College?

Mullingarman95

I would like to do journalism in college but I'm not sure if I'm cut out for it can anyone help me with what a journalism course entails and would b like.

Drained_Empty

well one of the tricks of the trade is for journalists to use bull**** headlines to catch silly readers attention, i think you've already mastered that so i'd say you are more than able to do well out of the course

Mullingarman95

Drained_Empty wrote: »

well one of the tricks of the trade is for journalists to use bull**** headlines to catch silly readers attention, i think you've already mastered that so i'd say you are more than able to do well out of the course

Thanks for your helpful thoughts

Yer_Wan

Hi MullingarMan95, I'm in my final year of this course now.

It's very much a "you get out what you put in" course. Modules on topics such as digital media, media law, politics, sociology, as well as topics like news writing, reporting and editing, feature writing and radio production.

Lecturers from organisations such as RTÉ, Irish Times, Storyful and The Journal.

Very few course hours means you can get involved in the student media on campus, be it The College View for print or DCUfm for broadcasting.

Any more questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

iiHyPeRize

Not an intense course as such, but it can be difficult if you start to fall behind.

The course has been completely restructured for incoming first years, and it's just a whole lot better. In first year you will study 8 modules, 4 in each semester: Introduction to the Irish political system, news writing, introduction to journalism and history and structure of the media are semester 1 and in semester 2 you'll do, news editing, ethics of journalism, news reporting: principles and practice and digital media skills.

The thing about the course is attendance is quite vital. I mean you'll only have 8 hours or so a week, so there's no excuse really. But many of the modules are assessed on a continous basis. In-fact, only one of the first year modules has an official exam at the end, history and structure of the media.

One thing to bear in mind is that the course puts an emphasis on current affairs, and there's no way to avoid it. If you're coming in with high hopes to be a solely a sports journalist, music journalist ect.. well you're going to struggle. Very little of the course lets you actually do some sports reporting or music etc.. instead most of the stories you'll be writing will be current affairs related such as Irish politics, UK politics etc.. so bear that in mind. Of course because you have so much free time, there's plenty of opportunities to get involved in whatever genre of journalism you're interested in with the college view, DCUFM etc..

Overall, it's not a difficult course, it's not that difficult to pass, but on the contrary it's not that difficult to fail. But, 95%+ attendance puts you about 70% of the way, the rest is down to you. And it is the best journalism course in the country.

andyman

I'm not in JR myself, but I've spent a lot of time with JR's over the years and the only way you'll get anything out of it is by getting involved with The College View or with DCUfm. That's where you apply the skills you develop in lectures and put them into practice, and it's very rewarding.

Out of last years crop of JR's (from what I'm aware of), 2 of them work with TV3 (one with the sports team), one has a job with 4fm, another with TheJournal, another works for Mary Wilson's Drivetime team, another with The Mirror, 2 work with the Indo and I'm sure there's more. All of them got involved with DCUfm and/or The College View.

If you really have an interest in it, go for it, but bear in mind a degree on it's own isn't worth a whole lot, it's what you do with The College View/DCUfm where you'll develop the portfolio that'll appeal to employers.