Students will keep a weekly record of their progress through the unit via a blog.  This exercise is about engagement and participation and you are encouraged to take risks and experiment with the form of a journal, its content and its use of a variety of media. 

You will update your blog with at least one 500 word, or two 250 word posts for each week of semester

Your blog will be assessed in week 12 as a whole and no additional submissions are necessary.

Marking Criteria

• The success of the individual posts to meet the brief
• Your reflections on your contributions to a collaborative project
• Your engagement with the project

Working as part of an editorial team, you will develop and produce an online editorial project. The topic and methodology will be devised in consultation with the unit convener and tutor.

You will produce editorial content including text, video, audio etc at a professional level output. 

In the first step in this process you will submit a research report on the proposed project based on a survey of the scholarly literature, news reporting, market and field research and your work as an editorial team.

Your report will contain the following elements:

1) A 500 word description of the proposed editorial project that sets out your editorial vision and plan.

2) Each report will contain a brief case study of between 850 and 1000 words on a new (or future) form of journalistic practice  (ie data journalism, social media, native advertising, personal brand journalism, podcasts, inews etc) and make a case for its inclusion in your proposed editorial product.

3) A 500 word reflection that outlines your contributions to the development of this product and the challenges and opportunities of collaboration.

4) A Selected annotated bibliography that identifies the key theories, examples and research that motivates your contribution to the editorial vision.  Your annotations should be brief:  a short summary of the text and what you take from it.

Your report should be submitted as a single document via the Turnitin link on the iLearn site.

Marking Criteria

• Your ability to identify and secure a suitable industry partner, meeting your brief and identifying problems and creative solutions
• The quality of the written proposal's structure, content and style and its success as a form of persuasive communication
• The relevance of your case study and the quality of your critical analysis
• The depth and breadth of your annotated bibliography and your ability to contextualise this project within larger debates about the future of journalism
• Your critical analysis of the collaborative project as expressed in your reflection

You will compile a portfolio of highlights from the project produced as a part of an editorial team, and a 1000 word reflection that contextualises your work, explains your contribution to the editorial process, and identifies opportunities for future journalism based on both the successes and shortcomings of the project as a whole.

Highlights may include: news articles, features, journalistic uses of social media platforms, video, audio, images and other forms as discussed with the unit convener. 

Students should submit the equivalent of apx. 3000 words of text (apx. 4-6 pieces of work).

A single document (containing both copies and hyperlinks to the work in situ) should be submitted via the Turnitin link on the unit's iLearn page.

Marking Criteria

• The success of your work as discrete pieces of journalism including the rigour of your reporting, the quality of your storytelling, and your use of your chosen medium.
• Your approach to each genre including the quality of its structure, content and style
• How your body of work contributes to the team's editorial mission and style
• Your reflection will be assessed on your ability to contextualise this project within larger debates about the future of journalism