Module: PUB5105-20 Publishing for Good

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor:  Megan Farr

Module Tutor Contact Details: m.farr@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module is for students who want to make a difference by developing and applying their communication skills to purpose-led publishing.

In this module, students will explore mission-based publishers and imprints, as well ethical and sustainable methods of producing publications. This module will look at the wide scope of publishers and organisations that use print, audio and online publications to raise awareness of societal issues and actively seek to address them. It will discuss ideas of corporate social responsibility within the publishing landscape, as well as looking at ways that publishing as an industry (in the widest possible sense) shapes cultural conversations around topics such as discrimination and injustice, climate action, and global citizenship.

Students will explore charitable and NGO organisations and their publishing outputs, alongside looking at major trade and independent publishers for adults and children who have focused on such issues, either directly through their publishing or indirectly through their campaigning. They will discover how to create meaningful calls to action through campaigns and develop ideas for purpose-led publications. Ultimately, they will ask themselves the big questions of how do you identify your purpose and how do you put that into action?

2. Outline syllabus: 

• Social values and personal inspiration: working with purpose

• What is purpose-led publishing?

•  How do charities and NGOs use publishing as a means of awareness-raising and facilitating change?

• What are the issues facing the contemporary publishing landscape in terms of how we create and physically make books 

• Which publishers are seeking to address these and inwhat ways?

• Exploring the landscape of environmental and sustainable publishing, and the ethics of publishing with purpose throughout the publication value chain

• Case studies of publishers responding to societal and cultural crises

3. Teaching and learning activities: 

Taught time will be divided between lectures, tutor-guided workshops, individual and group tutorials to support assignment work, and lab-based workshops with specialist Technical Demonstrators (TDs) to gain digital-making skills.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Personal Project

• % Weighting: 60%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Essay

• % Weighting: 40%