BA (Hons) Journalism with International Foundation Year

MODULES

Foundation Year

CORE MODULES

Academic Development

This module will provide students with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to embarking on their university degree and successfully completing it and progressing on to a range of potential future career areas.

Central to the developmental process is for each student to cultivate the reflective skills, openness and self-awareness to enable themselves to assess what they are doing, identify areas for improvement, and confidently receive and give constructive feedback.

Social Media Project

The module will develop basic individual research and production skills for social media content. Students will also develop their reflection and evaluation skills. Throughout the module students will create new content for a social media account relating to their chosen subject pathway, or topic of interest. Students will also be encouraged to consider current issues and debates surrounding social media.

Journalism Portfolio

The module will introduce students to key theoretical and practical concepts in relation to journalism, reporting, media and professional writing. Students will get a feel for what working as a journalist is really like through a variety of topics from research and interview skills, to proof-reading and self-editing. Students will be required to apply their understanding of theoretical and practical concepts in the form of a portfolio.

Narrative and Creativity

This module will provide students with the opportunity to identify the skills and knowledge necessary to create oral, visual and written narratives for all kinds of media production. This module aims to give students the theoretical understanding of narrative and creativity. Throughout the module students will be encouraged to consider how these theories shape their chosen subject. Students will be assessed on their ability to present their understanding of narrative theories and give supporting examples of how these apply to various forms of media.

Ways of Looking

This module will introduce students to how meaning is made and transmitted in visual texts. Students will be introduced to the various ‘ways of looking’ (frameworks) at media, and how this is applies to current media examples. Students will be expected to conduct their own research and encouraged to consider how the ‘ways of looking’ at media can be applied to their own subject specific pathway.

Students will also learn how to apply key composition and aesthetic (typography, colour, and layout) skills to their own work in the form an academic poster using industry standard software.

Professional Development (Mental Wealth)

This module will provide you with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for employment and employability and how employability and industry connections are implemented in the curriculum.

You will begin to recognise the areas for your own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activity.

Central to the developmental process is for each student to cultivate their reflective skills through collaboration with other undergraduate students and analysing effective approaches to industry briefs and creative problem solving.

Year 1

CORE MODULES

Essential Journalism

This module will introduce the range of essential journalistic skills that students will develop as they progress through the programme. We begin by offering students the skills and confidence to write grammatically and effectively. Students will then learn how to gather and analyse news and data from various sources including social media, prior to creating news-oriented content in a range of readily recognisable editorial formats, paying particularly close attention to industry standards in writing and copy-editing.

Photo, Audio and Video

This module focuses on how to use audio, video and stills effectively online. We begin by looking at the rapidly changing nature of multimedia presentation and online interactivity before requiring students to complete a series of exercises in which they are required to shoot, record and edit their own material. The next stage is to enable students to develop original multimedia ideas that they will then publish and promote on their own Wix or WordPress site.

Media Law, Ethics and Regulation

Journalism’s position at the centre of public life means that journalists must operate within a complex set of regulatory, legal and ethical constraints. The purpose of this module is for you to understand the rules and internalise them. Students will learn about legal and ethical traditions pertaining to journalism; you will become familiar with the latest developments in law ethics and regulation.

Production Journalism

For journalists to work effectively and professionally, besides creating content they need to be able to edit copy and process assets for publication. This module builds on the self-editing skills students were introduced to in Essential Journalism, and equips them to prepare unfinished content for publication, taking it through a production process which often entails re-writing copy and re-sizing/cropping the picture. Students will learn about all stages of editorial production, utilising desktop publishing tools not only to correct copy, but also to write headlines and captions, and lay out the content ready for publication.

Broadcast Journalism

This module will equip students with the essential skills necessary to work as journalists in a television or radio newsroom. Following an introductory stage during which we will cover broadcast regulation, students will look at some of the best practice available in this area, before being familiarised with some of the techniques and technology of broadcast newsrooms. They will then be coached on how to research, write and produce reports for both radio and TV, before producing and delivering their own broadcast content.

