Study Guide
Journalism
Test Design and Framework
The test design below describes general assessment information. The framework that follows is a detailed outline that explains the knowledge and skills that this test measures.
Test Design
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT) and online-proctored test |
|---|---|
| Number of Questions | 100 multiple-choice questions |
| Time* | 2 hours |
| Passing Score | 220 |
*Does not include 15-minute tutorial
Test Framework
| Content Domain | Range of Competencies | Approximate Percentage of Test Score | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Journalism Skills and Processes | 0001–0003 | 35% |
| II. | Foundations of Journalism | 0004–0006 | 30% |
| III. | Student Media, Advising, and Instruction and Assessment | 0007–0009 | 35% |
Domain I–Journalism Skills and Processes
Competency 0001–Understand types of information sources and skills, criteria, and methods for gathering and evaluating information.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of skills, techniques, and tools for researching, locating, and evaluating information and other material for media stories and news reports.
- Apply knowledge of skills, criteria, and techniques for evaluating the credibility, reliability, and accuracy of primary and secondary sources, including print and digital media sources.
- Analyze the importance and benefits of gathering and using multiple sources and diverse perspectives for news stories.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and functions of news outlets, news beats, press releases and conferences, and public relations activities.
- Demonstrate knowledge of principles, procedures, and considerations for gathering, analyzing, and verifying information through polls, surveys, social media, public records, and other sources.
- Apply knowledge of guidelines and techniques for gathering information through interviews, including questioning methods, ethical considerations, techniques for detecting bias, and strategies for remaining impartial.
- Recognize methods of accurate note-taking and transcription.
- Apply knowledge of methods of organizing, selecting, and synthesizing information from multiple sources.
- Analyze the importance of, and principles and strategies for, avoiding plagiarism through appropriate attribution and identification of sources.
Competency 0002–Understand principles, values, forms, and functions of journalism.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the forms, functions, advantages, and limitations of different types of print, broadcast, electronic, digital, mobile, and interactive media.
- Apply knowledge of characteristics and elements of different types of journalistic writing, such as feature stories, hard and soft news, sports articles, news analyses, investigative articles, critical reviews, columns, commentaries, opinions, and editorials.
- Analyze the relationship between media and audiences and communities, including journalists' responsibilities to their audiences and communities of readers, listeners, viewers, and subscribers.
- Apply knowledge of principles of journalism, such as accuracy, proof, impartiality, fairness, proportion, brevity, clarity, and focus.
- Demonstrate knowledge of considerations, criteria, and values for determining content and the hierarchy of information in a story, such as significance, interest to a given community, impact, continuity, timeliness, prominence, conflict, and human interest.
- Apply knowledge of methods of story organization, such as the inverted pyramid, chronological order, problem-solution, narrative storytelling, and sports reporting.
Competency 0003–Understand processes and conventions of writing and editing for a variety of print and digital media.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of approaches to generating ideas, identifying issues and events of interest to specific audiences and communities, and refining research topics.
- Analyze similarities and differences between journalistic writing for various forms of broadcast, print, electronic, digital, and interactive media.
- Apply knowledge of principles, techniques, and skills for drafting and revising journalistic writing, including the effective and appropriate use of language, rhetorical devices, style, angle, and tone for specific purposes.
- Apply knowledge of methods of copyediting and proofreading journalistic writing for accuracy, content, and style.
- Recognize proper attribution and the accurate use of direct quotations and indirect quotations or paraphrases.
- Apply knowledge of principles and procedures for creating effective leads/ledes, transitions, supporting points, closings, headlines, and cutlines.
- Analyze the importance of matching language use, angle, tone, and style to the audience and nature of the story.
- Apply knowledge of conventions of grammar, usage, syntax, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
- Apply knowledge of the Associated Press (AP) style rules and guidelines.
Domain II–Foundations of Journalism
Competency 0004–Understand the history and evolution of journalism and the role of journalism and a free press in a democratic society.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of significant global trends, issues, and technological advances in journalism.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history and growth of a free and independent press in the United States, including the role and impact of the First Amendment.
- Recognize significant events and individuals in the history of journalism in the United States.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how various forms of journalism and media have influenced and shaped aspects of political, social, and cultural life in the United States.
- Analyze the influence of technology on news events, story and news coverage, media platforms, and the dissemination of information in the United States and around the world.
- Analyze the influences of media convergence on the journalism profession and on media consumers and audiences.
- Demonstrate knowledge of limitations on freedom of the press, including the media's self-imposed limitations.
- Analyze the important and integral role of journalism in representative democracies, in nondemocracies, and in a global society.
Competency 0005–Understand laws, judicial decisions, and ethical principles related to journalism, mass communication, and media content.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the rights of journalists and responsibilities of the media to maintain accuracy, balance, fairness, and impartiality.
- Analyze the impact of the First Amendment, constitutional law, and federal and state laws on the rights and responsibilities of the media.
