Module 2: Selection criteria and information quality

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General objective

• Determine the parameters for the selection of news contents and for setting the media agenda.
• Critically evaluate reality to select, prioritize and produce texts that might be disseminated as news.

Specific objectives

• Analyse the criteria that mass media apply when selecting their content.
• Analyse the informative message considering the medium-content relationship.
• Propose parameters to set the media’s agenda.
• Apply quality measurement models to different Chilean and foreign media, and from different informative contexts.

• Lectures
• Analysis of cases and class discussions
• Development of an individual project, analysing a medium
• Presentation of the projects in class

Content

• Journalism in a complex society
• Definition and contextualisation of the agenda in journalism
• The agenda as the primary journalistic responsibility
• The concept of journalistic quality: distinct perspectives
• Quality, prestige, credibility
• Internal and external influencing factors in the selection of news content
• Internal organisation of the agenda
• Parameters to construct the agenda
• Journalistic sources
• Conflicts and strategies for the construction of the agenda

Assessment

Each student has to carry out an individual project throughout the course, in which he/she analyses a daily newspaper according to the parameters viewed in class. The evaluation consists of a control of the ongoing work (twice during the semester) and the submission of the final project. The students will present their results in class. The first control accounts for 40 % of the final grade, the second control for 60 % of the final grade, which also includes the class presentation.