Journalism & Media Cultures and Law BA (Hons)

About the course

Journalism & Media Cultures

You will gain a wide range of journalistic skills and hands-on experience as part of this course. You’ll learn to write in a variety of styles and for different audiences as well as gaining a working knowledge of how communication works and the nature of the British media. Some students may even have the opportunity to get some of their work published.

In your first year you will study Journalism and Media Cultures equally, you can choose to drop one in your second year and take the other forward as a minor field. Maintaining both throughout your degree will allow you to major in Journalism and Media cultures in your final year (there is currently no major option in second year).

Law

Develop relevant practical skills to prepare you for a wide range of careers. Our law modules are taught through a participative and interactive environment.

You will develop:

• interpersonal and group skills
• an ability to solve problems
• logical argument and reasoning skills
• your interpretation of the written word
• an understanding of social values and public affairs

Whether you are interested in becoming a legal practitioner or simply interested in the law in a more general context, you will develop a core set of skills that will develop your employability and provide valuable insights. Joint Honours students studying the Law field as a major subject will gain a law qualifying degree and will be exempt from the first stage of legal professional examinations. You can progress to the postgraduate solicitors’ (LPC) or barristers (BPTC) course. 

Why choose this course?

Journalism and Media Cultures

• Develop your understanding of printed media including how to write news stories, features and conduct an interview
• Understand the complex relationships between media and the society we live in
• Explore the legal and ethical issues faced by the media and examine the dilemmas journalists may face

Law

• Study at one of the top five post-1992 university law schools in the UK
• Equip yourself for a broad range of careers in the law industry, commerce and the public sector
• Gain experience through mooting and debating competitions as well as visits to courts and tribunals

Study routes

• Part Time,
• Sandwich,

Locations

• University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Careers

This programme gives you flexibility in your studies at university resulting in flexibility in your choice of career at the end of your course. You will acquire a much broader base of knowledge and experience that could really widen your employment opportunities. Graduates have found employment in diverse roles such as computer programmers, design engineers, management development specialists, accountants and project managers. Over 72% of our graduates had entered employment six months after graduation, and a further 17% had gone on to further study or training.

Teaching methods

You experience a wide variety of learning styles when you study on the programme. During your time with us we will develop your capacity for self-learning and your interpersonal skills. We particularly emphasise the importance of structured research; well-prepared written and verbal presentations; and computer literacy. Alongside elements of standard lectures, seminars, tutorials and laboratories, you also learn through case studies, individual and group projects and other student centered activities. In your final year you will normally have the opportunity to practise your self-learning and interpersonal skills by undertaking a Major project or dissertation.

Work Placement

You will have the opportunity to take a paid work placement or study abroad for a year between your second and final years, extending your degree from a three year to a four year qualification. You will not be required to pay tuition fees for this year and you will gain excellent experience that sets you apart from the crowd in the graduate jobs market.

Study Abroad

You can study in most European countries, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, South Africa, Russia, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. You will study a programme of taught modules and/or project work with one of our partner universities, which will complement your studies on the Joint Honours Programme. You may need to study the language of your chosen country in your first and second years. Depending on where you choose to study you may be eligible to apply for certain grants, scholarships and financial support to help finance your study abroad experience.

Work Placement

A work placement provides you with an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience and put your theoretical knowledge and understanding from your studies in to practice.

Our Careers and Placements service will help you to develop your CV and support you through the application process for a wide range of placement opportunities in a variety of sectors and organisations.

Structure

Year 1

Core Modules

• Journalism Skills: Print News and Features

  Workshops designed to simulate a newsroom environment will encourage students to explore newsgathering, news writing, feature writing and interviewing. The module will introduce students to a diverse range of publications including broadsheets, tabloids and magazines. Students will critically assess the material and identify the different styles and approaches taken to news articles and features. The fundamentals of practical journalism will be explored, including using English effectively and developing editing and proofreading skills. Skills taught will include: sourcing ideas, researching a story, employing a variety of methodologies, targeting the audience/market/readers, structuring news and feature articles, effective introductions and endings, headlines, using the 5 ‘Ws’, the ‘advertorial’ and personality profiles.

• Introduction to Media Communications

  This module introduces students to different theories on media culture. It addresses the different skills that are required for interpreting mediated information in various forms, whether written, pictorial or audio-visual. It also introduces key debates that have occupied the analysis of media culture in recent decades. Students are required to read and understand some of the foundational writing in the study of media culture and to appreciate the main ways in which it has been theorised. They are expected to begin applying these theoretical models to specific examples of mediated communication.

• Journalism, Law and Ethics

  In this module, students will be introduced to key laws impacting on journalists in the UK including defamation, copyright and Freedom of Information. They will also explore the Human Rights Act as it affects UK journalists and compare UK defamation with US defamation. Students will also investigate the ethical dilemmas that may impact on journalists in any Western liberal democracy and look at the codes of conduct that have been put in place to encourage ethical behaviour.

