Nieuwsproductie en burgerschap

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/L_NCMAJOU009

Course Objective

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:organise, interpret and synthesise the current scientific state of the art on theory about news production processes and the dynamics of public debate;describe in theoretical terms how digitisation is changing the news media landscape and the dynamics of the news production process and public debate;make a reasoned judgment on (aspects of) journalistic quality and the public debate;incorporate the reasoned opinion on (aspects of) journalistic quality and the public debate into a journalistic product (e.g. a blog post or explainer), tailored to a specific target group;incorporate reasoned opinions on (aspects of) journalistic quality and the public debate in a research proposal;

Course Content

'News production and citizenship' is about the dynamics of public debate in which social issues are
- often heatedly
- debated. Topics vary in terms of impact (e.g. war in Gaza or war in Ukraine versus the Eurovision Song Contest), scope (municipal elections in the Netherlands versus presidential elections in the US), tone, duration and so on. But always the debate is dynamic and often proceeds unpredictably. This subject looks at different parties trying to influence public debate: journalists, politicians, other stakeholders or news sources, and the public. We analyse how these different actors shape the news and influence the dynamics in public debate. We try to get a grip on the dynamics, through theory and research. In our network society, interest groups, organisations, companies and political parties and journalists compete for attention, for what is true or false (think fake news), what is important or related to what. This subject combines a theoretical elaboration of these themes with a study of journalistic practice. Students are challenged to apply theoretical concepts and insights to journalistic stories. In this way, students also contribute to shaping public debate themselves.

Teaching Methods

Literature lectures and tutorial.

Method of Assessment

Individual assignment and group assignment. The weighting of the partial marks will be announced at the start of the course.

Literature

Reader of articles. The articles can be downloaded either electronically via the UBVU or are taken from the book: Wahl-Jorgensen, K. & Hanitz, T. (2020). The handbook of Journalism Studies. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge. The book by Wahl-Jorgensen & Hanitz is available via the VU Bookstore (note, this must be the second edition).

Target Audience

Master students CIW: Journalism

Additional Information

This course is taught in cooperation with the course 'Source to Story: Creating Public Debate' of the master programme Communication Science . This is a bilingual course.The language of instruction in the tutorials is Dutch (provided enough students are enrolled to offer a Dutch and an English tutorial).The literature lectures will be in English.Assignments can be submitted in both Dutch and English.Attendance at the lectures and seminars is compulsory.