- Analyze the impact of communication law and significant Supreme Court decisions on journalism.
- Apply knowledge of ethical principles and guidelines and professional codes of ethics that support responsible journalism.
- Demonstrate knowledge of legal guidelines and issues that affect journalism, including privacy, prior restraint, obscenity, censorship, copyright, libel, and student expression.
- Demonstrate knowledge of significant legal, ethical, and professional issues associated with scholastic journalism and student-produced media.
- Analyze the government's role in the regulation of mass media and the media industry's role in self-regulation.
Competency 0006–Understand the evolution of mass media; functions, limitations, and influences of mass media in society; and skills and criteria for analyzing and evaluating mass media.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the history and evolution of mass media as well as the roles, functions, and limitations of mass media in society.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics, functions, and influences of different types of mass media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, wire services, Internet, social media networks, and mobile applications.
- Analyze ways in which mass media shape public opinion, attitudes, and behaviors and transmit cultural values and social norms.
- Analyze similarities and differences between mass media that inform, persuade, or entertain.
- Analyze the roles and influences of business, politics, marketing, and advertising in mass media.
- Apply knowledge of skills and criteria for analyzing and evaluating mass media messages, images, stories, and news reports.
- Recognize principles and techniques for analyzing the motives and intentions of those who produce mass media.
Domain III–Student Media, Advising, and Instruction and Assessment
Competency 0007–Understand principles, elements, tools, and techniques of multimedia design and production.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic principles and elements of design, including dominance, unity, variety, balance, proportion, multiple points of entry, and packaging.
- Apply knowledge of principles, elements, tools, and techniques for the design and layout of visual communication projects, including the use of art and graphics.
- Recognize principles and elements of photojournalism and photocomposition and the value of photojournalism in telling stories.
- Apply knowledge of tools and techniques for taking, selecting, and editing photographs to address journalistic criteria and enhance storytelling.
- Recognize the value and uses of text, infographics, audio and video elements, radio, television, and other media to emphasize the range of storytelling possibilities.
- Recognize tools and techniques of audio and video production and methods of audio gathering, video recording, and editing for broadcasts, podcasts, and streaming productions.
- Recognize standards and procedures for the ethical and legal use of images and sound.
- Analyze characteristics and uses of a variety of media platforms, including blogs, interactive media, social media, mobile applications, and evolving communication technologies.
- Recognize principles, skills, and processes for packaging multimedia products effectively.
- Recognize principles, skills, and processes for producing media in a converged environment and for promoting students' ability to produce media for multiple outlets.
Competency 0008–Understand different types of student media and roles and responsibilities of scholastic journalists and student media advisers.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the forms and functions of different types of student media.
- Analyze the importance of, and principles and strategies for, maintaining coverage and content that reflects the student population in student media.
- Analyze the importance of journalistic diversity in ensuring greater accuracy in coverage, and principles and strategies for responding to diversity in student media.
- Recognize strategies for maintaining the integrity of student publications while forging and sustaining relationships with administrators, colleagues, the school community, student press organizations, and professional journalists.
- Apply knowledge of team-building strategies and how to select, train, manage, and motivate a qualified student staff for school publications and productions.
- Demonstrate knowledge of effective editorial planning techniques and strategies for developing editorial policies and staff manuals for student media.
- Demonstrate knowledge of decision-making and time-management skills needed for scholastic journalism and how to enhance students' ability to meet deadlines and challenges in a production cycle.
- Apply knowledge of skills, procedures, and criteria for critiquing student media and providing editorial feedback.
- Recognize how to develop and manage budgets to support student publications and productions.
- Apply knowledge of communication, marketing, business, sales, and advertising practices and approaches that support student publications and productions.
- Demonstrate knowledge of student, adviser, and school administrator roles, rights, and responsibilities in relation to school-based media.
Competency 0009–Understand journalism instruction and assessment.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of academic, educator, state and national organization, and scholastic journalism standards, competencies, and ethics for journalism education.
- Recognize principles and techniques for creating and sustaining an inclusive and supportive learning environment for students with a range of backgrounds, abilities, languages, and learning and communication styles.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the influence of students' backgrounds, interests, and values on the way students learn and use media, and instructional approaches for accommodating students' interests and experiences.
- Apply knowledge of how to design meaningful learning experiences and select appropriate materials and activities to foster students' journalism and communications skills.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for modeling and helping students develop skills for planning, designing, and producing print and digital media products, including brainstorming, questioning, interviewing, reporting, gathering and synthesizing information, writing, and editing.
- Recognize principles, skills, activities, and resources for fostering students' college readiness and preparation for careers in journalism and related fields.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for making effective use of existing and emerging communication technologies and resources to support student learning.
- Recognize principles and procedures for using a variety of assessment strategies and tools to evaluate and promote student learning and to shape and revise instruction.
- Apply knowledge of how to interpret various assessments of students' skills and abilities and how to convey and report assessment methods and results to students, families, administrators, and the school community.