Journalism MA

bassman22

Where is the best place to do the Journalism MA?

Stargal

Your options are DCU, DIT or NUIG. DCU seems to have the best professional reputation (disclaimer: I'm biased as I did the MA there but I did a lot of research before I chose where to apply to and that's what I found) but it's quite a close-run thing tbh; there's a lot of people in the profession who went to the other two as well.

One of the main differences between DCU and the others is that DCU organises the work placements for you, while in DIT and NUIG you have to sort it out yourself, which can obviously be quite difficult.

Ostrom

The MAJ (DCU) is heavily practice based, which may or may not suit you, and the course progression is reasonably open in terms of your thesis, you can opt for either a practice or academic-oriented piece of research. (Depending on your undergrad background, one or the other may appeal to you)

You also get plenty of technical exposure and tuition from former/practicing journalists from all media

bassman22

I gather its difficult to get jobs in journalism (as it is in anything now I guess), how did yous find it?
i read that irish times blog which was a bit frightening......
didn't discourage me too much though I still intend on doing it!

Ostrom

I don't have a journalism qualification, I just teach on the MA in DCU. I'm not sure how things are this year and I'm not back in for another two weeks, but I can *ask around* and let you know what the state of the industry is.

bassman22

Ha so all going well you could be teaching me next year!
Thanks much appreciated

bassman22

Anyone willing to speak up on behalf of DIT?

petethebrick

In my opinion you'd be better off doing a MA specific to what you hope to write about in future eg Economics, Politics etc. Unless you hope to be a generic reporter covering all sorts of stuff that is. If you're gonnado the Journalism MA I think DCU is best.

Gekko

Independent Colleges also do an MA - check out their website.