September 2021
Full-time: 10 months
Full-time: £10,610 *
TBC
Full-time: £21,230 *
From October 2020
This course is suitable for students with a degree looking to become good all-round television journalists capable of working in newsrooms, on multi-media and in documentaries and current affairs. Applicants should have an interest in video and TV films and have a broad general knowledge including lifestyle, sport and politics. This course is not about general TV presenting, it is how to write, create and report visual journalism for yourself and others to present. Vitally, you should want to communicate using moving pictures and be excited by the wonderful world of television!
MA Television Journalism has an outstanding reputation in, and unparalleled contact with, the professional world - each Wednesday students work in the journalism industry.
With weekly newsdays, students learn practical multimedia skills: finding, researching, writing, newsgathering, interviewing, presenting, reporting, self-shooting, and editing content, all supported by core journalism principles (Media Law, Journalism Ethics, Data Journalism and Political Headlines).
Students make half-hour documentaries in teams of three in the final term. These have won such awards as the Today Programme Student Broadcaster of the Year 2019, Guardian Young Journalists of the Year, BJTC documentary award, and been re-worked for broadcast on BBC Newsnight.
Students work in small teaching groups ensuring daily personal contact with tutors including former BBC/ITV self-shooting producer-director Sally Webb; ABC news producer Mike Trew; investigative journalist Paul Lashmar; Reuters and Sky News journalist George Negas; BBC World Service’s Dr Abdullahi Tasiu Abubakar; former Reuters editor Lloyd Watson and former editor of The Andrew Marr Show Professor Barney Jones.
This degree is accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC)
Applicants should hold an upper second-class honours degree or the equivalent from an international institution. Consideration will also be given to mature applicants with substantial work experience in radio and/or television journalism. Students whose first language is not English are advised to apply for the International Journalism MA, which is designed specifically for students from outside the UK.
All complete applications will be considered and shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend an open day and interview at the Institution.
You should hold an upper second class honours degree or the equivalent from an international institution.
Applicants must demonstrate a knowledge of TV news and current affairs. We expect a high standard of general knowledge relating to politics, international news, sport and entertainment.
Television Journalism applicants would be well advised to have work experience with a TV company or student TV, but this is desirable rather than essential. You should be able to demonstrate an interest in visual media.
As well as new graduates, we also welcome mature applicants with substantial work experience in radio and/or television journalism.
Don’t meet the entry requirements? INTO City, University of London offers a range of academic and English language programmes to help prepare you for study at City, University of London. You’ll learn from experienced teachers in a dedicated international study centre.
These programmes are designed for international students who do not meet the required academic and English language requirements for direct entry. To prepare for this degree course, learn more about the Graduate Diploma in Journalism.
If English is not your first language, you must get a minimum overall score of 7.0 in the IELTS English language test, including at least 7.0 in the writing component of the test and no lower than 6.5 in any other component. Students from outside the UK might wish to apply for the International Journalism MA, which is specifically designed for a global cohort.
Don’t meet the English language requirements? INTO City, University of London offers English language programmes to help prepare you for study at university. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability for entry to degree courses.
International Students (EEA and Non EEA) coming to study in the UK, may need to apply for a visa or entry clearance to come to the UK to study. The way that you apply may vary depending on the length of your course. There are different rules for:
For more information see our main Visa page.
MA Television Journalism (Full time)2021/2
You will expected to submit the following:
1. One application form
2. A copy of your degree transcript. We require one of the following: an original transcript; a copy certified by your institution; or an electronic scan of your transcript. If you have not yet graduated, you will be required to submit your degree transcript as soon as it is available. You will not be able to register as a City student without having supplied your degree transcript.
3. Details of your work experience in journalism. Applicants should be able to demonstrate commitment to journalism through relevant work experience. Please provide a copy of your CV.
4. Two written critiques:
* Fees in each subsequent year of study (where applicable) will be subject to an annual increase of 2%. We will confirm any change to the annual tuition fee to you in writing prior to you commencing each subsequent year of study (where applicable).
The following organisations have supported students in the Department of Journalism in the past. This is not a guarantee of future sponsorship, and you are advised to check the websites of these organisations for details of future bursary and scholarship schemes:
As part of our support for future journalists we have teamed up with big industry leaders (Guardian Media Group Scott Trust Bursaries, BAFTA, the Aziz Foundation and the Marjorie Deane Foundation Trust to name a few) to provide funding opportunities to help our students fund their postgraduate studies with us. This year we hope will be no exception (though we cannot guarantee future sponsorship). We announce all our scholarships on our website.
