BA (Hons)Journalism and Content Creation

Core modules

Social Media Storytelling

This module will equip you with the essential building blocks of journalistic practice, adapting traditional techniques for the fast-paced, visually driven world of social media. You'll learn how to identify newsworthy events, understand your audience, and navigate the legal and ethical considerations unique to online platforms.

Visual Communication And Design

This module equips aspiring journalists and content creators with the essential skills to navigate and excel in this visually driven era. Through learning about graphic design principles, data visualisation techniques, and image editing skills, you'll gain the ability to produce impactful and ethical visual content that complements your other journalistic narratives.

The Ethics And Impact Of Social Media

In this module, you'll explore the complex ethical dilemmas and societal consequences of social media in today’s digital world. You'll learn about traditional journalistic ethics and think about how social media technologies present new challenges for users, media outlets, tech platforms and regulators. Through case studies, reflection and discussion, you'll assess the responsibilities of these various players in maintaining ethical digital spaces. You'll also evaluate the psychological and social effects of social media, including its influence on mental health, democracy, and global communication.

Mobile-First Journalism

This module builds upon your existing understanding of social media storytelling by focusing specifically on mobile video journalism, an increasingly vital area of the industry. You'll refine your ability to create high-quality, engaging video content optimised for mobile platforms and develop a deeper understanding of how to use mobile video to tell compelling journalistic stories.

YouTube Formula

Becoming a YouTuber requires much more than the right equipment or a great editor, you need to become a master of many different practical skills, theoretical knowledge and a distinctive mindset to navigate this dynamic industry. In this module, you'll learn how to create engaging, long-form videos for YouTube, as well as the theory behind what makes compelling and shareable content.

Balance, Bias and Objectivity

What are your responsibilities as a journalist? As you continue to work on your own storytelling content, this module will help you to further your understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks you need to know about, and why this is important. Are there always two sides to a story, and do we always hear them and what’s the best way to think about this?

Core modules

Content Strategy for Creators

In this module, you'll learn to craft engaging content, build a personal brand, and utilise various platforms to reach and grow an audience, equipping you with the tools to become a successful content creator.

Podcasting and Audio Production

This module gives you a grounding in the core skills of podcasting and audio journalism and encourages you to be creative and audience focused as you develop your broadcasting voice. You'll learn the history of podcasting, plus the back-end knowledge of analytics, monetisation and promotion that are essential for audience growth.

Video Journalism

Video journalists create engaging stories about what is happening in the world, hold authority to account and influence big changes to decision-making. In this module, you'll learn to create engaging, informative and inclusive news reports for broadcast and social media outputs. You'll also be taught how to use smartphone and industry-standard equipment to produce news reports and features which could be broadcast by a real TV station.

The Business of the Creator Economy

The creator economy is worth £200 billion and is due to double by the end of the decade, according to industry reports. This growth stems from the increasing influence of content creators, rising digital media consumption, expanding marketing budgets, enhanced trust from major brands, and advancements in monetisation tools. This module will explore how you can claim your slice of this burgeoning industry and carve out a career as a digital entrepreneur.

Media Innovation and Immersive Storytelling

As technology evolves, content becomes more personalised and interactive and tools such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality become integrated into journalism storytelling and content creation. This module will help you contextualise the role of these technological innovations in the media, exploring the creation of products and services, their design and development, and the process and practice behind the media start ups which use them.

Data Journalism And Visualisation

This module provides the necessary skills to analyse, visualise, and communicate information, particularly data, clearly and accurately. It also addresses ethical considerations, ensuring you understand the importance of data accuracy and transparency. By mastering these skills, you'll be equipped to work in a digital world saturated with data.

Core modules

AI Advances In Journalism

The integration of AI is rapidly reshaping the media landscape, and this module acknowledges that you have already been introduced to the foundational concepts of AI and its applications within journalism in earlier modules. Building upon that knowledge, this module delves deeper into the transformative power of AI, exploring its cutting-edge applications and potential future developments within the field.

Professional Placement

This module provides you with the opportunity to apply and enhance the journalistic, content creation, and media production skills developed throughout your degree in a real-world professional setting. It encourages you to seek out and undertake a placement of a minimum of 100 hours (or three weeks) in an industry or organisation where these skills are valued and used.

Independent Media Project

This module is a pivotal component of the course and is designed to integrate your experiences, skills, and career aspirations. By engaging in a single, multi-platform journalistic project, you gain hands-on experience, enhance your technical and critical thinking abilities, and foster creativity and innovation. This module not only helps you build a professional portfolio that showcases your talents but also emphasises ethical journalism and provides valuable industry insights.

The Future of Journalism

As traditional journalism faces disruption from digital technologies, economic restructuring and shifting audience expectations, it is essential to understand the contours of change. In this module, you'll explore emerging trends, ethical challenges, and innovative storytelling techniques, preparing you to thrive in a media environment that demands adaptability, creativity, and a critical understanding of how journalism has the capacity to shape public discourse and influence social change.

Pro-Level Broadcasting

This module provides an in-depth understanding of how TV and radio broadcasts are crafted, combining technical expertise with editorial judgment. As a broadcast journalist, your newsgathering, editorial decision-making, and production abilities must be finely honed to deliver factual, compelling outputs quickly and efficiently, without compromising on quality.

Optional modules

Please note: Not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year.

Investigative Journalism

This module goes beyond traditional reporting techniques, integrating digital investigation methods inspired by leading investigative groups. You'll learn how to analyse open-source intelligence (OSINT), verify social media content, and use data-driven research - without requiring a background in computer science. By mastering these modern investigative tools alongside core journalistic principles, you'll be prepared to navigate the challenges of contemporary reporting and produce impactful, evidence-based journalism.

Travel Journalism

Travel journalism is very different from most journalism. Of course, it gives you a chance to visit amazing places but it also teaches you specialised, valuable writing techniques and structural disciplines that are highly useful in many other forms of written journalism (and TV feature-making too). In this module, you'll write two articles during the term and receive feedback on them. In addition, you'll write one article at the end of the term, based on a ‘press trip’ – all students visiting one place on one day and turning an article around with a few days. You'll also do an analysis comparing two pieces of travel writing, and write a reflective blog detailing what you have learned during the module.

Photography

This module will develop your photography skills to a very high level, allowing you to be creative and professional in your image making. You'll learn how the camera and lenses function, as well as look at a range of lighting techniques.