Syllabus
School of Human Science
General course information
Subject International Journalism
Código
Número de Créditos:
Horario 10am-1pm
Salón 403 CASUR
Profesor Nombre Steven James Grattan
Correo electrónico [Link]@[Link]
Course Summary
As globalization and technology move forward, journalism faces the challenge of redefining its practices and
tools to remain both current and relevant in today's world, where it needs to transcend the so far traditional
barrier between domestic and foreign.
The main part of this course will propose an examination into the challenges of international journalism
today. Conflict, censorship and new technology, for example, are all factors that defy traditional reporting
approaches.
The course will include some of the challenges facing journalists today and in the past. We will examine
various forms of propaganda that have taken place in media around the world and through different eras,
such as the war in Israel & Palestine, the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ vs. British government and genocide in
Rwanda and Cambodia. We will also look at events such as The Arab Spring and how technology has changed
the way journalists carry out their job in the last decade.
As well as this historic and conflict focused part of the class, there will also be a more practical element mixed
throughout the semester to allow students to understand how to work in the international sphere. You need
to know how to sell a story and work as a freelancer and also how to structure pieces for international
audiences about complex topics, like Colombia.
The instructor will expect students to have done background research before the start of each class on the
scheduled topic in order to have the knowledge to be able to engage in discussions during the session.
Some experts on certain topics/ journalists working in the international field will be invited to speak to the
class during the semester. Audiovisual sources and the internet will be used in order to keep up to date with
current affairs as well as to learn about the conflicts on the syllabus. Some documentaries/movies that may
be used to deepen understanding of certain topics of the class include:
Hotel Rwanda, by Terry George (2004)
Live from Baghdad, by Mick Jackson (2002)
Peace, Propaganda and the Promise land, SutJhally, (2004)
The Killing Fields, by Roland Joffé (1984)
Voices from the grave, by BBC and RTE, (2010)
Topics
▪ History of propaganda with particular reference to its use in the 20th century, as well as broader
political questions about the communication of ideas. The historical context will merge with
contemporary developments and issues.
▪ Modern war reporting and its impact on political opinion.
▪ Real-time news coverage and social media´s effect on the role of the journalist.
▪ Changes in technology and its result on journalism.
▪ Citizen Journalism.
▪ Past and present conflicts and how journalism informs/has informed the public about them.
▪ Analysis of topical (current) events being reported in the international media during the class
semester.
▪ The effects that unethical journalistic practises can have when reporting on conflicts or events in
the international sphere.
▪ Press Freedom and the challenges facing journalists in countries where freedom of
press/expression is at risk.
▪ Selling your country to the international world and working as a freelancer.
▪ Structuring your story for an international audience.
Learning Outcomes(RAE)
By the end of the course students will:
1. Have a firm knowledge and understanding of international conflicts and how the media
report/ have reported on them.
2. Understand propaganda techniques in various conflicts.
3. Understand the complexity of covering international stories and have the knowledge to carry
it out.
4. Be able to debate and intellectually discuss current affairs and give pertinent personal
analysis in English.
5. Know how to pitch ideas to international editors and produce relevant content for an
international audience.
Evaluation
1. 30% of the grade will be made up of small class assignments, class participation and
attendance. This could include short presentations set for homework, individual research and
participation in discussions/debates in class. Most weeks you will also be asked to read an
academic article related to the topic studied in class each week for homework. Demonstrating
evidence of further research as well as completing tasks set as homework will ensure you get the
best possible grades in this area of evaluation.
2. 20% of the grade will be given in the form of a formal debate in which students will have to
defend an argument regarding international relations, political or journalistic issue that is
currently happening around the world. The debate will be carried out in two groups of three or
four and your stance and topic will be chosen by the teacher. You will be expected to have well
planned arguments and to utilize teamwork.
