Fashion Marketing and JournalismBA (Hons)

Audio and Video Techniques

This module currently runs:
spring semester - Wednesday morning

(core, 15 credits)

The module will be taught by a programme of weekly sessions, comprising a three-hour block for each of the 12 weeks in which it runs.

Learning and teaching strategy will be based on an interactive, coaching model. Sessions will mix tutor instruction with blended learning, in-class writing workshops, discussions and debate, with students required to do weekly reporting and writing exercises out of class as well as during sessions, where coaching will supplement group work.

This module introduces students to the practical aspects of multimedia newsgathering through the use of audio and video (including looking at ethical problems) involved in professional recording, newsgathering, collaborating in teams to produce stories, evaluating sources and revising writing.

You will be required to produce news copy in professional formats, which will include online posts using video and audio and the use of mobile technology.

You will develop stories through new media, images, audio, and video. This to include links to Youtube, soundcloud etc, with multimedia elements.

The module will be assessed by two portfolios, using mixed media and written research.
These will test your developing news sense, news gathering and news writing.

Contribution in class will be measured by a journal recording your activity, weekly updated, moderated by tutors at the end of the teaching period

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History of Journalism in Context

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Tuesday afternoon

(core, 15 credits)

This module introduces students to the history of journalism, honourable and dishonourable, and to the roles it has played and continues to play in society.
Understanding will be underpinned by knowledge of the importance of ethical, public interest journalism in its codified current form, and inspired by journalistic exemplars from previous generations.

Focusing on the UK, but blending wider international perspectives, you will build an understanding of the qualities needed by ethical journalists to taker on vested interests. Particular emphasis will be placed in the importance of diversity in media, its development in the UK over time, and current state, thus reflecting the university’s commitment to decolonisation of curriculum and social justice. This content will be used to develop transferable skills of critical thinking and analysis, crucial to employability.

It will also highlight ethical concerns, and take account of wider, global issues and contexts.
Political accounts, investigations that have transformed lives, human interest stories, arts reviews, in-depth profiles, cartoons, speculative columns, hot gossip, sports, fashion, celebrity… and now, for something completely different! What does it all mean and why do we produce and consume it? By the end of the module, students won’t necessarily have any answers, but they should be able to ask much better questions and have developed critical and analytical skills.
Working together, individually and in small groups, students explore major events and stories, past and present. They develop skills of presentation and analysis, learning when to use academic writing and when the more vivid narrative of journalism can play an equally effective role. In addition, they will explore critically and practically, the techniques used in writing and broadcasting of the past so that they can better develop their own professional capacities in the future.

Discussion, presentations, research, screenings and visits will all play a part in the development of critical thinking skills, which will be workshop-based.
The module will be assessed by three essays and contributions to an online journal, which is moderated by tutors at the end of the year.

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Introduction to Fashion Journalism and Communications

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Wednesday afternoon

(core, 15 credits)

In this module you will explore and practice different types of communications within the fashion industry, with a focus on journalism, and critically discuss the position of a journalist with the variety of industries linked to fashion. Thus, this module aims to develop both the practical skills crucial for your future career in fashion and journalism and the analytical skills required to confidently and critically discuss these industries at the level of higher education.

First, you will explore the different ways that the fashion industry uses communications (PR, branding, social media, etc), as well as instances where fashion intersects with journalism in specialised fashion publications and general news and lifestyle publications. You will explore the factors that influence fashion communication, including marketing and business matters. As part of that, you will also explore the histories of these industries and their major players (publications, companies, brands), as well as the current developments, trends and issues in the industry as a whole. This will allow you to confidently discuss not just what these industries expect from journalists and other communication professionals, but also analyse and even challenge these expectations from a variety of viewpoints.

You will then study the practical expectations within different industries and practice writing and producing content from press releases, marketing copy and brand books to news, features, opinion pieces. This will give you crucial skills for several career routes in your future.

In class you will learn through a combination of lectures and practical classes, with weekly tasks. You will be assessed through a pitching session, a portfolio of fashion writing and weekly online journal contributions.

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Journalism: Perspectives and Ideas

This module currently runs:
spring semester - Tuesday morning

(core, 15 credits)

This module introduces students to different ways of interpreting and understanding the journalistic sphere, challenging dominant perspectives to include sociological, political and economic approaches to deconstructing media content in newspapers and their websites, TV and radio news, and social media news feeds.

Understanding will be underpinned by knowledge of media theorists and political/economic philosophy. Students will also be introduced to alternative ways of looking at and understanding news coverage of war, miscarriages of justice and confessional journalism. The value of, and issues arising from, subjectivity in journalism will illuminate and challenge dominant narratives. The role of the so-called Fifth Estate will further expose issues surrounding prevailing power structures influencing journalistic content.

Students will be introduced to ethical and legal considerations throughout to consolidate their grasp of the world of journalism, challenging malpractice and encouraging professional integrity which is committed to the public interest.

The module will take a global perspective in exploring these ideas, challenging the monocultural restraints of UK mainstream media, thus embracing the decolonisation of curriculum values of London Metropolitan University, and reflecting the vibrant international diversity of our cohort.

This content will be used to develop transferable skills of critical thinking and analysis, crucial to employability.

Critical thinking and presentation skills will be enhanced by students working individually, in small groups and contributing to whole group discussions in a workshop format built on discussions, presentations, research, screenings, plus a range of guest speakers.

The module will be assessed by two essays and contributions to an online journal, which is moderated by tutors at the end of the year.

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Mobile Journalism: Fashion Features

This module currently runs:
spring semester - Thursday morning

(core, 15 credits)

This module is designed to equip fashion journalism students with the knowledge of mobile journalism practices and trends and the skills to produce fashion and lifestyle themed features. It aims to build on your core journalism skills that you gained in year 1 and enable you apply these skills in producing fashion and lifestyle features with the use of mobile technology. You will also understand the main promotoion mechanisms in journalism and will explore how to promote your work and enable it to reach wider audiences. It aims to give you a critical perspective on fashion journalism and the way digital content is produced, and by who.
Building on year 1 modules Reporting: News and Features and Audio and Video Techniques, this module will continue to develop your abilities in sourcing, researching and interviewing, as well as producing and editing original features stories, and you will learn how to use your mobile phone to produce editorial-quality content.
This way, in the beginning of the module you will examine the conventions of mobile journalism for digital publishing – from photography and video to short and long-form audio.
You will also refresh your knowledge of feature journalism with a specific focus on fashion and lifestyle stories, and then develop your practical skills to produce mobile journalism content to enhance your feature-storytelling. For this, you will practice interviewing, shooting and recording on a mobile shone, and turning the resulting content into good text and multimedia for fashion and lifestyle publications.

