Sustainable Media: Principles and Practice - AHC3016

Assessment 1: Written draft

Formative assessment is ongoing. It will also specifically include a short presentation of work-in-progress on each Assessment 2 media project in class, for feedback from the module tutor and an industry professional.

Project work

Assessment 2: Project Work

A sustainable media project, that will include the production of a piece of sustainable media content, such as a longform piece of written journalism or a podcast. It should consider current issues around economic, environmental and social sustainability, and assess how true sustainability would be achieved. The project submission should also include a presentation ‘pitch deck’.

Assessment 1: Written Assignment

An academic essay that draws on the concept of sustainable development. An indicative topic would be for students to assess the provocation ‘the media is unsustainable’. Students could focus on a particular part of the industry, a series of case studies or the media industry at large.

Written Assignment

Sustainability is discussed in boardrooms and on protests, but what exactly does it mean? And what is its significance for those using, working in and leading media businesses? We may think of questions of economic sustainability, but this is not our only – or perhaps even our biggest – concern.
This module situates these issues in the field of environmental social sciences and draws on the widely used, and often critiqued, idea of sustainable development. This will help you understand what sustainability might mean today and for your future careers in journalism and the media. You will learn to think critically about what we might need to do, and perhaps what we might need to stop doing, to be able to meet the needs of people today, without compromising the needs of people tomorrow. You will create examples of sustainable media content, such as longform journalism or podcasts, based on your learning.

School of Arts and Humanities

Berglez, P., Olausson, U. and Ots, M. (eds) (2017). What Is Sustainable Journalism? Integrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges of Journalism. New York: Peter Lang.
 
Lewis, J. (2013). Beyond Consumer Capitalism: Media and the Limits to Imagination. Polity.
 
McKibben, B. (1992). The Age of Missing Information. Random House.
 
Maxwell, R. &amp; Miller, T. (2012). Greening the Media. OUP.
 
Wood, S., Shabajee, P., Schien, D., Hodgson, C. &amp; Preist, C. (2014). Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Digital News Media. Digital Journalism, 2 (3). Pp 284-295. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2014.892

Media, Journalism and Film

AHC3016 - Sustainable Media: Principles and Practice

Sustainable Media: Principles and Practice

Apply editorial skills in the creation of a media sustainability project.

Evaluate market demand in sustainability projects relating to the journalism and media industries.

Manage time and resources effectively, by drawing on planning, organisational and project management skills.

Critically appraise concepts of economic, environmental and social sustainability.

Critically assess existing practices and traditions in journalism and the media, and the possibilities and constraints involved in production processes.