Masters Degrees in Radio Production, United Kingdom

The MA Radio Documentary is designed to fulfil the need for radio and audio producers who can create high-quality programmes across different platforms in today's fast-paced digital age. Offered in partnership with the BBC, you will have the opportunity to work alongside experienced producers in different fields. As well as giving you the chance to put your skills into practice, you'll also gain real-world understanding of the cultural industry and its supply chain.

The course is appropriate for graduates with a passion for radio and an interest in journalism. It offers a unique industry-aligned path of study for those who want to develop a sustainable career in radio or production in the cultural industries sectors. It is also suitable for those already working in the cultural or creative sectors who wish to develop a specialist knowledge and understanding of radio documentary production, and enhance their employability.

Course detail

Based at the arts-focused Bower Ashton Studios, this full-time course will immerse students into radio for the digital age. Through a mix of practical and critical analytical learning, you will develop the skills required to work across many areas of radio, including journalism, content production, podcasting and documentary making.

There is a strong emphasis on developing your technical skills alongside those needed to compete in the business of radio, such as commissioning, pitching and getting documentaries to air. You will also gain experience through placements in some of Bristol's most innovative cultural organisations, and work on your own projects with mentoring from industry.

Structure

The course benefits from Bristol's rich activity in the cultural and media industries. In addition to teaching from faculty staff, guest speakers from the BBC and independent media production companies will play a key role in delivering the course.

You will be assigned live briefs to prepare for professional commissions in the public and private sectors. BBC staff will help design the live briefs to prepare you for professional commissions, whether for the BBC or commercial clients. You will be expected to work to real deadlines under real-world conditions, giving you the understanding needed to step into entry level posts in all aspects of radio and audio content production.

Format

This course provides a distinct and bespoke learning experience. Both practical and theoretical teaching is delivered by highly esteemed current and former BBC radio production professionals.

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and expert-led technical workshops in audio collection techniques, sound, recording, radio studio work and digital editing using industry-standard software.

There will be field visits to documentary producers and regular guest speakers from the BBC to enhance learning and bring valuable industry insight.

Placements

Students will take part in a work shadowing scheme. This will allow you to see the day-to-day workflow of producing radio documentaries.

You will be encouraged to take up placements on multi-platform outlets to gain insights across all relevant digital media.

Indicative partners include Watershed, Arnolfini, Ujima Radio and BBC News.

Assessment

You will be assessed through a combination of practical work, research portfolios, exams, essays and presentations.

Careers / Further study

We aim to equip you with the skills and understanding suitable for entry level posts in the radio factual broadcast sector including documentary, formats and presenter-led features.

The course partnership with the BBC brings opportunities for engagement, collaboration and ultimately employment. The BBC highly values the talent, fresh ideas and enthusiasm of our students.

Successful graduates go on to secure work in production companies and post-production facilities as broadcast assistants, junior researchers, production assistants and studio managers.

There are also options to teach and to progress to PhD study.

How to apply

Information on applications can be found at the following link: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/study/applyingtouwebristol/postgraduateapplications.aspx

Funding

- New Postgraduate Master's loans for 2016/17 academic year –

The government are introducing a master’s loan scheme, whereby master’s students under 60 can access a loan of up to £10,000 as a contribution towards the cost of their study. This is part of the government’s long-term commitment to enhance support for postgraduate study.

Scholarships and other sources of funding are also available.

More information can be found here: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/feesandfunding/fundingandscholarships/postgraduatefunding.aspx

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The development of DAB, internet radio and podcasting is creating exciting opportunities for radio producers, and this course will enable you to take advantage of these new technologies – as well as more traditional media – to communicate with audiences in a creative and exciting way.

You will engage with the crafting of radio programmes on a variety of media platforms in production genres including Drama and features alongside your theoretical study of Narrative Construction. Professional development is explored and you will have the opportunity to engage with industry, with guest speakers, station and events visits. The course builds towards a final production project in which you will create a complete 30-minute programme to broadcast standard. An alternative research-focused option is available if you feel that is more suited to your strengths.

Production lecturers on the course have experience of working for leading national radio stations and our industry guests cover a range of production genres. You will develop in areas suited to your own strengths under their expert supervision, and can even test your skills in industry during the course, with the opportunity to take up a placement for three to four weeks if you wish.

