Term 1: Assessment Requirements, Grading & Deadlines

This is the really important stuff!!

This page compiles your MA module deadlines and guidelines for submission & assessment of your work. Please read carefully.

You need to pass both Term 1 modules to continue on to Term 2. Work must be submitted on time and to requirements.

You also need to pass both Term 2 modules to progress to Term 3.

This page does not contain comprehensive module or course information and you should all read, in full the IMMJ Handbook PROGRAMME HANDBOOK — MA in International Multimedia Journalism 2015/2016.

The IMMJ-MA Programme cover 6 modules over three terms. There are three practical and three theory modules. This page covers term 1. For Term 2 & 3 please see: Term 2 & 3: Assessment Requirements, Grading & Deadlines

The 6 IMMJ-MA modules for Term 1, Term 2 and Term 3

Term 1

You will complete 2 modules:

• MAIMJ4010 Advanced Practice 1: (40 Credits)
• MAIMJ4011 Advanced Research and Study skills: (20 Credits)

Module: MIMJ 4010 Advanced Practice 1 - Assessment Requirements:

• Final Assignment Submission Deadline: 29th November 2015 midnight Beijing Time. Individual assessment session on 12th December.

Assessment will be carried out at the end of the semester and will be based on two elements — Assignments & Studentship.

• Assignments (worth 80%): Eight short practical assignments delivered on time each week, and presented in an organised fashion on your online platform. Students will also each undertake a final 20 minute individual assessment session with tutors — where students are expected to introduce and critique their own learning process.
• Studentship (worth 20%): The final part of the assessment refers to your studentship — Regular attendance and participation in seminars and critiques, intensives, participation in the online discussions, submission of assignments on time.
• Late submissions automatically fail
• You will need read and act in accordance with the IMMJ-MA Code of Ethics.
• Please note: All students start the program at different points with various strengths and weaknesses. We emphasise the process as well as results. This includes generating good story ideas and angles, having a clear story focus with news value. Reflecting on assignment’s weak points and making improvements in following assignments, working productively with teammates, professional use of equipment.
• When grading your assignments we evaluate both technical and journalistic elements.

MAIMJ4010 1 Assessment Notes:

The eight assignments will be assessed at the end of the semester. During this session you will be given 20 minutes to discuss your final eight assignments in relation to the weekly themes, readings and the stipulated agency/publication. You will need to take into account the feedback from fellow students and tutors and be able to critically evaluate the final outcome. You may not re work any of the assignments therefore it is important to recognise weakness’ as well as strengths in your assignments. Remember the assignments are set in order for you to explore research questions from a practical point of view and for you to practice and improve your skills. During the assessment you will need to demonstrate a good understanding of all the themes discussed throughout the term.

Grading Guidelines:

While we prefer to focus more on your learning and development than on your grades. Here is some information to help you better interpret your grades and improve your future work. Firstly we assess work on how well you have stuck to the assignment brief and criteria. Secondly, when grading your practical assignments we judge work by a standard of publishable quality. We consider whether the assignments submitted are of publishable quality, and if not — how much work would be required to bring it to the desired level. By publishable quality, we do not mean the level of highly experienced New York Times, Caixin or Guardian journalists or teams. Instead we envisage individual entry level journalists. With that in mind we view work as editors and evaluate assignments based on whether we would accept and publish the work with a few minor changes, or if the work would demand major reworking. Finally English and grammar are important. We need to be able to smoothly read work in English. Do use grammar and spell checks before submitting work. Poor Language and grammar will affect your grade.

80% +(DISTINCTION) assignments fulfil all points of criteria of the assignment. They are accurate, clear, stories that are well-written / well-shot and well-produced. They demonstrate excellent knowledge of practice, theory and technique for this level. They require only minor editing or changes. They include well- selected quotes /sound bytes that deliver impacting information and emotion. In sum, they are stories that are publishable at professional level.

70–79% (PASS) assignments fulfil all key points of criteria of the assignment. They demonstrate sound knowledge of practice, theory and technique for this level. They reflect solid work but need more than minor editing for publication and may have style, grammar or production errors or one significant error or omission.

