Journalism Work Experience (P4098)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

This module is designed to allow you to gain practical work experience in an area of relevance to your degree.

During your work experience, you'll apply practical skills and theoretical knowledge acquired so far in a working environment. The range of suitable media organizations is wide and includes print media as well as radio and television broadcasters, however, the key issue is that you are involved in some form of journalistic work during your work experience. At the end of the work experience, you will write a report in which you critically reflect on professional journalism as practiced in the given media organization.

Preparation for work experience will include reflecting on the kinds of organizations/work places that you might be interested in and why, and compiling a CV and a portfolio of selected stories produced so far. During the period of work experience, you will be required to observe, learn and reflect.

The aim is to use the experience as an opportunity to develop and reflect on personal and social skills in the work place; the demands of time management; and technical, organisational and/or creative achievement as appropriate. The module will enable you to compile necessary documentation in relation to work, such as portfolio containing CVs and development plans, as well as help you to assess your skills and perform SWOT analyses and a Key Skills Audit. On this module, you will draw both on the ‘hands on’ knowledge gained during the work experience and, where appropriate, your academic study.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 10 hours of contact time and about 140 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2021/22. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.