3. 20% of the grade will be in the form of a panel discussion. As a class we will decide on an
overall topic and then in small groups students will prepare a presentation on a topic within the
overall one. Each group should have a maximum of four people and each person is expected to
speak for at least three minutes. A 300 word summary must be completed with a list of APA
references used to develop your discussion. After each discussion/presentation, a short debate
with the whole class will be encouraged to ask questions and give comments and feedback on the
topics chosen.
4. 30% will go towards a journalistic production relating to the international area. Student´s will
be assigned depending on their abilities in print and video to develop a piece of work that could
be used by a foreign media outlet (BBC, Guardian, Al-Jazeera) on a topic in Colombia. The
journalists (you, the student) will pitch relevant ideas and the instructor (me) will act as editor,
approving the content before work begins. You should start thinking of ideas now - what topic is
relevant about Colombia that the international audience should know about, is it an important
enough topic? Is it new and different? Is it an interesting human interest piece that not many
people know about? Would it work well for video, or would it be better for print/written?
Note: All of the above assessments will be carried out in English.
Bibliografía
Abassi, Z. and Soubiale, N. (2006) ‘The Times and the Northern Ireland Conflict’, EstudiosIrlandeses, 1,
pp. 1–15.
Al Jazeera English (2015) Fixers: The unsung heroes of journalism. Available at:
[Link]
[Link].
Allan, S. and Zelizer, B. (eds.) (2013) Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime. United Kingdom: Taylor &
Francis.
Beaumont, P. (2011). The truth about twitter, facebook and the uprisings in the arab world. The
Guardian, Retrieved from [Link]
uprisings-arab-libya
Carpenter, S. (2010) ‘A study of content diversity in online citizen journalism and online newspaper
articles’, New Media & Society, 12(7), pp. 1064–1084. doi: 10.1177/1461444809348772.
Clark, J. (2000) ‘Training journalists in an emerging democracy: The case of Cambodia’, Asia Pacific
Media Educator, 8.
Comunello, F., &Anzera, G. (2012). Will the revolution be tweeted? A conceptual framework for
understanding the social media and the Arab spring. Islam and Christian–Muslim
Relations, 23(4), 453-470. doi: 10.1080/09596410.2012.712435
Farwell, J. P. (2014) ‘The Media Strategy of ISIS’, Survival, 56(6), pp. 49–55. doi:
10.1080/00396338.2014.985436.
Franklin, B. (2012). The future of journalism: developments and debates. Journalism Studies,13(5-6),
663-681. Retrieved from
[Link]
Gostoli, Y. and van Rijn, E. (2015) Gaza’s female fixers. Available at:
[Link]
[Link] .
Hoskins, A. (2004) Televising War: From Vietnam to Iraq.
Im, S. (2012, December 25). Social media changing Cambodia’s information landscape. Voice of America,
Retrieved from [Link]
cambodian-information-landscape/[Link]
ITV News (2014) Smartphone Journalism: The Changing Face of News. Available at:
[Link] (Accessed: 13 October 2015).
Kalb, M. (2007) The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict.
Available at: [Link] (Accessed: 13
October 2015).
Khondker, H. H. (2011) ‘Role of the New Media in the Arab Spring’, Globalizations, 8(5), pp. 675–679.
doi: 10.1080/14747731.2011.621287.
Miller, D. (2002) ‘The media, propaganda, and the Northern Ireland peace process’, in Kiberd, D. (ed.)
Media in Ireland: Issues in broadcasting. Dublin: four courts press.
Miller, D. (2004). Tell me lies: propaganda and media distortion in the attack on Iraq. London: Pluto
Press.
Pfau, M., Wittenberg, E. M., Jackson, C., Mehringer, P., Lanier, R., Hatfield, M., & Brockman, K. (2005).
Embedding Journalists in Military Combat Units: How Embedding Alters Television News
Stories. Mass Communication and Society, 8(3), 179–195
Robinson, P. (2005) The CNN Effect: The Myth of News, Foreign Policy and Intervention. Routledge.
Seib, P. (2008) The Al Jazeera Effect: How the New Global Media Are Reshaping World Politics.