60–69% (PASS) assignments fulfil most key points of criteria of the assignment. They demonstrate adequate knowledge of practice, theory and technique for this level. They would need considerable reworking (re-editing or re-reporting) for publication and/or have multiple, grammar, style, production or omission errors.

50- 59% (PASS) assignments fulfil some key points of criteria of the assignment. They demonstrate some knowledge of practice, theory and technique for this level. They would require excessive reworking for publication, and / or have numerous multiple, grammar, style, production or omission errors.

45–49% (FAIL — BORDERLINE) assignments fail to fulfil key points of criteria of the assignment. They demonstrate weaknesses in knowledge of practice, theory and technique for this level and have numerous errors. A story that has a factual error that is material to the story merits a fail. Deficiencies in spelling and grammar makes reading difficult in places.

44% > (FAIL) assignments fail to fulfil key points of criteria of the assignment. They demonstrate lack of basic knowledge of practice, theory and technique for this level and have numerous errors. A story that has a factual error that is material to the story merits a fail. Deficiencies in spelling and grammar makes reading difficult in places.

Other circumstances that would warrant a fail include 1. Plagiarism 2. Staging video: Asking a story or interview subject to do something specific that they would not typically do. (“Set-up” shots — including reverses for an interview or “walking” shots are a grey area, but are generally accepted). 3. Telling an interview subject what you want him or her to say. 4. Paying or giving someone something in exchange for doing an interview.

Module: MIMJ 4011 Advanced Research and Study Skills Assessment Requirements:

Write a 2000 word research paper, on one of the above 8 topics. Select one topic you want to explore in depth, and find one case study / example to base your argument around. Make sure you research more readings and sources beyond those provided on this reading list.

• Final Submission Deadline: 15th December 2015. Email to David Campbell, CC Sean and Sharron.
• TK (For 2016–17 add in news diary as part of News Literacy — Your News Diary is included in your studentship — New Diaries started in early November, should have a minimum of 3 entries per week, every week until Mid December. Entires will differ in length and may constitute anything from 2 sentences to 400 word reflections / notes about your readings. Your chosen topic and selected three media orgs should be clearly outlined at the top of the page. It would be useful if you could embed or include links of the articles you reflect on. You do not need to reflect or write about everything you read. We want to know what you have learned about your topic and the tools and platforms (including mobile apps) used to deliver your news and stories — as well as the media organisations you are following. Deadline 29th November 2015 midnight Beijing Time

Draft Version Deadline: 1st December 2015 midnight Beijing Time. Email to David Campbell

• Final Submission Deadline: 15th December 2015 midnight Beijing Time. Email to David Campbell
• Late submissions automatically fail

Find course listing and detailed lectures and readings at:

IMMJ-MA Adres Modules

• Week 1: Visual Storytelling and the Global Imagination
• Week 2: Transformations in the Media Economy
• Week 3: Users in the Media Economy
• Week 4: Economics of the Media Economy
• Week 5: Narrative, Journalism and Story
• Week 6: Aesthetic and Cinematic Journalism:
• Week 7: Storytelling Platforms
• Week 8: Ethics in the Media Economy

Extra Notes:

Punctuality, Attendance and Deadlines:

Class will begin promptly at 10 a.m. Mondays & Tuesday. Punctuality and deadlines are critical in the news business. Weekly assignments must be turned in each Sunday evening, uploaded to your digital platform — with subtitles or dubbing to English if necessary. We will not review work in Mandarin. Assignments must be handed in on time. Any assignment submitted after the deadline must be accompanied by documentary evidence (e.g. medical certificate) of serious mitigating circumstances, or your grade will be capped at 50%. Please see your tutor or refer to the school handbook for details of how to submit mitigation documentation. If at all possible, please come and see your tutor before the due date with any problems you may be having.

Attendance is another must, classes build upon each other. While you maybe able to catch up on practical skills out of class you will miss critical core ethics & journalism principles if you miss classes. Full attendance is expected. Poor attendance will be taken into account when determining overall module results. For example, failure with poor attendance is likely to lead to a repeat of the module with attendance. A repeat of a module requires you to repeat the module in full and you will need to pay the costs of taking that module again. You must make sure you keep up with the weekly teaching programme and check your university email account as this is where updates may be communicated to you. The modules can be quite intense and your success may ultimately depend on your keeping up the pace required. If you fall behind, then self-directed study should be used to catch up for the following week. Successfully negotiating your way through the modular programme involves careful time management and organisation. Your tutors and/or supervisors will be able to provide guidance if issues arise.

