Description: Travelling is one of the most significant human experiences, as is writing about it. Among the most important aspects of communication and literature, be they on paper, on a blog or on camera, is not only to observe the world that surrounds you, but to be able to describe it –and your own experiences within it- to other people. The course includes theory concerning journalistic text structure and digital travel literature. The participants are invited to produce transmedia narrative blogs of their Ionian adventures

Keywords: Blogging, Vlogging, Transmedia, cross-media, literature, journalism

Objectives (hour):

The objective of the course is to familiarize students with the concept of location-based storytelling and travel journalism, as well as the notion of transmedia storytelling.

1. Travel Literature, memoirs and journalism (a short introduction).

2. The case of Greece (mainly in the 19^th and 20^th century).

3. Travel journalism in the age of transmedia/cross-media.

4. Editing of the students’ footage, sound archives, notes etc.

5. Panel Discussion.

Prerequisites/advisable prior knowledge: Skills concerning video and photography editing are welcome. No degree of any particular field is required, but a passion for writing and storytelling is more than welcome.

Evaluation feedback:. The class will present parts of their work and also speak about their overall experience in a round table-type discussion

Recommended reading list:

Benjamin, Walter. Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism. London and New York: Verso Books, 1997.

Boswell, James. The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.

Burton, Stacy. Travel Narrative and the Ends of Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Cates, Jo A., Journalism: A Guide to the Reference Literature. Englewood: Libraries Inlimited, 2013.

Davidson, Drew et al. Cross-media Communications: An Introduction to the Art of Creating Integrated Media Experiences. Pittsburgh: ETC Press, 2010.

Durrell, Lawrence. Bitter Lemons. London: Faber & Faber, 1964.

LaMartine, Alphonse. Travels in the East, including a Journey in the Holy Land. London: BiblioLife, 2016.

Leigh Fermor, Patrick. Roumeli. London: John Murray, 2010.

Lewis, Jon E. (ed.). The Mammoth Book of Journalism. 101 Masterpieces from the finest writers and reporters, including: Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn, Winston Churchill, Relman Morin, John Simpson and many more. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003.

Page, Ruth. New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.

Pausanias. Description of Greece.

Roth, Joseph. What I Saw: Reports From Berlin: 1920-1933. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.