrative or medium? This section should draw on theory and examples of practice.
• Form, content & function: how have you approached the task? Explain what you hoped to achieve how and why.
• Discussion: Critique your work in light of the methods, theory, and practices outlined earlier. Focus on specific aspects of your work to illustrate how you worked through issues through practice.
• Conclude: briefly round off the discussion by highlighting what you have learned about journalism.

* Your exegesis should be referenced using APA style.

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use AI and/or MT technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. Whilst Generative AI and/or MT can be powerful news gathering tools and primary sources, it also has the capacity to undermine audience trust in news and information, and the use of Generative AI and MT must be considered and transparent. Should you wish to use AI/MT in your assessment, you must: consult with your tutor to make an AI/MT integration plan; reference the use of an AI/MT-generated text, audio, video or imagery in the assessment coversheet; and clearly communicate the nature, use and rationale for using AI/MT-generated material within your story (e.g. through voiceover, supers etc; best-practice models will be distributed in class).

A failure to reference generative AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.

To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their submission independent of AI and MT tools.