Masters Degrees in Print Media, United Kingdom

Interested in magazine journalism and keen to gain qualifications that will make you stand out from others? This course leads to both an MA and NCTJ Diploma.

Course overview

This Masters ‌is one of the few postgraduate degrees in the UK to be accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). NCTJ accreditation is widely recognised as a gold standard for courses that turn out highly skilled, highly motivated and highly employable trainee journalists. Our course is ranked 4th out of the 17 UK NCTJ postgraduate courses by performance.

Previous study of journalism is not a requirement. If necessary, we may ask you to undertake a short course that covers essential skills and knowledge, before you join the main Masters course. ‌

Magazine Journalism is an intensive course that trains you to think, write and research like a journalist. It covers media ethics and law, reporting, shorthand and public affairs. You will also learn how to design and produce magazine pages using software such as Adobe InDesign. In the final stage of the course you can produce your own magazine or website, with support from our professional journalists.

An important benefit of a Masters at Sunderland is the relevance of our research expertise, which includes magazine and sports journalism as well as web writing and social media. Sunderland hosts the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies (CRMCS) and our Media Department has been recognised for producing some world-leading and internationally excellent research. The Journalism Diversity Fund is aimed at people from diverse backgrounds who need help funding their journalism training.

Candidates must be from a socially or ethnically diverse background, be able to demonstrate genuine commitment to becoming a successful journalist and have secured a place on an NCTJ-accredited course.

For more information on the part time version of this course, please view this web-page: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/courses/artsdesignandmedia/postgraduate/magazine-journalism-part-time/

Course content

The content of the course is shaped by your personal interests with guidance and inspiration from Sunderland's supportive tutors. Modules on this course include:
Magazine Journalism 1 (60 Credits)
-Magazine Journalism: Principles and Practice 1
-Essential Media Law and Public Affairs
-Business of Magazines
-Shorthand

Magazine Journalism 2 (60 Credits)
-Magazine Journalism: Principles and Practice 2
-Reporting
-Media Ethics and Society
-Shorthand

Magazine Journalism 3 (60 Credits)
-You will complete a supervised dissertation on a topic of your choice

Teaching and assessment

Compared to an undergraduate course, you will find that this Masters requires a higher level of independent working. The course aims to stretch your creativity and maximise your sense of personal fulfilment.

In Stage 1 and Stage 2, you will have approx 22/23hrs teaching per week. This is arranged so that you have Friday off each week.
The course is taught by respected academics and journalism professionals through a combination of newsroom workshops, seminars and tutorials. You will work on projects both on your own and with others, developing skills in communication and teamwork.

We encourage you to publish your work. The department has strong relationships with local and national media including Johnston Press, NCJ Media and Room 501 Publishing.

Facilities & location

The facilities at the David Puttnam Media Centre help you gain skills in areas such as writing, page design, online research, managing production, IT, and time management and presentation skills.

The mediaHUB
Throughout your time in Sunderland you will have an outlet for your creative talents in the mediaHUB, a bustling multimedia newsroom on the top floor of our David Puttnam Media Centre that will give you a real taste of life as a working journalist. The mediaHUB runs websites covering sport, news, entertainments and fashion, provides the content for news bulletins on our award-winning Spark Radio and is responsible for writing and editing Spark magazine.

Journalism/PR suites
We have four journalism suites, each with 18 Apple Mac workstations with design applications and video editing. There’s an additional open access project completion suite with 20 more workstations and colour laser printing.

Broadcast Journalism Newsroom
The Broadcast Journalism Newsroom has 20 workstations plus a Sky feed with two 40” plasma screens. Each workstation has industry-standard software including NewsCutter, Burli and ENPS.

Technical support
The Journalism Newsroom has another 20 Mac workstations and offers drop-in sessions run by a rota of working journalists who can advise on projects, assignments and your personal portfolio. These sessions are available every day of the week during term time. In addition, technicians are available to help you use all the software and equipment.