In class you will learn through a combination of lectures and practical classes, with weekly reading and practical tasks. You will be assessed through a portfolio of mobile journalism and online journal contributions.

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Practice of Marketing

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Monday morning
autumn semester - Wednesday morning
autumn semester - Friday afternoon
autumn semester - Friday morning
autumn semester - Wednesday afternoon

(core, 15 credits)

The module aims to provide an understanding of the theories of marketing and the practical application of the tactical tools of marketing in contemporary and technology driven organisations at local, national, regional and in a global context. In this module, students explore how different types of organisations deploy the marketing mix tools to implement their marketing strategy and to develop a competitive edge.

The module aims to:

● Provide an understanding of the theories involved in creating and delivering value to customers using the tactical tools of marketing.
● Explore the practical application of the marketing mix in product/services, public sector/non-profit sectors marketing.
● Develop students’ academic writing, application of knowledge and interpreting data skills.
● Develop students’ researching and analysing skills.

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Principles of Marketing

This module currently runs:
spring semester - Monday morning
spring semester - Monday afternoon
spring semester - Tuesday afternoon
spring semester - Wednesday morning
spring semester - Friday afternoon
spring semester - Friday morning

(core, 15 credits)

The module aims to provide an understanding of the marketing process in contemporary organisations and in the context of tangible goods and services. The service sector accounts for a significant proportion of GDP and employment in most developed economies and therefore it becomes essential for students to gain insight within the area. In this module, students are introduced to a range of marketing theories such as the marketing concept, consumer behaviour, business environmental analysis, marketing research, consumer insights applicable to tangible goods and services marketing.

The module aims to:
● Provide an understanding of the theoretical foundations and practical application of marketing
● Provide an appreciation of contemporary issues in marketing.
● Develop students’ academic writing, application of knowledge and data interpreting skills.
● Develop students’ researching and analysing skills.

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Reporting: News and Features

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Wednesday morning

(core, 15 credits)

This module introduces students to the practical and analytical skills (including looking at ethical problems) involved in professional news writing, newsgathering, collaborating in teams to produce stories, evaluating sources and revising writing.

Students will be required to produce news copy in professional formats, which will include online posts using images, video and audio and the use of mobile technology.

You will research and write a series of news articles and publish them to the class. You will learn newsgathering skills: analysis of reports, press releases and user-generated content; deducing news content from press conferences and announcements (diary items); following up human interest via face-to-face and phone interviews, including vox pops and the death knock; organising a team response to a major event; follow-up stories and case studies; analysing facts and figures to use in sidebar boxes; cultivating contacts and FoI.

You will study contemporary news coverage to develop an understanding of how news stories are reported and created. You will discuss ethical, legal and commercial constraints on journalists and how different genres serve different markets.

Accuracy, subediting, headlines and search engine optimisation will be important, as will developing stories through new media, images, audio, and video. This to include links to Youtube, SoundCloud etc, with multimedia elements.

The module will be assessed by two portfolios, using mixed media, and a timed class exercise. These will test students’ developing news sense, news gathering and news writing.

Contribution in class will be measured by a journal recording the student’s activity, updated weekly, and moderated by tutors at the end of the teaching period

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Fashion Journalism: Collaborative Project

(core, 15 credits)

This module is designed to equip fashion journalism students with the skills of multimedia and digital journalism and the knowledge of the digital fashion and beauty journalism industry. It aims to build on your core journalism skills and increase your confidence with digital and multimedia journalism tools and techniques, as well as critically discuss how these tools are used in the fashion journalism industry. You will also explore the factors, including commercial and marketing ones, that affect the content that fashion journalists are able to produce. Crucially, this module works in tandem with Mobile Journalism: Fashion Features, where you will learn how to produce multimedia stories.

In class, you will examine fashion and beauty journalism online. With the help of practical and theoretical overviews of multimedia journalism, you will analyse how fashion media use digital tools and multimedia content and how commercial and marketing concerns affect the content produced by journalists. At the same time, you will examine how you can use digital tools and multimedia content in your own practice understand the commerical implications of what you produce and come up with ideas for a digital multimedia project – either journalistic or blogging - and start bringing this project to life.

You will learn how to produce multimedia content, how to design and style fashion websites, and how to use multimedia and digital tools to enhance your journalism online.

In class you will learn through a combination of lectures and practical newsroom production. By the middle of the term, your classes will operate as a newsroom, with you working in editorial groups to produce and design websites and produce content.

You will be assessed through a pitching session, a collaborative fashion journalism or blogging project that you produce in groups, and through online weekly journal contributions.

Journalism: Public Interest and Power

(core, 15 credits)

This module covers what student journalists need to know about how Britain works and the place of journalism within debates about where public interest journalism is needed to shine a light on the workings of state power and, when ethically necessary, challenge abuses by state actors/institutions.
It is core for all journalism-related courses as everyone in the media needs to know how the system works.

Classes will look at the power frameworks of local/national government plus a range of other state institutions, including education, health and police, identifying those frameworks from the perspective of journalism operating on an ethical basis and acting in the best interests of an open, democratic society.

Students will explore these subjects from the industry viewpoint, learning how to find and develop news stories within the social and political landscape of Britain today.

Teaching and learning will be underpinned throughout by contemporary examples to ensure theory is bound to contemporary reality through the prism of journalistic values and public interest ethics.

The module will be underpinned by a site visit to City Hall, thus enhancing personal experience and understanding, as will guest speakers.

Discussion, research, screenings, visits and guest speaker will all play a part in developing students’ critical thinking skills in relation to state institutions and the role of journalism as the Fourth Estate in western democracies.

