School of Communication
University of Miami
Syllabus
Summer II, 2016
Global Journalism in London
JMM 595-02/692/02
July 5-July 27, 2016
3 writing credits
This course is part of the comprehensive six-credit London Summer, Global Communication study abroad program
Setting:
On location for three weeks in London, one of the most dynamic communication centers in the world.
Professor: Joseph B. Treaster
Office: 2021 Wolfson
Hours: By appointment all day, most days in Miami; 24 hours a day in London
Telephones: 917 575 9562, 305 284 5246
Email:
Course Description and Purpose:
Global Journalism in London is part of the six-credit London Summer, Global Communication program at the University of Miami. The program immerses University of Miami students in the dynamic and cutting edge communication industry in London and in the city’s political, cultural and artistic traditions. Students learn the latest techniques and strategies in digital age communication and how to apply them in briefings and discussions with London professionals at global public relations and advertising companies and news organizations like the B.B.C., The New York Times and BuzzFeed.
The London Summer program consists of two distinctly separate courses delivered by separate professors. This class, Global Journalism in London, and the companion class, Global PR and Advertising in London, provide deep insights into journalism, public relations and advertising. The two courses aim to strengthen students’ capabilities in these fields and to enhance writing and critical thinking skills and knowledge of the world beyond the United States.
The two courses work together to achieve a result that is greater than could be achieved by either of them alone. Students in the program get briefings from professionals at institutions that are generally closed to outsiders and are able to see and feel the real-life synergies and overlapping relationships of journalism, public relations and advertising. In Global Journalism in London, Professor Joseph B. Treaster, a long-time foreign correspondent and reporter for The New York Times, lectures on British and global journalism and shows how journalism functions independently and in relation to public relations and advertising. In Global PR and Advertising in London, Professor Heidi Carr, a specialist in public relations and advertising and a former reporter and editor at the Miami Herald, lectures on public relations and advertising in London and around the world. Students complete a capstone project in each class. Each class has its own requirements and assignments.
The professors conduct separate seminars on techniques, skills and communication philosophy and put into context communication in London with communication in New York and elsewhere. Students in this class, Global Journalism in London, work on multimedia, digital age assignments in journalism throughout London.
London Summer makes the most of study in the British capital. It could not be taught anywhere else. University of Miami students take in the cultural, historical and political life of London and work on assignments in the British Museum, the Tate Modern, parliament, at Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abby and other iconic institutions. They get briefings at Oxford University and at the adjacent Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. They live in shared apartments with kitchens and get the feel of London as they walk to briefings and meetings, ride the underground and the big red buses, shop for groceries and sample Shepherd’s Pie, bangers and beans and bubble and squeak. They mingle with the diverse, international throngs in Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. The combination of two separate classes in the London Summer program provides a comprehensive London experience.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
o Get to know London, one of the great communication centers
o Learn new tactics and strategies for navigating the digital age
o Strengthen writing and visual communication skills
o Deepen understanding of the synergies of journalism, public relations and advertising
o Enhance skills in critical thinking and analysis
o Develop comprehensive skills required for digital story telling
o Increase confidence and leadership skills
o Broaden worldview of cultures, people and communication
o Develop a strategic plan for getting a job in public relations, advertising or journalism
COURSE PREREQUISITES:
The six-credit London Summer experience is open to undergraduate and graduate students across the University of Miami campus.
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Attendance is mandatory. Classes are in the form of seminars and discussions, most often in public relations, advertising and journalism offices throughout London and Oxford, but sometimes in cafes and parks and other public places. Missing a class session results in a reduction in the final grade of one full letter grade. An A drops to a B, a B drops to a C and so on. Documented illness is the only accepted reason for missing a session.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Brock, George, Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age, Kogan Page Limited, London, Philadelphia, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7494-6651-0.
Mr. Brock is a former foreign editor and managing editor of The Times, perhaps England’s most distinguished newspaper and website, and a former head of the graduate school of journalism at City University of London. Students meet Mr. Brock and other experts in public relations, advertising and journalism in seminars at City University of London.
