For this assignment, working as a team, you should create a pitch/presentation on a
new product and an accompanying infographic which presents your idea and the
background / context that supports it. Your product will explore and / or exploit an
element of the changing media landscape.
In other words; think about the things we have talked about in this module and come up with
a new product or business idea that you think would work in the real world. This idea will be
underpinned by research.
What’s the deadline?
● The pitch session has been scheduled for April 29th
● The final draft of the infographic will be due by 4pm on May 4th
● The critical reflection document will be submitted by 4pm on May 4th
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the initial deadlines have been changed in line with
University guidance. Revised dates are:
● Group Presentations will be posted to Microsoft Teams by May 6th at 10am
● Infographics and Critical Reflections are due at 4pm on May 11th.
● Critical Reflections are due in at 4pm on May 11th.
Failure to attend the presentation without prior agreement or good reason will result in a fail
for the infographic element of the assignment.
What do you mean by new media product?
We want you to explore the challenges of digital but also think about the opportunities. You’ll
see throughout the module how the ‘traditional’ models of media are often disrupted by new,
smaller startups (that can suddenly become very big like Buzzfeed!). We want you to work
as a team to brainstorm an idea that exploits the spaces opening up between traditional
media, technology and users. It could be a new app or a new publication, even a new tool for
doing journalism. Perhaps it could even be a new ‘thing’ such as Amazon Echo or a smart
sensor.
The idea needs to be backed up with some critical thinking. That’s why we want you to do
some research. Where does your idea fit? What is it about the changing landscape for digital
media that makes your idea a good one?
Take a look at:
● http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2012/09/20/4-tips-for-new-media-startups-from-t
he-knight-foundation/
● http://www.knightfoundation.org/publications/knight-news-challenge-year-3-evaluatio
n-report
● http://knightlab.northwestern.edu/2013/12/05/nine-new-prototypes-from-journalism-an
d-computer-science-students/
What’s the pitch?
We want you to tell us what your idea is in the form of a 15 minute (max) pitch and
Q&A, produce an infographic to explain your idea and then reflect on the process. The
key thing to focus on here is:
● Your idea
● The evidence for it
● All group members being involved in the communication of it
What goes in the pitch?
When putting your pitch together, you should think about trying to answer the following
questions:
● What is the idea?
● What gap does your idea fill or problem does it solve?
● What is your evidence for it (observation, data, business insights)
● Who is the audience?
● How will your idea tap or serve it?
● Why is your idea the best way to do this?
How do I submit my infographic once it’s completed?
You will be able to upload this assessment via Blackboard. Simply open up the assignment
and copy and paste the link to your graphic, or include the full graphic.
Remember: Every member of the presentation group will need to submit the link.
Wait! Infographic. What’s that?
To help you show your concept and the insights that have inspired it, we’re going to ask you
to create an infographic. This will let you show visuals and the data that underpins your
concept.
Take a look at https://www.canva.com/create/infographics/ + https://piktochart.com/ +
www.infogr.am to get an idea of what these visuals might look like.
How do we ‘make’ the infographic?
Some of the links above have advice on the mechanics of making an infographic. Programs
like Word and Powerpoint are useful too.
Do we need to make the product?
No. This assignment is about the idea. It’s the quality of the research and your thinking
behind the idea. You can make prototypes and example content if that will help sell the idea.
If it’s an app then there are free prototyping tools that you can use, but Keynote (or
powerpoint) is nearly always a good way to demonstrate an app or other digital product.
Also take a look at this page that recommends a number of other tools:
https://blog.prototypr.io/10-best-prototyping-tools-for-ui-ux-designers-in-2018-6591ea1e2e71
To restate: It’s not required that you ‘build’ a prototype with these tools. We want you to
explore the best way to get your idea across.
So what do we submit?
The submission process comes in two parts.
1. A class presentation in which ALL members of the team are active.
2. Submission of your Infographic
3. A reflection on the process.
As we’re dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak, submission for the presentation will be run
slightly differently. Rather than live presentations, we’re asking you to submit your recorded
presentation via Microsoft Teams (or Zoom if Microsoft Teams is unavailable).
Presentation Submission: extra notes
● Produce Infographic and Presentation as normal
● Use a Teams call to deliver the presentation. Record the call.
● Post the Stream link to the main General channel on Microsoft Teams by the deadline
● Questions will then be open for a period of 24 hours after this date for tutors and students
to seek further information
Critical Reflection
A critical reflection demonstrates that you have considered the process of this module and
working on the assignments, analysed your experience and exit the process with a range
learnings on how you would approach similar, and related, tasks in future.
Reflecting critically is a key part of the learning process, and is standard practice in a
number of industries. A critical reflection is:
– is a series of thoughts or ideas related to a process or experience
– seeks to analyse an individual’s experiences or actions, and learn from those
experiences and actions
– reinforces good work/seeks to limit poor outputs
You will need to submit one critical reflection document. There is no word length for this
element, but you’re advised to write around 750 to 1,000 words. Critical reflections can be
more, any shorter documents may demonstrate a lack of reflection and analysis.
Support
This document from the University of Birmingham may be useful as you consider writing your
critical reflection
https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/libraryservices/library/skills/asc/documents/public/ShortGuide-Reflective-Writing.pdf
Or this one from the University of Cape Town
http://www.writingcentre.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/167/Reflective%20W
riting.pdf
What will we be marked on?
The total mark for the assignment is based on the following percentages:
● 50% – The mark for your group’s presentation
● 30% – The mark for your group’s infographic
● 20% – The critical reflection document
Your group’s pitch (the number in brackets denote the indicative marks for this element of
the assignment.)
● The extent to which it states the idea and its aims clearly.(30)
● The extent to which it states the ‘problem’, or gap that your idea exploits,
succinctly. You can see this as ‘evidence’ that underpins the idea (20)
● The extent to which it identifies and relates to a target audience for your idea.
You can also see this as ‘evidence’ that underpins the idea(20)
● The extent to which it states conclusions and opportunities for developing your
idea (20)
● The extent to which you have developed the material for the presentation (10)
Your infographic will be marked against the following criteria (the number in brackets
denote the marks for this element of the assignment.)
● Use of grammar, spelling and language (10): Correct grammar, tense and
academic language is used to communicate effectively.
● Evidence of context and research (30): Links and citations to appropriate sources
showing further research. Objectives, motivations, outcomes and future development
are clear to the reader
● Effective communication of idea, and how it meets the research findings (40):
● Layout/Appearance (20) – time and effort applied to the construction and
presentation of the poster.
Your critical reflection will be assessed on how well you articulate the experience and
‘learning journey’, the analysis of that learning journey (i.e. the positive, negative and neutral
elements and why they occurred) and thoughts around proactive actions you can take in
future (if relevant). Referring to the reading and other materials that you’ve covered on this
module should also feature in any critical reflection that you produce