The module will be assessed by an opinion-led feature (op-ed), an essay, and an online journal moderated by the tutor at the end of the year.

Media Law and Ethics

(core, 15 credits)

This module covers what student journalists need to know about the mechanics of journalism within reporting of the criminal justice system in a democratic society, incorporating debates about ethics and the legal system. It is core for all journalism-related courses as everyone in the media needs to know how the system works in order to work safely at a professional level in the industry in all its forms.

Classes will look at the ethical and judicial frameworks and constraints which control the reporting of legal matters, including crime and its contexts. Students will explore these subjects from the industry viewpoint, learning how to find and develop stories during site visits and report on them from a perspective of legal security.

The study of journalism ethics as set out by industry regulators for newspapers and broadcasting is central to the module, with the codes of practice from both sectors being interrogated as they impact reporters on all platforms, subs and newspaper/website editors, and news programme producers for radio, TV and podcast.

Ethics gives a deeper meaning to the study of the legal system for journalists. Classes will locate the law which journalists need to know, both civil and criminal, within a broader ethical framework in today’s multi-platform, multi-national world. Analysis of current cases and case law will be as important as knowledge of existing frameworks and codes.

Field trips to Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court and Wood Green Crown Court will be key to personal experience and understanding, as will guest speakers.

Discussion, research, screenings and visits will all play a part in developing students’ critical thinking skills and the professional skill of accurate, legally acceptable writing.

The module will be assessed by a portfolio (containing a multi-platform element), an online journal moderated by tutors at the end of the year, and an in-class media law and regulation knowledge test.

Newsroom Production: Employability

(core, 15 credits)

This module is designed to help students in journalism-related fields increase their employability skills, to successfully get a work placement in their field and eventually apply successfully for jobs pertaining to journalism, fashion journalism, PR and other related areas.

You will work in teams in the newsroom to produce multi-platform journalism consistent with industry practice and will learn how to apply for jobs in these areas. This module is core for journalism students and allied courses.

Working within tight deadlines and adhering to professional codes and standards, you will learn how to write and edit copy and scripts, headlines and picture captions and learn how to use words, images, graphics, audio and social media to construct narratives appropriate to the story and platform, and also learn how to take photos and use photos legally. You will post your stories onto the University’s forward-facing website, Holloway Express.

The development of students’ professional practice will be informed by sessions led by guest speakers from the industry and, potentially, field trips to working news environments.

Early on in the module you will apply for an editorial role on Holloway Express, will produce a professional cover letter and CV, and have an interview with your tutor and a member of Career Services. You will learn crucial interview skills to do well in a journalism environment and get feedback on these skills.

You will also learn how to produce a portfolio website either on WordPress, Wix, Canva or another suitable platform, and will attach your articles to this platform throughout this year and next. Successful completion of this module will involve the preparation of journalism and employability portfolios to be developed for presentation to prospective employers.

Assessment will involve preparing a specific number of articles for Holloway Express, an employability portfolio and weekly contributions in a Production Journal, which will be both self-assessed and moderated by tutors.

Newsroom Production: Holloway Express

(core, 15 credits)

Newsroom Production: Holloway Express works in tandem with Newsroom Production: Employability. Students will work in teams in the newsroom to produce multi-platform journalism consistent with industry practice, based on editorial roles for which they have already applied. This module is core for Journalism and Fashion Marketing and Journalism students.

You will work within your editorial role throughout the year and will learn to make multimedia to accompany a minimum of six articles, both news and features, which you will have published online on our forward-facing hyperlocal website, Holloway Express. Each article will include a plethora of multimedia, including infographics, videos, podcasts and more. You will learn about data journalism and also more about writing news and features.

Working within tight deadlines and adhering to professional codes and standards, you will write and edit copy and scripts, headlines and picture captions and learn how to use words, images, graphics, audio and social media to construct narratives appropriate to the story and platform.

You will also develop competencies in the use of audio and video recording and editing, making particular use of smartphones, and learn how to draw traffic to their work by means of social media.

In order to perform these tasks, you will take on a number of roles specified in published job descriptions, to which you have already applied in the previous semester. You will learn to work well within a group and see first-hand how editorial teams work.

Successful completion of this module will involve a pitch to potential employers of a journalistic idea you have developed over the course of the module, as well as 1,200-word article with a minimum of four multimedia elements and hyperlinks on a story of interest to people in the local area. You will also get formative feedback on a number of articles you will have published to Holloway Express, and make mention of them in your Production Journal.

Assessment will involve the pitch and the piece of longform journalism complete with multimedia. Contribution to news days will be both self-assessed and moderated by tutors, in which you will need to talk about the minimum of six stories you had published and assess how you carried out the responsibilities your individual editorial role entails.

Journalism Industry Experience

(alternative core, 15 credits)
No module details available

Learning through Work

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Wednesday morning
autumn semester - Wednesday afternoon
autumn semester - Thursday morning
autumn semester - Thursday afternoon
autumn semester - Friday morning
autumn semester - Friday afternoon
spring semester - Wednesday morning
spring semester - Wednesday afternoon

(alternative core, 15 credits)

This Work Based Learning module enables students to undertake a short period of professional activity either: part-time/vacation employment; work placement; not-for-profit sector volunteering or a professional/employer led project.

Work Based Learning modules are designed to enhance students’ personal and professional development and assist in preparing students for their future careers. The module aims to facilitate application and progression of knowledge and skills gained via the learner’s studies and wider life experience. Students will be introduced to a range of professional skills and techniques, including: reflective self-assessment; preparation for employment; being a critical employee and developing approaches for co-operative and collaborative working.

• Students will be contacted prior to the semester to provide support in securing work based activity in good time.
• It is a student's responsibility to apply for opportunities and to engage with the Work Based Learning team to assist them.
• The suitability of any opportunities will be assessed by the Module Team and all roles must meet the Health and Safety requirements for Higher Education Work Placements.
• Learners may be able to utilise existing employment, providing they can demonstrate it is personally developmental and involves a relevant level of responsibility.
• In addition, students may be able to complete the Work Based Learning hours during the summer prior to the academic year a student is taking the module.
• Tier 4 International students will be required to submit weekly timesheets for the hours undertaken for the work based learning activity to meet the requirements of their visa. These will need to be signed by their line manager/supervisor.