Radio studios
We have six radio studios including a transmission suite for 107 Spark FM, our student-run community radio station and a city centre hub.

TV studios
We have two broadcast-quality TV studios complete with green room and changing facilities. Equipment includes four Steadicam rigs plus dolly, track and mini crane. We have over 40 full HD tapeless field camera systems.

Other media facilities
We have a live Sky feed and off-air recording facility, including DVD and Blu-ray recording, plus extensive footage archive/library. There is also a 203-seat cinema with full HD projection, 7.1 surround sound facility and the capability to play 3D feature films.

University Library Services
We’ve got a wide range of books, journals and e-books on relevant topics, with many more available through the inter-library loan service. Some useful resources for your studies include:
-Lexis, which provides full-text newspaper articles as well as access to legal information
-JSTOR (short for ‘Journal Storage’), which provides access to important journals across the humanities, social sciences and sciences
-Archival Sound Recordings with over 12,000 hours of recordings
-British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC), which provides resources for the production, study and use of film and related media in higher education and research

Employment & careers

On completing this course you will be equipped for employment at an advanced level, with opportunities in both print and digital media. Potential roles include working for consumer magazines, writing features in newspapers, and working in various positions across the communications, media and marketing industries.

The course’s accreditation by the National Council for Training of Journalists (NCTJ) will boost your employability within journalism. You can choose, at an additional cost, to gain the NCTJ’s Diploma in Journalism.

Recent Sunderland graduates are now working for employers such as NCJ Media, Johnston Press and Media Works. Some graduates have started up their own media organisations.

During the course we encourage you to gain industry experience which will enhance your skills, build up a valuable network of contacts and boost your employability. The Department has good links with regional media organisations and national organisations like IPC and Future plc.

A Masters degree will also enhance career opportunities within Higher Education and prepare you for further postgraduate studies.

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The print and online pathways of this course will equip you with all the practical and intellectual skills you need to work as a multi-platform journalist. While gaining insights into contemporary digital news production and storytelling, this course is allowing you to gain a deeper grounding in the abilities of written journalism. For this all students learn the basic skills of audio, video. The course has a very practical focus, so you are expected to develop story ideas and gather your own material through research and reporting for journalistic course work. You will be given full training in using our up-to-date media resources, ensuring that you graduate from the course as a multi-skilled journalist being competent in digital and print journalism. Both the MA and the Postgraduate Diploma can be taken as a part-time course (daytime) over two years studying two days a week.

The University of Westminster itself is designated a Skillset Media Academy, Skillset being the UK skills body for the Creative Industries ensuring excellence and quality for education and skills training in interactive media. The PG Diploma and MA have been accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) which means we provide industry backed journalism training for online, TV & radio. The organisation accredits a number of British journalism courses, providing the syllabus meets their requirements. Our students regularly win BJTC awards, and the course has been awarded the BJTC award for excellence in teaching.

Our teaching staff are highly experienced journalism professionals, and our graduates go on to work with a variety of leading media organisations including BBC TV and Radio, national and local, and BBC News Online, ITN, Russia Today, Al Jazeera, the Financial Times and The Guardian, Conde Nast, and many other media houses in Britain and around the world.

Many of our students have won journalism awards, the most recent being the Best Radio News item for 2014, awarded by the BJTC. We have twice been awarded a BJTC award for excellence in teaching.

Course content

There's a strong emphasis on learning through 'hands-on' practice, in small class groups, using our professional standard facilities. Most of your assessed course-work will be 'real' journalism assignments, a preparation for the world of contemporary journalism.

As well as regular classes taught by experienced journalists on our staff, we also invite other media professionals as guest speakers or to critique student work. We support you in applying for work placements, encourage you go to journalism events and network with professionals, and to pursue other journalism experiences. We work closely together with the charity One World Media, for example. One World Media promotes coverage of the wider world and offers bursaries for students who wish to cover a story in a developing country for their final project.