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Radio is constantly adapting and evolving – it is the soundtrack of 21st-century life. It brings us constant news, information and music on conventional channels and on the latest digital, agile devices. Taught at our Warrington Campus, our MA course aims to equip you with academic, editorial and creative skills to engage fully with the first electronic mass medium.

This course aims to help you gain the skills, knowledge and experience required to work in the radio industry.

Our radio station, The Cat Radio, is the heart of the course and is where students learn and develop their radio production skills – often live on air. The station won an I Love Student Radio Award for Best Training Initiative in 2016. The station is broadcast on AM and online and is regulated by Ofcom.

You will be taught by award-winning staff who still work in the industry, so you can be sure their practice is up to date. Guest speakers feature regularly – from the BBC and commercial radio.

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This is an intensive, hands-on writing course that is ideal if you want to specialise in dramatic scriptwriting for television and radio.

The course is aimed at you if you have scriptwriting potential or wish to develop your television and radio writing skills to professional standards. During your time with us, you will enhance your knowledge of storytelling and the demands of television and radio, with the goal of mobilising your creative potential for the 21st-century scriptwriting marketplace.

Key benefits:

• Study at our MediaCityUK campus in industry-leading facilities
• Participate in masterclasses run by industry professionals
• Work on a one-to-one basis with an experienced professional scriptwriter on your final MA project.

Visit the website: http://www.salford.ac.uk/pgt-courses/tv-and-radio-scriptwriting

Suitable for

Students come from a wide range of employment and educational backgrounds but what they all have in common is the potential to be a professional screenwriter. Ideally, you will have a passion for storytelling in all of its forms and a desire to communicate a message creatively to an audience. You will have some awareness of the different TV and radio programme formats and a willingness to share your work and learn from others.

Programme details

This course enables you to develop your professional scriptwriting goals by providing the opportunity for you to learn not just scriptwriting skills but an awareness of the demands of the broadcast industries served by these skills and how to address an audience through genres developed specifically for broadcast media. You will be enabled to work autonomously and in groups to solve problems of storytelling, plot and characterisation and to demonstrate an awareness of the commercial demands of the industries you will serve. The ability to advance your knowledge of scriptwriting and the industries of television and radio are provided on this course and you will also experience the opportunity to develop new skills such as pitching script and story ideas and communicating in more traditional academic formats like essays alongside your existing scriptwriting ability. Issues of employment are addressed in modules where you will develop an appreciation of the existing broadcasting landscape and also through the provision of optional modules in year two which enables you to acquire dedicated training in scriptwriting for genres or working in a collaborative creative environment.

Format

This course is taught on a part-time basis, with teaching delivered on a Thursday evening. The Masters award consists of four core taught modules followed by the MA Project (60 credits). The PgDip requires the completion of four core modules. The PgCert requires completion of the first two core taught modules. All modules are delivered over a 12 week semester.

Module titles

• Storytelling and the Moving Image: The Short Film
• Forms and Genres in Film
• Storytelling and the Moving Image: The Feature Film
• MA Film Project

Assessment

• Scripts (70%)
• Essays (20%)
• Reflective statements/critical analysis (10%)

Career potential

As well as establishing themselves as successful scriptwriters, our graduates have also entered occupations including producer, storyliner, script editor, and story consultant with employers as diverse as Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, EA games, Hat Trick, Sony and SEGA.

Our graduates have predominately entered the scriptwriting and satellite professions in roles such as producer, script editor, storyliner, and story consultant as well as narrative director and narrative and speech design for video games. All of these professions involve knowledge not just of the detail of scriptwriting but also of industry practices and conventions.Richard Smith's Trauma starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari was, we believe, the first MA script project to progress to feature film production.

Our graduates have worked on Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Shameless, Hollyoaks, The Street, Heartbeat and Doctors and have written plays for BBC Radio 4.

How to apply: http://www.salford.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/applying

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Course summary

The MA Media Production course gives you the opportunity to kick start or further your career in the television and radio industries. The course offers a clear progression pathway for students who have already completed undergraduate studies in television or radio.

For those who already have industry experience, or are looking to change career path, the course provides the chance to learn additional skills and apply professional media practice to your existing resume.

You can study the MA Media Production full time over one year or part time over two years. This flexibility means it is suitable for those wishing to enter the industry or who are already forging a career in broadcasting and want to attain a well-respected academic qualification to complement their skills.

