Journalism in DCU

NR

Hey, could anyone tell me if the Journalism degree in DCU is any good? I've heard nothing but bad about it, and if anyone knows the bad please share because people have been very vague about it. I currently have Communications in DCU at the top of my CAO, but I'm unsure about it.
Thanks!

stainluss

NR wrote: »

Hey, could anyone tell me if the Journalism degree in DCU is any good? I've heard nothing but bad about it, and if anyone knows the bad please share because people have been very vague about it. I currently have Communications in DCU at the top of my CAO, but I'm unsure about it.
Thanks!

I heard its hard to get a job, but I've heard its a good degree.

XPS

Depends what you are after - most people who want to do the BA in Journalism in DCU seem to want to be just Features writers. Not many are interested in current affairs and real news - hopefully you will be the exception to the rule. I'm not saying that all Journalism students just want to be features writers - but not enough have them care nor know much about current affairs.

In relation to the course I have friends in it - they like it but some are very frustrated with the course - most lecturers are excellent - but there have been some changes to the course for next year.

In relation to Communication Studies - and I can talk about this as I am a CS student:

The course has undergone some serious changes over the last few months - the lecturers are great for the most part - with few exams depending on your choice of subjects - you will also have to decide by the end of Semester two what stream you want to take for second and third year - ie radio, photography or film.

With both Communication Studies and Journalism you would be well advised to get involved in the DCU Journalism Society and/or the Media Production Society. These societies run the publications, radio station and TV station on campus. Alternatively get involved in mainstream media as your degree in either of the above is useless without a show reel or portfolio. For some reason some journalism students think its okay to wait to the final year to start building their portfolio - I think they should make that module a three year requirement but anyway.

If you do either course prepare for the hilarity that is Current Affairs and Eddie Holt - his class has its own hashtag on twitter.

Ask whatever questions - between me and a few others we will be able to answer any questions.....now cue all those who give out about CS and JR students.....mostly those who don't even go to DCU anymore....

XPS

stainluss wrote: »

I heard its hard to get a job, but I've heard its a good degree.

Unless you work hard, build up a very strong portfolio and show a good broad spectrum of ability in various topics and media then yes you haven't a hope of getting a job - it will be welcome to the world of PR.

Choc123

Howya mate,
Right, I don't accept for a second that the BA in Journalism is a bad course, its not. For my class it was 475 points to get into, there's no course that is 475 points that's bad.
Do I regret doing the course? Possibly. The job prospects are not great at the moment and a big part of me wishes I did something that had better job opportunities at the end of it.
I personally would recommend journalism over communications as I think CS is DCU's arts course. However, others would disagree and would throw up valid arguments doing so.
Ditto what the other poster said, when you do either JR or CS, get involved in either the College View or DCUfm (or preferably both).
And if you have no interest in current affairs, why would you want to be a journalist? Unfortunately a few people in our course did it with the view to writing for Heat or Ok magazine and that's not good in my view.

JR in DCU is a tough course at times. And there is too many JR courses with not enough jobs. But if you believe in your ability to be a journalist then go for it.

Benny Lava

After spending a year doing Communication Studies I feel I'm in a position to comment on CS and JR (having shared many lectures with JR students).

CS isn't all it's cracked up to be in the prospectus. Actually, many people claim it is a joke of a degree and it's hard to argue against that. If it weren't for the MPS and DCUfm, CS would be the most pointless course in Ireland. Luckily the existence of these two societies mean you will (possibly) learn something and acquire skills that will be beneficial in the future. If you think doing "Team Dynamics" or "Information and Study Skills" is going to be of any benefit, think again. Some say "you get back what you put in" and while I don't think this justifies some of the ridiculously pointless modules, it is a true statement to some degree. So if you have CS as your first option, make sure you know what you're in for. Few hours a week, one exam in the whole year and many crap lectures. Don't be fooled by the people holding the camera in the prospectus, you will probably do this once or twice in first year outside of MPS and you can't borrow equipment from the loans office in your first year. Instead of editing your own videos, you will get a head-wrecking final assignment which involves throwing together "Burning Man" clips. Unfortunately this module is also in JR, which highlights the similarities between the courses. While I can't say JR is a joke because I don't do the course, I do feel it is slightly more serious than CS but does suffer from some of the negative things that I have highlighted with relation to CS.