Ramita Navai
Ramita Navai, who graduated from City in 2003, is best known for her work for Channel 4's Unreported World. In this interview with PBS NewsHour, Ramita describes her work filming Undercover Syria, which won a 2012 News & Documentary Emmy Award.
Television Journalism MA have work experience each Wednesday. There is no doubt that the size of the City cohort means unique networking opportunities with present students and 4,000 alumni.
Organisations that have taken our students for work experience include:
In 2014 we completed a £12m development projects for our Journalism facilities. These facilities were developed in consultation with experts from the BBC and ITN, and were praised by the BJTC. Our facilities include:
We offer a free language course for City, University of London students.
We offer an extensive support network during your time here at City, University of London – from Learning Support (including disability support) and counselling to financial and career advice – leaving you free to enjoy every opportunity campus life has to offer.
Find out more about the different types of student support available.
All MA Journalism courses at City are practical, hands-on courses designed for people that want to become journalists. As a result, much of your coursework will be journalistic assignments that you produce to deadline, as you would in a real news organisation.
Some courses are taught in lecture theatres but most are small-group workshops that allow you to develop your journalistic skills and knowledge with the support of our expert academics.
Teaching hours are between Mondays to Fridays during working hours, and occasionally outside those times.
For details of the expert academics who teach on this course see the Academic Profiles below. In addition you will also be taught by a team of visiting lecturers.
In 2019/20 the experts listed below taught on this course, but may be subject to change in future years.
Mike Trew is a multi-skilled TV producer, whose clients include ABC News, Al Jazeera, and ESPN
Visiting Professor Barney Jones started a new award winning political programme in the 1990's - Breakfast with Frost - anchored by David Frost, then launched The Andrew Marr Show. Earlier in his career he worked a producer at Newsnight, and BBC Breakfast News, and ran Election coverage at the BBC.
Lloyd Watson was Duty Editor at GMTV, before becoming Senior Output Editor for Reuters. His last position with Thompson Reuters was as Editor, Television Production.
Claire de Than is Co-Director of the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism at City, University of London. She is a Law Commissioner (Jersey). The author or co-author of more than 15 books.
Assessments vary from module to module but include coursework, practical work both in groups and individually, a Final Project, a written timed test, and essays.
Activities include lectures, practical work in groups and individually, personal tutorials, and independent learning
This pathway is taught by professors, senior lecturers and lecturers, with industry practitioners as Visiting Lecturers, and a number of key industry visiting speakers.
All of our Television Journalism MA students must undertake underpinning core modules in Ethics, Rules and Standards and a Final Project. As a Television Journalism student you will have specialist core and elective modules that complement these projects.
You put practical journalism in an ethical context with case studies and there are discussion groups in term two.
You bring your skills together to make a film/radio feature or documentary, depending on the course you have chosen.
You learn the theory of finding and producing news for TV and radio. You take a weekly news and current affairs test; and learn how to write basic copy for broadcast news.
You undertake 15 news-days where you cover a designated area and produce a local news programme. You also look at longer form production like documentary and feature making.
On MA Television Journalism you will make a “Question Time” style programme in the studio.
On MA Broadcasting Journalism you make a multi-media radio based offering, producing a two-week long radio as-live radio station.
You learn the basics of UK Media Law to enable you to work in a UK newsroom
You learn the structure of British Government and how it works; and you meet journalists who report and present it.
You learn how to pitch an idea for a new, entrepreneurial sort of journalism.
You will learn up-to-the-minute journalism skills using statistics and data to provide and substantiate stories.
The advice applies for all MA Journalism courses:
"Get work experience on local, regional or national newspapers, magazines or regional broadcast stations. Check a news website every day (not just Twitter). Immerse yourself in current affairs, watch documentaries such as Dispatches and Panorama, listen to Radio 4's Today programme and watch BBC Newsnight. If you say you don't know who the Home Secretary is because you've been too busy doing your finals, you won't get a place. If you let your general knowledge slip while you are trekking round Thailand in the summer, you will suffer. Read the appropriate media, whether that's the Financial Times, New Scientist or Marie Claire - and most importantly, for broadcasters and TV students, watch and listen.
Read books about journalism by top journalists and develop an appetite for brilliantly-written newspaper and magazine features. Take an interest in some of the issues covered and develop your own perspective on them. Develop a professional online presence. Start to read/watch/listen as a journalist (ie. critically), and begin to question why something is news, how and why it is structured as it is and why specific words and images are used. Look at how the story is used across media platforms."
Within five months of completing the course in July 2019 students from this course had jobs or freelance at these broadcasters:
Alumni include BBC’s Sophie Raworth and famous names such as:
Find out more about City and all our postgraduate degree programmes.