Smith, J. A. (1999) War & Press Freedom. Oxford University Press.
Straus, S. (2006) The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Available at:
[Link]
(Accessed: 13 October 2015).
Vallone, R., Ross, L. and Lepper, M. (1985) ‘The hostile media phenomenon: biased perception and
perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre.’, Journal of personality and social
psychology., 3(49).
Weaver, M. (2009, February 17). The Khmer Rouge and Cambodian Genocide: How The Guardian
covered it. The Guardian. Retrieved from
[Link]
Wu, S. (2012, September 5). Press coverage of the Cambodian genocide: An analysis. The Huffington
Post. Retrieved from [Link]
cam_b_1469187.html
Yanagizawa-Drott, D. (2014) ‘Propaganda and Conflict: Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide’, The
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(4), p. 1947. doi: 10.1093/qje/qju020.
Bibliografía complementaria
Al Jazeera. (2013). The role of new media in Iran [Web]. Retrieved from
[Link]
Anderson, L. (2011). Demystifying the Arab spring: Parsing the differences between Tunisia, Egypt, and
Libya. Foreign Affairs, 90(3), 2-7. Retrieved from
[Link]
Barnsby, R. E. (2012). Social media and the Arab spring: How Facebook, twitter, and camera phones changed the
Egyptian army’s response to revolution. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Retrieved from
[Link]
BBC. (2011). BBC College of Journalism: Social Media [Web]. Retrieved from
[Link]
Conde, M. (2010, Januray 15). How blogging has changed journalism and the BBC. Retrieved from
[Link]
Cottle, S. (2011) Media and the Arab uprisings of 2011: Research notes, Journalism, Vol. 12 pp 647-659.
Fitzpatrick, A. (2012, July 06). Internet access is a human right, says United Nations. Retrieved from
[Link]
Gaffney, D., Pearce, I., boyd, danah, Lotan, G., Graeff, E. and Ananny, M. (2011) ‘The Revolutions Were Tweeted:
Information Flows during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions’, International Journal of
Communication, 5(0), p. 31.
Hasan, M. (2011).Voice of the Arab spring. New Statesman , 140(5082), 30-33,35,37. Retrieved from
[Link]
Hounshell, B. (2011). The revolution will be tweeted. Foreign Policy, (187), 20-21. Retrieved from
[Link]
Kassim, S. (2012). Twitter revolution: How the Arab Spring was helped by social media. Policymic, Retrieved from
[Link]
social-media
Lee-Wright, P., Phillips, A., &Witschrg, T. (2012).Changing journalism. Oxon: Routledge.
Lynch, M. (2006). Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today. New York:
Columbia University Press.
Mair, J. (2011). Mirage in the desert? : Reporting the Arab Spring. Suffolk: arima publishing.
Martin, B. (2012) ‘The Reception of Joe Sacco’s Palestine’, Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 9(2).
Mellor, N., Ayish, M., Dajani, N., &Rinnawi, K. (2011).Arab media: Globalization and emerging media industries. (1
ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Miller, D. (1994). Don't mention the war: Northern Ireland, propaganda and the media. London: Pluto Press.
Philo, G., & Berry, M. (2011). More bad news from Israel. London: Pluto Press
Schillinger, R. (2011, September 20). Social media and the Arab spring: What have we learned?. The Huffington
Post. Retrieved from [Link]
media_b_970165.html
Seib, P. (2008). The Al Jazeera Effect: How the new global media are reshaping world politics. (1 ed.). Washington,
pDC: Potomac Books Inc.
Taylor, P. (1978) ‘“The British Media and Ireland”’, Index on Censorship, 7(6).
Xiaoming, H. (1996). Reporting Cambodia in the Australian media: “heroic” journalism or neo-colonial
distortions? Journal of SoutheastAsianStudies, 27(2), 416-418.