Now...let's see the angry responses.

XPS

Benny Lava wrote: »

After spending a year doing Communication Studies I feel I'm in a position to comment on CS and JR (having shared many lectures with JR students).

CS isn't all it's cracked up to be in the prospectus. Actually, many people claim it is a joke of a degree and it's hard to argue against that. If it weren't for the MPS and DCUfm, CS would be the most pointless course in Ireland. Luckily the existence of these two societies mean you will (possibly) learn something and acquire skills that will be beneficial in the future. If you think doing "Team Dynamics" or "Information and Study Skills" is going to be of any benefit, think again. Some say "you get back what you put in" and while I don't think this justifies some of the ridiculously pointless modules, it is a true statement to some degree. So if you have CS as your first option, make sure you know what you're in for. Few hours a week, one exam in the whole year and many crap lectures. Don't be fooled by the people holding the camera in the prospectus, you will probably do this once or twice in first year outside of MPS and you can't borrow equipment from the loans office in your first year. Instead of editing your own videos, you will get a head-wrecking final assignment which involves throwing together "Burning Man" clips. Unfortunately this module is also in JR, which highlights the similarities between the courses. While I can't say JR is a joke because I don't do the course, I do feel it is slightly more serious than CS but does suffer from some of the negative things that I have highlighted with relation to CS.

Now...let's see the angry responses.

No angry response - just need to provide a little education....

Information and Study Skills came from a need to arm students with the basic skills required to write academically - feedback from students in previous years highlighted this problem and welcomed the introduction of the module. This year feedback from students has indicated that the module is not really working, and has now been incorporated with the Research Methods module over the course of the three years. This module is actually really important and not just for your academic writing - the problem with the CS students is a lot of them think they will immediately get some presenter job from it - that is a rare exception to the rule - and often if you are lucky to actually get into the media you will be working as a researcher - hence why subjects such as Psychology and Social Studies are really important - as you need to have some knowledge of these subjects as a researcher - and certainly as a presenter.

In relation to Team Dynamics - this was tarted up to be something it's not -a and here I would agree with you - the aim was educate students in the area of group think and group psychology but it morphed into building cardboard towers and holding-hands BS. Again the psychological element would be beneficial and as a first year I am sure you will appreciate that us oldies (who say we now see the benefit of some of those modules - as we can see how they linked in with other core modules in second year) - actually know what we are talking about.

I would also agree that many first year students come into CS believing the course is one thing, and then finding out that it is in fact a very different thing - DCU is not a playground - you are here to learn and grow as an academic - so you learn to crawl before you can walk (irony in that).

It is highly disingenuous to suggest that your experience of the CS course will be the same as incoming first years as the course has substantially changed for next year - and both your and even my measure of the course may in fact be invalid because of this. Several modules have been changes and/or moved to different years - for example Communication Theory has been moved to third year.

The CS course isn't perfect and if someone is naive enough to believe that they will be Stephen Spielberg by end of semester one because of a few photos in a college prospectus then maybe DCU needs to widen the points gap even further between JR and CS. DCU is a university; there is a way of learning that is very different for secondary school – you are not spoon fed; you are treated as an independent learner – getting involved in the College View , DCUfm or DCUtv is therefore essential no matter which course you are studying.

Oh and Burning Man – fail of a project, I do agree. But then again if you speak to the second and third years who had to do that project – they will actually tell you what they learnt from that independent learning project was invaluable. Welcome to big boy world.