The module aims to enable students to:
• Effectively express and understand their current skills and abilities in relation to their career values and goals.
• Practically apply the knowledge gained through their course programme to a work environment.
• Gain an in-depth insight of a work environment
• Make a positive contribution to the employing organisation and demonstrate inclusive workplace practice.
• Recognise their personal and professional development learning and apply to their future goals.

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Digital Project Management

(option, 15 credits)

This module is designed to enable students to appreciate and implement digital project management practices and tools, emphasizing the use of AI in creative and production processes. It covers a broad spectrum of topics essential for managing digital media projects, such as AI's role in enhancing creativity and efficiency, team dynamics, client interaction, outsourcing strategies, and asset coordination.

Students will be introduced to the planning and production lifecycle, with a particular attention to project management methods and the use of project management tools, including GenAI technologies. Students will acquire the skills necessary to evaluate critical aspects of digital project management issues. They will learn to effectively plan, organize, and execute projects, and learn digital and management skills which would then be applicable to their area of professional interest in media, cultural or creative industries or in industry more generally. The module offers hands-on experience in design team roles, allowing students to align their learning with their industry specialisations. This educational experience aims to equip future professionals with a deep understanding of digital project management in the creative industries, preparing them to manage innovative projects with confidence and expertise.

The module aims follow from the description, specifically:

- To enable students to evaluate digital media project management best practice.
- To allow students to experience design team roles according to their industry specialism.
- To enable students to plan and organise the production of a digital media project with relevant tools.
- To critically analyse the role of AI and other project management tools in project management.
- To enable students to take on various roles within a design team, allowing them to apply their knowledge in an industry relevant assessment.

Documentary Photography

(option, 15 credits)

This module provides an understanding of the history, theory and practices of documentary photography, and facilitates the development of key skills pertinent to contemporary practices of documentary photography. The module is weighted towards practice, and provides opportunities for students to develop photographic skills and/or enhance existing photographic skills, as well as their understanding of documentary photography. The module provides practical tuition in the skills of candid photography, portraiture, photographing objects in motion, and narrative photography; it will encourage and support students in the conception and development of their own documentary photographic projects. The module will facilitate students' critical reflection on their own practice as documentary photographers.

• You will become confident in the use of digital cameras in various modes, and for different purposes relevant to the practice of documentary photography.
• You will develop an understanding of the history of, and contemporary trends in documentary photography, and will be introduced to some of the key current debates about the status of documentary photography.
• You will be introduced to practices of editing and sequencing images, and final processing of images for publication using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
• You will be encouraged to adopt a rigorous, critical perspective on your photographic practice.

Online Fashion Retailing

(option, 15 credits)
No module details available

Podcast Production and Sonic Branding

(option, 15 credits)

In this module you will explore the techniques and practices in producing podcasts and developing audio branding. In doing so you will explore different creative approaches to working with audio and music as a means for branding in a range of different media.

In this practice-based module, you will learn to plan and structure podcasts, as well as develop an understanding, and skillset in audio editing; dialogue recording; and post-production techniques.

You will be introduced to a range of principles relating to the use of commercial music including sonic branding; jingles; and music licensing.

You will have the opportunity to work in groups as production teams, taking up specific working roles in the production of a podcast. In doing so, you will develop essential real-world working practices, including creating production diaries, and running sheets.

By planning and structuring the podcast, you will have the opportunity to develop a research topic, or subject of interest in a creative manner.

This module aims to:

• Explore principles of sonic branding in a range of media.
• Develop your knowledge of audio production and recording methods.
• Apply audio editing and production practices to create a professional podcast.
• Introduce potential career pathways in audio and podcast production.
• Enhance team working practices in audio projects.
• Develop a deeper understanding of music copyright.

Popular Music: History and Culture

(option, 15 credits)

In this module we will explores and seek to understand popular music with reference to its history, the local and global cultures that it has been produced in, and some critical theories that help to explain it. We will consider the history of popular music since the mid-twentieth century as well as discrete periods of its development - such as 1955-60, 1975-80 and the early 2000s - and the types of music that emerged and were popular during them, e.g. rock n’ roll, hip-hop, punk and EDM.

Different forms and phases of pop music will be thought about historically and factually, as well as in terms of the socio-cultural and socio-economic circumstances that accompanied them and that informed their musical and cultural features and styles. Theories that develop and deepen an understanding of all these aspects of pop music will be drawn on. We will, for example, examine both rock and rap with reference to theories of race and ethnicity, sociological theories and feminist theories. Non-Western as well as Western music forms, styles, cultures and subcultures will also be considered, including afrobeat, jungle, rai, highlife, reggae and K-pop. Less commercial or fashionable Western forms like folk, country and independent and experimental music will be considered too. Yet other theories will be applied to some or all of the above forms and will include music theory, genre theory, social and political theory, psychoanalysis and historical materialism.

Particular attention will be paid to certain historical and socio-cultural issues that are apparent and significant in contemporary pop music such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality and social class. We will also consider some or all of the following important aspects of popular music and culture: globalisation, the construction of star personas and celebrity, the nature of audiences (and fans and subcultures), economic and cultural convergence and integration and technological (especially digital) innovation and change, especially its effect on musical creation and distribution (streaming, home studios, social media, etc).

