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This course aims to provide the necessary foundations for carrying out journalistic and critical activities focusing on music: writing news, research articles, interviews, concert and record reviews, as well as promotional and essay writing.
With a theoretical and practical dimension, the key procedures to be followed, the rules of style, the formal aspects, the types of content treatment and the communicability factors that ensure that a text is understood and provokes in the reader the desire to listen to the music under analysis and to know more about the topic addressed will be covered.
More than reproducing academic premises that students can acquire elsewhere, the aim is to assimilate the tools developed in the 37 years of experience of the trainer, Rui Eduardo Paes, in writing about music and coordinating journalistic teams, from a perspective of providing public service.
Rui Eduardo Paes
Online, 15h, in Portuguese
September 25th to October 30th, 2025
175 EUR
• Reflect and understand the various types of texts about music;
• Understand what the journalistic research/investigation process entails;
• Understand the social and cultural contexts surrounding music;
• Learn how to conduct an interview;
• Understand the deontological and ethical issues in the development of journalistic and critical activity;
• Learn about what others expect from a music critic.
Formulation of the mainstays of any journalistic text about music that is not in the form of news: information, analysis, personal interpretation. Definition of the scopes of journalistic writing: news, article, interview, concert review, record review, book review about music. Comparison with approaches from literary criticism, visual and performing arts and cinema. Definition of other types of writing about music: promotional/publicity and essay. Relationships and differences with journalistic writing. Discussion of the journalistic dimension of criticism, taking into account that this is normally carried out by academics and musicians who are not journalists.
Presentation of oral critiques “in the heat of the moment”, these after partial listening of a record, and joint appreciation of the interventions made. Research: research procedures to be carried out in order to prepare an article, an interview or a critique. Consulting books, the press and the Internet, auditions, watching videos, etc. Scheduling a simple article about a musician or group of your choice, to be written at home and presented in the next class.
Joint assessment of the articles written by the trainees (last point of Class 2). Discussion about the relationship of a given musical object with the world around it. Social and cultural contextualization. Connections and differences with other musical and artistic practices. Relational and network observation. Connections with history and the present. How to make the reader understand that a given piece of music has everything to do with the extramusical reality that they know.
How to conduct an interview. Preparation in advance. Strategies for conducting a conversation – conducting a live interview, after gathering data about the interviewee (guest musician). Assignment of homework to be presented in the next class: research article on a topic to be defined, interview with a musician of the student's choice, review of a concert chosen by the student, review of a record chosen by the student.
Joint assessment of exercises completed at home (last point of Lesson 4). Correction of these “in situ”: how to edit a text, whether one’s own or written by others. Each trainee must improve one of their own texts and another by a colleague, while fully respecting their style and opinions. Deontological and ethical issues in the development of journalistic and critical activity.
Conversation with a musician about what he expects from a journalist and a critic (guest musician). Conversation with a music lover about what he expects from a journalist and a critic (person to be chosen). “On-site” preparation of critical-journalistic texts after watching a video of a concert or listening to a record. Joint assessment of the results. Discussion about what was learned (and not learned) during the course.
A cultural journalist by profession with specializations in music, intermedia art, dance and performance art, currently collaborating with the digital magazine Rimas e Batidas, Rui Eduardo Paes was the editor of Jazz.pt, the curator of the Jazz no Parque cycle (Serralves Foundation) and one of the two co-programmers of Queer Fest.
Know more here.
The course will take place on Thursdays from 19:00 pm to 21:30 pm. The class days are:
Classes are held via video conference, in real time, and are recorded for consultation, remaining available up to a week after the last class. Sharing experiences between trainers and students is the main focus of Academia Gerador, thus valuing participatory learning adapted to each case.
It is important to read the entire Regulation in detail. to understand how everything works.
Ability to write journalistic and critical texts or give oral assessments on the spot. Worth 30% of the final grade.
Ability to develop research and create reflective texts (homework). Worth 30% of the final grade.
The student's ability to intervene positively, valuing proactivity. Worth 20% of the final grade.
Ability to find original solutions to challenges. Worth 20% of the final grade.
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if you enroll simultaneously in two courses in the same area you can enjoy 10% discount.
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