Introduction to Journalism (KSK_106)

To create in students understanding about reasons of emergence, main development stages of journalism, its place and tasks in the Latvian and global context, familiarising with functions and tasks of journalism, the place of this area in the state’s political, legal and economic system.
The main task of the course is to familiarise students with various manifestations of journalism, building a foundation for mastering of practical journalism courses: to make an insight into problems of journalism; to create an understanding about the dynamic development of journalism and media environment, its reasons and processes; to analyse the interaction between journalism and audience. Students develop theoretically mastered skills to be able to work in different mass media. Special attention in this course is drawn to the analysis of journalism development processes and practices in Latvia, Baltic countries and Scandinavia, as well as evaluation of quality of information, sources of information and determination of the value of information.