Journalism BA (Hons)

What makes Journalism at Worcester special?

The BA Hons Journalism course is challenging and exciting and aims to make you highly employable in a range of journalism, media and communications careers.

Alongside learning practical skills, you have the opportunity to study media strategies, search engine optimisation, PR, advanced communications and social influencing to help equip you for life in an expanding industry.

What will you study?

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative.

The modules for this course are currently being reviewed and updated for 2021 entry; for the latest information please contact the Course Leader Rachel Ammonds

How will you be taught?

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of:

Lectures; seminars; demonstrations; workshops; work simulations (newsdays); tutorials, group and individual project work; supervised independent learning; open and resource-based learning; e-learning; production practice and work experience and placements.
Teaching involves large and small group sessions, the latter especially for workshop activities related to the acquisition of production skills.
Sessions are a mix of tutor-led, student-led and independent learning.
You will investigate critically and analyse theoretical and conceptual issues central to journalism studies and be able to synthesis and evaluate material. Acquire skills to'originate and develop ideas for editorial content across a range of platforms. Investigate the development of journalism with regard to political, social, economic, legal, ethical and technological considerations.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course, including during an induction session at the start of each academic year.

You have an opportunity to undertake work placements in both your second and third years of the course, as part of mandatory modules on the course.

You use industry-standard equipment and software for all pathways and have access to state-of-the-art TV and radio studios throughout the course.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 15-16 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

6 hours of interactive workshops
3 hours of lectures with discussion
6 hours of supervised practical sessions, including newsdays

In addition, there will be individual or small group tutorial sessions.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 22 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing practical activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment is largely coursework. Assessment methods include: written news stories, features and commentaries; audio and visual news and feature inserts; newsdays; portfolios with reflective log books; production tasks involving a range of media technology; group and individually produced projects; research exercises; critical self and peer review; work-based learning reports and external placement opportunities. There are two examinations in the Law and Ethics modules in years one and two.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1
6 practical journalistic pieces / portfolios and learning reports
1 formal examination of 1hour duration
2 essays
1 individual or group presentations

Year 2
7 practical journalistic pieces / portfolios and learning reports
1 formal examination of 1 hour duration
1 reflective and skills portfolio relating to work placement
2 essays

Year 3
Major independent final project, which is a journalistic production of your choice
5 practical journalistic pieces / portfolios
3 essays
1 reflective and skills portfolio relating to work placement

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.