RECOMMENDED:
Marr, Andrew, My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism, Pan Macmillan, London, 2005, ISBN-10 0330411926
Kessler, Lauren and McDonald, Duncan, When Words Collide, A Media Writer’s Guide to Grammar and Style, 5th edition, Wadsworth Publishing; 8th edition, 2011, ISBN-10: 0495572403, ISBN-13: 978-0495572404;
Stovall, James G., Writing for the Mass Media, 9th edition. Pearson. ISBN-10:0205043445, IBN-13: 9780205043446
ONLINE TOOLS:
The Poynter Institute, brief online workshops and classes with useful aspects of writing across all fields, The Poynter Institute http://www.newsu.org/
ASSIGNMENTS AND COURSE WORK:
Students learn and practice a range of writing, research and critical thinking techniques that may be applied across all communication platforms in the digital age and are useful in all careers. This is a total immersion, multimedia course.
Here are the assignments:
Profile and Pre-briefing Questions - Students write a profile of a London journalism expert or journalism institution in the London Summer program. The profiles are due one day before briefings, along with five written questions for use in the briefings.
Culture Reports – Four reports on the culture of London using all the multimedia tools. Some themes: class distinctions, contrasts in daily life between the United States and the United Kingdom, food, theater, politics, dance, music or other things that help explain life in London to a global audience.
Student Leadership - Each day two students are designated as group leaders. They take the lead in discussions, assist in keeping the group together on field trips and on time.
Journalism capstone project – This is a complex multimedia, multidimensional news feature report on one of the institutions in the London Summer experience. It is developed incrementally over the course of the London program. The capstone is presented as a multimedia report at City University of London.
This course requires two pre-departure workshops in Miami in March and April. The purpose is to increase the quality of learning and achievement overseas. In the workshops, students select a capstone theme and develop a plan for executing the capstone and other assignments. Journalism capstone work may be published in TheMiamiPlanet.org, an online publication of the School of Communication, or elsewhere. All London work must be completed in London. No make-ups.
Extra credit: Publication of an article in The Miami Hurricane or Distractions magazine, additional profiles and culture reports.
GRADING AND EVALUATION:
This course is for undergraduate and graduate students. Graduate students carry a heavier work load. Undergraduates are encouraged to work toward the higher standard. Grading follows the standard practice at the University of Miami. Here are the quantitative and qualitative scales:
A+ 97-100, A 93-96, A- 90-92, B+87-89, B 84-86, B- 80-83,
C+ 77-79, C 74-76, C- 70-73, D+ 67-69, D 64-66, D- 60-63, F 59 and below
A = Superior Attainment, B = Above Average, C = Average, D = Below Average,
E = Unacceptable/failure
How Grades Will Be Calculated:
Graduate Students*
Participation, engagement, leadership 10 percent
Profiles and Questions 25 percent
Culture Reports 25 percent
Journalism capstone project 40 percent
Undergraduate Students
Participation, engagement, leadership 10 percent
Profiles and Questions 25 percent
Culture Reports 25 percent
Journalism capstone project 40 percent
*Additional Work for Graduate Students
Graduate students are required to complete an additional research project that demonstrates narrative skills using a wide range of communication tools. The project will be developed in consultation with the faculty.
HONOR CODE AND PLAGIARISM STATEMENT:
Students enrolled in this course are expected to abide by the University of Miami Honor Code. The purpose of the Honor Code is to protect the academic integrity of the University by encouraging consistent ethical behavior in assigned coursework. Academic dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated.
No student wants to be guilty of the intellectual crime of plagiarism, even unintentionally. Therefore, we provide you with these guidelines so that you don't accidentally fall into the plagiarism trap.
Plagiarism is the taking of someone else's words, work, or ideas, and passing them off as a product of your own efforts. Plagiarism may occur when a person fails to place quotation marks around someone else's exact words, directly rephrasing or paraphrasing someone else's words while still following the general form of the original, and/or failing to issue the proper citation to one’s source material.
In student work, plagiarism is often due to:
• Turning in someone else's paper as one’s own
• Using another person’s data or ideas without acknowledgment
• Failing to cite a written source (printed or Internet) of information that you used to collect data or ideas
• Copying an author’s exact words and putting them in the paper without quotation marks
• Rephrasing an author’s words and failing to cite the source
• Copying, rephrasing, or quoting an author’s exact words and citing a source other than where the material was obtained. (For example, using a secondary source that cites the original material, but citing only the primary material. This misrepresents the nature of the scholarship involved in creating the paper. If you have not read an original publication, do not cite it in your references as if you have.