Module aims:
By the end of this module you will:
• be familiar with the general history of popular music
• be familiar with particular and significant periods in popular musical development
• have an informed and coherent sense of the significant socio-cultural and economic circumstances that both gave rise to and were affected by different periods and genres of popular history
• have a good general sense of global popular musical forms including non-Western ones
• be informed about and aware of the creative industries in which different musical forms are produced and used
• be able accurately and consistently apply theoretical ideas to popular musical phenomena
• have an accurate and informed sense of the way in which different musical forms have been affected by each other and by the wider culture they have been produced in, as well as the way that they might have affected that culture in turn
• have a good sense of the way in which popular music intersects with technology, especially how developments in the former change the latter

Social Media Strategies

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Thursday morning

(option, 15 credits)

There has never been a more exciting time to study social media strategies. Social media strategies now play out in every aspect of business, government and society today. This module offers a critical eye on social media strategies, identifying those that worked as intended and those that didn’t. Through looking at current examples of social media and social media strategies, you will learn what a strategy is and how best to deploy it for the particular agenda and goals of an organisation. Teaching methods include formal lectures, seminar discussion, student-presentations and online material. Students will be expected to attend formal lecturers and take notes, read from primary and secondary source material and comment on their readings. They are expected to creatively engage with social media content creation as it embeds within an overall strategy of a particular industry. This module aims to:
● Enable students to evaluate key approaches to understanding current social media and strategy.
● Encourage students to develop critical awareness of their everyday experience of social media.
● Establish links between theoretical, technological, social and ethical aspects of social media.

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Styling and Journalism

(option, 15 credits)

In this module you will explore and practice styling within fashion journalism and related industries and critically analyse the relationship between the media and the fashion industry and the position of a multi-skilled fashion journalist and stylist within these industries. Thus, this module aims to develop both your practical skills expected by the fashion and media industries and the analytical skills implied by the higher education in journalism and fashion marketing.

Your practical training will focus on developing employable skills through producing styling and journalistic output in the variety of genres and formats that are expected by the industry – from researching, writing to brief and producing multimedia packages to resourcing looks and products to specific real-life briefs.

You will learn how to style to brief and to budget (for example, for cocktail parties, launch events, red carpets), how to promote your work through social media posts, and how to produce content on the intersection of journalism and styling, mainly through magazine articles and features. You will also learn how to critically analyse the work of others within the industry and examine the industry-specific and global cultural implications of their work.

In class, you will learn through a combination of lectures, practical classes and seminars, and weekly styling and journalism tasks. You will be assessed through a styling project presented through social media, a portfolio of 5 pieces of writing with multimedia elements, and an online journal.

Writing Short Films: Introduction to Screenwriting

(option, 15 credits)

This module provides an opportunity to study the art and craft of screenwriting via the short film. Screenwriting differs from other forms of creative writing because the screenplay is a vehicle for a production team to create a film. It requires a combination of visual imagination and engineering to create a good screenplay. Students need to learn the clues which enable an audience to follow the story via character creation and use of action, choice of locations, the tone, the use of genre and narrative pattern of their story. Via a mix of film analysis and writing their own script, students will have a basic grounding in this element of film production.

Advanced Broadcast Journalism: Audio

(core, 15 credits)

Continuing on from the second year (Level 5) Radio News and Podcasting module, students in Advanced Broadcast Journalism: Audio will develop and acquire further skills and techniques necessary to succeed in more advanced forms of radio and podcasting, including vox pops, taking clips, producing voicers, editing interviews, delivering in-studio 2-ways, news reading, package/podcast writing and production.

For students studying on this module, you will learn to identify subject matter and potential readerships; master interviewing and editing techniques in audio; learn how to find original angles; undertake focused, widely sourced research on individuals and issues; and conduct on-the-spot reportage, delivering original news story content. This will be taught through a combination of workshops, masterclasses and studio activities, including voice coaching.

This module aims to develop students’ skills in multi-platform journalism. Via practical workshops and news days, which closely copy the latest UK industry working practices in modern multimedia newsrooms thus transforming understandings into practice, you will learn the basics of radio journalism, as well as radio reporting/production skills, including microphone and editing skills, using cutting-edge software and equipment. This will reinforce your understanding of the need for 360-degree journalism in contemporary society.

You will work on projects within class with a view to publishing them online via the course website, www.hollowayexpress.co.uk Holloway Express, thereby providing an outward-facing portal for future employability.

Successful completion of this module will involve the preparation of journalism products to be developed for presentation to prospective employers.

Assessment will involve two portfolios of journalism plus engagement with weekly Journal.

Contribution to news days will be both self-assessed and moderated by tutors.

The module will be assessed as follows:

An as live location interview

An audio package, comprising of at least two original interviews, which must show evidence of professional writing, newsgathering and production skills learnt in this module.

Contributions to an online journal will assess Newsday contribution, moderated by tutors at the end of the term. Newsdays will involve students working collaboratively to create radio news programming reflecting the day’s news agenda and events local to Holloway and the broader north London area.

Advanced Broadcast Journalism: Video

(core, 15 credits)

Continuing on from the second year (Level 5) Video and Television Production module, you will develop and acquire further skills and techniques necessary to succeed in more advanced forms of video, including vox pops, taking clips, producing voicers, editing interviews, delivering in-studio 2-ways, news reading, package writing, filming and production.

You will learn to identify subject matter and potential readerships; master interviewing and editing techniques in video; learn how to find original angles; undertake focused, widely sourced research on individuals and issues; and conduct on-the-spot reportage, delivering original news story content. This will be taught through a combination of workshops, masterclasses and studio activities, including voice coaching.

This module aims to develop your skills in multi-platform journalism. Via practical workshops and news days, which closely copy the latest UK industry working practices in modern multimedia newsrooms thus transforming understandings into practice, you will learn the basics of video/TV journalism, as well as video reporting/production skills, including microphone and editing skills, using cutting-edge software and equipment. This will reinforce your understanding of the need for 360-degree journalism in contemporary society.

You will work on projects within class with a view to publishing them online via the course website, www.hollowayexpress.co.uk Holloway Express, thereby providing an outward-facing portal for future employability.

Successful completion of this module will involve the preparation of journalism products to be developed for presentation to prospective employers.

Assessment will involve two portfolios of journalism plus engagement with weekly Journal.

Contribution to newsdays will be both self-assessed and moderated by tutors.

Creating Packages

(core, 15 credits)

Creating Packages is core for most journalism-related courses and works in tandem with the Magazine Branding module. You will learn to write for the Web, identifying how online journalism differs from print journalism, and what type of multimedia to use to accompany web-based stories.

