Masters of Arts in Journalism & Digital Communications

This module aims to provide learners with a critical understanding of the major theoretical paradigms of audience and communicative practice. It provides a theoretical underpinning to the range of media skills developed in the programme, providing critical context for the notion of audience in the production and reception of media products. As a complimentary module to Research Methods, it introduces learners to a range of theoretical frameworks and areas of media research to prepare learners for the completion of the MA Dissertation module.

This module equips learners with advanced skills in data journalism and analytics, enabling them to produce data-driven stories for digital media platforms. It fosters the ability to interpret and present complex data effectively to diverse media consumers, enhancing the impact of data-driven narratives. It prepares learners for employment in journalism and also in more diverse career paths, including commercial content creation, public relations, and marketing, and other communications roles across the digital communications industries.

This module aims to teach learners how to produce investigative journalism and to do so in an ethical manner. The module also aims to impart knowledge and practical awareness of how and why media institutions, practices, and culture developed in the way that they have in Western society, and to contextualise these developments within a sociological perspective in the contemporary digital communications era. 

This module enables learners to identify and fully utilise available and emerging research resources in the conduct of their dissertation investigation to support and direct their research methodology or techniques. The module aims for learners to be able to rigorously apply appropriate research, design and implementation methodologies to the development of media content, practices, processes and/or techniques. The module also affords learners the opportunity to complete significant research into specialist topics and present findings, insights and hypotheses reflecting a mastery of the concepts and techniques involved. Learners' dissertations can be academic works of 18,000 to 20,000 words, or can be practical dissertations of media artefact production (such as for example, a video or radio documentary, a series of investigative articles, a book of photography, an online magazine, etc) with appropriate supporting documentation.

This module aims for learners to gain the necessary skills required to initiate, research, and produce a design product such as a new online/offline magazine, from concept to completion. Learners will develop an understanding of design theory and the technical software skills needed in layout and design. Learners also develop their skills in sub-editing, housestyle adoption, and writing and designing media products for specific audiences. The module also aims to impart professional development skills and awareness for learners in areas such as how to register a company and register as self-employed, hiring an accountant, the basics of a SWOT for business plans, etc.

This module aims to develop learners’ overall creative and technical production abilities by equipping them with the practical skills to approach the production of factual visual programming on mobile devices for multiplatform distribution. Learners critically evaluate professional video standards and conceive, shoot, edit, and upload their own short video programming using mobile phones. They also learn to transfer footage from mobile to desktop computers to develop more advanced editing skills. The module develops learners’ concept development skills and digital video production skills for mobile journalism.

This module aims to enable learners to attain the practical skills required to identify, plan, research, write and edit publishable news reports, feature articles, and commercial content for identified audiences on multiple platforms and for different formats. Through practice, and through the use of AI to generate story ideas and conduct initial story research, learners develop the ability to use social media platforms to promote their writings, and to develop their online profile on their own WordPress website. The module also cultivates critical thinking among learners in relation to the role of and the future of, journalism in democratic societies.

This module aims to instil in learners the knowledge of how to create broadcast quality radio and podcast content including news and current affairs coverage. It equips learners with the ability to develop the skills, techniques, research ability, and the editorial standards which are necessary to work in a professional radio or podcasting environment.

This module aims to deepen learners’ research skills in relation to their module-related assignments and later in the completion of their dissertation or dissertation by practice. The module extends their abilities as self-directed learners by equipping them with the appropriate vocabulary for reflecting on, critiquing and evaluating their own work and that of others. Throughout the module, learners are required to engage with a number of research methodologies and current research issues and trends. The module also advances good project management skills and techniques so that learners can successfully deliver a research project including scoping media research projects and completing a literature review.

This module aims to enable learners to work as journalists and/or researchers covering issues that deal with the relationship between politics and economics, both at a national and international level. Learners are shown how to evaluate reports from economic and social research organisations on current topics related to global, regional, and national political economy. Learners develop the skills needed to assess how the interactions of governments impact on the broader context within which economic processes occur. Learners are equipped to research and write about the key organisations of global, regional, and national economic governance, and the main trends in the global economy with specific reference to the European and Irish economies.

This module aims to provide learners with a solid foundation in the practical, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of photojournalism and documentary photography. Covering a broad range of topics, from the beginnings of photojournalism and documentary photography through to its contemporary iterations, this module equips learners with an in-depth understanding of the technical and aesthetic approaches involved in the production of impactful narrative imagery.

This module enables learners to be able to play a lead role in production teams which produce and repurpose content for new and different online audiences, and to learn the key technical skills which allow them to plan, construct and develop their own and others’, online media artefacts. Learners develop the ability to use the current tools necessary for digital journalism and content creation, and the ability to apply these tools when creating journalistic material and media content online and across platforms. The module also develops learners’ ability to identify and evaluate trends and opportunities in online media, and also cultivates a critical comprehension in the design and construction of integrated web-based media content.

This module aims to give learners the necessary tools to become a sports journalist, including sports writing, broadcast experience and interview skills. The module affords a taste of practical, in-the-field work, and requires submitting pieces to tight deadlines. It also aims to give students instructions on how to report on live events, how to find the real story and how to stand out above all the noise. It introduces critical thinking to the processes of the industry, to the various platforms and to how different business models monetise sports journalism. It also seeks to hone learners’ critical faculties with regard to the broader aspects of sport and its effect on society.

This module aims to provide learners with an overview of the contemporary media business environment and the most significant trends that have emerged in the media sector over the last three decades. Through addressing a broad range of media business concerns, market structures, regulation, marketing, advertising, funding, audience measurement and intellectual property, the module is designed to equip learners with an understanding of the theoretical and practical issues that have shaped the contemporary media business ecosphere in which they will pursue careers.

This module aims to equip learners with foundational skills in video in the key areas of: research, concept and story development; visual storytelling technique (image and sound), approach, and visual sequencing; and editing (technical skill and basic craft). Learners build practical skills in camera, sound recording, and editing week by week while exploring video ideas through concept and story development using examples, guided practicals, in-class exercises and critical viewings of current video storytelling practice. Each learner makes a short non-fiction video on a topic of their choosing (3- 5 minutes in duration) with a strong focus on visual storytelling, and engaging narratives for their intended target audience for cross-platform distribution.

Study Mode: Full-Time

Dublin: EUR 8,000.00
 

Study Mode: Part-Time

Dublin: EUR 8,000.00
 

General Fee Information 

An Academic Administration Fee of €250 is payable each September at the start of term. For students starting in the January/February term, €125 is payable in February, and then €250 will be payable each September from then onwards. 

Study Mode: Full-Time

Fee: EUR 9,000.

Study Mode: Full-Time

Dublin 

Non-EU living in Ireland or abroad: Please refer to our Non-EU Tuition Fees section.

Non-EU students: a Student Services and Administration fee of EUR200 is payable each academic year in addition to the fees quoted below.