Curriculum and Coursework

This course provides an overview of the theories, practices, and ethics of Visual Journalism. On the theoretical aspect, students are introduced to the changing media landscapes, laws and ethics, process of reporting, video production basics within an Asian perspective. It also asks the journalist to be critical of representations and visual approaches.

This course provides an intensive review and practice of basic and advanced skills, and knowledge in current trends in visual journalism, the legal rights and responsibilities, negotiating ethical minefields, and fundamentals of video production, grounded on the tenets of responsible journalism in traditional and emerging media.

The practical aspects such as the core skills in photojournalism, multimedia workflows, forms of multimedia story telling and publishing, and multimedia professional practice will also be introduced.

The course serves as a springboard for the required courses that will follow.

DVJ 191 provides an introduction to visual storytelling in the multimedia journalism age. The students will be given training on all aspects of visual journalism including photography, videography and data and infographics. Both practical and theoretical skills will be taught with the students expected to produce single news images, a photo essay, video interview and news video and an infographic.

The course will prepare the students for their final projects and provide them with all the skills necessary to produce a visually compelling news story. Visual literacy and analysis explores this very power by attempting to examine the modes of expression that photography, cinema, graphic design, visual art and other allied fields offer us so that we may create new representations, stories and ways of imagining.

It simultaneously explores the form of visuality—its functions, elements and composition—and those almost unspeakable internal mechanisms we can only theorize about but still drive us to continue making images, looking at them and infusing them with meaning beyond what they appear to be.

This course introduces students to writing and reporting for journalists across multiple platforms with focus on storytelling in the new media age. Students will do exercises in story planning, research, interviewing, writing and production of stories for text, online, audio and video that provide context and depth in a timely manner. It will use an intensive review and practice of basic and advanced news writing. It covered spot news reports, features, photo essays, profiles, writing for video, blogging and cross-border stories. It discussed the tenets of responsible journalism as well as the new media.

This course looks to develop students’ nose for news, and their ability and skill to produce well-written articles based on news and information gathered using the journalist’s research tools; to produce news stories that display sound news judgment and clear thinking, and adherence to journalism standards and ethics. This will also look at narrative writing and possibilities for seeking out grants for funding.

This class will introduce students to the current and emerging multimedia landscapes. In particular, the major focus of the course will be visual storytelling for different multimedia platforms. By the end of the course students will have gained a substantial understanding on producing a multimedia story integrating photo, audio and video.

Students will also learn how to identify and develop multimedia stories and practice the fundamentals of editing and creating effective narratives. All in all, this course helps students to sharpen their visual storytelling skills, and the new tools for distribution and engagement.

This course looks to integrate the specialist courses with the final portfolio and production. Included in each of the courses are 2 week fixed scheduled meetings wherein the instructors function as mentors in their final output.

Final output is a portfolio of single images, a photo-essay, and a complete multimedia package on socially relevant issues. Mentors provide instruction and critique.

The module runs concurrent with DVJ 191 and will be concluded with an on-campus session in December wherein the students will finish their multimedia presentations, meet with practitioners and defend their final output against a panel of experts.