Political Journalism
Code: 104977 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Journalism | OT | 3 |
| Journalism | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Marc Bataller Serra
- Email:
- marc.bataller@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites are not considered, beyond having taken the subjects related to journalistic genres
Objectives and Contextualisation
1. Promote a critical and responsible view of journalism that covers events and situations understood as political, and the role of journalists and media specializing in politics.
2. Apply and optimize journalistic approaches and techniques acquired in previous courses to produce news, interviews, analysis columns and reports on political content.
3. Distinguish and use languages and formats of journalistic genres and the various degrees of interpretation they entail, from news to opinion texts, with high skills.
Competences
- Journalism
- Abide by ethics and the canons of journalism, as well as the regulatory framework governing information.
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- Be familiar with and apply the theoretical and practical foundations of journalistic writing and narrative and its applications in the different genres, media and formats.
- Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
- Differentiate the discipline's main theories, its fields, conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and approaches that underpin knowledge of the subject and its different areas and sub-areas, and acquire systematic knowledge of the media's structure.
- Identify modern journalistic traditions in Catalonia, Spain and worldwide and their specific forms of expression, as well as their historic development and the theories and concepts that study them.
- Introduce changes in the methods and processes of the field of knowledge to provide innovative responses to the needs and demands of society.
- Relay journalistic information in the language characteristic of each communication medium, in its combined modern forms or on digital media, and apply the genres and different journalistic procedures.
- Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
- Value diversity and multiculturalism as a foundation for teamwork.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse the sex- or gender-based inequalities and the gender biases present in one's own area of knowledge.
- Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
- Compare the different traditions in handling specialised information.
- Conceptualise the theories and techniques of specialised journalism.
- Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.
- Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
- Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
- Demonstrate practical knowledge of specialised journalism.
- Distinguish theories of journalistic writing and narrative to apply them to the different theme-based information specialisms.
- Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
- Identify situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
- Incorporate the principles of professional ethics in developing narrative journalism specialised in environmental and travel information.
- Incorporate the principles of professional ethics in developing narrative journalism specialised in political information and parliamentary articles.
- Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
- Relay in the language specific to each communication medium narrative journalism specialised in political and parliamentary information.
- Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Use interactive communication resources to process, produce and relay information in the production of specialised information.
- Value diversity and multiculturalism as a foundation for teamwork.
- Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.
Content
1. Journalism specialized in Politics. Conception of politics: theory confronted with practice. Feedback between political and journalistic languages. Warlike, sexist and classist clichés in political information.
2. Political actors and systems: the key issue of power. Elections, institutions and administrations: parliaments, provincial councils, city councils. Differences and coincidences. Political parties and other political organizations.
3. Current political journalism and contextualization. Hierarchy of news and actors. Sources of information: who marks the news or who provides contextualization. Press offices, communication and image consultancy.
4. Media policy sections and areas. Politics in the opinion sections. Gender bias in opinion and social gatherings. Editorial lines and pluralism. Territorial policy and areas: international, national / state and local.
5. The media as structures of power. Newspapers (or media) as political actors. Narrators, commentators and participants in conflicts / political situations. Permanent goals: to profit and influence ideologically.
6. Conflict as a basic structure of political information. Protagonists, antagonists, third parties. Conflicts between equals or unequals. Explanation and understanding of political conflicts. Patriarchal historical views and alternative views.
7. Narration / exposition of political conflicts. Journalistic genres and political information. News of various types (negative, positive, sudden, predictable news, etc). Political interviews. Chronicles (parliamentary, municipal…). Reports.
8. Political journalism and crisis communication
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| practical laboratory sessions | 32 | 1.28 | 16, 15, 8, 7, 13, 14, 19, 18 |
| Theory sessions | 16 | 0.64 | 6, 1, 15, 4, 7, 18 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Evaluation | 6 | 0.24 | 16, 3, 15, 4, 8, 20, 19 |
| Tutorials | 2 | 0.08 | 4, 7, 9 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Development of 5 journalistic texts | 54 | 2.16 | 6, 15, 2, 8, 7, 13, 19, 17, 18, 21 |
| Readings and study of various texts | 32 | 1.28 | 6, 4, 7, 9, 18 |
Methodology
Teaching methodology:
The 3-hour module is divided into a first hour defined as theory and two hours defined as laboratory practices. The classes will alternate debates on texts previously read by the students and on political problems and their journalistic treatment, as well as comments on journalistic pieces and fragments of theory presented by the teachers.
Theory
Presentation by the teacher on the various contents of the syllabus and debate on the related texts, with previous reading by the students.
Practices
Individuals:
• In-depth report on a current political conflict (local and regional, preferably).
• 4 journalistic texts: news, chronicle, interview and opinion text.
