Journalism courses without UK media law.

[TobyCohen]

Hello,

I was hoping some of you may be able to offer me your experience or opinions.

I am from the UK and have been working in international development for the past few years. I have decided to move in to journalism and would aim to report on issues surrounding aid, international development and development discourses.

I have been considering courses at City, but am a little unsure about what the best option might be. The International Journalism MA seems like a natural choice considering my interests. However, this course does not cover UK media law and related topics. Although happy to spend time abroad, it is likely that I would spend much of my time in the UK. Can anyone give me any thoughts on how prohibitive not having this background would be?

The other options I have been looking at are the Political Journalism MA and Investigative Journalism MA (also at City). Does anybody have any experience with these courses or the extent to which they may be applicable to international issues?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated and hopefully I can return the favour to some of you one day.

All the best,
Toby

[BrightonJW]

Hi Toby

If you want to get a job in Journalism in the UK, you will need to study Media Law.
I did the NCTJ at Brighton Journalist works. We had an excellent Law teacher, who has his own company specialising in Freedom of Information laws for the nationals. He really knows his stuff. It was my favourite part of the course.
You will need the whole NCTJ which also covers Sub-editing, Shorthand, Public Affairs, News-writing and reporting. It is an excellent fast-track qualification, and all the people on my course ended up with jobs in in journalism.
You do not need to do an MA.
I hope this helps

Ericka