Noodleworm

Since everyone is talking about journalism and communications Id like to throw in a little bit about the 3rd school of communications course, Multimedia.
If you want to learn the technology like cameras/recording studios then multimedia is better.
wheras communications/journalism get a media technology module we have separate modules for imaging, audio, web, video, etc. yet we shared a few modules like social studies, team dynamics, communication theory, analysing media content.

anyways, from what Ive heard from journalism theres a few modules on law and politics, Id say its probably a harder degree communications.
.communications has been called an arts course. Multimedia has been describes as the artsy cousin of the computer course.

A journalism student once told me how creativity in my course is rewarded, while in journalism creativity can get you a lawsuit...

XPS

Noodleworm wrote: »

Since everyone is talking about journalism and communications Id like to throw in a little bit about the 3rd school of communications course, Multimedia.
If you want to learn the technology like cameras/recording studios then multimedia is better.
wheras communications/journalism get a media technology module we have separate modules for imaging, audio, web, video, etc. yet we shared a few modules like social studies, team dynamics, communication theory, analysing media content.

anyways, from what Ive heard from journalism theres a few modules on law and politics, Id say its probably a harder degree communications.
.communications has been called an arts course. Multimedia has been describes as the artsy cousin of the computer course.

A journalism student once told me how creativity in my course is rewarded, while in journalism creativity can get you a lawsuit...

Well said - cannot argue with ANY of that !

Nekro Man

if this comes across as ignorant please excuse me, but as a multimedia student the way i see the school of communications in a nutshell is

JR - write the news
MMA - Puts the news out
CS - examines the best way and why to put the news out

Benny Lava

XPS wrote: »

This year feedback from students has indicated that the module is not really necessary.

Fixed your post.

XPS wrote: »

us oldies (who say we now see the benefit of some of those modules - as we can see how they linked in with other core modules in second year) - actually know what we are talking about.

Ignorant statement.

XPS wrote: »

It is highly disingenuous to suggest that your experience of the CS course will be the same as incoming first years as the course has substantially changed for next year - and both your and even my measure of the course may in fact be invalid because of this. Several modules have been changes and/or moved to different years - for example Communication Theory has been moved to third year.

I can agree with this. Hopefully the new modules will be a bit more serious.

XPS wrote: »

The CS course isn't perfect

Understatement.

XPS wrote: »

if someone is naive enough to believe that they will be Stephen Spielberg by end of semester one because of a few photos in a college prospectus then maybe DCU needs to widen the points gap even further between JR and CS.

Ridiculous. I didn't expect to be Stephen Spielberg but I thought I might actually learn something relevant to a future career. How wrong I was. Unless I get a career in building paper towers or explaining the Harvard system of referencing then a lot of what I have learned has been useless. Widen the points gap??? What the hell are you on about???

XPS wrote: »

Welcome to big boy world.

Great, a condescending comment to finish off a smug, and for large parts ignorant post.

phasers

Nekro Man wrote: »

if this comes across as ignorant please excuse me, but as a multimedia student the way i see the school of communications in a nutshell is

JR - write the news
MMA - Puts the news out
CS - examines the best way and why to put the news out

CS is nothing to do with the news.

Nekro Man

bad choice of words, but my point remains, CS is more theory based than multimedia for argument sake

legendal

Nekro Man wrote: »

if this comes across as ignorant please excuse me, but as a multimedia student the way i see the school of communications in a nutshell is

JR - write the news
MMA - Puts the news out
CS - examines the best way and why to put the news out

That gives the impression that all three degrees are to do with news and current affairs, which they're not. All three of those descriptions are done by the journalism degree and (for the most part) it only - remember that as part of JR you do video/audio editing as well.

OP run a search for journalism in the DCU forum as this query regularly pops up. There's a good thread from last year here and rather than type a more comprehensive reply I'll lazily direct you to one I typed before

It's worth repeating though how crucial it is to get as involved as you can with DCUfm and The College View. To correct an earlier post, MPS and DCUfm are not separate societies - MPS (Media Production Society) is the home of both DCUtv and DCUfm. The College View (since late 2009) is a part of the Journalism Society which you should also join. Membership for any society is just €4 per year - no excuse not to!

phantom_lord

I always wondered if the College View was just a way to give the JR students some job experience. Seems a bit unfair if the rest of the student body has to pay for it.