Course structure

Over the year you will study four modules, each of which consists of 10 class sessions in which students will be introduced to topics through lectures, seminar discussions and workshop activities. Each week students are set independent study tasks, often based upon production activities, and there are two further weeks of directed study.

There will often be guest lectures from leading practitioners in the field and we place a strong emphasis on lecturer and peer review of student presentations and work-in-progress. These sessions are supported by structured material available on the university's Moodle online system.

Many modules make significant use of new social media and students will be asked frequently to contribute to forums, write blogs, or produce podcasts to chart personal and professional development and to engage with the work of others. Your own professional development is an important element throughout the course.

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About the course

This exciting new programme focuses on the practical skills of investigative journalism, and is ideally suited to established professionals who wish to develop their skillset or change careers, as well as students progressing from undergraduate study.

The MA equips graduates with a wide range of specialist skills and competencies, which range from filming, editing and storytelling, to newsgathering, dealing with complex data and running real world investigations. The programme will provide you with the tools you need to produce commercially viable television investigations targeted at national and international audiences. The content of this course is endorsed by and has been developed with Channel 4, meaning you are assured of the highest quality teaching by expert academics, including professional journalists from a variety of disciplines with strong track records in industry and experience in helping students and trainees embark on successful careers.

As part of the degree, you will be expected to devise, pitch and manage investigations, in consultation with some the UK’s leading providers. We have a 20 year track record of launching graduates into the highly competitive world of journalism, with graduates now working for both local and national organisations like the BBC, Mail Online, top news agencies, national and international magazines and related careers such as PR and corporate communications. This is a specialist course designed to give you a specific skill set which will be directly relevant to a career in investigative journalism.

During the course you will have the opportunity to produce your own, professional standard programme to a quality where it can be pitched to major networks as your final project.

The next available start date for this course is September 2017.

Reasons to Study:

• Course developed in collaboration with Channel 4
professional endorsement from industry ensures high quality teaching by expert academics and professional journalists

• Designed with input from Industry leaders
this specialist course is designed to provide you with the skills, knowledge and contacts you need to embark on a successful career in investigative journalism

• Work on live briefs
produce your own professional programme to pitch to major broadcasters or elsewhere

• First in the UK for media research
our Media Discourse group and The Centre for Cinema and Television History (CATH) informs teaching on the course allowing students to gain expertise into the subject area. DMU’s research in media was recognised as first in the UK for research output in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

• Work on live briefs
produce your own professional programme to pitch to major broadcasters or elsewhere

• More than 20 years’ experience of teaching journalism
our teaching staff have many years of industry experience which you can draw upon to develop skills and expertise that are relevant for a career in Journalism

• Excellent graduate prospects
this course will equip graduates for a successful career in Investigative Journalism, in national television as well as working for national and international news agencies and roles in PR and corporate communications

Course Structure

Modules

The programme modules include:
- Investigative Journalism – Skills and Theory
- Introduction to Practical Investigative Journalism
- Investigative Journalism – Global Perspectives
- Advanced Practical Investigative Journalism
- Final project

Teaching and assessment

You will experience a wide range of teaching styles and environments, from traditional lectures and seminars to intensive skills workshops, news days and studio work. As a postgraduate student, you will be increasingly responsible for developing your own professional practice and working with other course members to produce pieces of journalism.

You will be working collaboratively with undergraduate students and other postgraduate students from our portfolio of related journalism courses including on events.

This is an intensive programme and you should be aware that full-time engagement will be expected throughout.

There will be a diverse range of assessments, including traditional essays, presentations, case studies, phase tests and reports as well as continuous assessment of professional practice. These culminate in your final project or dissertation.

Contact and learning hours

You will normally attend at least 12 hours of timetabled taught sessions per week. As part of this, you will be expected to produce substantial amounts of journalism outside of class.

To find out more

To learn more about this course and DMU, visit our website:
Postgraduate open days: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-study/open-evenings/postgraduate-open-days.aspx

Applying for a postgraduate course:
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-study/entry-criteria-and-how-to-apply/entry-criteria-and-how-to-apply.aspx

Funding for postgraduate students
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-study/postgraduate-funding-2017-18/postgraduate-funding-2017-18.aspx

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This course will prepare you for a career in Broadcast Engineering, supporting you to continually improve your skills and the quality of service you provide. Through the programme, you will demonstrate technical, research, analytical, planning, design and organisational skills which are highly transferable and can be used in a wide variety of disciplines.