You will have the chance to air your work on Smoke Radio, the University's multi-award-winning internet radio station, or post items onto the MA's own news site, Westminster World.

The course is taught over two semesters, and for the Master's students followed by the largely self-directed final project in the summer. Unlike many other journalism MAs, you can undertake an extensive practical Final Project. Students usually undertake their placements in the period from the Easter break to the end of the course.

Modules

The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.

CORE MODULES - SEMESTER ONE:
-News and Feature Writing
-Multimedia Journalism Skills
-Issues in journalism

OPTIONAL MODULES – SEMESTER TWO:
-Magazine Project
-Online Journalism
-Investigative Journalism
-Travel Journalism
-Sociology of News
-Specialist Journalism

Final Projects (MA only) - These are all individual projects:
-Final Journalism Project
-Online Journalism Final Project

Associated careers

Though designed to prepare you for a career in journalism, this course could also lead to a career in public relations, communications, or any other professional pathway which requires effective communication skills, and the use of convergent media.

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About the course

Accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

Learn to write stories that punch their weight with every word. You’ll start with pressurised workshops in our newsroom, then you’ll be given your own patch. You’ll report from courtrooms and from council meetings where local politicians are taking decisions about people’s lives.

We’ll also prepare you for the multimedia environment by teaching you how to create audio and video for the web and how to use social media effectively.

Your career

A masters from Sheffield is the mark of someone who thinks differently. Graduates from our applied courses are creative, disciplined journalists.

They’re working in radio and television, newspapers and magazines, print and online, across the UK and internationally.

The BBC, Guardian, Daily Mail, Channel 4, Sky and Wall Street Journal all employ Sheffield journalists.

About us

Our teaching staff are professionals who have worked at the highest level in newspaper, magazine, radio, television and online journalism. This is a great place to learn practical skills. Three quarters of our research is rated world-leading or internationally excellent. The discussion of ideas about journalism, its past, present and future, is part of all our courses.

We have strong links with the industry. We send our masters students on a three-day field trip to London, visiting national news organisations for briefings on current developments with senior editors and meeting politicians and political journalists.

Guests from the media industries, regulators, campaigning groups and research institutes give lectures in the department. Broadcast editors run radio and television newsdays, and print and online production editors bring their expertise to newspaper, web and magazine exercises.

Work experience

If you’re taking one of our applied courses, we encourage you to go on a work placement of one to three weeks during vacation time. Employers regularly notify us as opportunities come up and we have a dedicated work placement administrator to help you find a placement that’s right for you. Our students often find a work placement leads to a job after graduation.

Professional accreditation

All our applied postgraduate courses are accredited by the main professional bodies representing the media industries: the National Council for the Training of Journalists, the Broadcast Journalism Training Council and the Professional Publishers Association. Our International Political Communication and Global Journalism programmes are not accredited and have limited practical content.

Real-world learning environment

The University has invested £3 million in a superb new home for the department in 2014, with four large newsrooms designed to simulate a real working environment. The print newsroom is equipped with 30 PCs, all of which have access to the latest print production software such as Adobe Indesign, Incopy and Photoshop. You’ll also have access to a Press Association newsfeed, telephones, daily newspapers and Sky TV.

The broadcast newsroom is equipped with industry-standard software for radio production. We have a state-of-the-art radio studio and digital audio recorders. Students on the applied MA courses learn how to create packages, put together live news bulletins, shoot professional news pieces on HD TV cameras, and use Apple Final Cut X to cut rushes together. They acquire the skills needed to prepare text, audio and video content for publication online. These degrees also show how to use audio recorders, video and stills cameras to gather content. In the web newsroom, students use audio, video and image editing software to create their own sites.

Studentships

There are a limited number of external bursaries for UK students on the Print, Magazine and Broadcast courses, from the AHRC, Scott Trust and Journalism Diversity Fund. Please see our web pages for details.

