COURSE CURRICULUM

The BA in Journalism at the University of Leicester is structured to progressively develop students’ practical skills, theoretical understanding, and specialist knowledge across all news platforms. In the first year, students focus on core journalistic skills such as news-gathering, interviewing, and features production, while gaining an understanding of the ethical, regulatory, and historical context of journalism through modules in journalism ethics, regulation, and history. The second year emphasizes applying these skills across broadcasting, digital, and web-based platforms, with students engaging in practical modules such as digital and social media journalism and data journalism. Students also have the opportunity to pursue specialist interests through optional modules in political communication, magazine journalism, broadcast journalism, and sports journalism. The final year integrates previous learning into advanced projects, enabling students to produce their own consumer publication while investigating a specific area of journalism in an extended dissertation. Core modules include two publishing projects and the journalism dissertation, while optional modules allow students to deepen skills in investigative, freelance, political, crime, or entrepreneurial journalism, among other areas. Throughout the degree, emphasis is placed on developing critical thinking, research abilities, and professional practice, ensuring graduates are equipped to work across traditional and emerging media sectors with a strong foundation in both theory and applied journalism.