What's covered in the course?

Broadcast technologies are continually evolving and converging with other information and media distribution formats, including the web, games and virtual environments. The UK traditionally has a high calibre of recognition in the TV production and technology industries. Our course aims to capitalise on and maintain the UK expertise in this area, whilst continually evolving the delivery of technology in this rapidly changing area.

Our course is designed both to prepare you for a technical or commercial career and provide a route to the specialisation needed for a research career. It is also suitable for graduates of internet and communications related courses who have worked for several years and wish to update your knowledge at the forefront of the discipline.

The programme is designed to enable you to develop a thorough technical and theoretical understanding, focusing on vocational and practical skills directly relevant to industry. Alongside the development of technical and analytical skills, you will also expand your team and professional development skills through group work, peer review and reflective evaluation, as well as consideration of legal and ethical issues.

We are committed to supporting the broadcast industry and continue to work with and support key stakeholders. We also aim to act as a broker between industry, universities and students to place students in appropriate research positions and placements.

The University is actively involved in SMPTE and we host SMPTE regional meetings at Birmingham City University.

Why Choose Us?

-The School’s pursuance of excellence is recognised by its sole provider status of academic programmes to the BBC’s engineering schemes.
-Our staff are actively involved in professional associations and societies including the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Royal Television Society (RTS), International Association of Broadcast Meteorology (IABM) and Audio Engineering Society (AES).
-The University has been instrumental in working with the IABM to set up the IABM Universities’ Forum to link universities across Europe that deliver broadcasting programmes, with the aim of spreading best practice in broadcast training and supporting students from university into industry.
-Staff are active in research in the School’s Digital Media Technology Lab, which is internationally recognised for its publications in conferences and journals and its engagement with industry.

Course in depth

Knowledge, understanding and intellectual skills are acquired through a variety of practical learning and teaching approaches, these may include: formal lectures, interactive tutorial sessions, laboratory sessions, seminars, residential courses and directed independent learning activities.

Analytical skills are developed through coursework tasks that encourage creativity and problem solving using a range of systems and technologies relevant to commercial web service delivery. Group tutorial and practical work are also utilised in programme delivery. Learners are assessed both formatively and summatively by a number of methods.

Formative assessment occurs throughout the programme and involves feedback from peers and tutors and individual reflection. Feedback on work in progress is available prior to the submission of summative assessments.

A range of summative assessment methods are employed involving both individual and group assignments, written coursework assignments and practical project work, laboratory sessions, tests and examinations.

Summative assessment methods for all modules are identified in a module guide and, for coursework, assessment details and criteria are specified in each assignment brief.

As well as developing and applying skills through assignment work, the Research Methods module in the second semester introduces research skills in preparation for the dissertation. Independent learning is encouraged through research tasks for assignments and in the requirement to plan work schedules to meet deadlines for coursework submission.

Transferable and key skills are core to the learning strategy of the programme. They are pervasive, and are incorporated into modules and assessments as appropriate, e.g. team-working skills are fostered via group, task-based practical projects. Reflection and self-awareness are fostered by keeping logbooks and submitting self-evaluation documentation in support of personal performance.

Modules
-IP Network Technology 20 credits
-Broadcast Workflow 20 credits
-Studio and Broadcast Technology 20 credits
-Media Distribution Solutions and Architectures 20 credits
-Research Methods 20 credits
-Signal Compression and Encoding 20 credits
-Master’s Project 60 credits

Employment Opportunities

This programme aims to enable you to develop specialist and key transferable skills that are essential to a career in broadcast engineering, ensuring that you meet the needs of employers and the standards set out by the Institution of Engineering Technology.

Birmingham City University programmes aim to provide graduates with a set of attributes which prepare them for their future careers. The BCU Graduate:
-Is professional and work ready
-Is a creative problem solver
-Is enterprising
-Has a global outlook

The University has introduced the Birmingham City University Graduate+ programme, which is an extra-curricular awards framework that is designed to augment the subject based skills that you develop through your programme with broader employability skills and techniques that will enhance your employment options when you leave university.

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