Core Modules
International News Production I and II
These modules, taken over the full academic programme, develop understanding and application of best principles and practices in news production. During the second week of the Autumn semester students choose to follow a broadcast, newspaper, magazine or documentary pathway. Through a mix of workshops, discussion and real world reporting, the pathways analyse news values and audience focus and develop newsgathering and production skills.
Information Gathering and Analysis I and II
These modules introduce students to the basic tools of academic research and to journalistic techniques of information gathering, retrieval and analysis. The modules examine basic business and economic concepts; effective use of figures; how to read and understand public documents (e.g. government papers, company reports); techniques of interviewing for writing and research; the techniques employed by investigative journalists and the ethical and legal issues they sometimes raise; and dealing with press conferences. IGA is designed both to be of professional and practical help to working journalists and to provide an understanding of the academic research methods required for the dissertation.
Foreign News Reporting
This Autumn semester module aims to equip students to report well on, or for, societies other than their own and to report confidently on major international institutions and issues. The module will examine the cultural and professional challenges involved in effectively communicating news between societies; how recent technological advances have affected foreign correspondence and categorisations such as ‘local’ and ‘foreign’ news; who predominates in setting the international news agenda and how; the major national, multilateral and regional actors in world affairs; significant contemporary international issues; and incipient trends for the future in international affairs.
The choice of Spring semester optional half-modules include:
- Global Crisis Reporting
- Insurgency into the 21st Century
- In the Editor’s Chair
- Media Law
- New Media and Politics
- Reporting Business, Finance and Economics
The above modules are followed by the Dissertation.
Dissertation
The required dissertation of between 15 - 20,000 words may take the form of a scholarly assessment of a topic in international journalism. Alternatively, a student may, at comparable length, offer a journalistic treatment of a topic within an academic framework. The student may provide the journalism component in text or in selected instances, in documentary format. Students plan the dissertation and develop a research proposal during a first-semester research retreat in rural Wales. Individual dissertation supervisors are allocated after this retreat. Research skills are developed through the core modules and through regular meetings with a dissertation supervisor.