Journalism (Including Placement Year)

This course equips you to become a journalist with the news awareness, story-getting and story-telling skills to flourish in today’s multimedia journalism environment.

We live in a connected world with instant access to whatever news we want, whenever and wherever we want it. We don’t have to wait for the newspaper to hit the streets or for the evening news bulletin; anyone with a smartphone can be a reporter, able to record, edit and publish whatever they like.

The challenge for professional journalists in this digital age is to provide news and information that can be trusted, meeting the demands created by new technology and changing habits without sacrificing core professional values. Our degree has been designed with the future needs of this rapidly changing industry at its heart, informing our curriculum, programme design, facilities and staffing.

Our course places a strong emphasis on good writing, independence, accuracy and ethical practice, the values that have always underpinned the best journalism. But at Essex we go further, applying those values to the new world of social networks and mobile technology.

You will gain a thorough training in the theory and practice of journalism:

• Benefit from opportunities to work in the field, both independently and alongside practicing journalists across a range of media

• Be mentored by a leading professional in a chosen specialist subject, such as business, arts, literary, political or sports journalism

• Find, tell and publish your own ‘real’ stories across different media, building a substantial portfolio of work to show to future employers

• Study topics including the art of storytelling, the history of journalism, and multimedia production

• Work towards the industry-standard NCTJ Diploma in Journalism as part of your degree

• Gain an essential understanding of media law and how the UK works

As a student at one of the UK’s leading social science institutions and a pioneer of literature and writing, you are uniquely placed to acquire a deep understanding of the world you report on as well as to develop your own powerful journalistic style.