Core modules

Researching News; Law for Journalists; Ethics and Regulation; Power and Society; Writing News; Advanced Print Journalism; Journalism Portfolio/Dissertation (PGDip students don’t do this module). Print students will also learn Teeline shorthand.

Examples of optional modules

A range including: Global Journalism; Journalism, Globalisation and Development; Researching Social Media; Propaganda, Media and Conflict; News and Civil Society; Journalism Politics and Public Debate; Journalism in Britain.

Teaching and assessment

The course is a mix of lectures, seminars, group workshops, individual and team assignments. You’re assessed on essays, examinations and practical work that involves conceiving, designing, writing and producing magazines and web pages.

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Whether you have already begun your career in journalism, or you are planning to start it, this course will give you the practical and intellectual skills necessary to pursue a career in either broadcast journalism (TV and radio), working as a multimedia online journalist, or print journalist for newspapers and magazines.

The course has a strong practical focus, you will be expected to develop story ideas and contacts, and gather your own material for your course work assignments. Your stories could be local, national or international.

The University is proud of its state-of-the- art media resources, newsrooms and studios, and our journalism graduates emerge multi-skilled. Our teaching staff are highly experienced journalism professionals, and our department and its students have won many awards. Graduates go on to good jobs around the world, many at well-known international organisations such as Al Jazeera, BBC, CCTV, CNN, Phoenix TV, Reuters, The Economist, and The Washington Post.

Course content

There’s a strong emphasis on learning through ‘hands-on’ experience, often in small teams, using our broadcast quality facilities, and preparing you for the new world of multi-platform journalism.

The course is taught over two semesters, followed by the largely self-directed Final Project, with the opportunity of work placement. Unlike most journalism MAs you can undertake a practical Final Project: a TV or radio documentary, a print portfolio or an online project. Some students choose to write a 15,000-word dissertation instead.

You will have the chance to air your work on Smoke Radio, (http://www.smokeradio.co.uk) the University’s multi-award-winning internet radio station, or post items onto one of the University’s two news sites ? Westminster News Online (http://www.wnol.info) or our local community website, The HA1 (http://www.theHA1.co.uk).

Associated careers

Although designed to prepare you for a career in journalism, this course could also lead to a career in public relations, communications, or any other profession requiring effective communication and practical skills. In recent years MA students have been able to go as ‘embedded journalists’ on Royal Navy and NATO training exercises, sometimes on board ship, as well as visits on exchange to Moscow State University’s Faculty of Journalism, and to the European Commission and Parliament in Brussels.

Our journalism graduates are now working at Al Jazeera, Associated Press, BBC Arabic and Persian TV, BBC Radio Five Live, BBC Radio Four, BBC Three Counties Radio, BBC World Service, Central China Television, Indian news channels NDTV, UTV and CNN-IBN, LBC Radio, Reuters, Sky News, Sky Sports, The Economist website, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and many other news organisations around the world.

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Transform your creative practice by engaging with print media on our Master’s course at Cambridge School of Art. Using the latest techniques, you'll work on your own projects in our world-class facilities, and get invaluable experience of exhibiting, curating and collaborating.

Overview

Discover the vital contribution that printmaking has made to the language of contemporary art practice, and how recent technological advances have broadened its definition.

Much of your time will be spent independently researching and undertaking your own practice-based projects. You’ll receive technical inductions for the use of both traditional and emerging processes (including relief printing and intaglio, screen print, lithography, photo-based and digital media) and be free to experiment with, and combine, them in your creative work.

Throughout the course you’ll have support from experienced print and fine art practitioners, and benefit from working in a supportive and critically informed art school. Our connection with the MA Printmaking course at Camberwell College of Art creates opportunities for exchange crits and gives you the chance to build networks with fellow artists. And you'll get a window onto the professional art world through our visiting lecturers, field trips and links to galleries.

Our series of workshops, tutorials, seminars, critiques, presentations and lectures, will allow you to develop research skills that you’ll use on this course and in your future career. In addition, you’ll gain experience of other areas of professional practice including curating and critical writing.