Assessment strategy and methods:

Summative assessment

The majority of modules are marked as summative assessments. This means that a formal assessment of your work takes place at the end of the module instead of bit — by — bit assessments over the term. This allows for the continual learning and teaching throughout the module to contribute to the work in progress and the resulting submission of work.

Formative assessment

Formative appraisal is carried out throughout programme. This takes the form of critiques or ‘crits’, one-to-one tutorials, group seminars, and so on. These are designed to enable you to gauge your progress and to form an understanding of your progression as your work develops.

You do not need to redo an assignment unless a tutor has flagged it as a fail. Typically if you make a good attempt at assignments you will not fail, technical errors are expected to happen in early stages, instead of failing assignments due to technical issues, they will instead be highlighted in weekly ‘crits’ and should be improved upon in following assignment. In most cases a fail means either a) you have not followed instructions or guidance and /or b) not put in the appropriate amount of time into an assignment. Assignments, including research, planning, reporting & editing should be covered in two 8 hour days. It’s rare that you will fail and need to rework an assignment, if this happens you will be told directly after the weekly critique. You will have one further week to repeat or rework the assignment. If the assignment is not reworked to guidelines within a week or handed in late your final grade will be capped at 50%.

You can only make one formal submission of work for formal assessment prior to the assessment board. (The deadline for submission this year is 29th Nov). Once submitted, you cannot subsequently add further material to be considered. For further details see the AME School Handbook.

Should you fail any module, you get one further chance to resubmit. You will receive clear and written guidelines on why you failed and what you need to do in order to pass. Should you fail on your second submission, you will fail the MA programme with no further chances to resubmit.

Procedure for moderation of assessments

The assessment process is carried out by the internal programme team, then scrutinised by the External Examiner. The role of the External Examiner is to ensure that we are marking fairly and has academic parity with other UK universities. In this way you can be sure that your award meets the quality of the national standard expected.

You must ensure that you submit your work on time. Assessments for practical work may ask you to exhibit work or submit them online, please make sure you achieve this the day before so the work is ready for assessment on the day required.

Please read the School Handbook for information on late work and/or Mitigating Circumstances, if you think you may not be able to submit work for assessment. The guidelines for mitigation are very strict, and it is important that you familiarise yourself with these before making an application.

On completion of the initial assessments by the programme teams, the marks are fed into the University’s marking system. Module Assessment Boards are held periodically at BFSU, chaired by the Dean or Deputy Dean of the School of Arts, Media and Education at the University of Bolton over a Skype link from Bolton. These module boards fix module results. Award and Progression Boards are held periodically at Bolton. These determine awards, and make progression decisions about continuing students. The Assessment Board meets to discuss and agree the module marks presented and to agree progression decisions and, eventually, awards. The board takes account of any mitigation by receiving a report from the School’s Mitigating Circumstances Panel. The External Examiner is usually present to ensure academic consistency. Decisions on referral, progression etc. are made at this Board and a final set of marks are generated, these are then published for students to obtain their results.

Relevant University assessment regulations

The assessment regulations that apply to this programme are located at: http://www.bolton.ac.uk/studentcentre under the section on “Regulations, Policy and procedures”. There you will find the regulations for postgraduate programmes, which this programme is.

Please also refer to the AME School Handbook which includes how many of the University’s policies, procedures and regulations are implemented in this School.

Term 2

You will complete 2 modules:

• MAIMJ4020 Advanced Practice 2: (40 Credits)
• MAIMJ4021 Advanced Research and Study Skills: (20 Credits)

Module: MIMJ 4021 Critical Thinking in Practice Requirements:

• Final Submission Deadline:
• Project Form 1: 31st Jan 2016. Email to David Campbell
• Project Form 1: 29th April 2016. Email to David Campbell
• Please check guidance for interim deadlines

TERM 2 GUIDANCE — IMMJ 4023 — Critical Thinking in Practice

David Campbell gave you the outline of what was expected when in Beijing in December 2015.

The work for this module is that which will go into sections 1–4 of the project form:

Sources, Research Questions, Research Proposal, and Research Abstract.

Those sections have to be completed for submission with the whole project form. Let me explain what is required for the Research Questions and the Research Proposal:

Research questions are the questions that drive your project. They are the questions you are seeking to answer through the visual story that you are proposing. They are not to be mistaken with interview questions. You will have somewhere between 3–5 research questions, with the first one being the most general and directed at the context of the story, working your way down to more specific questions. For example, if you were doing a visual story on HIV-AIDS victims in a particular village who have suffered poor health care, your research questions might look like this:

1. What is the current status of the HIV-AIDS pandemic in China?

2. How has government — central, regional, local — responded to the pandemic?

3. When and how did people in village X contract HIV-AIDS?

4. Why did people in village X receive inadequate health care?

Please see this video tutorial for Harvard reference guidelines.

You will now see that when constructed properly along these lines, your Research Questions can provide the structure for your Research Proposal. The Proposal (1500 words each) is an integral part of the project form, and is to be written like an academic essay, along the lines you did for AdRes, which means it has to be properly structured and referenced using the Harvard author / date system.

In the Proposal you deal with the context of your story, and the research data that will inform your understanding of the issues in your story. It does not contain any production or practice-related issues, which are dealt with in other sections of the form.

The Research Abstract is and edited version of the 1,500 word proposal, and requires you to focus on the overall themes of your project in a shorter version.

The first project form is due in draft form on 15 January and you should have been working on the research sections too and I will provide feedback, but they will not be marked. And because this guidance has been late in getting to you, you have until 31 January to complete the research sections of the project. When you have completed those sections, you email me the whole project form with all the sections completed for me to see.

For the second project, you will complete the research sections at the same time as you complete the whole project and submit the form (29 April), and you also send the whole project form to me by that date.

Please also see Collecting & Collating Digital Research Online for helpful hints on gathering your research and online tools to make referencing easy

— DAVID CAMPBELL

Module: MAIMJ4021 Advanced Practice 2 Assessment requirements:

• 6 Presentations — to be delivered in weekly class sessions (3 per project — See calendar for precise details.)
• Presentation 1: Production Plan / Production Methodology 1: 6–8 mins (Including examples of other stories, projects and practitioners, which serve as inspirations for style / methodology / platforms choices and approach).
• Presentation 2: Production Plan / Production Methodology 2: 6–8 mins (Including your own tests of style / methodology / platforms etc).
• Presentation 3: Ethical Assessment / Risk Assessment / Engagement Plan 6–8 mins
• 2 online multimedia journalism projects or stories:

Project 1 to be delivered on Sunday 7th Feb 12am.

Project 2 to be submitted on Friday 29th April 12am.

Projects must be submitted with a clear URL in an email responding to a specific email sent to students by Sharron 48 hours before submission.

• 2 Project Forms. Final revised draft including diary to be submitted with multimedia journalism project submissions. Submit the final revised draft to all lectures with your project urls — via the specific email sent from Sharron. Also submit to the specified dropbox folder. Project 2 forms dates to be announced.

Project 1 form: 1st draft to be submitted on 8th Jan. All sections should be complete in draft form. Aside from Risk Ethic assessment and audience management and diary sections.

Project 1 form: 2nd draft to be submitted on 15th Jan. No need for complete diary section.

Project 1 form: 3rd draft to be submitted on 2nd Feb. No need for complete diary section.

Project 1 form: final draft to be submitted on 7th Feb.

• Late submissions automatically fail
• You will need read and act in accordance with the IMMJ-MA Code of Ethics.
• When grading your assignments we evaluate both technical and journalistic elements.

Interim editing deadline

You will need to have rough video / text / graphic edits, on a working url link by Tuesday 2nd Feb. Midnight. Sharron will deliver written feedback the following day to help edit. Sharron will also be online on Wednesday 8th and available to skype from 5pm — 10pm.

Term 3

You will complete 2 modules:

• MAIMJ5010 Advanced Practice 3: (40 Credits)
• MAIMJ5012 Critical Analysis and Reflection: (20 Credits)