Journalism BA(Hons) Degree

Course outline

Stage 1

• Audiences and Genres
• Media and Popular Culture
• Media Law and the Political Economy
• Teeline Shorthand
• Writing for the Media

Stage 2

• Case Study
• Journalism and Film
• Media Ethics and Human Rights
• Multi-Media News
• News and Magazine Production
• Photography
• Photojournalism in the Newsroom
• Radical and Participatory Journalism
• Radio Journalism and Podcasting
• TV Reporting

Stage 3

• Crime and the Media
• Dissertation
• Health and Environment Journalism
• Negotiated Portfolio
• Print and Power
• Publishing

Tell me more about the BA(Hons) Journalism course

 BA(Hons) Journalism award information form (151.41 KB)

At Falmouth you'll gain the skills needed for a successful career in journalism, including shorthand, media law, news writing and feature writing. Experienced journalists and active researchers in the field will support you as you gain a portfolio of specialist skills. From your second year on, you can build your journalistic expertise by selecting specialist options in online journalism and content management, environmental and ethical journalism or public relations.

Working in a vibrant interdisciplinary environment, you'll benefit from collaborating with students from our PR, Digital Media and Graphic Design courses to produce live publications - including our news website Navigator and student newspaper Flex. You‘ll also have the opportunity to study abroad, either through study trips or through exchanges with our partner universities in Europe.

By choosing to study for a degree in Journalism at Falmouth you will:

• Benefit from being taught by friendly and approachable staff who are experts in their respective fields.
• Develop a range of writing, research and production skills that will equip you for your career in journalism.
• Be part of a group of people who produce live publications, be it our news website Navigator, the new student newspaper Flex or your own publication.
• Be based at the stunning Tremough Campus, which boasts industry standard media, photography and broadcasting facilities and two fully equipped newsrooms.
• Gain the chance of gaining a work placement with one of our network of contacts, including BBC Magazines; Giorgio Armani Press Office; Mail on Sunday and the Telegraph sports desk
• Have opportunities to work creatively with students from other subject areas such as PR, Digital Media and Graphic Design.
• Have the opportunity to go on study trips and to spend time at our partner universities in places such as Sweden and Spain, through the Erasmus scheme.

For further information about BA(Hons) Journalism at Falmouth, including upcoming events, guest speakers, and a showcase of student work, please visit our new course subsite: www.frontpagefalmouth.co.uk

How is the course taught?

This full-time course is delivered in study blocks. Project work is supported by lectures, demonstrations, professional
experience, focus groups, seminars and tutorials. Operating on a basis of continuous assessment with no formal examinations (with the exception of Media Law in Year 1), you'll be measured using a combination of visual, verbal and written assignments, including a dissertation in your final year.

The course also benefits from a close relationship with Falmouth's highly regarded postgraduate International and Multimedia Broadcast Journalism courses, offering important opportunities for collaboration and pathways for further study.

Assessment

• Continuous assessment through visual, verbal and written assignments
• Dissertation

Facilities

Our Media Centre and Learning Resourse Centre include:

• Dedicated print and radio newsrooms with professional script-writing and editing software and live news feed
• Video editing suites with AVID Media Composer for video editing and surround sound capability
• Audio post production suites with pro tools for sound design and editing
• Digital production suite with software including adobe creative
• Equipment store with a range of cameras, tripods, monitors, microphones, DVD players, PA systems, lights, film dollies and tracks
• 106-seat cinema
• 17,000-title TV and film library
• Newspaper archive Newsbank and Newsquest print news feed

Projects

Raising development awareness among media students

UCF has been selected as a participant in a new Government funded (DFID) project aimed at "Strengthening overseas reporting and filmmaking among tomorrow's journalists and filmmakers".

The project is being run by the charity One World Media and will involve a two day workshop at our Tremough campus in 2010. Students participating in the workshop will have the chance to apply for a bursary from One World Media, enabling them to travel and make a film abroad.

More information about the One World Media project can be found here

Work placements

This year, our students have undertaken work placements with the following:

Rocksound Magazine
Frank public relations
BBC Radio Cornwall
You Magazine (Mail on Sunday)
Food magazine
MPAD communications Truro
PitPilot magazine
Amateur Photographer
Ford UK
Wyvern FM
Motorcycle News
Plymouth Herald
Western Morning News
Mojo magazine
Top Gear magazine (India)
Friflyt magazine (Norway)
Henry's House public relations
CNBC European Business
FourFourTwo
Plymouth Herald
Western Morning News
Talk Back Thames TV
Conde Nast Traveler Magazine
Borkowski public relations
Tate St Ives press office
Falmouth Packet
Red Shoe Communications (Singapore)
Eden Project press office
Giorgio Armani press office

BA(Hons) Journalism news

Press releases

• BA(Hons) journalism makes the front page
• Journalism students head for BBC Magazines in Mumbai
• If you could collaborate... entrepreneurial initiative to produce new magazine for £500

Student bylines

BA(Hons) Journalism student, Becky Ricks, is doing a work placement on the The Sun's defence desk: 

