Modules

Production skills:

  • You'll develop further skills in newswriting, reporting and video production.
  • You'll shoot and edit using broadcast industry-standard hardware and software.
  • You'll get your creative content out to an audience online and on social media.
  • You'll build on what you learned at level four and introduce more specialised skills, telling stories with video, photography and podcasts.
  • You'll learn how to tell your stories, and gain an audience, using television, online and social media platforms.

Feature writing:

  • You'll learn to write engaging features good enough to capture a wide audience of 'real world' readers.
  • You'll take inspiration from the great feature-writers; writing about society, politics, sport, music, culture, and more.
  • You'll put into practice deeper, more immersive storytelling skills.
  • You'll investigate specialist feature-writers, niche genres and audiences.
  • You'll build a portfolio demonstrating your skills in different forms of feature-writing, including profiles, news features, reviews and opinion pieces.
  • You'll learn how to produce exciting photofeatures, capturing the world around you in striking photographs and captions.

This module considers popular music, and more specifically popular music journalism, by interrogating the way it intersects with society more broadly, and the cultural, and contemporary, concerns and contingencies of our society.

This module then draws on the processes of discourse analysis to consider how writers have stated their cases persuasively. In particular, it critically examines how discourses such as romanticism or authenticity - or cultural topics such as  identity, sexuality, race or gender - shape classic and contemporary journalistic accounts that discuss performers, recordings or genres. 

Building on Level 4's introductory approach to concerns of music journalism and music journalists, this module will now drill down to examine particular pieces of music journalism in much more forensic depth, looking for where these seams of cultural concern might lie within these texts.

This makes the module interdisciplinary. It is about popular music journalism, but that cannot be separate from the place of popular music culture in society.

It is also a more theoretical and academic stepping stone for your more in-depth studies at Level 6. For instance, you may find a particular writer, or discourse, that you want to research over the course of a dissertation. Similarly, you may find an intersection - such as that between popular music and gender - that you want to explore over an extended project such as a dissertation or podcast series.

The module, and its assessment, is therefore designed for you to work with music, music journalists, and contemporary cultural matters that interest you.  It thereby builds on your studies at Level 4, and helps prepare you for your more in-depth work at Level 6.

This module enables the students to consider their own work and careers in the context of the historical shape of popular music journalism, from the 1950s and the birth of rock & roll, through to the key changes in popular music, and its perennial accomplice - the music media. 

For instance, in a historical context, the module with move through cultural time periods such as rock & roll and the 1960s counterculture, considering subcultures such as punk and the rave scene. It will also further develop our knowledge of key music titles such as Rolling Stone in the USA, or inkies such as NME in the UK.  It will also involve considerations of popular music on broadcast mediums such as radio and TV, and also how popular music is critiqued and covered in our current digital landscape.

Stepping up from the more introductory nature of Level 4, the module now examines how music journalism has developed over time, by highlighting the historical contingencies that have shaped the role and function of the music critic, by investigating key writers in more depth. 

The module offers you the chance to explore popular music, and popular music media, through these decades, with a focus on the specific and varying demands of live performance, and recorded, music reviews.

Having stimulated reflection on historical perspectives, key writers and different media forms, the module then asks you to bring all of that knowledge into the production of your own music journalism pieces, with a view to publication on Chester Student Media.

Further working with media production software and techniques, this work will also improve your ability to produce music journalism and media artefacts, with a view to your more involved and advanced work at Level 6.

This module will examine the historical development of journalism and locate this within the wider social, economic and political context.

Central to the module is an analytical approach which seeks to contextualise the emergence of modern journalistic practice within wider developments in technology.

The emergence of media globalisation, social media and 'citizen journalism' will be examined and placed in historical context, with an emphasis on the international nature of such developments. Particular consideration will be taken of both the profession outside the 'anglosphere' and the developmental role of journalism: a comparative approach will therefore be taken.

The module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a 140-hour work placement*. This placement is complemented by a number of school-delivered sessions designed to develop their employability, professional practice, and students' understanding of their career options. Students learn to reflect on the nature of creativity within their studies, and gain awareness of how this is valued and relevant in modern workplaces.

*in some cases, evidence of considerable relevant graduate-level work experience may be accepted as an alternative to completion of the stipulated placement.

This module will provide you with the practical and theoretical underpinning of professional practice in your specific subject, enabling you to identify and develop key employability attributes and skills in preparation for your future career.  

You will spend several weeks working collaboratively with other students across the School for the Creative Industries on one major project or several smaller projects in a professional ‘simulated real world’ working environment.  Projects will be contemporary, topical, externally focussed and often involve partnership with outside agencies. The module will provide you with opportunities for immersive learning and the chance to apply your knowledge in real-world contexts.

This module will give you the opportunity to consider sports literature in context. Sport has always lent itself to a literary approach and we will consider multiple case studies from biography through to reportage through to fictionalised takes on the world of sport.

These case studies will take a global approach, from Argentina to Japan, and sports as diverse as cycling, football, rugby and golf. 

Literature can shape our perception and understanding of sport and its relationship to wider culture.

The links between sport and society, nation, race, gender and social class is critically important. Sport is a central part of our culture and this module allows you to explore this through the rich history of sports literature.

In this module you will reflect on the role of sports journalists in wider society. Sport, society and culture are increasingly intertwined and we will look at how sports journalism has developed through to the present, and how it is developing in relation to the wider media landscape.

You will also cover aspects of critical theory looking at how sport covers issues such as race, class and gender, as well as the relationship between sports and national identity in various different contexts.

Overall the module seeks to connect the acquisition of practical skills to a wider cognitive and critical approach, focusing on issues such as narrative frameworks, news values, and journalistic discourse.

The Level 5, 40-credit modules require a basic foundation of knowledge of your chosen language e.g. GCSE or equivalent,  a Level 4 module in the same language or equivalent previous learning. This module includes an optional placement abroad, such as an intensive course at a partner university. You can choose:

  • Advanced Language Development and Global Sustainability (choice of German, French or Spanish)
  • Upper Intermediate Language Development and Global Employability (choice of Chinese, French or Spanish)
  • Post Beginner Language Development and Global Cultures (choice of German, Italian or Spanish)