W.O.V-Comm.                     "Corporate Journalism" . 2nd semester, SPRING 2005   

WEEK & THEME

LECTURES:

Exercise Classes: Mette Thayssen

Exercise Classes :  Lise Mark

6
Introduction to Corporate Journalism

(Lecture + exercises)

#1+(45 mins): Download lecture slides (pdf file)

Introduction to

• A history of news
• Corporate journalism

Readings: (from web compendium)

Text 1
Fisher, Lionel L. (1992): The Organizational Communicator: Who, What, Why, When, Where.
In: The Craft of Corporate Journalism: Writing and Editing Creative Organizational Publications.


Text 2
Bhatia, Vijay (1999): Integrating products, processes, purposes and participants in professional writing.
In: Writing: Texts, Processes and Practises. Edited by Christopher N. Candlin and Ken Hyland. Longman. pp. 21-39.

 

EXERCISE 1: The Newspaper as a ’Discursive Universe’

The pivot of the exercise is an analysis of English-language newspapers, incl. text as well as pictures/images
The aim of the exercise is for you to acquire basic knowledge about analysing a newspaper at macro-level, textually as well as visually, considering layout also.
The visual part relates to a later session i Discourse Analysis on analysing front page layouts.


All groups are to prepare this exercise, but only one or two groups will be asked to present their findings orally.
The others will be asked to comment and add alternative suggestions to analysis.

Part 1: Textual aspects (Mette)

Mette's part (textual aspects)
 

Part 2: Visual aspects (Lise)

Lise's part (visual aspects)

Obligatory Reading:

Kress and Van Leeuwen: "Frontpages",
Text 3 in the WOV web compendium.

Relevant links:
Online database of newspaper frontpages,
updated daily:

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

7
Journalism & Photojournalism

Lecture only
 

#2 + 3 (90 mins)

 Part 1(METTE): Download lecture slides from CampusNet
Classic journalism (news triangle) vs. New Journalism

Readings (METTE):
 

Text 4 Johnson, Samuel (2000): “Different Ways to Tell a Story”. In: The Universal Journalist. Edited by David Randall. Second Edition. Pluto Press. 193-197.

Text 5 Hicks, Wynford et al.(1999): “Writing News”. In: Writing for Journalists. Routledge. 11-46.

Text 6  Mckay, Jenny (2000): “Features Writing”. In Magazine’s Handbook. Routledge. 80-95.              (online at  Ebrary)

Part 2 (LISE):
Photojournalism - Download lecture notes from CampusNet here

Readings (LISE):

Text 7: Dona Schwartz: “To Tell the Truth: Codes of Objectivity in Photojournalism”, in Communication, 13, pp. 95-109 (1992)

Text 8: W. J. T. Mitchell: How to Do Things With Images, This is a text-only version of Chapter Nine of William J. Mitchell's The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994): 190-223.

ONLINE: Paul Martin Lester:
"Picture Manipulations", ch. 6, in  Photojournalism -  An Ethical Approach, 1999

Other texts of relevance/further interest:

Roland Barthes: The Photographic Message, and Rhetoric of the Image (cf. DA curriculum for the autumn term 2004.)                                            

NO EXERCISE CLASSES THIS WEEK

8

Corporate Journalism

Lecture only

#4 (45 mins)

Download lecture slides

Readings:

Text 9

Newson, Doug; Bob Carrell (1995): Persuasion. In: Public Relations Writing : Form and Style. Fourth Edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 40-64.

Text 10
Burns, Lynette Sheridan (2002): Journalism as decision making. In: Understanding Journalism. Sage Publications. 31-45.

NO EXERCISE CLASSES THIS WEEK

9 

Storytelling  

Lecture only 

NO EXERCISE CLASSES THIS WEEK

10

Elements of Journalism

Lecture + exercises

 #7 (45 mins) :
On the Elements of Journalism

Download lecture slides

Readings:

• TEXT 17: Orwell, George (1962 [1946]): Politics and the English Language. In:Collected Essays. Edited by Allan Hill. Mercury Books. 337-351.
   

• TEXT 18: Franklin, Lynn (2002): Literary Theft : Taking Techniques from the Classics. In: The Journalist’s Craft : A Guide to Writing Better Stories. Edited by Dennis Jackson and John Sweeney. Allworth Press. 109-127.
   

• TEXT 19: Sweeney, John (2002): Are Plumbers News? – What makes a Story a Story? In: The Journalist’s Craft : A Guide to Writing Better Stories. Edited by Dennis Jackson and John Sweeney. Allworth Press. 41-54.
   

• TEXT 20: Kovach, Bill; Tom Rosenstiel (2001): Engagement and Relevance. In: The Elements of Journalism : What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. Crown Publishers. 147-162.
   

EXERCISE 2: The portrait as a journalistic genre.

The pivot of this exercise is the analysis of 3 different kinds of portraits of which one is also a photo essay. They have been published in 3 different types of media:

• Commerciel (ASB’s student journal, English section): Portrait of the new rector.

• Nike company website: Portrait of Nike’s founder.

• I Dream A World (MSNBC picture stories):February 1999
      Brian Lanker’s photo essay with portraits of significant African-American women.

Aim: The aim of the exercise is for you to analyze and compare varieties within the portrait genre, linguistically as well as visually. The purpose is for you to be able to set up ‘genre templates' or 'recipies' for your own production of a portrait article in a subsequent exercise.