• 30 marathons in 30 days bid
• I'm Britain's unluckiest driver

For further information about BA(Hons) Journalism at Falmouth, including upcoming events, guest speakers, and a showcase of student work, please visit our new course subsite: www.frontpagefalmouth.co.uk

Student newspaper

Flex is the new student newspaper for University College Falmouth and Exeter University

Journalism students are as important to Flex as Flex is to the students. We offer a practical way into all types of writing and showcase a variety of student work. This is a perfect opportunity for development outside the normal core content. We were especially delighted at how supportive the Department of Media was in our endeavour, it is refreshing to meet a group of people who are so positive and confident in the ability of their students. Asher Simpson, Editor, Flex

Guest lectures

Journalism guest lecture series 2010 (1.09 MB)

Guest lecturers during 2008-9 included:

Nicholas Brett, Deputy Managing Director, Group Editorial Director, BBC Magazines
Jim Douglas, Editorial Director, Future Publishing
Sara Adhikari, sub-editor, The Sun newspaper
Paul Lashmar, Investigative journalist, TV Producer
Alan Qualtrough, Regional Editorial Director, Western Morning News
Terry Kirby, former Crime/ Home Affairs correspondent The Independent, Freelance reporter and editor Evening Standard, The Guardian
Oliver Poole, former Iraq correspondent The Daily Telegraph, author of The Red Zone
Andy Cooper, Editor-in-Chief, The West Briton
Professor Robert Pinker, The Press Complaints Commission
Joe Barnes, Editor, Front magazine
Alley Einstein, freelance magazine writer and broadcaster
Leo Hickman, Environment editor and feature writer, The Guardian
Louise Midgley, Reporter, West Country News, ITV
Jilly Easterby, Head of Communications, University College Falmouth
Kirsty Newton, Editor, Cornwall Today magazine
Tim Nunn, Editor, Wavelength magazine

Our list of regular speakers includes Leo Hickman (The Guardian), Nicholas Brett (BBC Magazines) and Oliver Poole (The Daily Telegraph), among others.

For further information about BA(Hons) Journalism at Falmouth, including upcoming events, guest speakers, and a showcase of student work, please visit our new course subsite: www.frontpagefalmouth.co.uk

Professorial lecture series

Falmouth's Professorial lecture series aims to produce an engaging and challenging public programme that stimulates the intellectual curiosity of our staff, students and alumni, our research collaborators, our industry partners, our local communities and other supporters.

Jason Whittaker

What Blake did next: 200 years under the influence of William Blake

Despite dying in relative obscurity in 1827, William Blake has emerged as one of the most important artists and writers ever to have worked in Britain, one who has influenced a wide range of figures since the late nineteenth century. In this lecture, Jason Whittaker, Resident Professor of English and Media Arts at Falmouth, will concentrate on two of Blake's most popular texts, the poem "The Tyger" and the hymn "Jerusalem". The lecture will explore some of the ways in which that influence has been used and abused to provide a fertile ground for new creative developments, as well as arguing that a study of such poetic and artistic reception is the way forward for Blake studies.

A video of Jason Whittaker's lecture can be viewed online here

Emily Bell

Back To the News Future: Journalism 10 Years from Now

Director of Digital Content for Guardian News and Media, Emily set up www.mediaguardian.co.uk in 2001. www.guardian.co.uk has won multiple awards, including the prestigious Webby for Best Newspaper on the web in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Oxford graduate, Bell is one of the rising stars coming through from a younger, more web-focused generation of senior media figures.

A video of Emily Bell's lecture can be viewed online here

Answers and advice about the course

For further information about BA(Hons) Journalism at University College Falmouth, please email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 255764.

Our student mentors are now on Facebook. To chat to a mentor about the course, living in Cornwall, or what to expect at Falmouth, check out the Journalism group. You need to join the group before you can post. Our student mentors have already done the first year of the course... so ask them anything you like!

Journalism Facebook group

If you're not Facebook you can still speak to a student mentor. Email your name and the course you're starting to: studentmentorenquiries@falmouth.ac.uk and we will be in touch with you.

Career opportunities

Our graduates have successful careers in journalism, with former students achieving their ambitions as international reporters, presenters, researchers, editors, staff writers and producers at The Daily Telegraph, BBC, Daily Express, NHM, ITV, The Botswana Gazette, Front Magazine, Yours Magazine and Shebang Magazine among numerous other media employers.

In the wider world of communications our graduates work in organisations including Big Brother, Sony, Lexis Nexis, Midas, Black Cat Public Relations, The Environment Agency (PR) and BMW Marketing and PR and The National Union of Journalists.

Entry requirements

A minimum of 220 UCAS points, equivalent Level 3 qualifications or relevant experience. Applicants may be invited to attend an interview and asked to present written work so we can assess your abilities, skills and potential to succeed at this level of study.

Please see our How to Apply page for more information.

For further information about BA(Hons) Journalism at University College Falmouth, please email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 255764.

Interview dates and selection process

All applicants are invited to interview. There will be a course talk and campus tour in the morning followed by interviews in the afternoon. All applicants are asked to bring a written piece with you to use in workshops as part of the interview day.

Interviews will commence from 28 November 2011.

Location: Tremough Campus

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