The module also develops the advanced professional skills taught at level 5: identifying subject matter and potential readerships, research, interviewing and editing techniques, on-the-spot reportage, and finding original angles and relevant sources for stories. This module also builds on multimedia skills students have learned in other modules, as it requires students to take their own photographs and make podcasts, short videos, infographics, pie charts, graphs and other multimedia, to be posted on an online magazine that they devise in a group.

Students will choose the magazine, which can follow on from Magazine Branding or be a completely new one - based on a subject area of their own choice, rather than as directed by tutors. This is an exciting chance to create your own magazine online.

You will make a short group presentation in Week 8 about your magazine, including information about how it interacts with social media, what widgets

You will devise a portfolio of five articles, totalling roughly 2,500 words, and reflect the multimedia nature of such products in contemporary journalism. News features will reinforce a professional sense of urgency and the need to meet deadlines.

The module allows students to enhance their skills in writing news features arising from topical issues, using data for feature articles, developing more in-depth interviews and/or feature stories based on interviews and research. Students will be directed towards identifying subject matter and potential readerships, on-the-spot reportage skills, and finding original angles and relevant sources for their stories. Students also learn web design, lay-out and multimedia skills.

Assessment will consist of a group presentation to class about the magazine with accompanying moodboard; one portfolio of work consisting of five articles, written for an online audience with a minimum of three interviews and at least four accompanying multimedia elements per article; and a production journal where students will self-assess their own work, their editorial roles and their participation in group contributions to class including other group presentations where they will receive formative feedback from the class and the tutor. . This will be moderated by the tutor.

Magazine Branding

(core, 15 credits)

This module develops the advanced professional skills students learn at Level 5. With a focus on print magazines, you will learn to identify subject matter and potential readerships, and how to put together, write, design and brand your own print magazine. You will learn research, interviewing, writing and editing techniques, on-the-spot reportage, and how to find original angles and relevant sources for stories, to a stage where you will originate and source the elements for your own journalism packages.

You will publish a print magazine in groups, using the techniques learned in InDesign, based on a subject area of your own choice, rather than as directed by tutors. This is an exciting chance to create your own magazine in print.

You will choose your own editorial role in your magazine, approved by the group, and will have self-reflective weekly journal entries in which you have to assess your own work, your editorial roles and your participation in group contributions to class, including group and individual oral presentations (where attendance is mandatory). This will be moderated by tutor.

Assessment will consist of a group presentation, weekly Production Journal entries, and one portfolio of work consisting of three articles, fashioned into a print magazine self-directed by students and put together by the group.

As part of the module, each student must produce a portfolio of three features for print iterations of their project, laid out in InDesign:

● A general or news feature
● A reporting story on a live event
● A profile interview

Students who successfully complete this module will learn about magazine branding, writing for a target audience, developing their own voice and tone in feature writing, choosing topics appropriate for different audiences, how advertisements contribute to magazine revenue, and more. You will also learn how to put together a magazine on InDesign using visual elements, fonts, imagery, colour, typeface specifications to make the publication a unique brand, based on market research. You will also learn the pros and cons of group work.

Consultancy Project

This module currently runs:
spring semester - Tuesday afternoon

(alternative core, 15 credits)

The Professional Consultancy / Project is a capstone module in which students will be required to undertake a business project aimed at enhancing their employability as well as providing a platform for further professional development.

This module requires students to undertake and write up an individual project that gives them the opportunity to not only consolidate their learning on the programme, but also to clearly apply their learning in a real-world context. Furthermore, it will provide students with the opportunity to showcase their professional competences built throughout the programme.

If in employment students may choose to use a work-based consultancy project (subject to agreement from their employer). Alternatively, they may choose a project which is research-based.

Students will also be required to present their project via an on-line presentation or podcast. This module gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their professional credibility and to use their academic, business and technical skills in a professional context.

Professional Consultancy Project aims to:

1 Demonstrate the ability to utilise and contextualise knowledge by applying analytical skills to a business situation or problem
2 Demonstrate the ability to assemble a coherent and a sustained piece of writing that evaluates a business/project problem/solution
3 Create an opportunity to further develop a range of skills associated with research including analysis, interpretation, written expression, formal report writing, and self-managed study
4 Engage students on a complex, integrated activity that will consolidate and integrate previous skills and learning
5 Provide students with a ‘showcase’ opportunity that allows them to demonstrate their ability to apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the course to a significant and specialised task

Those studying on a Student Visa will only be able to complete work-based project option of this module if it meets UKVI monitoring requirements including: approval of the placement dates and hours by a Placement Officer prior to starting the placement, submission of weekly timesheets for the hours undertaken, signed by their contact at the business and continued engagement with the Placement Officer as well as the International Student Support and Compliance Team

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Consultancy Project

This module currently runs:
autumn semester - Tuesday afternoon

(alternative core, 15 credits)

The Professional Consultancy / Project is a capstone module in which students will be required to undertake a business project aimed at enhancing their employability as well as providing a platform for further professional development.

This module requires students to undertake and write up an individual project that gives them the opportunity to not only consolidate their learning on the programme, but also to clearly apply their learning in a real-world context. Furthermore, it will provide students with the opportunity to showcase their professional competences built throughout the programme.

If in employment students may choose to use a work-based consultancy project (subject to agreement from their employer). Alternatively, they may choose a project which is research-based.

Students will also be required to present their project via an on-line presentation or podcast. This module gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their professional credibility and to use their academic, business and technical skills in a professional context.

Professional Consultancy Project aims to:

1 Demonstrate the ability to utilise and contextualise knowledge by applying analytical skills to a business situation or problem
2 Demonstrate the ability to assemble a coherent and a sustained piece of writing that evaluates a business/project problem/solution
3 Create an opportunity to further develop a range of skills associated with research including analysis, interpretation, written expression, formal report writing, and self-managed study
4 Engage students on a complex, integrated activity that will consolidate and integrate previous skills and learning
5 Provide students with a ‘showcase’ opportunity that allows them to demonstrate their ability to apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the course to a significant and specialised task

Those studying on a Student Visa will only be able to complete work-based project option of this module if it meets UKVI monitoring requirements including: approval of the placement dates and hours by a Placement Officer prior to starting the placement, submission of weekly timesheets for the hours undertaken, signed by their contact at the business and continued engagement with the Placement Officer as well as the International Student Support and Compliance Team.