Description of weekly activities
Teopic Activity description Independent work for
Date Class Support materials
students
July 30 One The Rwandan To revise the history of the
Genocide General understanding genocide. Hutu/Tutsi –
of course what to differences.
expect and explication
of syllabus. To watch the movie Hotel
Understanding what Rwanda to contextualise the (Straus, 2006)
genocide is. situation.
(Yanagizawa-Drott,
Lecture about history of Reading of academic article 2014)
the conflict and how the and 150 word summary for
media played a next session.
principal role in
beginning this conflict.
Class discussion about
Rwanda.
Could it have happened
today with the amount
of technology that
exists – social media,
mobile phones, satellite
TV?
[Link]
om/programmes/aljaze
eraworld/2015/09/rw
anda-hatred-
reconciliation-
[Link]
l
Open discussion about
a topical event affecting
journalists around the
Aug 6 world. Sources from al-
Jazeera or BBC. (Abassi and Soubiale,
Two Northern Watch documentary: Voices 2006)
Ireland vs The Class discussion about from the Grave (Farwell, 2014)
British homework on Rwanda (Miller, 2002)
and recap to ensure Read academic article by
Government.
understanding of topic. David Miller.
Propaganda.
Presentation and Students should analyse the
introduction to use of ISIS propaganda in the
Northern Ireland. mediaand write a 500 word
summary.
General understanding
of history and present
issues – peace process – [Link]
relate to Colombia. n/20141010-revisited-
Class open discussion. belfast-ireland-united-
kingdom-catholic-protestant
Lecture regarding the
media propaganda
techniques on each side
and the effect it had on
public opinion around
the world.
The art of propaganda
in the 21st century.
History: Nazi and war
propaganda to current
day problems with ISIS.
What are the challenges
facing journalism today
in terms of
propaganda?
Should we report on it?
Should we use this type
of imagery in the mass
media?
Three Israel and Week 3 evaluation. Watch:
Palestine Peace, Propaganda & the
Aug 20 Introduction to the Promised Land: U.S. Media &
conflict – Explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian
the complexities and Conflict and write a 400 (Kalb, 2007)
history of the conflict. word analysis of the (Vallone, Ross, and
Look at how the conflict documentary´s content. Lepper, 1985)
was reported by
various mediums Prepare team debate focused
around the world as on the one and two state
well as in Israel and solution proposals. Students
Palestine. News bias. will be given a position to
defend.
Look at Israeli and
Palestinian propaganda
methods.
Watch documentary
regarding 1996
outbreak of violence.
Class discussion/debate
around a question
relating to the press
coverage of events.
Aug 26 Four EVALUATION -
DEBATE
(20%)
Five Reporting Lecture: Students to prepare short 5
September 11. How the international minute presentations in
Sept 3 media covered it. groups of 2 or 3 regarding
some of the most influential
War/International Reporters
in journalism.
Robert Fisk, Marie Colvin,
LyceDoucet,
ChristineAmanpour, Ernest
Hemingway, Martin Bell etc.
Watch ´Pentagon blackout
part 3 (the embedded
journalist)
Watch John Pilger's 'The War
You Don't See' (2011)
[Link]
4
Think of topic for academic
presentation evaluation.
Six The wars in Students to read articles
Sept 10 Iraq The problems of related to this coverage.
embedding journalists (Hoskins, 2004)
to cover conflicts: the Planning for evaluations in (Miller, 2004)
case of the Iraq war. two weeks.
How did it affect the
style of reporting? Students must come to
class with a plan of their
War as entertainment presentation proposal for
in the media. their evaluation. This
should include their
History of war analytical question related to
reporting and how an area of international
reporting has changed journalism and a plan of
as a result of their presentation structure.
technology since World
War I.
Seven The Cambodian General overview of Students to watch movie: (Clark, 2000)
Sept 17 genocide and Cambodia and its The Killing Fields, for (Im, 2012)
the Vietnam history. contextualisation. (Weaver, 2009)
war. (Wu, 2012)
What was the problem Students to read academic
for journalists during article: Training Cambodian
the Cambodian journalists in an emerging
genocide? democracy.
