Page 115 - HKSYU Prospectus 2023-24

Journalism & Communication

JOUR 342 Data Journalism and Augmented-Reality-Enhanced News
1 Term; 3 Credits
The aim of the course is to equip students with the hands-on skills to become a better
storyteller using data for insight and visualization. This course is divided into three parts. The
first part examines data journalism as a field in journalism and the relevant theoretical and
ethical issues. The second part teaches students elementary knowledge of data mining through
Python. And the third part equips students with skills in data visualization and techniques of
creating augmented reality (AR) outputs. It is expected that these three parts combine to
address the following general issues in data journalism: What is data journalism? How to find
data to support a story and to generate story ideas? How to present data to tell stories with
visualization techniques? How to create interaction with the use of AR technology in enhanced
news storytelling? What changes have the new trends in data science provoked in the field of
journalism?

JOUR 350 Feature Writing
1 Term; 3 Credits
This course is designed to further enhance students' interviewing and writing skills, to
serve in general news writing, and also to offer an alternative but deeper form of news writing.
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to describe feature writing in various
styles, structure and categories; define a wider sense and perspective in in-depth news writing;
critically develop one’s own excavations of news stories, through clear intelligible and engaging
text, attractive, touching and sentimental paragraphs; and suggest professional analysis and
evaluation of contemporary feature articles in local newspapers and magazines.

JOUR 370 Mass Communication Law
1 Term; 3 Credits
The course aims to provide basic knowledge of the law and the legal system in HK, with
particular emphasis on the legal aspects that affect mass communication. Upon completion of
the course, students will be able to describe the essence of law and the legal system in HK by
group projects and written assignments; apply basic legal principles in tackling simple legal
problems; and analyse critically the law affecting the profession of journalism.

JOUR 371 Media Practicum
6 Terms; 3 Credits
The practicum course lasting for six semesters presents another facet of the training
programme for third-year students prior to their joining media organizations for summer
internship. The course enables students to learn the basic skills in journalism including ethics
in theory and practice, news reporting and writing, and newspaper and magazine editing.
Students work under the direct supervision of an instructor to learn the methodology to locate
contents for publication; the form in which they appear; the design and layout for either on-line
or print format. Students’ work will be refined by an editorial board of senior students. The
University has fully utilized the Internet platform to publish students’ works on the web, and

p. 111