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Core modules:

Digital Journalism

This module introduces students to understanding new forms and practices of digital journalism emerging in the data era, including online and multimedia journalism, digital storytelling, data journalism, computational journalism, drone journalism, immersive journalism, social media and mobile journalism, and entrepreneurial journalism. It also discusses the challenges journalism is facing in media markets. It examines the current communication environment and the role of ICTs in shaping journalism and its quality.

These topics will be explored through discussing theories and examples from around the world and student-led research projects using digital and data skills for examining various topics about digital journalism.

As such, this module seeks to address the following questions:

What is digital journalism? How does this concept change along with the development of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs)? How are ICTs changing journalistic practices, and with what consequences? What do these changes tell us about the relationship between technology and journalism? What implications are there for the quality of journalism?

15 credits

Writing for the media

This module introduces students to the culture and practice of writing for the media and to some of the practical reporting methods used by journalists. In so doing, it introduces students to some of the key skills required by journalists and media professionals. As this module is an introduction to how journalists prepare and write news stories for the media under stringent deadlines, students will develop basic skills in these areas.

15 credits

Journalism in Britain

This module encourages a critical approach to its subject matter and this means questions! Who owned the first million-selling daily newspaper in Britain? What was the impact of broadcast journalism on newspapers? Why has the tabloid genre become so pervasive? Where can we see comparisons and contrasts to the 'British' model? When did journalism emerge as a distinct form of communication? How have women been involved in the development of journalism? What role have news cartoons played within the quality and tabloid press?

In order to understand issues and debates within the contemporary British news media, it is best to start with an understanding of how journalism has evolved within this particular national context. How did we get the news media that we have today and what does this mean for contemporary society? This is as important a question whether you are an overseas student, or a student from the UK who has never taken too much notice of the specifics of the news media. Students on this module will learn about the historical development of journalism and current debates concerning the news media in the UK including the evolution of the related field of Journalism Studies.

15 credits

Global Journalism, Media and Communication Ethics

Ethics are fundamental to journalism in all societies. The module aims to introduce and examine diverse, sometimes clashing, theoretical perspectives in media, journalism and communication ethics. Not enough attention is paid to journalism and communication ethics across the world, and the West does not hold the only answers to ethical dilemmas. Students will get an opportunity to consider and debate diverse theoretical perspectives on journalism and media practices. Throughout the module students will examine a range of scholarly approaches to ethics and responses to ethical challenges that may be appropriate in different circumstances and cultures. While this module will not provide students with a set of answers about ethical dilemmas, it will encourage them to engage in a better-informed conversation about ethics and its increasingly vital place in global journalism cultures and practices. The module will help students develop their analytical skills and help them acquire a set of tools they can put to use in ethical reasoning and decision-making in their future professional practice. The module will highlight instances of journalism practice that make a positive contribution to people's lives and explore the relationship between ethical norms and global journalistic practice.

15 credits

Research Portfolio

You will design, plan and execute a substantial piece of independent work, in the form of a research portfolio, including a reflective research proposal, a journal article and a project for a non-academic audience, that analyses an issue in journalism. You will learn and apply knowledge regarding the use, dissemination and application of research, its potential impact, and how to target different audiences and how to reflect on the challenges faced by researchers. You will be able to make an informed choice about the nature of your project in relation to your own strengths, weaknesses and ambitions.

75 credits

Optional modules

You will choose two of the following:

Journalism and Society

The rise of new forms of journalism, the transforming relationship between journalism and audiences in the digital and data era, and the changes in the wider social and political contexts have brought questions about the role of journalism in society.

This module will provide students with an academic understanding of the role of journalism in society in the current communication environment and with recent social and political changes. The module will explore issues including the journalism-audience relationship, the influence of social media on journalism, fake news and journalism, journalistic autonomy and legitimacy, the tabloidisation of journalism, tensions between journalism and politics, the rise of partisan journalism, the crisis of objective journalism, and journalism and democracy.

These issues will be explored through academic readings and discussions and student-led empirical/research projects using digital methods and data skills for studying journalism and society. Academic theories, examples, and case studies from around the world will be discussed.

15 credits

Weaponisation of the media: abuses of the principle of publicity

The ideal civil power of the news rests on its ability to influence and be influenced by public sentiment via the news cycle. Traditionally, the news cycle has seen the news mediated by professional editors and journalists operating according to widely held values of truthfulness and accuracy (but not always followed). Recently, news on the Internet and social media have respectively seen the rise of echo chambers and fake news. Both represent fundamental changes to traditional news values and have been likened to the weaponisation of the media. The response to this has been an attempt to return to traditional values in military parlance this represents the de-commissioning of the media.

15 credits

Media freedom: European, UK and US perspectives

The overall aim of this module is to develop an understanding of the international treaties and national laws safeguarding the exercise of freedom of expression by the media, the different interpretations of this freedom in Europe and the US, and the limitations to which it is subject. In particular, it aims to facilitate students in developing knowledge of topics including the protection of freedom of expression in the European Convention of Human Rights, the Human Rights Act and the First Amendment; the tensions between media freedom, hate speech and privacy; media freedom and political expression; the contrasting models of press freedom and broadcasting regulation; the debate on internet freedom or regulation. The module seeks to expose students to European, UK and US laws, as well as to other jurisdictions where comparative analysis is appropriate.

15 credits

Radio and NGO Communication in conflict-affected areas

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other such organisations are valuable information sources, mediators and actors in conflict-affected zones and use local media, particularly radio, to amplify their messages, programmes and advocacy. This module focuses on, and engages with, the public and political communication used, and sometimes misused, and even abused, by radio and NGOs, internationally and historically, during times of conflict and the challenges they encounter culturally, politically, economically, legally and institutionally. In this case, 'internationally' means from the perspective of the Global South.

15 credits

Critical Incidents in International Journalism

In this module students will explore and analyse international critical incidents (for example, in the UK, US, Asia and Africa) and the efforts to ensure high-quality journalism that follow them. Students will engage in the critical analysis of media reform history, theories and perspectives related to critical incidents in journalism. Additionally, students will have an opportunity to develop their own media reform project and/or participate in an existing one.

15 credits