• Using wording that is very similar to that of the original source, but passing it off as one’s own.
• The last item is probably the most common problem in student writing. It is still plagiarism if the student uses an author’s key phrases or sentences in a way that implies they are his/her own, even if s/he cites the source.
COURSE OUTLINE:
This schedule may change to make the most of opportunities that arise.
Students accepted into the program are required to participate in two orientation briefings and discussions in March and April 2016.
London Summer, Global Communication:
Day 1 – July 5, Tuesday -– Fly to London as a group from Miami.
Day 2 – July 6, Wednesday — Arrive London. Chartered bus takes University of Miami group to American Institute for Foreign Study apartments. American Institute specialist briefs Miami group on the city, the neighborhood, public transportation, cultural highlights, grocery shopping and security. Afternoon lecture: Global Communication in London. Professor Treaster lectures on global journalism and how it plays out in London. He talks about London as a hub for coverage in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and the job of translating London and the United Kingdom to a global audience.
Day 3 – July 7, Thursday – Around London by bus with a professional guide and Professor Treaster and Professor Carr. Two part program. Professor Treaster talks about journalism and its relationship to places around London. Part I: Parliament, Fleet Street, the City and Lloyds of London, Inns of Law, Piccadilly Circus. Lunch. Part II: London Eye, Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, one of the symbols of free speech, Trafalgar Square and more. Focused reading: About Speaker’s Corner: http://www.speakerscorner.net/
https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde-park/things-to-see-and-do/speakers-corner
Is American Journalism Better than British Journalism: http://csis.org/blog/american-journalism-better-british
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/business/media/the-state-of-british-journalism.html
Day 4 – July 8, Friday – Briefing and discussion, Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm with more than 5,000 employees in 65 countries. The initial discussion is on public relations and advertising. Professor Treaster leads discussion on how Edelman works with journalists, how it often hires people with journalism skills. He shows the similarities and differences in the workings and philosophies of news organizations and public relations firms. Day 5 – July 9, Saturday - Culture Weekend: the Tate Britain, the Tate Modern, National Gallery during the day, Shakespeare and West End theater in the evening. Culture report, due Monday 6 p.m.
Day 6 – July 10, Sunday - Culture Weekend: Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Thames River outing, London School of Economics campus, theater in the evening. Culture report, due Monday 6 p.m.
Day 7 – July 11, Monday - Briefings and discussions: Thompson Reuters News Agency, briefings and discussions with senior editors and writers. Briefings and discussions at BuzzFeed, an Internet news start-up with a large and growing audience. Professor Treaster leads discussion at the news organizations and contributes analysis.He focuses on how Reuters has evolved in the digital age and how BuzzFeed has been hiring serious journalists and working to shed a frivolous image and become a force in global journalism. Focused reading: Here is a BuzzFeed style history of BuzzFeed from TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/gallery/a-brief-history-of-buzzfeed/
The history of Thompson Reuters: http://thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/company-history.html
Day 8 – July 12, Tuesday –Saatchi & Saatchi global, advertising agency with offices in 76 countries. Briefings and discussion led by Richard Hytner, deputy worldwide chairman of the agency. Professor Treaster lectures on the shared writing and critical thinking requirements of journalism and advertising and public relations and how all three fields are working with Social Media and digital graphics. Focused reading: Lovemarks by Kevin Roberts, a former worldwide chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi. See Professor Treaster for a copy.
Day 9 – July 13, Wednesday – Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Oxford University. Two-hour bus trip to Oxford and back. London departure, 8 a.m. The Reuters Institute is one of the world’s great research centers on the media and social issues. Professor Treaster moderates briefings on journalism around the world and the digital evolution and how news organizations deal with their own advertising and public relations. What news organizations are doing to increase advertising revenue. How news organizations use public relations techniques in Social media. Professor Treaster lectures on how and why the Reuters Institute was formed and its impact on communication around the world. Briefing and lunch at Oxford University. Professor Treaster leads discussion on lessons learned at the Reuters Institute. d Focused reading: The Reuters Institute, http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/