Mental Wealth: Professional Life 1 (Rising East)

Developing the key psychological and physical determinants of human performance are increasingly critical for successful graduate-level employment, entrepreneurship and career progression in the 4th industrial revolution.

This module will provide students with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to, and in, a range of potential future career areas.

Herein they will advance the areas identified at level 3 or begin to recognise the areas for their own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activity.

Students will reflect on the success of the strategies that they employed to further develop their reflective skills, self-awareness, ‘life style’ and ‘self care’ approaches and where necessary improve their approaches. This will be achieved through the students engagement an internal/external live project, in the form of Rising East.

Students will have the opportunity to create content and develop their digital proficiencies in the role of multimedia reporters for Rising East. In this position they will focus on the importance of research in journalism, filing content and developing a professional production routine. Students will practice key methods, including digital research methods and qualitative methods used in industry today, including trends and news coverage. Students will learn the conventions of research and analysis, in order to develop a pitch or story proposal in response to a client brief. Their work will be documented in a digital portfolio mapped on to the requirements of NCTJ e-portfolio assessment.

Year 2

CORE MODULES

Mental Wealth: Professional Life 2 (Rising East 2)

Developing the key psychological and physical determinants of human performance are increasingly critical for successful graduate-level employment, entrepreneurship and career progression in the 4th industrial revolution.

This module will provide students with the opportunity to pursue and acquire skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to, and in, a range of potential future career areas.

Herein they will advance their own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activity.

Through the engagement with the Careers Passport, students will reflect on the success of the strategies that they employed to further develop their reflective skills, self-awareness, ‘life style’ and ‘self care’ approaches, and where necessary improve their approaches. This will be achieved through the students engagement in an internal/external live project, in the form of Rising East.

Students will have the opportunity to create content and develop their digital proficiencies in the role of multimedia reporters for Rising East. As ‘beat’ reporters, they themselves will be responsible for designated areas of Rising East’s coverage of East London. In this position they will focus on the importance of research in journalism, filing content regularly and sustaining a professional production routine. Students will practice key methods, including digital research methods and qualitative methods used in industry today. Students will learn the conventions of research and analysis, in order to develop a pitch or story proposal in response to a client brief. Their work will be documented in a digital portfolio.

Employment and Enterprise (Journalism)

• For students to gain experience of the changing media landscape
• For students to equip themselves with promotional tools and the online presence necessary to compete effectively in the journalism-related job market
• For students to apply for a work placement (or College-based work experience with a client external to the Journalism sub-cluster)
• For students to undertake a work placement (or College-based work experience with a client external to the Journalism sub-cluster)
• For students to escalate their preparations for professional life

Features (1): Interviews

The module begins with the double page spread as the classic format for interview-based, photo-led features in print. Students develop their capacity to integrate text and image on the page, before considering the interview format as it has subsequently developed on other platforms, i.e. in broadcasting and online. Students learn how to control the dynamics of the interview itself – the art of instrumental conversation, and how to implement the various forms in which editorial interviews are presented.

Brands and the Magazines Business

Magazines are a business - or they go out of business. But their 'core business' is reader engagement; and readers relate to a magazine title because its content is exciting and its approach is enticing. How do they do that? How do publishers make readers feel that this is 'my magazine'. What is the role of brands and branding in defining content and establishing relations with readers? How do we analyse a magazine's strengths and weaknesses in addressing target readers and sustaining a relationship with them, in print, online and via social media? What is the shape of today's magazines sector and how does it differ from yesterday's and tomorrow's industry? In this module you will learn research methods and utilise them in the investigation of these questions.

Documentary: Publications (1)

• For students to act as multimedia reporters for Rising East online
• For students to act as reporters for Rising East magazine, in print.
• For students to file copy/content regularly – on time and as briefed.
• For students to maintain professional production routines.
• For students to develop their reporting and content creation skills by working on real stories in a range of formats.
• [These aims and concomitant learning are similar to the Journalism sub-cluster’s iteration of Mental Wealth 2: this is to enable a year-long publication cycle which sustains the Rising East news brand.]

