Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
Creativity and Innovation
Introduction
The course seeks to stimulate the development of innovative journalistic projects in which creativity is an important element. Specifically, it introduces fourth-year students to the use of artificial intelligence in the service of communication. The approach to the most innovative techniques for contrasting information is another of the mainstays of the subject. This area offers an in-depth vision of information verification techniques in all their modalities.
As a whole, it is a subject with a great practical component in which not only will it be about acquiring knowledge and putting it into practice, but it will also be oriented to develop the capacity to generate contents and give them a journalistic form so that they can be easily understood by any person.
Pre-course requirements
No pre-course requirements are needed to enrol in this subject.
Objectives
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To develop the students’ creative capacity
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To become familiar with the mechanisms of creativity
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To acquire knowledge of the main narrative tools and understand their relevance
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To experiment with different formats and exercises that make the students more flexible and increase their abilities and aptitudes
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To improve their style of writing and help them understand the effects of certain stylistic and narrative decisions
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To understand the risks and virtues of the line that separates fiction from reality
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To be able to share own texts
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To learn to listen to criticism and learn from it
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To learn to analyse texts in a constructive and well-argued manner
Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme
- 03 CG - The ability to work in a group
- 04 CG - The ability to organise time and workspace
- 09 CG - The ability to innovate
- 41 CE - The ability and capacity to interact in the environment
- 42 CE - The ability to integrate the contributions of the environment
- 45 CE - The ability and capacity to give a creative form to a journalistic message
- 48 CE - The ability of insight, ingenuity and creativity
- 49 CE - The ability to assume risks
- 51 CE - The ability to have foresight and move forward
Learning outcomes of the subject
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To learn to look at reality from a broader and more perceptive journalistic perspective
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To acquire knowledge of the mechanisms of creativity and the main narrative tools
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The ability to understand the influence of storytelling and the risks and virtues of its application
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To experiment with other useful journalistic and narrative formats to increase job prospects and understand the reality of the journalistic world
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To develop their creativity and ability to innovate
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To improve their own style of writing and understand the effects of certain stylistic and narrative decisions
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To be able to share their texts, listen to criticism and learn from it
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To analyse a narrative text in a well-argued and solid manner
Syllabus
- Borders of Knowledge.
- Connected Television.
- UHD and Beyond.
- Podcast Universe.
- From High Definition and Beyond.
- AI Voice Synthesis and Audio Verification.
- AI Chatbots and Text Generation.
- AI Information Verification on Networks.
- Creativity in Images, Audios, and Texts.
- AI Writing and Automatic Translation.
- Journalism and Verification Tools.
- Verification Organizations and Fact-Checkers.
- Metaverse.
Teaching and learning activities
In person
| TRAINING ACTIVITY | ECTS CREDITS |
| Peer learning. The aim of this activity is to ensure that students gain the ability to analyse and be critical. One way of achieving this is by correcting their peers' exercises and results, etc. Each student will be evaluated twice: as both a recipient and a transmitter of critical knowledge. | 0.6 |
| Lectures. In lectures, lecturers/professors not only transmit content or knowledge, but also, and above all else, attitudes, motivation, skills and values, etc. They also ensure that participants can express their opinions and arguments to the other students. | 1.0 |
| Lab. Working groups that combine theory and practice. The aim of these is not to undertake already known techniques, but instead to make progress that is both theoretical and technical. These Lab sessions will culminate in the creation of a professional or semi-professional product. | 1.0 |
| Meeting Point. Meetings will be organised with notable people from the professional and scientific fields or the international field, and students. These sessions will take the form of conferences, work sessions, discussions, or interviews, etc. | 0.4 |
| Coaching. Monitoring how students learn the content of the subject, either individually or in groups. In the coaching sessions, mistakes will be corrected, queries answered, and exercises and activities to achieve the established objectives will be suggested. | 0.4 |
| E-learning. Virtual learning based on ICT. | 0.6 |
Evaluation systems and criteria
In person
First Call: Evaluation will be continuous. The course will be conducted in teams of two or three students. Teams will submit a report for each topic at the end of the class (20%) and a subsequent journalistic article (20%). Each week, a "designated team" will present a topic (10%). The completion of a synthesis project by teams will also be worth 30%. The remaining 20% will be a final individual test exam. Assignments will receive a score of zero points if not submitted by the specified deadline for each case.
Second Call: It will consist of an individual synthesis project covering the ten topics discussed (80%) and a test exam (20%).
Third Call and subsequent ones: An individual project will be submitted, consisting of a collection of journalistic articles covering each topic in the syllabus.
In all cases, special emphasis will be placed on creativity in content, presentation, and exposition of the assignments.
Bibliography and resources
- Gottschall, J. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. Mariner Books. Wilmington, 2013
- Páez, Enrique. Manual de técnicas narrativas. Editorial SM. Madrid, 2006
- Rodari, G. Gramática de la fantasía: Introducción al arte de contar historias. Editoral del bronce. Madrid, 2002
- Salmon, Ch. Storytelling, la máquina de fabricar historias y formatear las mentes. Península. Barcelona, 2008
- Salmon, Ch. La era del enfrentamiento: Del storytelling a la ausencia de relato. Atalaya. Barcelona, 2019
- Snow, S.; Lazauskas, J. The Storytelling Edge. Wiley. New Jersey, 2018