NB: JOINT Task Description in more details to be downloaded here

Suggested reading for visual analysis:

• Kress et al. , Reading Images:

             chapter 3, the section “symbolic
             processes”, pp. 108-118 + chapter 4

• PHOTOCOPIES (placed in C100 on the floor in front of the English shelf)
  "The Portrait in Photography", ch. 6 in Graham Clarke, The Photograph. 
   Oxford U. Press, 1997, pp. 101-12
   

• Text 11 in the web compendium
  Extracts from Richard Brilliant: "Introduction", in Portraiture, Reaktion Books, Ltd. 1991. pp. 7-21,
   

• Text 12:  in the web compendium:
  Extracts from W.J.T. Mitchell: Picture Theory. University of Chicago Press,
  Chicago/London1995 (1994), "The Photographic Essay: Four Case Studies", pp. 281- 332

11

Corporate Storytelling

Exercises only

 Exercise 3: Analysis of corporate storytelling cases

The pivot of this exercise is to analyse cases of corporate communication applying storytelling principles textually and visually.
 

DOWNLOAD TASK DESCRIPTION

Relevant links on telling stories (meant for inspiration and good ideas):

 http://www.creatingthe21stcentury.org/ 
(Organisational (business) storytelling)

http://www.corpstory.com/process/index.htm
(Corporate storytelling)

Furthermore, re-read the texts outlined for the lecture, week 9

In Mette's class, the editor of Commerciel will open class by introducing the NEXT assignment (or mini project) - journalism for Commerciel.

Readings:

• Steven Denning (the guru of storytelling):
  SQUIRREL INC. or A Tale about Leadership Through Storytelling, (2004)
  - Foreword & Table of Contents
  - Extract, part 1, ch. 1:
  HOW TO CRAFT A STORY TO SPARK ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE
  - Extract, part 1, ch. 2: Diana tells her story, or HOW TO PERFORM THE STORY TO SPARK CHANGE
   

• TEXT 21: Steven Denning : "Telling Tales" , in Harvard Business Review, May2004, Vol. 82 Issue 5, pp. 122-129. (You will need your library login and password to access the article)
  
  If the link above won't work, you can download the article yourselves by searching the ASB library's online database Business Source Premier. Click on the thumbnail image below for details on how to search(you'll still need your library username and password to access the database).
  

Readings:

An example for inspiration:
Steve Starr's corporate photojournalism story,  documenting McDonalds cheeseburger give-away to US soldiers, under the motto: "Serving Those Who Serve"

13

Exercises only

  No Lecture

On class, your teachers will be there to answer questions and to act as consultants on your productions.

DOWNLOAD TASK DESCRIPTION
 

Suggested background readings:

Text 22: Bagnall, Nicholas (1993): “What is Newspaper English?” In: Newspaper Language. Butterworth-Heinemann. 1-15.

Text 23: Bagnall, Nicholas (1993): Journalism and Journalese”. In: Newspaper Language. Butterworth-Heinemann. 16-22.

Text 24: Bradbury, Ray (2000): “Writing for Newspapers”. In: The Universal Journalist. Edited by David Randall. Second Edition. Pluto Press. 141-161.

Text 25: Newsom, Doug; Bob Carell (1995): “Readability Formulas – Appendix A”. In: Public Relations Writing: Form and Style. Fourth Edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 483-486.

-

14

Exercises only

  No Lecture

Presentation of assignment for Commerciel

All groups are to present their assignment on class, on both textual and visual choices.

Download task description above (week 13) to see requirements for your presentation on class.

Evaluation

Subsequent to your presentations (within two weeks after presentations), Editor-in-Chief Camilla Olsen will pick out one news story and one portrait article that she finds of particular quality and interest to Commerciel. At least ONE of these two articles will be chosen for publication in the Commerciel issue for May, week 18, 2005.

The choice of what to print lies entirely with Camilla Olsen, however, your teachers will evaluate the genre-consistency, visual and textual communication, layout choices, presentation skills, etc.

15

Exercises only

 NB: Tuesday, April 12th, 13.50 - 15.30 in Auditorium M1, BIRGIT PEDERSEN WILL INTRODUCE HER DEPARTMENT AND ANSWER QUESTIONS ON THE AROS PROJECT.

The Alternative Communications Department at the Aarhus School of Business hereby invites you to participate in a contest of writing a profile of the youth learning center at Aros art museum, marketing the services provided for the younger target group aged ---to---. Birgit Pedersen, Inspector responsible for the Aros youth learning centre will introduce you to the details, and this time the winning proposal may be published by Aros.
Here is the chance of adding a significant entry on your resumé if your group wins the competition and have your material published.

Project description: SEE BELOW (Mette and Lise's classes)

NB read through the two project descriptions :   preliminary + final project descriptions and guidelines.
 

NB read through the two project descriptions :   preliminary + final project descriptions and guidelines.

16

Exercises only

No Lecture

18

Exercises only

No Lecture

Group presentation of ARoS material.
 (Lise Mark and Mette Thayssen will be present. If possible in ANY way, Birgit Pedersen and Peter Kastberg (the rest of the evaluation committee) will attend the presentations too. If they cannot attend, they
will get your presentations on video for evaluation.

NB NB NB NB NB:
The material you produce must be uploaded to CampusNet at the latest 2 p.m. the day before class in order to participate in the competetion.
Also,all groups must hand in at least TWO colour print copies at the presentation. (one for Lise, Mette, and Peter Kastberg, another for Birgit Pedersen).

20

"Lecture" only

Programme (link will appear here) 

The winning project will be announced by Birgit Petersen, IF she is in the position to join the reception (she has another job which necessarily must reguire first priority).

However, we promise you that the reception will take place, and that the honorable Mr. Kastberg will decapitate a bottle of Champagne with nothing but his grandfather's sable to honour the winning team. This, in itself, should be a sufficiently motivating factor to go for the first price!

At the reception, the evaluation panel will comment on their choice and the winning group will give a speech of thanks and receive a small prize.

May the best team win....