Our links with local printmaking and art organisations, such as Cambridge Original Printmakers, the Curwen Print Study Centre, Aid & Abet, Changing Spaces, Wysing Arts Centre and Cambridge Artworks, will give you the chance to take part in portfolio reviews, live projects and professional exhibitions.

Teaching times: Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10am-5pm (full-time); Wednesdays from 10am-5pm in Year 1, Tuesdays from 10am-5pm in Year 2 (part-time).

Careers

As well as preparing you for a successful career in creative practice, our course will equip you for many other roles. Our past students enjoy careers in further and higher education, professional print workshops, museum and gallery management, public arts projects, artist in residence schemes and fellowship opportunities, in the UK and overseas.

Or you might decide to continue on to a research degree, like our PhD Fine Art.

You’ll have access to events such as Creative Front Futures, which will give you a taste of different creative industries, and be able to take part in Fine Art Professional Practice and networking initiatives for our students and alumni.

Fortnightly lectures run by our Fine Art Research Unit (FARU) will give you a chance to hear artists and staff talk about their work, and engage in debates about art practice. Our recent speakers have included Phillip Allen, Juan Bolivar, Rebecca Fortnum, Danny Rolph, Hayley Newman, Günter Herbst, David Kefford, Cally Spooner, Tim Ellis, Andrew Grassie, Lilah Fowler, Jemima Brown, Caroline Wright and Matthew Derbyshire.

Visiting printmaking professionals have included Katherine Jones, Stephen Chambers, Sean Rorke, Rebecca Salter, Penny Brewill, Mike Taylor, Kate Palmer, Jo Love and Jane Dixon, Leo Brook and Amanda Couch.

Core modules

Process and Practice as Research
Printmaking: Research and Context
Acts and Discourses
Master's Dissertation Art and Design
Master's Project: Art and Design

Assessment

On our core modules you’ll demonstrate your progress through your visual research outcomes and supporting evaluative statements, except for the Master’s Dissertation, for which you’ll submit a 6,000-word contextual essay.

Specialist facilities

You’ll work in our fully equipped print studios, with industry-standard facilities including intaglio, screen, relief, litho and photo print processes. You’ll also have access to our 3D workshops, laser cutting facilities, large format digital printer, photography studios and dark rooms, and computer suites for video production and digital imaging.

Studio teaching takes places in our print studio and MA Fine Art studios, which also act as lively hubs for our full- and part-time students in printmaking and fine art.

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The School of Media, Art and Design is delighted to offer a new MA by Research with a range of exciting specialisms. As a postgraduate MA student enrolled on this programme you will join a department with over thirty years of experience delivering excellent teaching and learning, research and knowledge exchange, and award-winning professional practice. You will join a vibrant community of researchers and practitioners and play a role in contributing to the culture of research and practice-based research that exists within the department.

Visit the website: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/courses/postgraduate/media-art-and-design-by-research.aspx

Course detail

The MA by Research in Media, Art and Design provides the opportunity to undertake a supervised programme of independent study and practice in a structured and supportive environment. The programme may be undertaken either full time over one year, or part time over two years.

Suitability

This MA by Research is open to anyone who can satisfy the entry requirements. Individuals who would like to develop their research skills to a higher standard, whether they are using traditional research methods or practice-based research approaches, are particularly encouraged to apply. The MA by Research is offered both full-time and part-time, and given the emphasis placed on independent research, the course is well suited to graduates looking to continue their educational journey in a flexible fashion. The MA by Research is also a proven, and important developmental stepping-stone towards doctoral study.