• Media and Society

  This module considers the relationship between media institutions or products and their social context. Particular attention will be paid to the degree to which the media reflect or shape social attitudes. Through discussions of issues such as class, race and gender this module will consider how different social groups are represented in media institutions and by mediated images. This module will also examine the public role of the media and students will be asked to think analytically about concepts such as free press, media impartiality or bias, and the relationship of the media with commercial and political institutions.

• Law of Contract

  The module will cover:- Formation of a contract: offer, acceptance, consideration, privity. Contents of the contract: conditions, warranties, express and implied terms, standard form contracts, exclusion clauses. Vitiating factors: misrepresentation, mistake, undue influence, duress; unconscionable bargains and inequality of bargaining power. Discharge of contractual obligations; performance, agreement, frustration, breach. Remedies for breach of contract: damages, specific performance, rescission, injunctions. An outline of the law of restitution.

• Legal Procedures, Ethics and Skills

  The module is designed to introduce students to research skills concepts, aspects and structure of the civil and criminal branches of the English legal system and the professional ethics of the legal profession.

Optional

Year 2

Core Modules

• Media in an International Context

  This module allows students to make a series of international comparisons with the media in England. It provides a series of case studies explaining how media institutions are distributed in a chosen country and indicating how this is linked to a specific history of media development and to the different political structures in the country being studied. This module places an emphasis on the relationships between media institutions or products and the socio-political construction of their different audiences.

• Journalism Skills: Print News, Markets and Styles

  In this module students will be introduced to researching and reporting techniques for news reports and will be developing and extending the skills in writing print news acquired at Level One. Workshop sessions will enable students to gain hands-on practice in writing news reports in a simulated newsroom environment. There will be an emphasis on the use of ICT to research stories and students will be encouraged to use the Associate Press feed and ICT-based information management techniques, including databases and e-journals, such as Infotrack and the British Journalism Review. Students will to write copy and produce a portfolio through which they explore in greater depth the key written and visual ingredients of news journalism.

• Journalism Skills: Features, Markets and Styles

  In this module students will be introduced to researching and reporting techniques for writing features and will be developing and extending the skills in writing acquired at Level 4. Workshop sessions will be enable students to gain hands-on practise of writing features in a simulated magazine or supplement environment.

• Research Methods

  This module teaches you the basic principles of research in media and the means by which to devise research questions and select appropriate methodologies, as well as instruction on how to write a research report. Students will learn how to choose a research topic, conduct a literature review, and develop an appropriate research plan. It covers all the key aspects of media and communication, including analysis of media production, media texts, and audience studies. It further offers specific guidance and instruction on a systematic application of a range of research methods, and addresses methods of sampling and data collection, including interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions, as well as approaches to online research.

• European Union Law

  The module examines the EU institutions, the decision-making process as well as the key principles underpinning the EU legal order. The general principles of EU law are also examined, including the principles regarding the protection of fundamental rights. Enforcement procedures are examined. Students will also be introduced to substantive areas of EU law such as free movement of persons, free movement of goods and competition.

• Commercial Law

  This module introduces students to aspects of English commercial law with substantial reference to the laws relating to sale of goods contracts including the legal issues surrounding implied terms, exemption clauses, the passing of property and risk, nemo dat and exceptions to that rule, and remedies of the seller and buyer, including consumer protection mechanisms. Students will examine the wider implications of English commercial law with particular reference to the areas of codification and an introduction to agency and international commercial law.

Optional

Year 3

Core Modules

• Year Abroad

  A Study Abroad year is an optional additional year that increases the length of the Honours degree award to a four-year full-time degree. The additional year comprises an agreed programme of study in a partner institution abroad with whom the University of Hertfordshire has an institutional agreement. The programme of study will support, supplement and extend the more usual three-year programme. Success in the third year will be recognised in the title of the award, but does not carry additional credit towards the Honours programme. A student would normally confirm the intention to study abroad during the first ten weeks of study at Level 2. This will enable a place to be negotiated at a host institution and the Study Programme and learning contract to be arranged and agreed.

Optional

Year 4

Core Modules

• Company Law

  The module will examine the structure of the modern day company in both the public and private form. It will consider the constitution of the company, the rights and duties of directors and shareholders and the interests of employees and creditors. The financing of companies will also be considered, as will the key areas of corporate governance, minority protection and the current reform issues in Company Law as a whole.