What was the problem
with the information? GUEST NADEGE MAZARS -
Photojournalist.
Vietnam: The first
photographed war.
How did this affect
public opinion around
the world (especially in
the USA)
What is the impact of
photography in
international
journalism?
Eight
Sept 24
Evaluation
Panel
discussions
(20%)
Nine The Arab How social media has Students to watch BBC
Spring. changed the way documentary: How Facebook (Beaumont, 2011)
Oct 1 journalists report. Changed the World: The (Comunello and
Arab Spring Anzera, 2012)
History of Arab Spring (Khondker, 2011)
and analysis. Reading of academic article
Ten Citizen Arab Spring and Citizen (Carpenter, 2010)
Oct 8 Journalism. Journalism. Is this Students must watch:
where it started? Smartphone Journalism: The
Changing Face of News
Citizen journalism. debate from ITV, UK. (ITV
Topical Case. Example, News, 2014)
racism cases in USA
caught on smartphones.
Should news agencies
use smartphone and
citizen footage?
What are the problems
and advantages of
citizen journalism?
Eleven Practical How to cover a foreign
session culture? To watch news report about
Oct 15 How to work with an the importance of Fixers by
How to work in
interpreter? Al Jazeera. (Al Jazeera English,
journalism
What is a ´fixer´? 2015)
internationally.
How to find stories in Fixers: The unsung heroes of
an unfamiliar land? journalism (Franklin, 2012)
How to cover conflict?
Guest
How to gather multiple
speakers from
points of view? Students must be working (Gostoli and van Rijn,
International
How to develop stories on final journalistic 2015)
Media.
from your own country productions.
for foreign agencies?
Please note
Guest journalists
that the class
will probably working in Colombia
be held in a for question and
different answer session.
room this day
to
accommodate
guests and to
allow other
students to
participate.
Oct 22 Thirteen NO CLASS SEMANA SANTA
Press freedom What are the difficulties To research on The
Oct 29 and censorship. facing journalists in Committee for the Protection (Smith, 1999)
The difficulties countries with of Journalists (CPJ) and
restrictions on press Article 19 on the worst cases
of working in
and of press freedom and what
International freedom of expression? limitations do they place.
Journalism in
certain Discuss freedom of Students are to prepare, in
countries. expression. Should groups of 3, a short
there be limitations? presentation focusing on a
specific problem facing
Case studies: journalists outside of
North Korea, Eritrea, Colombia related to
Egypt, Mexico, etc. censorship/ press freedom.
Debate practice related Students must be working
to this topic. on final journalistic
productions.
Fourteen Drop-in Students should use Students must be working
Nov 5 session. this time to speak to the on final journalistic
teacher regarding their productions.
No class, but final journalistic
teacher will production. This is
be available to where you can have one
give advice on on one help.
final products.
Otherwise, students
should continue to use
this time to work on
their final work.
Fifteen Presentation of Students will prepare a
Nov 12 final work. three minute
presentation of their
work - describing the
challenges of creating it
and how you made the
decisions you did.
Sixteen Feedback Students should email
Nov 19 sessions teacher for final
feedback and grades.
Class rules
1. Arrive to class promptly. Any student arriving after 10.10 am will be marked as late.
2. Use of cell phones or text messaging during class to a minimum. This will be monitored and taken into
consideration as part of the student´s class participation grade.
3. Efficiently use class time by having no out of class interruptions.
4. Regular contributions to class discussion, including taking part in debates and also asking questions.
5. Respect the opinions, ideas, and contributions of others.
6. Students who exceed the 20% of absences throughout the semester will fail the course. Students
have the right to comply with class projects when they were absent due to different circumstances.
In this case they need to follow the standard procedure of the university. Nevertheless, students are only
entitled to give or turn in the assignment. The record of the students’ absences will not be changed, erased, or
altered.
7. If you can not attend a class, advise the teacher in advance. You should also use your initiative to contact the
teacher and catch-up on what you missed. [Link]@[Link]