DPHU1003 News Fundamentals
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · T3 2026DPHU1003 Overview
- Term 3, 2026
- UNSW College pathway
- Diploma level
- Assessment based
DPHU1003 News Fundamentals is a Term 3, 2026 pathway course delivered by UNSW College within the UNSW Sydney environment. It introduces journalism as a public practice and then turns that purpose into repeatable reporting decisions. Students begin with the public sphere, the Fourth Estate, news functions and news values.
- Assessed by Blogs, hard news, radio and viva
- Core craft Angle, evidence and clear structure
- Professional test Verify, attribute and justify choices
How DPHU1003 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Learning Blogs | 15% | Individual reflections due across Weeks 4, 8 and 10 |
| Hard News Story | 25% | Individual written hard-news story |
| Radio Story | 30% | Group research, script and recorded story |
| Media Defence | 30% | Individual viva voce |
| Assessment Completion · hurdle | 0% | Hurdle: submit every required assessment with a genuine attempt |
What DPHU1003 covers
News Fundamentals follows the reporting process from identifying public relevance and selecting an angle through headlines, leads, structure, interviewing and radio. Later chapters test ethical judgment, court-reporting discipline, citizen-content verification and the ability to defend editorial decisions in a viva voce.
News Functions and News Values
Public sphere, Fourth Estate, journalistic functions, newsworthiness and audience relevance02Writing Headlines and Leads
Angle selection, active headlines, concise leads, 5Ws+H and certainty03Hard News Structure and Style
Inverted pyramid, paragraph priority, direct and indirect quotation, neutral style04Story Angles and Orbital Structure
Nucleus, satellites, elaboration, context, cause, effect and appraisal05Researching and Interviewing
Question design, listening, follow-up, source fit, recording and verification06Writing News for Radio
Newsreader intro, voicer, grab, outro, wild noise and spoken clarity07Media Ethics and Public Interest
Public interest, accuracy, fairness, harm, independence and accountability08Reporting on Court Cases
Open justice, attribution, allegations, contempt, sub judice and fair trial09Citizen Journalism and Verification
Provenance, geolocation, chronology, corroboration, manipulation and consent10Preparing a Media Defence
Define, apply, justify, balance and defend an editorial decisionThose ideas establish why some developments deserve attention and why newsworthiness is never a substitute for verification or ethical judgment. The writing sequence then moves through the hard-news headline and lead, the 5Ws+H, neutral language, inverted-pyramid ordering and the orbital model of a nucleus supported by movable satellites.
Research and interviewing add source planning, open questions, precise follow-up, accurate recording and corroboration. Radio work requires a second kind of editing: copy must be clear on one hearing, cues must identify the newsreader, reporter and source, and sound must perform an editorial role rather than merely decorate the piece. The final part of the course focuses on professional responsibility.
Media ethics asks students to distinguish public interest from curiosity, test fairness and harm, and justify what they publish or withhold. Court reporting links open justice to careful attribution, fair-trial protection, contempt and sub judice restrictions. Citizen journalism expands access to events but increases the need for provenance, location, time, corroboration and manipulation checks.
The media defence brings these strands together by asking students to define principles, apply them to scenario facts, justify angle and structure, address a strong objection and make a clear editorial decision. The official assessment structure contains four weighted components that total 100%, plus a separate completion hurdle.
Learning Blogs are worth 15%, the individual Hard News Story is worth 25%, the group Radio Story is worth 30%, and the individual Media Defence is worth 30%. The Moodle syllabus also states that every required assessment must be submitted with a genuine attempt.
This guide therefore treats the tasks as one learning sequence: reflect on concepts, write and structure a news story, adapt reporting for sound, and defend the resulting editorial choices. It does not reproduce lecturer scenarios or sample scripts. Practice material uses new situations so students can learn the method without copying assessed or proprietary material.
From a verified notice to a defensible hard-news top
- +1The marks shown here are not a published university assessment scheme. Identify the verified development and limitation: the building reopens, while one service remains unavailable.
- +1Headline: Regional library reopens after safety repairs. This uses an active verb and does not overstate the scope.
- +1Lead: The regional library will reopen on Saturday after safety repairs, while its children's room remains closed for another week, the council said.
- +1The angle is restored public access with a material limitation. Timing and attribution keep the sentence useful and verifiable.
Key terms
- News value
- A feature that helps explain why a verified event is selected or emphasised for an audience.
- Public sphere
- The social space in which people encounter information, debate public questions and form judgments.
- Fourth Estate
- Journalism's watchdog role in scrutinising institutions and enabling public accountability.
- Story angle
- The central, evidence-based focus that determines what the story foregrounds.
- Lead
- The opening sentence that states the most newsworthy verified development with essential context.
- Inverted pyramid
- A structure that orders information from most to least important so the story can be shortened from the bottom.
- Orbital structure
- A model in which a headline and lead form the nucleus and supporting paragraphs act as movable satellites.
- Grab
- A short recorded contribution from a source inserted into a radio story.
- Open justice
- The principle that court proceedings are generally open to public observation and scrutiny.
- Sub judice
- The period and legal concern surrounding active proceedings when prejudicial publication may threaten a fair trial.
DPHU1003 FAQ
How is the course assessed?
The published structure has four weighted tasks: Learning Blogs at 15%, an individual Hard News Story at 25%, a group Radio Story at 30%, and an individual Media Defence at 30%. A separate 0% completion hurdle requires every assessment to be submitted with a genuine attempt.
What makes a hard-news angle defensible?
A defensible angle foregrounds the most publicly relevant relationship supported by verified facts. It remains consistent across the headline, lead and body, gives material complications fair context, and does not rely on speculation or emotional adjectives to manufacture importance.
How should a headline differ from a lead?
The headline is compressed and normally uses an active present-tense verb to signal the focal development. The lead is a complete, neutral sentence that supplies the decisive who and what plus any where, when, why or how needed for accurate understanding.
Why is radio copy written differently?
Listeners hear radio copy once and cannot scan backward, so sentences need direct structure, clear speaker identification and interpretable numbers. Intros, voicers, grabs and outros organise voices, while verified sound creates place or evidence without obscuring the words.
What is the safest starting point for court reporting?
Begin with what occurred in court, preserve procedural status and attribute contested claims. Separate a charge from proof, avoid assumptions about guilt, and do not import prejudicial outside material merely because it is available online.
How do I prepare for a media defence?
Practise a visible reasoning chain: define the principle, apply it to exact scenario facts, justify the angle and structure, acknowledge the strongest objection, explain mitigation and conclude with the editorial choice you would make.
How to prepare for the assessments
Build a running editorial notebook rather than memorising disconnected definitions. For every workshop topic, keep five columns: the public purpose, the central claim, the best evidence, the main risk and the next reporting action. When practising headlines and leads, draft several angles from the same verified fact set, then reject any version that overstates scale or certainty.
For structure, print a draft and label each paragraph as essential fact, elaboration, quotation, context, cause, effect or appraisal. If a paragraph has no role, cut or relocate it. Interview practice should include listening: prepare open questions, but write at least two follow-ups based on the source's exact wording and record what still requires independent confirmation.
Read radio scripts aloud and listen once without looking at the page. For ethics and court reporting, turn abstract principles into decision verbs such as verify, attribute, redact, delay, exclude and correct. Before the media defence, answer prompts aloud using the sequence principle, fact, choice, objection, mitigation and decision.
Keep the assessment completion hurdle visible in your calendar and verify the required file, format and submission receipt on Moodle.
