International Journalism MA

Compulsory

• JR5xxA - AI for Journalists, Campaigners and Activists

  Since 2022, the integration of AI generative and assistive into newsrooms, campaigns and activism has accelerated. The module aims to prepare students for the changing nature of news, campaigning and activism as professionals increasingly appropriate and adapt AI to the workplace. It does so through a mix of theory and practical workshops. Theoretical engagement seeks to develop students’ critical reflexivity about rapid changes, how AI systems are reconfiguring the human-machine relationship and the implications for working practices. The practical dimensions expose students to a series of case studies and to working with some of the key tools and techniques used to identify AI-generated images, check the veracity of outputs and identify gaps in news or campaigning materials.

• Extended Practical Project

  The Extended Practical Project module allows you to undertake a substantial independent investigation of a topic, issue or design project agreed upon with your assigned supervisor. By the end of the module, you should be able to show ethical awareness and produce a substantial piece of independent journalistic work that draws on the training and skills learned in the course. 

• JR5622 - Fake News, Images and Websites

  The module is a mix of theory and practice. In the theory classes, you will learn about historical and contemporary approaches to understanding fake news, manipulated images, and conspiracy theories. The practical workshops teach you the techniques and tools for verifying or debunking claims, images, and videos. The assessment is a mix of theory and practice. 

• JR5617 - Multi-platform Storytelling

  Through this module, you will develop advanced skills in researching, designing, and page layout, video, photography, audio, and scriptwriting for multimedia storytelling. By the end of the module, you will be able to construct visual stories in various contexts and audiences using photographs, audio podcasts, video clips, magazine design and page layout, and webcasting. 

• News, Features and Reviews

  In this module, you will develop knowledge and skills to report on various challenging news and features for multiple outlets. You will study news writing, structures, and language, as well as the techniques of news interviewing, researching, and data gathering for news, features, and reviews. You will gain valuable insight into reporting crime, emergency services, and technical skills in considering image, text, and design relationships in print and online. You will also learn how to curate and verify online news content and evaluate news values and methods from other countries. 

• Dissertation

  You can choose between a Dissertation or an Extended Practical Project to complete your course. The dissertation module aims to enable you to undertake a substantial independent investigation of a topic, issue, or set of practices in the form of a traditional dissertation. It will help you understand research ethics and develop the ability to conduct research, gather and analyse appropriate information, communicate your ideas, and critically evaluate the success of your project. (Note: If you choose this option, you are required to attend classes in PP5619 Research Social & Political Sciences). 

Optional

• CO5606 - 21st Century Media-Bodies

  This module provides students with a sophisticated, critical knowledge and understanding of the relationships between media, bodies and culture. These relationships are explored in relation to their institutional, historical and social contexts and their material and textual emergence. The module explores the relationship between bodies and media in a broad range of contexts (e.g. through a consideration of identity, lived experience, representation, participation and audiences). The module educates students in the application of diverse theories and methods and equips them with appropriate knowledge, understanding and analytical skills needed to examine the relationships between media, bodies and culture. The module provides students with the tools to analyse the role of power relations in shaping media bodes and modes of resistance to these.

• CO5xxA - Digital Media, Social Movements and Change

  The module aims to provide students with an in-depth and critical understanding of how social movements occur, succeed, or fail in bringing social and/or political change. By focusing on empirical cases, students will study the use of old and new media tools, the role of leaders and collective identity formation during the social movements, as well as governmental and international response to these developments. The students will develop strategic thinking through critically analysing the organisation, mobilisation and coordination of the old and contemporary movements in the digital age.

• PP5630 - International Organisations

  The module aims to introduce students to approaches to studying international organisations from theoretical and empirical perspectives. The module will enable students to apply and evaluate the theoretical approaches for understanding international organisations and the role they play and will familiarise students with a range of international organisations. The module will also enable students to assess the advantages and limitations of international organisations in influencing public policies.

• CO5604 - Media Production as Activism

  This module will enable students to develop a broad range of practical skills by using creative practice to respond to, critique and challenge social issues. It will foreground the role of the media in bringing together theory and practice, and in mobilising practitioners and communities around social and political issues. Through a range of local, national and international examples, both past and present, the module will enable students to understand the role of the media as a site of struggle and as a form of creative resistance. Students will develop a high-level knowledge of key concepts such as ‘cultural identity’, ‘resistance’ and ‘radical hope’ and how they connect with the theory and practice of media activism. The module will engage with postcolonial scholarship on media and activism and postcolonial activist media practice. The limitations and possibilities of media as a site of resistance will be evaluated.

• PP5629 - Political and Strategic Communication

  The module aims to develop students' ability to apply strategic thinking to campaign planning while providing a strong theoretical understanding of political and strategic communication across various contexts. Students will also learn to trace changes and continuities in communication technologies and practices over time.

• Political Satire and Comedy

  This module will equip you with sophisticated and critical knowledge of the relationships between politics, satire, and comedy. Classes explore these relationships in their institutional, historical, and social contexts and textual conventions. You will explore political satire and comedy as they exist in various texts (e.g., television, cartoons, live stand-up, and digital comedy). At the end of the module, you will be able to appreciate and understand the continuities and changes in political satire and comedy in national and global political systems and international relations. 

• PP5618 - Politics and Digital Cultures

  The module, in exploring the relationship between politics and digital cultures, aims to develop students’ critical knowledge and understanding of the interplay between the two. It does so by interrogating how different political actors use digital cultures and how such cultures hold actors up to scrutiny, ridicule or praise. It also explores the ways in which digital cultures facilitate (or impede) new political visibilities and consumption of politics.