Journalism – (Ph.D.)

Contents

The Centre is based in state-of-the-art multimedia newsrooms equipped with the latest audio and video-editing technology, a radio studio and broadcast-quality television facilities. A dedicated postgraduate newsroom opened in September 2010. Newsroom computers offer a wide range of software for teaching and research support.

Students have access to Press Association news wires, Sky News Radio and Reuters World Television News feeds. They use the Centre's dedicated multimedia website, which offers live publishing facilities in text, audio and video. The site is a forum for debate about issues in journalism and the news industry involving students and practitioners in Britain and abroad.

The resources for journalism research at Kent are led by the Drill Hall Library at Medway. The journalism collection includes a comprehensive range of texts on the history, principles and practice of journalism. Specialist resources include a complete microfiche archive of popular newspapers of the Second World War. Students have access to online full-text journals plus extensive online newspaper resources. The Centre subscribes to all relevant UK journals. Research students have access to the SCONUL access scheme to visit and borrow from other UK libraries.

The Drill Hall Library contains more than 250 study spaces, 370 computers and more than 150,000 items.

Faculty

Using the Medway towns as your laboratory, you will carry out real-time news assignments around locations including a medieval cathedral, historic warships and 21st century dockside developments. The news beat is alive with new enterprises and communities and connections to continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel are fast, frequent and convenient.

Medway offers countless opportunities to practise the convergent skills of broadcast, print and online reporting, locally, nationally and internationally.

Newsroom and facilities

Our state-of-the-art newsroom will provide a full range of journalistic resources including industry-standard equipment for broadcasters, newspapers, magazines and digital publishers. You will learn sound and video editing, print production and digital content production using the same software used in professional newsrooms across the country.

The campus is based around listed buildings dating back to 1903 and now combined with striking modern architecture and interiors. Teaching facilities include the £8 million, Grade II listed, Drill Hall Library, which offers 370 open access computers and wireless networking throughout. There are extensive computing facilities across campus, offering fast connection to the internet.

Ambitious teaching

The Centre for Journalism is based within the Faculty of Social Sciences. There are close teaching links to the Department of Politics and International Relations, the School of History, Kent Law School and Kent Business School.

Taking full advantage of the University’s range of expertise, the Centre’s own dedicated team of award-winning editors and correspondents seeks to instil respect for the highest ethical and vocational standards of journalism.

We are fully accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, the professional body most widely recognised by editors in the industry. We also expect to be fully accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council as soon as our first students graduate. We currently have BJTC 'accreditation pending' status.

You will:

• learn about the reporter’s role as a public servant from practitioners who have covered wars and investigated scandals
• debate privacy, intrusion and dumbing-down with leading practitioners and inspiring thinkers
• learn to report, write and edit to deadline
• cut sound and pictures in real time, and discuss coverage of the latest stories with fellow students and leading experts
• produce a portfolio of work to show to prospective employers.

Industry links

The degree places great emphasis on the practical reality of journalism. Staff maintain excellent connections with local, national and international media organisations. Students will have regular access to working journalists and you will undertake vocational placements.

There is a campus newspaper to which students will be encouraged to contribute ideas, energy and articles. The University shares a full-time community radio licence based in Canterbury offering opportunities to practice broadcast journalism.

Enjoying Medway

There is a thriving student community at Medway and campus facilities offer excellent opportunities to socialise. The Venue café and Rochester Building café (adjacent to the newsroom) provide spaces to eat, drink and chat. Also on campus are Coopers bar and Purple, a late-night club.

The Medway towns are home to Rochester Cathedral and Castle, art galleries, theatres, sporting facilities, nightclubs and a multiplex cinema.

Local sports facilities include a dry ski-slope, a trampoline centre, an ice rink and numerous opportunities to enjoy water sports on the river.