Creating Credible Content

Create content that is reliable, valid, and builds trust and credibility

This course will build your awareness of the importance of sourcing high quality, credible content for your role as a communications professional. The coursework aims to engage you in the critical evaluation of a variety of sources to determine their credibility, and the development of skills in sourcing information from key sources, including interviewees, and approaching your role as a communicator ethically. This course has a four-week teaching period requiring a total of approximately 40 hours of learning. All course learning materials are available on demand.

About the course

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to:

• Apply professional research and communication skills to evaluate the veracity of a range of sources to produce credible content.
• Apply ethical and professional decision making skills to create and manage communication across various contexts.

What topics will you cover?

• Researching credible content
• Using reliable sources
• Ethical and professional decision making
• Interviewing skills

Assessment

To be eligible for a digital badge for this course, you will need to successfully complete an assessment which includes:

• Preparing a story proposal
• Interviewing for the story
• Evaluating your performance in the interview
• This optional assessment is due at the beginning of week 7
  
  

• This level for this microcredential is Proficient.
  The material for this course has been designed for students who have already demonstrated a high level of skill in the subject matter. Students must have relevant experience and/or have studied the course material before (at competent level).

Intakes

You have the option to begin this short course on the following dates:

• 20 Jan 2025 (Block 1)
• 12 May 2025 (Block 3)
• 27 Oct 2025 (Block 6)

University level expertise

Dr Caryn Coatney is a Journalism Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland. Dr Coatney has been an investigative news journalist in Australia and internationally and worked in many fields of communication extensively. Her journalism research has won global awards and has been published in leading journals and books. She has completed a Research Fellowship at the Australian Prime Ministers Centre in the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, Canberra. Her most recent book is Spotlight on Journalism and Popular Heroism (Routledge). Dr Coatney has a PhD (Journalism), Master of Arts (Research and Coursework - Journalism) and Bachelor of Arts (Honours in both English Literature and History).

Course Credit