Program Overview

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From the latest updates at Number 10 to political unrest overseas, you can be at the forefront of political change. Our BA Journalism and Politics expands your knowledge of global politics and develops your analytical ability. Coupled with the multimedia aspect of this course, you learn how to engage with a wider audience and develop your own journalistic style alongside building a solid understanding of the issues that shape the world around us. You explore all major areas of political science, learning within the rated top for politics in the UK (REF 2014). This is combined with modules in practical journalism, where you use multi-media channels such as radio, television and online media, and deepen your knowledge of journalism on an international scale. This course gives you the flexibility to choose the areas of the subject that interest you. Topics which you can study include:

• International Relations
• UK and European Politics
• Democracy
• Production skills
• International journalism

During your final year, you have the opportunity to bring all aspects of the course together in a final multimedia project on a subject linked to political science. As a student at one of the UK’s leading social science institutions, you are uniquely placed to acquire a deep understanding of the world you report on. You will join our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies and our Department of Government where you will join our diverse community of students from all corners of the globe. Why we're great.

• Our journalism teaching staff have a broad range of up-to-date hands-on industry experience.
• You create and broadcast your own online content, radio and TV programmes.
• You can merge your knowledge of multimedia journalism and poltiics.

Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course. Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. If you spend a full year abroad you'll only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. You won't pay any tuition fees to your host university

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Our expert staff

At Essex you learn from the best. Our course director Tim Fenton , is a former managing editor of the BBC News Online website and a journalist with more than 35 years' industry experience ranging from sports reporting for local radio to presenting and producing national current affairs programmes on TV and radio. Other core journalism staff include:

• Penny Wrout, a former BBC correspondent and producer who is currently a freelance documentary film-maker and multimedia arts producer.
• Paul Anderson , former editor of Tribune and deputy editor of the New Statesman , who now works as a print/online subeditor on the Guardian .
• Dr Fatima el Issawi , an international correspondent with more than 15 years’ experience covering conflict zones for a wide range of broadcast and online outlets including Agence France Press and the BBC.
• Dr Alexandros Antoniou , lecturer in media law and a specialist in communications regulation, intellectual property and cybercrime.

Throughout the course you’ll also have the opportunity to meet visiting lecturers and teachers who are leading figures in different branches of journalism, and who provide an important link to an extended network of industry practitioners. Some of the biggest names in the field work in our Department of Government, giving you unparalleled access to some of the best minds in politics. Our staff are advising the CIA on counter-terrorism, training politicians and civil servants in democratising countries, and commentating on political events in national and international media. Our academic staff work on topics ranging from international conflict and violence to British elections, and from the obligations of the younger generation to why authoritarian leaders welcome natural disasters.

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Specialist facilities

As a journalism student at Essex, your material is published on a dedicated website , and you also spend time gaining on-the-job experience with a range of professional news operations, creating and publishing stories and building up a portfolio of published and broadcast work. You work in a purpose-built newsroom with access to television, radio studios, and computer software that allows journalists to create and edit content across all media platforms quickly and professionally. The University’s Media Centre is equipped with state-of-the-art studios, cameras, audio and lighting equipment, and an industry-standard editing suite. You can also gain experience with our Students’ Union media platform Rebel and benefit from our government facilities:

• Laboratories of networked computers featuring extensive software for political analysis
• ESSEXLab provides opportunities for experimental lab research
• Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis
• A programme of seminars and events run by the department
• Join our Model United Nations society, which can improve your skills of argumentation, oral presentation and research

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Your future

Our BA Journalism and Politics equips you with the skills needed to pursue a number of different careers. Whether you would like to pursue a role in public relations, lobbying or a political journalist, you gain the ability to understand the society in which we live and will link this to the journalism methods you have studied and how they should be used. You compile an impressive portfolio of published work and complete a detailed multimedia project linked to politics in your final year, allowing you to offer real evidence of your range and capabilities to future employers. You become a multi-skilled story-teller, familiar with production techniques in television, radio, online and newspaper journalism, and with the option to gain advanced skills in specific areas in your final year.