Current active course description (last updated 2025/26)
Digital research and digital tools
JOU1009
Current active course description (last updated 2025/26)
Digital research and digital tools
JOU1009
Digital Research and Digital Tools (10 ECTS) is a practically oriented course where students, through lectures, exercises, group work, and individual assignments, will enhance their ability to conduct journalistic work involving digital information gathering and analysis.
Through this course, students will learn to conduct effective and advanced OSINT searches, and a course will be offered in the use of software/spreadsheets to improve their ability to analyze collected data. Students will also gain a thorough overview of useful databases and websites for their work (related to, for example, public institutions, business, politics, organizations, culture, and sports) in digital research. In parallel, they will receive an introduction to helpful software/tools for research work. Through lectures on algorithm-driven systems, students will develop an understanding of what is possible and not possible in searches, and how the digital landscape is constantly changing. Furthermore, students will be introduced to the journalistic use of AI, including prompting/instructions for AI, the possibilities and limitations of AI, ethics, and editorial AI systems currently in use. The course also provides an introduction to thinking infographicly, where students learn simple but effective ways to create visual presentations of data. Digital source criticism and fact-checking are integrated throughout the course.
General study competance.
KNOWLEDGE
The student should:
- Have an overview of useful databases and websites for journalistic information gathering
- Be familiar with useful tools for digital information gathering and analysis
- Understand the principles behind algorithmic management
- Be familiar with how AI/language models work, as well as the possibilities and limitations associated with them
- Have an overview of how AI is used in Norwegian newsrooms today, and be aware of the press ethical limitations in the use of AI
- Understand the principles behind the production of effective infographics/visualizations
SKILLS
The student should be able to:
- Conduct advanced digital searches for information
- Build simple datasets, clean, and analyze them
- Use social media to find sources
- Create basic instructions for AI
- Systematize work with digital sources
- Use digital spreadsheets effectively in journalistic work
- Create simple infographics/visual presentations of data
- Master methods for fact-checking digital content
COMPETENCE
The student should be able to:
- Critically evaluate various digital sources
- Have an understanding of the legal and ethical frameworks related to digital research and digital tools
- Master digital information gathering and analysis for journalistic purposes.
In addition to the semester fee and required reading materials, the student is expected to have access to a laptop and a smartphone.
Elective course for Exchange students
If students from universities outside Scandinavia are enrolled, the lectures will be in English. Otherwise, the lectures will be offered in Norwegian.
Lectures, group work, individual work with supervision, workshops, and seminars.
The study program is evaluated annually by the students through course evaluations and program evaluations. These evaluations are part of the university's quality assurance system.
The exam is an assignment where students must demonstrate practical and theoretical skills related to digital research and digital tools. Graded A-F.
All. Any use of artificial intelligence must be accounted for.
Generating answers using ChatGPT or similar artificial intelligence and submitting them wholly or partially as one's own work is considered cheating.
Basic knowledge of journalistic practice, communication, and ethics.