Group: analysis of current political conflicts and media coverage (specific topics will be set, but student proposals may be included), and presentation in class.
A detailed schedule outlining the content of each session will be presented on the first day of the course and will be available on the course’s Virtual Campus, where students will find all teaching materials and necessary information for eƯective course monitoring. Should the teaching modality change for reasons of force majeure according to the competent authorities, the teaching staƯ will inform students of any modifications to the course schedule and teaching methodologies.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analysis and group presentation of the social situation of conflict | 10% | 1 | 0.04 | 16, 2, 7, 9, 10, 20, 19, 17, 18, 21, 22 |
| Elaboration of 4 diverse journalistic pieces | 40% | 3.5 | 0.14 | 1, 3, 15, 2, 8, 13, 14, 19, 21, 5 |
| Reflection and partcipation on theory texts | 30% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 4, 7, 11, 12, 18, 21, 5, 23 |
| Writing an in-depth report | 20% | 2 | 0.08 | 6, 15, 2, 8, 7, 19, 5 |
Evaluation
For the evaluation, it is mandatory to have done 3 of the 4 individual practices, in addition to the in-depth report.
The evaluation of the theory (30% of the overall grade) will be based on a personal reflection on some of the issues on the agenda.
The set of 4 practices will specify 40% of the overall grade of the subject.
The in-depth report will represent 20% of the final grade.
Conflict analysis and its classroom presentation, which is done in groups (and will be assessed by the rest of the students) will represent 10% of the overall grade.
Reassessment: Depending on the practical activities schedule and its performance, the goal is that both the in-depth report and the 4 journalistic exercises throughout the course can be repeated if they have been failed. The same goes for the theory exercise.
Important notice: the student who commits any irregularity (copying, plagiarism, impersonation...) will have a grade of 0 in the affected practice. In case of several irregularities, the overall grade of the subject will be 0.
In this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not permitted at any stage. Any assignment containing content generated by AI will be considered a breach of 5 academic integrity and may result in a partial or total penalty to the assignment grade, or more serious sanctions in severe cases.
This course offers the possibility of a single assessment. The student must take a face-to-face test on the theory of political journalism (multiple choice exam) and submit at least three of the four practices (news, interview, chronicle and opinion piece), in addition to the in-depth report. The face-to-face test will be worth 40% and the rest 60% (with the same criteria as the continuous assessment: 20% in-depth report and 40% preparation of the rest of the journalistic pieces).
Bibliography
Basic bibliography
BORRAT, Héctor.1989. El periódico, actor político. Barcelona: Guistavo Gili
BASTENIER, Miguel Ángel. 2001. El blanco móvil: Curso de Periodismo. Madrid: El País-Aguilar
BOUZA-BREY, Luis. 2004. “El poder y los sistemas políticos”, a Miquel Caminal (editor). Manual de Ciencia Política. Madrid: Tecnos. P. 39-84.
CHOMSKY, Noam & HERMAN, Edward. 1990. Los guardianes de la libertad. Barcelona. Grijalbo Mondadori.
GIRÓ, Xavier. 2010. “Periodismo político. Discursos y grietas: La lógica de los actores, los límites de los medios y las metas periodísticas”. A Camaco Markina, Idoia (coord.): La especialización en periodismo. Formarse para informar. Ed. Comunicación Social, Sevilla/Zamora. (pp. 75-95)
IBARRA, Pedro i IDOYAGA, Petxo. 1998. “Racionalidad democràtica, transmisión ideológica y medios de comunicación”. ZER, núm. 5. P 157-181
VAN DIJK, Teun. 1998. “Opiniones e ideologías en la prensa”. Voces y Culturas, núm. 10
Complementary bibliography
BORRAT, Héctor. 2000. “El primado del relato”. Anàlisi, núm. 25. P 41-60
CHOMSKY, Noam & HERMAN, Edward. 1988. Manufacturing Consent. New York: Pateón Books
MILLS-BROWN, Lisa. 2008. “Journalism, Political”. A Encyclopedia of Political Communication. SAGE Publications. 21 Sep. 2009. <http:www.sage-ereference.com/politicalcommunication/Article_n317.htlm>
RODRÍGUEZ BORGES, Rodrigo Fidel. 2011.”Esfera pública y medios de comunicación.La contribución de los media a la construcción de la ciudadanía democràtica”. Daímon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, Suplemento 4
VAN DIJK, Teun. 2003. “Las estructuras ideológicas del discurso”, en Ideología i discurso. Barcelona, Ariel Lingüística, Madrid. P 55-75
ZELLER, Carlos.2001. “Los medios y la formación de la voz en una sociedad democràtica”. Anàlisi, núm. 26. P 121-144
Software
No special programme is required
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 11 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 12 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |