JOUR 4302: Electronic Photojournalism
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Basic Information
Prerequisites
Course Description
Expected Competencies
Competency Goals
Assignments and Activities
Workload
JOUR 4302: Electronic Photojournalism (3 credits)
- Single-section course.
- Lecture/lab meets twice a week.
Prerequisites
- Major status
- JOUR 3004W and JOUR 3102
Course Description
Jour 4302 (Electronic Photojournalism) is a basic, skills course designed to teach a journalism student the fundamentals of electronic photojournalism as practiced by newsrooms across all forms of media.
The course will refer to other reporting competencies such as: technology, press responsibility, cultural sensitivity and ethics. Primarily, however, its focus is on the fundamental skills of identifying stories, gathering facts, analyzing that information and photographing those stories.
Expected Competencies
Students who enroll in 4302 should have taken Jour 3004W and Jour 3102. All students should have the following skills:
- An understanding of different media forms.
- An ability to find and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
- A working knowledge of fundamentals of English mechanics, including sentence structure, spelling and punctuation.
- An ability to type quickly and accurately on deadline.
Competency goals for 4302
Jour 4302 is designed to help students develop a variety of photojournalism competencies. It will:
- create a foundation for understanding the historical, technical, aesthetic, and ethical development of journalistic photography
- discuss and practice the principles of communication as embodied in the profession of photojournalism, including how to conceptualize and plan photo shoots, stories, and methods for gaining access to subjects; and structure and present visual narratives in print and on the internet
- enable a student to acquire some of the camera and computer skills necessary to practice the craft of electronic photojournalism. Students will learn digital darkroom processing. Shooting assignments and critiques will facilitate the creation of a body of journalistic photography
The content and direction of this course will not presume great prior knowledge or skills. However, students with experience may proceed to more distant horizons. All photographic assignments will all be done with digital equipment. The school has ten Canon Rebel digital cameras available for loan, each with an 18/55mm lens. While a certain technical skill level will ultimately be expected, the primary focus will be on achieving access, content and journalistic story telling. The final form of the photographic work done for the semester will be presented on CD-ROM.
Assignments and activities
Photographic assignments
Students in 4302 will demonstrate their working knowledge of news judgement, narrative, and analysis applied to journalistic photography by competent and timely production of certain kinds of photographs typical of newsroom assignments. The instructor has developed the following assignments. Samples are attached at the end. They include but may no to be limited to:
- Personality/Portrait - A picture of a person that reveals the essence of the subject's character. (one picture)
- Feature - An unposed photo that celebrates life. Respect for the dignity of the subject is important. (one picture)
- Pictorial - A graphic image that expresses beauty, tension, harmony, chaos and other abstract concepts through composition and tonal color relationships more than through human interaction. (one picture)
- Sports - Photograph/s that increase the understanding and appreciation for individual and team sports in the lives of amateur and professional athletes and fans. (two or three pictures; action and spectator/feature)
- Controlled location photography - Fasion/food/product/service. (two pictures)
- Spot News - Photo of an event taken in the course of daily life. Examples could include fires, accidents, local natural disasters and demonstrations. (one or two pictures)
- General News - Photograph from a political, social, or cultrual event for which planning was possible or that explores issues or news of the day distinct from breaking news. (one or two pictures)
- Editorial - Picture illustrating a public service announcement or educational picture with some text, perhaps in poster form. (one or more pictures)
- Science/Natural History - Photograph that increases understanding and appreciation of science of the natural world. (one picture)
- ONE of Either Documentary A or Documentary B below:
- Documentary Essay A - A day in the life of someone or somewhere, documenting his/her/its life in detail. (maximum 10 photos in a layout and on a CD-ROM)
- Documentary Essay B - Issue Reporting Picture Story - A story or essay that explores an important social, economic or political issue. Examples: the homeless and those who help them, decline and growth in urban communities, environmental decay and development. (maximum 10 photos in a layout and on a CD-ROM)
Additional activities to complement assignments or instruction
- Each student researching and reporting to the class, using a Power Point type presentation lasting 8 to 10 minutes, a prominent photojournalist such as William Albert Allard, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Richard Avedon, Mathew Brady, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Carolyn Cole, David Douglas Duncan, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Robert Frank, Ron Galella, Carol Guzy, Josef Koudelka, David Leeson, Annie Leibovitz, etc.