BA (Hons) Journalism and Public Relations

Level One

Media Law 1
Journalism students are required to abide by the law, in terms of newsgathering and research methods, data collection and retention, use of communication networks and publishing and broadcasting material to audiences. This module introduces students to the legal system, to the operation of the courts, and examines the impact of legislation and codes of practice on the work of journalists.

Public Administration 1: Democracy and Bureaucracy
This module will study the political and administrative structure of government, local government and EU institutions, evaluating how the legal system operates within the democratic process, which in turn depends on journalists monitoring, interpreting and explaining current affairs to voters and taxpayers.

Journalism Skills (Double module)
Students will progress through the key journalistic skills of newsgathering, writing, editing and design in the modern mass media world. Using a blend of practice and theory, students will be encouraged to develop a rounded awareness of the media and will produce portfolios of their work. There will be a focus on newsgathering and writing skills which is then reinforced with the use of editing techniques. The way design influences different media will also be analysed.

Business Planning and Forecasting
This introduces some quantitative techniques fundamental to analysis, planning and forecasting in business. It promotes a critical awareness and understanding of some of the processes, techniques and technology by which numerical information can be collected and communicated. Students practise the systematic use of appropriate industry-standard computer technology for the acquisition, analysis and presentation of data (for example, Excel or SPSS).

Financial Communications
This module provides students with an understanding of the relevance of finance and accounting and some of the current issues facing business people. It develops students’ ability to understand and comment upon issues which will arise when pursuing a business career. It examines the underlying reasons behind why organisations spend considerable time and money producing ‘financial communications’, and the extent to which these communications achieve their objectives.

Principles of Marketing
This provides an introduction to the theory and practice of marketing. Students are familiarised with key concepts and issues of marketing, giving them a thorough grasp of marketing decisions and what factors affect them. Learning is somewhat directive and progressively students are required to become more independent in their work. There are two different assessment types: individual essay writing and a group presentation. This prepares students for future modules in the programme.

Introduction to Public Relations
The module provides a broad introduction to corporate public relations (PR), including the role of PR within corporate life, in particular, the assurance of an organisation’s reputation. It is designed for students with no previous experience or knowledge of public relations and the professional activities of practitioners.
There are two main areas of study:
1. The context of public relations.
2. The practice of public relations to meet objectives.

Level Two

Media Law 2
This module builds on legal and administrative knowledge gleaned at Level 1, examines how criminal and civil legislation affecting print, online and broadcast journalists has developed, identifies areas of conflict and uncertainty, and requires the student to apply knowledge of legislation and case law to given scenarios including responses to actions in the civil courts.

News, Features, Reportage
Students will proactively gather news and feature stories employing the full range of research and interview techniques in a newsroom setting. They will also participate in press conferences, press briefings, speech events, magistrates’ court hearings, and council meetings. The emphasis will be on the creation of imaginative and original copy, conforming to professional standards with careful consideration of angle, choice of interviewees, attribution and corroboration of facts.

Public Administration 2: The Journalist as Public Watchdog?
This module focuses on the use (and misuse) of public and private funds by institutions and considers the operation of internal and external checks against corrupt dealings, fraud and false accounting. In the context of the current political and economic climate, students are encouraged to consider whether or not the ‘Fourth Estate’ is in an effective position to challenge corrupt and unethical practices on the part of politicians, bureaucrats and associated business interests.

Journalism Options
Students choose one from the following:

• Reporting Social and Cultural Diversity - The role of the media as a ‘mirror’ of society means that journalists encounter cross-cultural issues in their newsgathering and news processing functions. This module will prepare students to write stories with cultural sensitivity, care and compassion.

• Ethics and International Human Rights for Journalists - This module highlights the importance of a critical and comparative knowledge of human rights issues to the practice of journalism and aims to develop students’ awareness of the range of ethical issues facing journalists.

• The Origins of Modern Britain - This module examines British society from c1945. It will enable Journalism students to critically consider the historical background to some of the issues which feature in contemporary news agendas and look at the role of the press in recording them.

Managing Public Relations
This module looks at Public Relations and how it works as a business in its own right, together with how it works as a function of other businesses. Managing Public Relations takes students' existing knowledge of PR and raises it to embrace the fundamentals of day-to-day business management. This is in order to provide a clear image of the establishment, structure and style of a PR consultancy, linked to the professional processes that go on within the business. This module also considers the role of PR within an organisation, considering the similarities and differences between the structure and performance of consultancy and in-house PR resources.

