Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.) Media Skills Syllabus - Mumbai University

About this course

Media saturate our daily experiences. This course attends to the structure and consequences of this fact, exploring the economies, cultural forms, political affordances, and material impacts of media as they are evolving today. It focuses specifically on personal experiences and quotidian examples of these larger forces in order to equip students with a critical vocabulary to describe the media through which we live and to better prepare students for further courses in media studies.

Course objectives

• Upon completing this course, students will recognize and recall key concepts, tools, and techniques in media production. They will be able to interpret and critically analyze media content, demonstrating a clear understanding of its purpose and impact. Through practical application, they will develop proficiency in photography, reporting, and filmmaking to create effective media content. Students will evaluate the ethical, social, and technical dimensions of media creation while assessing the quality and relevance of media outputs in real-world contexts. By synthesizing their knowledge and technical expertise, they will produce professional-quality media artifacts.

Learning outcomes

• CO 65 Analyze and apply the core principles of news writing and photography, including news values, story structure, lead writing, and visual framing techniques.
• CO 66 Demonstrate the ability to research, plan, and develop documentary projects by identifying relevant subjects, writing treatments, and preparing production schedules.
• CO 67 Utilize technical and creative skills in photography and documentary filmmaking, including camera operations, lighting, composition, interviewing, and editing.
• CO 68 Produce and present a short documentary film as a collaborative project, incorporating ethical considerations, effective storytelling, and strategies for distribution and exhibition.

Unit I: Introduction to News media & Photography

• News: definition, function, elements, sources and kinds News values; Essentials of news writing, news story structure, inverted pyramid pattern lead/intro writing and types of lead
• Press conferences; Press notes
• Approaches to photography;
• Selection, Framing the Subject, Light and Form

Essential readings

• Creative interviewing: The writer's Guide to Gathering information by Asking Questions;
• Metzler, Ken, Allyn and Bacon Inc.; 1996
• Schaefer, John P., Basic Techniques of Photography, An Ansel Adams Guide: Little Brown and Company, Boston, 1992

Unit II: Documentary Filmmaking

• Introduction to Documentary Filmmaking: Evolution, Definition and purpose, Ethical considerations; Research and Development in Documentary filmmaking: Identifying subjects (Social, political and historical), research and fact-checking,
• Pre-Production: Proposal/Treatment/Synopsis writing. Pitching, schedule, locations, characters; Visual Storytelling and Cinematic Techniques: cinematography, Framing, composition, and camera movement, Observational filming vs. staged setups
• Interviewing: exercises, interview analysis; Technical Aspects of Filming: cameras, microphones, lighting; Editing and Post-Production: Organizing raw footage, transcriptions, preparing filmlogs, rough cutting, fine cutting, editing using Final Cut Pro
• Distribution, licensing and copyright; Developing short documentary films

Essential readings

• Bernard, Sheila Curran (2004) Documentary Storytelling for Video and Filmmakers. Burlington, MA: Focal Press