Read full details

Creative Practice Dissertation Project

(alternative core, 15 credits)

This module allows students to put into practice their research and project planning, based on learnings from the Autumn semester research module. They will develop a final project that encapsulates the learnings and aspirations from previous years of their course.

The project module should encase their own investigations and interests while targeting a specific audience defined in advance. The final output will happen in coordination with their course supervisor and will be course-specific.

This module allows students to demonstrate academic and/or professional skills compatible with their level of study as the project stimulates experimentation and innovation as part of their preparation for future academic or professional life.

The module aims to:

• deliver and plan a professional-level project in their area.
• help students choose areas of interest or affinity in their professional practice.
• enhance writing, research, pitching skills, as well as the development of specific artefacts specific to their course.
• equip students with the skills necessary to produce an independent body of work relating to their discipline that can enhance their employability by showcasing an independent body of work.
• prepare students for future independent practice.

Creative Research Dissertation Project

(alternative core, 15 credits)

This module allows students to develop research and project planning that encapsulates learnings and aspirations developed throughout their course. It is expected that students can demonstrate a range of skills and techniques acquired during previous years. The project module should encase their own investigations and interests while targeting a specific audience defined in advance. This module allows students to demonstrate academic and/or professional skills compatible with their level of study as the project stimulates experimentation and innovation as part of their preparation for future academic or professional life.

The module aims to:
• develop skills of planning, research, and delivery of a professional-level project in their area.
• help students choosing areas of interest or affinity in their professional practice.
• enhance writing, research, and pitching skills.
• equip students with the skills necessary to produce an independent body of work relating to their discipline
• prepare students for future independent practice.

Arts, Culture and Lifestyle Journalism

(option, 15 credits)

Arts, Culture and Lifestyle Journalism delves into the intricacies of arts and culture reporting, exploring the interplay between traditional and digital formats. The module encompasses diverse artistic domains, including music, film, literature, art, architecture, dance, and theatre, also tailoring content to align with individual student interests and career aspirations. Beyond technical skills, the module thoroughly explores arts and culture journalism in its cultural, historical, global, and lifestyle aspects. This broader perspective encourages students to adopt self-reflective and critical viewpoints, fostering a nuanced understanding of the industry beyond conventional mediums and viewpoints.

The module aims to:

1. foster a nuanced understanding of the history, nature, and meaning of art, culture, and performance across diverse areas.
2. develop a critical knowledge of arts, culture, and lifestyle journalism routines.
3. delve into issues and debates within the arts and culture journalism landscape, including funding, criticism, and representation.
4. explore reporting and publishing trends illuminating current arts and culture movements.
5. ensure professional ethics and professional commitment to marginalised publics.

Audio Plug-in Coding

(option, 15 credits)

In this module, you will be introduced to the field of coding for audio plug-ins, a fast-growing employment market. By taking this module you will have the opportunity to develop simple plugins for audio applications such as Logic, Ableton Live, Pro Tools and Cubase, using VST, VST3, AU, AUv3, AAX and LV2 formats in an accessible way.

You will cover digital signal processing concepts in the context of coding and producing them within the JUCE framework. By doing so, exploring their application in music and audio scenarios, ultimately working towards developing them into audio plugin devices.

Throughout the course of the module, you will explore the JUCE framework and basic C++ coding for audio plug-ins in a series of workshops and exercises, where you will work to develop a range of simple audio devices for a final portfolio submission.

This module aims to:
• Introduce student's to C++ programming for music.
• Develop skills working in the JUCE framework, in order to create audio plugins.
• Develop skills in digital signal processing.
• Enable student's to produce simple audio plugins.

Digital Video Post Production

(option, 15 credits)

This module will examine, from an interdisciplinary perspective, techniques for video post-production. Students will analyse current trends in video post-production across a range of digital media industries; music, journalism, media, marketing, film and games. This module will examine and analyse traditional and modern visual special effects using examples from film, music video, television and games to illustrate the development of new techniques for post-production video editing. The role of AI in the video post-production techniques will also be explored. Practical exercises, lectures, and demonstrations will aid students in developing a wide spectrum of technical and analytical skills in the field of video post-production and visual special effects. Students will be expected to undertake all stages of the creative planning process to deliver an integrated digital video and audio project to complete the module. This module aims to:

● Develop and encourage confidence in the integration of appropriate editing software.
● Analyse the most effective approach to a variety of post-production problems.
● Work to a professional standard to an industry brief.

Students will be expected to undertake all stages of the creative planning process to deliver an integrated audio/video project.

Documentary Filmmaking

(option, 15 credits)

You will develop professional practices by working in small groups to produce a short documentary. The module will give an overview of the commissioning process and will include input from industry professionals.

You will be required to research, pitch, and develop a documentary proposal following industry guidelines and legal frameworks.

There will be an emphasis on how to film and work with documentary subjects (or characters) in an ethical way.

You will learn about a range of documentary modes, genres and techniques via screenings, discussion, and practice. Key figures and films will be explored as well as emerging styles and formats.

The module aims to:

• Provide students with an overview of approaches to documentary filmmaking.

• Give students practical experience of a range of documentary techniques such as sit-down interviews, vox pops and observational filming.

• Develop students’ understanding of how to research, develop and present a concept for a documentary for film or TV.

• Enable students to shoot, structure and edit a short documentary using appropriate audio and camera equipment and editing software.

Fashion Writing and Reporting

(option, 15 credits)

This module develops skills in and critical understanding of writing and reporting on fashion across multiple platforms, including magazines, blogs, social media and video content. Looking at the latest trends and influence in the industry, and covering editorial and commercial case studies, it aims to help you develop working skills in fashion journalism, blogging, broadcasting and photography, as well as establish professional practices to improve your employability skills. It also provides students with an insight into how marketing and advertising concerns affect fashion journalism copy.

You will critically examine the genres in fashion writing and reporting practice across a range of publications. You will discuss and look into the implications of the way we write about fashion – and how it is marketed - considering the implications for inclusivity and creating a socially responsible workspace within fashion and journalism industries.