Nekro Man

legendal wrote: »

That gives the impression that all three degrees are to do with news and current affairs, which they're not.

replace news with media, i chose the wrong words, my bad

legendal

phantom_lord wrote: »

I always wondered if the College View was just a way to give the JR students some job experience. Seems a bit unfair if the rest of the student body has to pay for it.

Does The Irish Times exist just to give its staff a job? Its brief is more than that. And it's funded, I expect, in the same way any club or society is (plus through advertising like any other paper). Criticise it if you must, but your criticism could apply to every club or society in that case. And DCU would be all the worse without them.

legendal

Nekro Man wrote: »

replace news with media, i chose the wrong words, my bad

Journalism's not all about writing though. And you still examine the 'best way' to do things as part of that course.

monument

OP -- see the links near the bottom of this post -- these all link to boards.ie News / Media board, note the ones on 'what to do with my degree', and all the ones on freelancing and starting out in journalism.

XPS wrote: »

Depends what you are after - most people who want to do the BA in Journalism in DCU seem to want to be just Features writers. Not many are interested in current affairs and real news - hopefully you will be the exception to the rule. I'm not saying that all Journalism students just want to be features writers - but not enough have them care nor know much about current affairs.

Where are you getting this from? There's a mixture of people who want to do different things and work on different formats.

Not all journalism is current affairs. And feature writers often cover current affairs.

Oh, and what exactly is "real news"?

XPS wrote: »

Ask whatever questions - between me and a few others we will be able to answer any questions.....now cue all those who give out about CS and JR students.....mostly those who don't even go to DCU anymore....

Err... "now cue all those who give out about CS and JR students" -- you spent a part of your post doing so!

Choc123 wrote: »

Right, I don't accept for a second that the BA in Journalism is a bad course, its not. For my class it was 475 points to get into, there's no course that is 475 points that's bad.

The amount of points for entry has little to do with quality, it only shows there is a high demand for entry.

Choc123 wrote: »

And if you have no interest in current affairs, why would you want to be a journalist?

Because there's more to journalism than current affairs? Because like many other degrees lots of people don't really know what they are getting them selves into? etc

Anybody without a heavy interest in current affairs wanting to do the BA be warned there is a lot of current affairs in the course.

JR in DCU is a tough course at times. And there is too many JR courses with not enough jobs. But if you believe in your ability to be a journalist then go for it.

Agreed on this. But I'll stress that staff jobs are very hard to get these days, be prepared to freelance after college. And you're also up against lots of people who are willing to work for free for way too long to get their foots in the door.

Nekro Man wrote: »

if this comes across as ignorant please excuse me, but as a multimedia student the way i see the school of communications in a nutshell is

JR - write the news
MMA - Puts the news out
CS - examines the best way and why to put the news out

JR does all of this in print, radio, TV and online.

phantom_lord wrote: »

I always wondered if the College View was just a way to give the JR students some job experience. Seems a bit unfair if the rest of the student body has to pay for it.

To add to the points already made: The student newspapers in UCD and TCD also give their writers/editors/etc work experience, but it's unfair to say they are "just" for that, the newspapers also serve the student bodies.

Noodleworm

Sorry to resurrect thread , but for those who are interested I recently noticed new videos on the DCU website.

http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/videos.shtml

If you scroll down to The humanities sections one of them is about the school of communications and nicely outlines the differences between the three courses.

LovexxLife

Hi, doing the CAO, at the min too. And wondering which of the 3 courses would be best to become like a tv/media researcher?

thusspakeblixa

LovexxLife wrote: »

Hi, doing the CAO, at the min too. And wondering which of the 3 courses would be best to become like a tv/media researcher?

Journalism.
You'll learn how to write news in 1st year and do some radio classes.
In 2nd year, there's one TV-specific class and another optional one in your final year.
If you want to know more about the technical side of things go for Multimedia, but Journalism is best for general stuff and reseraching/writing though.