Graduate Diploma in Journalism (Advanced)

This is a practice based subject taught by leading practitioners, which enables students to develop their skills in researching, writing and producing stories. Students will enhance their understanding of how news stories are put together and will develop advanced skills in researching, writing and producing stories in a new and rapidly changing media environment. The subject examines a range of different research techniques and considers how these can be applied. It also explores a range of writing challenges.

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This subject provides a solid grounding in audio journalism skills. The structure of news and current affairs reports is analysed, and training in recording and editing sound packages, and in scripting and presenting is provided. Ethical considerations relevant to audio journalism are canvassed in the context of ‘quality’ journalism, with its roots in serving the public interest, objective scrutiny and fact-based reporting.

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This subject will provide students with a grounding in key aspects of media law that all journalists need to be aware of, and offer students an opportunity to engage with particular ethical dilemmas that arise in the field of journalism. It will provide students with an opportunity to gain a deep understanding and capacity to reflect on legal and ethical principles, as well as an understanding of how such knowledge is relevant to the ongoing dilemmas and decisions that journalists are faced with in the course of their work.

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The subject will equip students for navigating their careers in a world of changing business models. It also considers how journalists create a personal brand in a fracturing media landscape and how they develop an entrepreneurial spirit, which is both a mindset and a problem-solving skill set. The subject will focuses on web based publication and small and medium sized journalism enterprises, and the particular skill combination needed to make a commercial success of online journalism outlets, including those serving niche audiences. Students will explore the ways in which social media, including blogs, Twitter and Facebook, are being used to both gather information for journalistic work, and to publicise that work and gather an audience around it. As well as engaging in practical exercises, students will also be introduced to theoretical understandings of the public space, and the ways in which these are being altered by social media. Key examples of journalistic use of social media will be examined. The subject will also examine the managing of money, audiences and people in small to medium news media enterprises.

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Video Journalism is a hands-on subject aimed at giving students the skills they need to begin working in a TV newsroom, freelance or produce high-quality video content for social media. The curriculum is informed by decades of industry experience but refreshed every year to stay relevant in this always-evolving medium. The subject is taught in a weekly three-hour workshop and embraces a learning-by-doing philosophy, with in-class activities reinforced by practise at home. Students will learn a range of video journalism roles, including camera operator, editor and journalist. The skills learned will be used to create three assessment items that are the building blocks of video news storytelling – an interview, on-camera presentation and a news package. The subject will take advantage of the university’s media studio.

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This subject focuses in the intersection of journalistic skill and literary technique in the genre broadly defined as ‘creative non-fiction’. The weekly workshops discuss classic and contemporary authors of narrative journalism, personal essays, polemics and features such as Joan Didion, Hunter S Thompson, James Baldwin, Michael Paterniti, Rachel Kushner, Caity Weaver, George Orwell and others. Each week examines different aspects of the craft of non-fiction: research, interviewing, structure, voice, characterisation, metaphor and so on. The subject also emphasises practice, simulating the experience of writing for publication. Through the course of a semester, students choose their own topic and angle, and then pitch a non-fiction article to a guest editor from a major magazine or other outlet. They submit a draft for feedback before writing a polished piece of creative non-fiction.

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This advanced subject builds on basic journalistic interview and research skills to introduce the discipline and research techniques of investigative journalism. It discusses the ethics, obligations, role and challenges of investigative journalism in the western democratic tradition, including domestic and cross-border investigations and, as appropriate, in other political contexts. Enlisting a story-based inquiry methodology, students will explore and interrogate a range of opportunities to source information: public records, open source intelligence, Freedom of Information legislation, crowd sourcing, data analysis, advanced verification and security and safety technologies. They will be introduced to the multiple ethical and legal issues involved in use of confidential sources and unauthorised disclosures, and how this relates to core journalistic ethical principles. Tasks #1 and #2 require students to initiate, plan and undertake an original investigation as part of the subject, with an option at Task #3 to defer or cease their own investigation and alternatively produce an analytical essay on a published/ high profile investigation.

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This subject offers an advanced critical examination of the impact of digital technology on contemporary media industries and cultural practices. We will examine the way the internet and new modes of collaborative production in the Web 2.0 environment are driving the transformation of all media sectors, including cinema, music, video, gaming and television. Through case studies in these sectors and close analysis of contemporary internet practices, students will engage with key debates about digital culture, including the transformation of audiences, the emergence of new media platforms, the role of peer to peer networks and social media and the changing nature of power in the digital era.

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This unit will explore the practice and theoretical underpinnings of data journalism, whereby news content is organized around structured pieces of data, as opposed to conventionally structured news stories. Students will learn how to access key public databases, extract stories from them, and make the data available in visualisations that facilitate citizens’ own inquiries and investigations. Students will be acquainted with the history and current practice of data journalism, including key international examples.

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