Investigative Journalism

Entry requirements

• You should hold an upper second class honours degree or the equivalent from an international institution.
• You must be able to demonstrate commitment to journalism through relevant work experience, including regional newspapers, magazines, online, broadcast or student journalism. You don't need a set number of weeks of work experience, but we advise you to get as much as possible, both before and after submitting your application.

Months of entry

September

Course content

This course is suitable for students with any good degree who want to specialise in the area of investigative journalism. You will have a keen interest in digging deeper into topics beyond the daily headlines and a hunger to expose injustices and abuses of power using an evidence-based methodology.

On this course you will learn how to investigate, how to communicate across a range of platforms - digital, audio-visual and text, and how to work ethically and legally. You will quickly progress from learning the basics of writing, whether a text-based news report or for broadcast, to producing radio and TV, and laying out text.

You will learn how to investigate using open and closed sources, and will be taught a variety of skills such as interviewing techniques, how to use access to information laws, and the basics of ethical undercover work. At the end of the year, you will be expected to produce a piece of investigative work of your own, of professional quality.

The course is taught by experienced professionals. Teaching is led by course director Dr Richard Danbury, who spent about a decade at the BBC and won awards for his work there, and Jenna Corderoy, whose work has been long-listed for the Paul Foot Prize and is an alumna of the course. They will be joined by a wide range of skilled and experienced professional investigative reporters and editors.