Course Purpose

ICO 065 is an introductory course to the basic principles of writing for the broadcast media.  The course should assist the student to understand the basic approaches and techniques in writing for television, radio and film. It is designed to enhance learners’ ability to acquire academic writing, research, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, it enables learners to articulate ideas persuasively and coherently.  This course is deliberately designed to conform to the Problem Based Learning (PBL) mode of delivery.

Course topics will include an overview of the concept of script writing for electronic media, news writing and reporting; the structure, inverted pyramid style, news value judgment and criteria of news selection; newsroom routine and personnel; construction of leads and complete stories; investigative journalism; covering press conferences and interviews; defamation suits and new media journalism.

The student will, during the first half of the course, explore the contemporary trends in broadcast writing, news writing and reporting in light of technological impact on news/media industry. Our classes will be conducted face-to-face.

Course Delivery Plan

The course content will be delivered through tutorial discussions/sessions, self-directed learning, research, group presentations and lectures. In most cases students will be given tasks to work on before discussion of topics in class.

The facilitator’s role in this course is primarily to guide and facilitate learning; therefore, learners are encouraged to remain active throughout the week by interacting with wide range of reading materials and sharing with their tutorial group members.

Instructional Materials and/or Equipment 

• Stable internet,

• eLearning platform

• Textbooks

• eJournals

• White boards

•  LCD projectors

• Multimedia resources-videos

• Computers-based simulations and real-world case studies.