Travel Journalism

Module Rationale

Caravanning in Bognor Regis, visiting the pyramids in Egypt, a weekend shopping in New York? Paragliding over Rio’s Copacabana beach? Scuba diving in the Maldives? Where are you going next? Tourism has grown to be the world's largest industry, employing more people than any other. Travel journalism has mirrored this growth and we now encounter many forms of it: newspaper and magazine articles, television programmes and documentaries, and the countless stories of amateur travel enthusiasts in Instagram. This module aims to introduce students to some of the key issues and debates in this field. It will consider how travel journalism represents 'other' people and 'other' places and how the media influence how we experience, manage, and remember our trips around the world, to the most inaccessible spots on the planet or to a quiet, small market town just two hours from home. Class exercises will take place off campus, with the aim of developing students’ key reporting skills. Through the sessions of the module, students will also produce different forms of travel journalism: listicles, features, picture galleries, social media stories. Working together as an editorial team, students will create a website promoting a city or country.

Assessment 

Component (assessment) - Type/Title Coursework Volume or Length/Type of Exam - Weight 

- The Bucket List - 800 words - 25% 

- Feature and Picture Gallery - 1200 words and five pictures - 50% 

- Team Project - Website - 25%

Indicative Timetable 

Session 1- Introduction to Travel Journalism. From Herodotus to Attenborough: travellers, adventurers, storytellers. 

Session 2- Where are you going next? The tourism industry and the search for authenticity. 

Session 3- My selfie with the Gioconda: the tourist gaze. 

Session 4- Class Exercise off campus: Richmond. 

Session 5- Stunning, dangerous, incomprehensible: representations of the world in travel publications. 

Session 6- “I have not told half of what I saw”: how to write a travel feature. 

Session 7- Travel Photography

Session 8- Class Exercise off campus: Westminster