Global Journalism and Public Relations MA 2021/22 entry

• Current links with the media industry, including BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky, Africa-based media and online outlets in UK and USA.
• Opportunity to become part of the Student’s Union Source Media team contributing to its radio, TV and news platforms.
• Our Journalism Courses are ranked 8th by the Guardian University Guide 2020
• Facilities include a suite of newsrooms, modern TV studio, iMac computers for video and audio editing, a digital radio studio, analogue radio studio and Media Loan Shop (terms and conditions apply). A photography studio and darkroom can be accessed by special arrangement with the facility supervisors.
• Guest lecture programme, which in the past has featured BBC Director General Mark Thompson, Channel 4 founder Jeremy Isaacs, Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, motor racing commentator Murray Walker, newspaper sports columnist Jim White and many others (subject to Availability).
• Current highly experienced teaching team, whose former roles include: presenting for BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World Service; being editor-in-chief of Classics car magazine; writing for Cosmopolitan and Discovery.com; contributing to Al Jazeera’s global media analysis show ‘The Listening Post’; and heading up the Press Association’s West Coast Bureau in Los Angeles.
• Research in new approaches to film, television, the web, photography and digital distribution, global media and communication and digital media, including social media, digital archiving, internet publishing, free media and piracy. Examples: Dr Mudhai’s secondment to the University of Cambridge on Politics and Interactive Media in Africa project – researching how radio and TV presenters and journalists give the public a voice via interactive broadcasting; Dr Bianca Wright research on the use of immersive / virtual-reality technology.

The course can be studied full-time over one year, starting in September or January. It is also possible for part-time students to study alongside the full-time students, with successful completion usually taking two years. Modules are taught over approximately 11 weeks with formal teaching typically taking place over three full working days or fewer.

Working with multiple forms of media – you will be expected to generate traditional print, audio and video content, all the while embracing new technologies and creating parallel digital content, from social media to blogs and other web-based content. Previous students have found themselves reporting on the Olympics and the Scottish computer administrator ‘Solo’, who was accused of hacking 100 US government and military computers. Others have reported in situ from Bangladesh on ‘the longest beach in the world’, from Malaysia on ‘cursed island’, from Gibraltar on landscape and weather, and from East Africa on wildlife (Tanzania) and urban environment (Nairobi, Kenya). They have provided content for international or foreign outlets, such as The Daily Nation (Nairobi, Kenya) – East Africa’s leading newspaper.

We cover different aspects of professional practice by encouraging students to work as a team to produce and resource a group magazine project to deadline – identifying a story, the research process, working to a deadline and finally delivering the required product to a professional standard. Group projects such as Broadcast News Day from a designated studio and digital magazine with print-on-demand option, aim to prepare you for the impact that convergence has had on newsrooms.

The award-winning teaching team currently includes a category winner at CNN Africa’s Journalist of the Year Awards 1999,  the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers Timo Makinen Trophy in 2007 (for the book ‘Ford Cosworth DFV: The Inside Story of F1's Greatest Engine’) and winners in Information Communication and Technology Journalism at African Information Society Initiative Awards. Our guest speakers provide an opportunity to hear direct from the presenters, editors, producers, photographers, and writers, who report on news for various outlets. They come with experience of international media organisations, like BBC, Sky and the Guardian.

You will be taught in our wifi-enabled newsrooms, radio and TV studios, The Tank, featuring large cameras, mixing facilities, fibre optic wiring throughout and triple glazing provides offering professional grade soundproofing, with the option of privacy and darkness provided by unique light blocking curtains set-up around the room.

There are opportunities to take part in educational and cultural visits within the UK and abroad*, where you will have the opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills through fieldwork and group projects. UK trips in the past have included visits to BBC Radio Oxford and BBC Birmingham studios, as well as Birmingham Crown Court, where in late 2016 the students witnessed live reporting of a case by an ITV crew.

Subject to availability, application, meeting visa requirements and additional costs

This course will be assessed using a variety of methods which will vary depending upon the module. Assessment methods include coursework, essays, practical or project work and presentations.

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards the achieving the intended learning outcomes.

On successful completion, you will have knowledge of:

• Postgraduate Certificate:
  • The forms, practices, institutions, issues, technologies and artefacts/texts within journalism.
  • Techniques, conventions and forms used within specific journalistic contexts and both established and emerging media platforms, and thereby communicate effectively/competently with various target audiences.
  • Specific specialist global subjects/issues and the political, societal, ethical, technological, economic factors and stylistic conventions for covering them.
• In addition to the above, for the Postgraduate Diploma:
  • Evaluation and criticism of own and others’ work, in practice context.
  • Theoretical issues and thematic concerns currently framing journalistic practice and the dissemination and consumption of journalistic output in all its forms for various target audiences.
• In addition to the above, for the MA:
  • The techniques/methods applicable in the field, and the ability to evaluate and critique methodologies and, where appropriate, to propose new ideas.
  • Creative and independent working.

On successful completion, you will be able to:

• Postgraduate Certificate:
  • Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of key issues, debates, practices and processes relating to global politics and international relations.
  • Understand and apply key principles and techniques of public relations with respect to conventions and ethical codes, and appreciate the influence of marketing communications on media and markets.
  • Understand and be able to utilise professional techniques of communication (including written, audio, video and presentation) to present information to defined audiences with reference to specific genres, conventions and ethical codes.
  • Consider and critically evaluate journalistic work within their specialist field with reference to academic and professional conventions.  
  • Understand and apply advanced skills in journalistic research and production, with reference to professional practices, industry conventions and legal/ethical considerations.
  • Produce journalistic work that shows understanding of key issues, concepts and principles in their area of specialisation and an awareness of specialist audience needs.
• In addition, at Postgraduate Diploma:
  • Understand and be able to utilise research methods and specific research instruments such as textual analysis and interview.
  • Demonstrate understanding of the evolving nature of journalistic and public relations practice and apply appropriate skills to the production of work for emerging media platforms.
• In addition to above, at MA:
  • Demonstrate their ability to evaluate methods and to devise, manage and complete a sustained body of independent work informed by appropriate research/scholarship, to appropriate academic and/or professional standards.
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the principles of entrepreneurship and the theories and practices of strategic leadership.