Summative assessment
(a) 1 x academic essay (1250 words) - 50% [Learning Outcomes 1 & 4]
(b) 2 x political columns (c. 600 words each) - students must produce two columns in a different style (from broadsheet, tabloid, mid-market, parliamentary sketch, humorous, local sage, socialcommnetary) [Learning Outcomes 2 & 3]

Formative learning
Independent learning via guided readings, literature searches via Web and library.

Origins of the political commentator; pamphlets and pamphleteers; the columnist as propagandist - war-time columns; constraints on comment - press barons, editors and politicians; the impact of television on the role of the political columnist; the modern columnists - from Cassandra to Littlejohn, from Fairlie to Marr; workshops exploring the art of writing a political column; the parliamentary sketchwriters; broadsheet columnists; tabloid columnists; the commentator in political journals.

Folder of political columns (provided by lecturer)
The Newsroom
Internet
Newspapers and Journals

2 Lecture/Workshops (2 hours\ - 4 hours
To introduce key theoretical and historical developments

10 Workshops (2 hours) - 20 hours
Skills developed will include self and peer assessment and communicating ideas

Guided independent reading - 40 hours
Developing research skills and independent learning

Assessment Preparation - 86 hours
Preparation of political columns for discussion in workshops (20 hours), research and writing up of essays and columns (66 hours)

Steven Barnett & Ivor Gaber (2001) Westminster Tales: The 21st Century Crisis in British Journalism
Jeremy Tunstall (1996) Newspaper Power: The New National Press in Britain
Keith Waterhouse (1995) 'Climbing the column' in British Journalism Review, Vol. 6 (3)
Richard Keeble (1998) The Newspapers Handbook
Dan Nimmo & James E. Combs (1992) The Political Pundits (New York: Praeger)
Brian McNair (2000) Journalism & Democracy: An evaluation of the public sphere (London: Routledge)