Content

The MA by Research in Media, Art and Design is not a taught MA, and therefore there are no modules offered. Instead, the individual defines their own set of research questions in conversation with their supervisory team. The range of subjects available for students to research is necessarily constrained by the range of specialisms offered by the supervisors within the School. Areas of specialism include:

• Animation
• Applied Art
• Cultural Studies
• Digital Media
• Film
• Fine Art
• Graphic Design
• Journalism
• Media and Communications
• Media Studies
• Photography
• Radio
• Television
• Web Design

Format

Students are supported principally through regular tutorials from a specialist supervisor. All supervisors are members of staff within the School of Media, Art and Design who have significant research experience and have been granted supervisor status by the Graduate School. A supervisor will help the student adopting the traditional research mode to frame the research topic and provide ongoing guidance about carrying out secondary and primary research and writing up the findings.

A supervisor will help the student adopting the practice ­based mode to devise and produce their project and to set it within a critical framework. Face­to­face supervisions will take place on a regular basis during term time, and supplemented by telephone, email and Skype guidance as needed. The schedule of supervisions will be agreed by negotiation between the supervisor and the student. Tutorials can be scheduled around a student’s other commitments and meaningful distance learning can be facilitated. Work­in­progress is reviewed by a panel of supervisors half way through the registration period. Following advice from this review students complete their theses or projects.

One of the few fixed commitments is the integral research seminar programme, which MA by Research students are required to attend, typically one afternoon each fortnight through October - June. The seminar programme is built around the department’s own research seminar series and is designed to integrate the student body by addressing issues of common interest, such as aesthetics, genre, form etc. Some seminar presentations will be tutor-led, others student-led. Every Masters student will be expected to deliver a research paper during the seminar programme. Students choosing the practice ­based mode will be expected to present work-in-progress for group critique.

Students choosing the practice­based mode will have access to the department’s extensive range of specialist equipment, which they will be able to book, and to its specialist facilities at times that they are not in use for taught classes.

Assessment

The MA by Research in Media, Art and Design is offered via two modes:

A traditional research mode that consists of supervised academic study culminating in the submission of a thesis of 25,000­-30,000 words.

A practice­based mode that consists of supervised work on a body of creative practice that culminates in the submission of a project or portfolio equivalent to 20,000-25,000 words, together with a reflective analysis of no less than 5,000 words and no more than 10,000. The combined word count equivalent for a practice-based submission should not exceed 25,000-30,000 words.

The MA by Research is assessed using the Graduate School’s validated doctoral framework, which means that MA by Research students produce a single thesis (whether written or comprising both practice-based and written elements) that will be submitted at the end of their study. The thesis will then be examined both internally and externally and four possible outcomes will be achieved: Pass, Pass with Minor Corrections, Pass with Major Corrections, and Fail.

What can I do next?

The programme leads to a significant qualification in its own right but could also fast­track successful applicants to MPhil and ultimately to PhD qualifications.

The skills and specialist period knowledge developed during the programme provide additional grounding for careers in media, art and design.

How to apply

For information on how to apply, please follow this link: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/how-to-apply/how-to-apply.aspx

Funding

-Masters Loans-

From 2016/17 government loans of up to £10,000 are available for postgraduate Masters study. The loans will be paid directly to students by the Student Loans Company and will be subject to both personal and course eligibility criteria.

For more information available here: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/funding-your-degree/funding-your-postgraduate-degree.aspx

-2017/18 Entry Financial Support-

Information on alternative funding sources is available here: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/funding-your-degree/2017-18-entry-financial-support.aspx

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Our MPhil/PhD research degree programme offers you:

Wide variety of research interests
The Institute of Humanities & Creative Arts has a strong mix of academics with a high degree of professional and personal experience, enabling you to get the most out of your programme. Our staff have expertise in environmental representation in the media and popular culture, and gender, children, and television.

Excellent supervision
Benefit from a professional and challenging relationship with your supervisory team, drawn from experienced academics working at the forefront of their disciplines.

Resources
With study space and IT provision in the Research Office, and access to the University of Worcester’s virtual resources and state of the art library facilities, the Media and Cultural Studies team at Worcester have an excellent range of resources to support your learning and research project.

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