MA Project

Module leaders

Individual pathway/programme directors.

Rationale

The intention is for the MA project to offer a more flexible and practical alternative to the traditional dissertation as the final stage in a practice-based MA. It brings together the knowledge and skills acquired by students in a final work that is of professional quality, and that is relevant and significant to media professionals in the students chosen area. Each student to produce a project that builds on what he or she has learned during the programme, that synthesizes this learning with professional experience, and that has the potential to contribute to the public's understanding of the field of study, or to the profession's better understanding of its working methods. To this end, each project must be directed at a specified audience. The project would still allow for critically reflective topics, questions and themes to be explored and pursued where students wished, but the emphasis of the department is on practice-based education, and to that end the MA Project module meets its needs more fully than a conventional dissertation.

Module aims

To allow you to use the skills acquired through the programme to produce work of professional quality and to produce work that will demonstrate and apply the knowledge and skills gained in taught parts of the MA programme to the benefit of the public and the enhancement of the profession, and your own career development or commencement.

Indicative content

The project requires students to engage in depth with a topic and to carry out primary research/investigation to advance the boundaries of knowledge in the field. It typically requires field-work; fresh research, analysis and thinking; wider implications; the identification of further lines of research; and the presentation of these findings in a manner appropriate to the format chosen.


The MA Project should be introduced with a covering letter that addresses issues detailed in the assessment and content paper.
Acceptable formats for the final project include a publishable (in any medium) series, story, or article on an important journalistic issue, an original publishable research paper on an important dimension of journalism and communication, OR a multimedia production on an important journalism issue or problem that is commercially viable OR a professional-calibre report and multimedia presentation addressing a real problem for an existing media company, e.g. redesigning a programme format, creating a new one or developing strategies to reach new audiences OR a book chapter.


Other formats may also be used, but require approval of the programme management team. It is expected that the amount of work required to complete this project will be comparable to the work the University expects for a 60-credit graduate level thesis or dissertation, that is between 10,000 - 15,000 words or, for an audiovisual production, approximately 30 minutes. Because of the need to keep a professional focus, a series of articles on a chosen theme, of at least 4,000 words each will be acceptable.


You may work closely with your pathway director, or with both the director and the second reader. However, the project proposal must be presented and approved by both reviewers, as well as an outside professional. The advisor may require minor changes to the final project as a result of feedback from the public presentation. In addition, it must be deemed professionally important OR publishable OR commercially viable by an appropriate outside professional at the presentation stage. You are responsible for recruiting the outside professional to review the MA project (editor, producer, reporter, etc.) although the department will have final approval of such individuals.

Assessment and credit

60 credits

The module is compulsory for students on the MA in Journalism (pathways in Broadcast Journalism, Magazine Journalism, Newspaper Journalism, Investigative Journalism, and Television Current Affairs Journalism).

The module is assessed by submission of the project, and a proposal presentation.