Optional

• Advertising

  This module will look at advertising and the ways in which they attempt to construct desire for specific products. It will analyse the social function of adverts in relation to certain social categories such as gender, race and sexuality. It will also look at the placing of advertising in specific media locations, asking students to consider why adverts for certain types of products are placed in specific locations. This will include a consideration of market segmentation and television scheduling in an attempt to link certain products to specific demographic patterns. This module will also consider the relationship between advertising and other media forms, especially film and television, to consider the degree to which advertising relies upon codes that are produced in other cultural products. This module will include a consideration of the use of advertising in the new media.

• Journalism, Government and the People

  This module explores the relationship between the press and the government. It will cover the structure and operation of government to include the principles of democracy, parliament and constitution. In addition, the module will cover such topics as: the role of the lobby correspondent; the reporting of parliament; parliamentary and European elections and the influence of journalists on government policy.

• Digital Media

  This module closely looks at emergent forms of media, particularly the influence of digital technologies on traditional forms of media, such as film and journalism. We will critically analyse the impact of the digital revolution, from HDTV to virtual realities, from citizen journalism to wikileaks and cyber-criminality, from music downloads to E-books. Using a range of critical theorists, we will discuss the challenges of these developments for old media as well as the creative opportunities new media forms provide.

• Online Journalism

  The course will consist of 12, two-hour seminars in which students will - through a mix of lectures, demonstrations, discussion and practical tasks - learn the basics of Online Journalism. This will include an appreciation of the massive impact that new digital communications technologies have had on the publishing industry, as well as a detailed understanding of how writing for the internet differs from so-called ‘off-line’ Journalism. Students will also learn, through the use of a Content Management System (CMS), how to upload and format content – both written and multimedia – which is suitable for publication.

• Journalism Portfolio

  This module gives you a taste of the real-life world of journalism through working for a variety of different publications, mediums and in different environments. You will be encouraged to apply for and take part in relevant journalism-related work experience for a minimum of ten days or equivalent. You will produce reflective assignments documenting the experience of applying for and working in the relevant field and focusing on what they have learnt. You will also put together a varied portfolio of articles which you will have researched and written under your tutor’s guidance. These will be for a range of publications including newspapers, magazines and websites.

• Campaigns and Careers

  The structure of the module reflects the diversity of the areas covered within the course. It works particularly well with the Corporate Communications module that runs in semester A, but can be taken on its own as well. This module introduces students to the variety of options available within the communications industry and illustrates the value of communication skills across a range of different sectors. The emphasis on the module is to take a hands-on approach that allows students to engage with the academic content in a very practical manner. In addition, the module will also transmit general skills such as team working, interview techniques and CV writing, which are important f or getting a job in the media and beyond. During the course we will be looking at the media industries in general, the challenges faced but also the variety of opportunities available to Communications professionals. We will explore specialist areas of professional communications, for example Political PR and Campaigning f or charities and NGOs, as well as embarking on a range of sessions on versatile knowledge, which could include some or all of the following topics: Pitching & Public Speaking, the Teamworking, Handling Media, CVs and interview skills. In addition, students will get the opportunity to apply the skills by presenting their own projects and learn how to promote themselves successfully

• Corporate Communications

  This module provides a broad understanding of the principles, techniques and strategies that underpin corporate communications, with particular emphasis on Public Relations and brand management. It is designed to reflect the current awareness of, and the benefits that organisations can derive from, adopting an integrated approach to communications. This module adopts a strategic approach to the study of corporate communications and builds an understanding of the variations in consumer behaviour, and how communication strategies and programmes can be developed, organised and implemented. The course also addresses critical issues relating to recent developments in the field.

• Law of Tort

  The module considers the law relating to Torts including the tort of negligence, with consideration of 'special duty' topics such as psychiatric injury and economic loss. Statutory torts such as the Occupier's Liability 1957, 1984; Animals Act 1971 and Consumer Protection Act 1987 are also examined. The module also considers intentional torts of assault, battery, false imprisonment and the rule in Wilkinson v Downton. Nuisance and Rylands v Fletcher, together with employer's liability - vicarious and primary non-delegable duty are also covered in the module.

• Land Law

  The module will contain a brief introduction to the meaning of land, the historical development of land law and the formalities for the creation of legal and equitable third party interests in land. A more in-depth study will be made of the registered system (with emphasis on the Land Registration Act 2002), trusts of land (including disputes), resulting and constructive trusts of the family home, proprietary estoppel, co-ownership, leases (with emphasis on enforceability of leasehold covenants), easements, freehold covenants, mortgages and adverse possession.

Fees & funding

Fees 2013

UK/EU Students

Full time: £8,500 for the 2013 academic year

International Students

Full time: £9,500 for the 2013 academic year

Discounts are available for International students if payment is made in full at registration

View detailed information about tuition fees

Scholarships

• National Scholarship Programme

Find out more about scholarships for UK/EU and international students

Other financial support

Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students

Living costs / accommodation

The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.

View detailed information about our accommodation

How to apply