Services Marketing Unit
Increasing standards of living and wealth in western society has resulted in more of the working population earning their living from providing services. More of our income is spent on services rather than manufactured goods and will continue to be so. Traditional marketing modules tend to be product-based rather than reflecting the importance of the consumption of services and the implications. A wide range of services will be used in this module however, with particular emphasis on the smaller service providers.

PR for Marketing Support (Double Module)
This module addresses the role of public relations within an integrated marketing communications campaign plan (communication tools and media choices). It develops students' understanding of communication models and use of appropriate communication tools. It will also include a knowledge, application and evaluation of specific public relations marketing techniques, such as developing relationships with the media, sponsorship, events and stunts, and blogging. Students will thus be able to plan and evaluate the contribution of marketing public relations within an integrated marketing communications campaign strategy and develop their skills in presenting and defending their ideas within a realistic context.

Level Three

Advanced Feature Development
Students will examine and analyse feature formats across a wide range of publications, from general readership newspapers and magazines to specialist and niche journals aimed at the ‘expert’. Students will study the particular attributes needed for specialist feature writing including: authority, expertise, ability to access specialist information, feature ‘spot’ format requirements, etc.

The Business of Journalism
Here students focus on employment opportunities in journalism, featuring the role of freelancers, specialist contributors, in-house journalists, editors/managers and changing patterns of work in the industry. Students will conduct research into recruitment policies, employment opportunities, job application and interview skills and will examine the commercial relationship between the journalist and individual print titles, broadcast or web-based news companies.

Journalism Level 3 options
Students can choose to do either *

• Journalism Independent Study (Double module) - Students undertaking a dissertation in the subject of journalism are able to investigate a topic of their own choice within the field of journalism studies and apply key theoretical concepts to their research. Although staff supervision is provided, students are required to work on their own initiative and provide clear evidence of their ability to collect, select and evaluate relevant information and present it in a clear and logical manner.

Or two from the following:

• International Media Policies (option) - The module will look at media broadcasting structures in the UK and in other countries. It will develop the students’ critical understanding of models of national broadcasting and the implications for media policy and mass media role in society. Furthermore, the module will introduce students to the role of media policy actors including the fundamental contexts of national, cultural and economic systems which inform the development of media policy debate.

• Peace and Conflict Reporting (option) - This module will explore the history of war reporting, examining the evolution of war-making by major Western powers and the ways in which journalists have represented those conflicts. In addition it will consider the reasons why some conflicts are marginalised, ignored altogether or given extensive coverage by the mainstream media.

• Comparative Media History (option) - This module enables students to appreciate trends and changes within all the main media industries; press, radio, TV, cinema, music and the internet on a comparative basis between countries and between platforms. The module offers an opportunity to understand how the media has reached the state it is now in, and what trends are likely to continue in the future.

*NB. Students should take the Journalism Independent Study module if they are not doing so in Public Relations. However, those who are undertaking an Politics independent study must take, instead, two 15 credit modules from shown above.

Strategic Corporate Public Relations (Double Module)
This module focuses on how organisations and other corporate entities can use public relations to enhance and maintain corporate reputation, and to defend reputation when it may be under attack. Three key audiences are examined:

• Internal audiences
• Financial/city/investor audiences
• Business and government.

Values Issues and Crisis Management Counselling (Double Module)
In this module students evaluate several approaches to the determination of ethical principles and consider the application of these to potential ethical problem cases in the practice of public relations and in relation to the ethical codes of a number of public relations professional bodies. The focus will then be placed specifically on the relationship between organisations and issues with a potential for entering the public policy agenda. In particular students consider the concept of moral panic, the role played by the media in promulgating it and evaluating public relations strategies for managing the problem.

There is also the opportunity for students to work, in any capacity, on SIREN FM; the University of Lincoln’s own Community Radio station which broadcasts to the Lincoln area and further afield via the web and already students following programmes of study joint with Journalism have made a significant impact on the station’s output.

The journalism programme is based in the MHAC building, a purpose built Media base, at the Brayford Pool campus in Lincoln and students on a joint honours programme with Journalism benefit from:

• Seven news rooms
• Online news feeds and editing software

The BA (Hons) Public Relations and Journalism graduate will be able to evaluate evidence, arguments and assumptions, to reach sound judgements and to communicate effectively. Through this, the graduate will develop analytical techniques and problem-solving skills that can be applied in many types of employment within public relations, but also of value in other career choices, including further study.