Course content
Term One
Journalism in Global Contexts
This unit aims to explore journalism in global contexts, seeking to provide insights into the issues relating to the gathering and dissemination of news in – and for – varied news cultures. Students will be challenged to debate the ethical, political, social and cultural dimensions involved in journalism products for national and transnational audiences. The purpose is to prepare students to assess journalism in today’s predominantly digital media environment with transient borders – and to do so, in a thoughtful and self-reflexive manner .
Reporting Skills: News & Features
This unit aims to develop students' abilities to research and effectively report news and features. It will cultivate the ability to write fluently, concisely and coherently to deadline; develop contacts and sources using traditional and emerging social media techniques; appraise intellectual, ethical and professional issues associated with news reportage; and implement depth of research and imaginative presentation of issues in a multimedia environment.
Investigative Journalism
This unit seeks to examine the history and practice of invesitgative journalism, and consider its application in both traditional and online media. It aims to introduce students to the skills required for this mode of reporting, expose them to a variety of writings in the genre, and provide insights into the key issues and debates around such journalism.
Term Two
Environment, Conflict & Crisis News
This unit aims to explore the ‘journalisms of crises’ – specifically, environmental disasters, war, terrorism and other conflict situations that are an integral part of the media coverage. It will provide insights into the ways in which journalists report such news, the constraints they work under, and the potential influence their reportage could have on the crisis concerned. The intention is to equip students with the theoretical knowledge and essential journalistic skills required to function in an informed, self-reflexive and safe manner in crisis situations.
Convergence Journalism
The unit offers insights into journalism in a multimedia context, using a convergence of text, audio and video. It will familiarise students with multiplatform publishing, collaborating in multimedia teams, and develop their competence in producing and analysing evolving styles of journalism in many digital forms.
Digital Magazines and Photojournalism
This unit aims to explore the forms and practices of magazine journalism and photojournalism as they are evolving in a digital era. It will examine regular feature reportage and long-form journalism, as well as news photography, across several platforms of delivery in multimedia contexts. The purpose is to equip students with the skills necessary to write/produce appropriate content (written and visual) while, at the same time, developing a critical understanding of the challenges posed by digital media.
Terms Three
Dissertation or Journalism Project
Students will undertake a self-conceived piece of independent research and produce an extended essay or journalistic writing (or writings) under the guidance of a nominated supervisor. The unit allows students to critically explore key issues and debates in journalism studies and develop a more specialised understanding in an area of their choice. It offers an opportunity to consider the relationship between journalistic practice and digital technologies. Where students undertake a project assignment, they must also produce a reflective, academically-framed submission linked to the practical project, or a current critical issue in journalism. The unit not only enables students to integrate, synthesise and extend the skills and knowledge so far acquired on the programme, but acts as evidence of the extent to which they have met intellectual, technical and personal skills demanded of a Master’s graduate as well.
Subject to approval by nominated supervisor, this unit may be taken as distance learning.
Assessment
Knowledge and understanding, intellectual skills, subject skills and transferable skills are assessed for all outcomes through coursework, and exams where appropriate.
Coursework includes journalism pratical tasks, essays, and longer independent projects, and a Dissertation or Journalism Project. Sometimes work is assessed within groups.
Research Group Seminars
Students are also invited to attend our regular Journalism Research Group seminars, where scholars from Bournemouth University and prominent guest speakers present emerging research.