You will practice writing for different clients, publications and genres, and across different multimedia platforms. This will include writing about trends, products, people and businesses for editorial and commercial and marketing purposes across platforms.

You will also establish and run a fashion blog and create a media pack that would serve future collaboration with businesses and media. For this, you will create and assess a content strategy and learn to communicate the unique selling proposition of your fashion content, in order to make your product more marketable.

In class, you will learn through a combination of lectures, practical classes and seminars, and weekly styling and journalism tasks. You will be assessed through a fashion writing portfolio, a blog project including a media pack, and an online journal.

Graphical communications

(option, 15 credits)

The module examines the multifaceted role of illustrations and graphic practices to effectively communicate ideas. It explores a variety of multimodal illustrations and graphic narratives to comprehend how graphical communication functions as a reflection, critique, and influential force in conveying visual messages through drawings and graphic language. The exploration spans a variety of mixed media encompassing both traditional and digital practices.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the module explores how diverse graphical mediums interact with contemporary societal issues including but not limited to climate change, domestic violence, and war conflicts. The module explores a broad range of areas and mixed graphic content from typography and political signage, graphic humour and satire, political cartoons to iconography and graphic novels. Drawing on multidisciplinary perspectives from across theoretical frameworks including illustrations and comics theory, visual cultural studies to information design, the module places a strong emphasis on graphical communication to achieve compelling visual messages.

The module aims to:
• Encourage students to enhance their understanding of illustrations and the broader language of graphic content in media communicative practices.
• Facilitate the exploration of graphical messages in terms of aesthetics considerations and their significance in visual communication.
• Provide diverse critical and theoretical perspectives for the analysis and creation of messages through a graphical lens.

Interaction Design for Non-Humans

(option, 15 credits)

This module explores issues related to designing systems, environments, enrichment toys and tools for non-human animals, taking into account context, welfare needs and species-specific characteristics.

We will discuss briefs from animal experts, often in the contexts of zoos, sanctuaries and domestic settings, but also in other managed environments and in the wild. Students will collaborate in teams to work on designs and develop physical prototypes in response to the briefs.

You are expected to embrace a hands-on approach to design and development, as well as undertake relevant field trips and document your progress using a variety of media.

The module aims to provide you with the opportunity to:
• gain knowledge in the fields of Animal-Computer Interaction, Animal-Centred Computing and Experience Design for Non-human Animals.
• collaborate on a design project involving the development of an enriching experience for a non-human species.
• develop skills in ecological awareness, and species-specific physical, sensory and cognitive capabilities.
• enhance professional and personal development.

Please note that this optional module may become unavailable if the student intake numbers are lower than 10.

Media Industry Careers

(option, 15 credits)

This module represents core self-development activities: career planning, promotion of student work, and portfolio. It provides practical guidance for students in how to position themselves and their work with reference to their career goals and builds on student work in Level 5 Media Industry Roles module on personal promotional activity.
The module will include analysis of current trends and the changing media landscape, with a focus on diversity and representation across the industries, as well as encouraging engagement with local film and media organisations and activities.
Student research will inform the development of a career plan and the design of the portfolio of work (including show reel where relevant). Students will design the presentation of their work to prospective employers or funders in various formats including: CV, covering letter, website – format to be determined through the student’s research.

This module aims:
• to afford students the opportunity to realise the career-potential of their accumulated skills, subject knowledge and understanding. The skills will include identifying and researching career opportunities, mapping the requirements and benefits of the career against their own skills and motivations and then learning about and producing the evidence that will enable them to exploit that opportunity.

• to increase students’ understanding of the interrelationship between their practice and the contexts of their profession in the creative economy, and ‘market’ for their skills.

• to empower, enabling the graduate to exploit capacity and potential to shape the job and their professional field so that they may both contribute to and create social benefit from their career.

Postcolonial Cinema and Media

(option, 15 credits)

In this module you will explore postcolonial theory in relation to films and the media. Questions of representations are central to postcolonial studies as well as film and media studies. Drawing upon key concepts of postcolonial theory, you will discuss the question of representation and the reproduction of, or challenges to, dynamics of power in relation to questions of race, gender and class that are grounded in colonial discourses about self and Other. Through the adoption of a postcolonial lens in the analysis of selected films and media products in the Anglophone and Francophone sphere (including television and music), you will be able to identify the broader socio-historical, cultural, economic and political forces shaping narratives and aesthetics of representation. Topics include: colonial discourse analysis; strategies of oppression and oppositional discourses; the notion of nation and nationalism in relation to race and gender; the problems of empire, decolonisation and the postcolonial state.

This module aims to:

• Promote the application of a postcolonial framework to the analysis of films and media, with specific reference to the Anglophone and Francophone cultural production
• Identify and critically engage with the legacy of colonial discourses in narratives and aesthetics in films and media
• Enhance a critical understanding of the socio-political and cultural context within which films and media emerge and circulate
• Enhance students’ research skills and abilities to critically analyse films and media

We reserve the right to close optional modules due to low student uptake.

Queer Media, Culture and Politics

(option, 15 credits)

Queer Media, Culture, and Politics (QMCP) is a module that connects media pieces, cultural moments and political movements that have empowered lesbians, gays, trans, intersex, asexual, and other gender-fluid actors (henceforth, queer, LGBTQIA+) over time. The module aims to provide students with historical, political, and conceptual accounts to interpret the complexity of queer media in contemporaneity. The term “media” channels many styles of queer authorship within contexts, languages, and practices worldwide. Queer media encompasses different genres and formats, from literature to cinema, from visual arts to digital media.

The module aims to:
1. reassess the importance of past artists, movements, and political actors who have engaged with topics related to sexual and gender diversity, oppression, and liberation.
2. promote a well-informed, critical reading of contemporary forms of queer expression in the media.
3. increase the knowledge and repertoire about relevant queer artists and performers both in the West and in the Global South.
4. pave the understanding of queer culture as a pivotal event to promote societal awareness of LGBTQIA+ rights over the last decades.
5. understand the recent globalization and commodification of queer culture and propose alternatives.