Reporting Politics and Society

• For students to acquire detailed knowledge of the institutions of public life and associated protocols for 'public interest' reporters
• For students to identify the democratic role of news reporting
• For students to adopt this role as their own

Year 3

CORE MODULES

Mental Wealth: Professional Life 3 (Rising East)

Developing the key psychological and physical determinants of human performance are increasingly critical for successful graduate-level employment, entrepreneurship and career progression in the 4th industrial revolution.

This module will provide students with the opportunity to apply the full range of skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to, and in, a range of potential future career areas.

Herein they will advance the areas identified at level 5 for their own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activity.

Through engagement with the Career Passport, students will reflect on the success of the strategies that they employed to further develop their reflective skills, self-awareness, ‘life style’ and ‘self care’ approaches and where necessary improve their approaches.

Students will have opportunity to work on the live internal/external project, Rising East, in the role of Editor. In this position they will learn and begin to apply the cognitive, cultural and social intelligences developed elsewhere in their studies (and from external activities) as required in the workplace, namely cognitive flexibility, emotional resilience, motivation, ethical decision-making, managing your audience, coordinating with others, negotiation, creativity, active listening, attention, problem solving, research, synthesis and analysis.

Students will enact these capabilities by undertaking the role of section editor for Rising East. In this capacity they will take full responsibility for the content of a designated section of this news brand. With academic staff to monitor, support and direct their activities in line with legal, professional and ethical considerations, the student cohort will take the reins of Rising East across various publication platforms.

Final Project: Development

• For students to acquire detailed knowledge of the threats which journalism currently faces
• For students to become closely familiar with journalism’s current opportunities
• For students to engage with threat and opportunity as rehearsing journalists
• For students to come to see themselves as the future of journalism
   

Final Project Completion
Subject to validation.

Aesthetics and Technologies: Publications (2)

• For students to act as multimedia commissioners and editors for Rising East online.
• For students to act as commissioners and editors for Rising East magazine, in print.
• For students to support and direct reporters to produce content as briefed.
• For students to devise production schedules & implement them to a professional standard.
• For students to develop strategies for the promotion of their publications.
• [These aims and concomitant learning are similar to the Journalism sub-cluster’s iteration of Mental Wealth 3: this is to enable a year-long publication cycle which sustains the Rising East news brand.]

Features (2): Data and Visualisation

This module provides the knowledge and skills to enable students to analyse, understand, extract, apply and present data in a range of journalistic styles. As data increasingly form a significant part of a journalist’s professional life, we work through a range of data sources, apply these in the writing of news stories, and present them in a range of visual formats.

The Long Read

• To gain further expertise in long form storytelling techniques
• To engage with topical debates about journalism and 'story'
• To examine a variety of forms of creative nonfiction, including New Journalism
• To incorporate emerging models of creative nonfiction and put them into practice
• To improve composition

English language requirements

Overall IELTS score of 5.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking (or recognised equivalent).

If you do not meet the academic English language requirements for your course, you may be eligible to enrol onto a pre-sessional English programme. The length of the course will depend on your current level of English and the requirements for your degree programme. We offer a 5-week and an 11-week pre-sessional course.

International Fees Full time, 5 years
£13,740 Per year

We're determined to prepare you in the best way possible for a career in journalism after your studies.

That's why we think it's important that the University of East London should be the only UK university currently enabling you to complement your degree with a professional qualification.

So, in your final year, you can take a course of assessments which will lead to the Professional Certificate in Journalism, awarded by the trade body for Britain's magazine industry - the Professional Publishers Association.

Journalism is, of course, a competitive world to enter. You have a head start at UEL, though, thanks to teachers with exceptional contacts who know exactly what newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets are looking for.

Indeed, the track record of our graduates demonstrates that anything is possible.

Sam Wostear, one of our first journalism graduates, was Woman Editor of The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper for eleven years. Siobhan Breatnach, who earned an MA in Journalism at UEL in 2009, became the editor of the Irish Post within three years of leaving us.

Some of our graduates have gone into local or online journalism, contract publishing or public relations. Others have chosen to continue their studies, taking an MA in Creative Writing or a PhD in Journalism.