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Sport Journalism Apprentices

Sport Journalism MA (PGCert PGDip)

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Intro

Our Sport Journalism MA will prepare you for an exciting, fast-paced and dynamic career in the sport media industry, equipping you with the multi-platform and multimedia skills needed to be highly employable.

The course will suit you if you have studied an undergraduate degree in a non-journalism subject area or are looking to gain a professional qualification to pursue a
career in the industry.

Sports media is a multi-billion pound industry and has played a crucial role in shaping the development of professional sport. Sports journalists must now be as adept at running social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter, filming web video and recording podcasts as covering sports events and interviewing at press conferences.

The course is delivered by media industry professionals and respected academics. Our student journalism website, OvertimeOnline, will enable you to publish articles to a wider audience and you will spend time in a newsroom environment on placement.

We have close links with national organisations including Sky Sports News, The Independent, The Sun, Daily Star, TalkSPORT and the Mail Online. You'll also gain insight from field trips and from visiting industry guest lecturers. We have vast experience running journalism courses and you'll benefit from using our newly built journalism newsroom and digital hub.

Our Sport Journalism BA course won the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Innovation of the Year award for its partnership with Brighton & Hove Albion FC, which involves paid opportunities for students to cover matches in the Amex Stadium press box.

Key facts

Location Eastbourne

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2–6 years

This new course is in the final stage of development and may change. Check back for the latest information. 

Apply online

Please make sure that you meet the entry requirements before applying. If you have any questions the course team will be happy to help.

Apply now for your place

Our Sport Journalism BA(Hons) course partnership with Brighton & Hove Albion FC won Innovation of the Year at the 2018 NCTJ Awards for Excellence.

Course content

Course structure

The Sport Journalism MA comprises six 20-credit modules that each involve around 30 hours of contact time, plus an independent final project where you will work with an allocated supervisor. 

The course is taught by sport media industry professionals and highly respected academics who will help you develop key journalism skills as well as academic research and writing methods.

You will compile an e-portfolio of assorted journalistic work that acts as a showcase to prospective employers. The practical journalism modules will feed into your portfolio and you will also publish your work on our website, OvertimeOnline.

Your placement will enable you to demonstrate hands-on experience in a sport journalistic environment.

The course is flexible in that it allows you to exit with a postgraduate certificate at the end of one semester (three 20-credit modules) or a postgraduate diploma at the end of two semesters (six 20-credit modules). You must complete the 60-credit research project to qualify for the MA.

For international students, the MA offers an extended masters route with English language study for between two and six months before the course begins. 

Sport Journalism students 070

 Areas of study

The Sport Journalism MA enables you to develop the critical, contextual and practical skills and knowledge to be able to succeed in the sports media industry.

  • Analyse the state of the industry and critically appraise how current professional standards can be improved with particular focus on ethically and socially responsible journalism.
  • Explore the contextual knowledge needed to be a successful professional sports journalist, learn how to cover court cases involving high-profile sports people and how to avoid libel and breaches of copyright in the study of media law.
  • Learn about sports governance, such as how UK Sport and Sport England work, and public affairs issues including planning that are essential to writing more complex sports stories such as new stadium developments.
  • Study the purpose and function of the profession and reflect on industry standards and your own professional practice.
  • Explore how the industry has changed in the digital age, the challenges posed, and what this new media environment has meant for what sport journalism is and could be.
  • Explore the key shifts in sports media including the emergence of Sky in the early 1990s through to the development of global third-party production companies such as IMG and Perform Group.
  • Apply theoretical models of understanding sport journalism such as the toy department concept, sociology of work and professions, and political economy in exploring these occupational and industry shifts.
  • Evaluate key ethical debates affecting the industry including coverage of race, gender and sexuality issues within sports journalism and whether the profession is doing enough to hold those in power to account.
  • Consider what implications the rise of public relations has had for sports journalism and how sports clubs and organisations now employ sports journalists as well as mainstream media. 

Modules

Core modules

  • Core Knowledge for Journalists
  • News Journalism
  • Digital Journalism
  • Critical Issues in Sport Journalism
  • Sport Journalism
  • Professional-based Learning
  • Final Project

The Critical Issues in Sport Journalism and Core Knowledge for Journalists modules provide the critical and contextual knowledge needed to underpin good journalistic practice.

Professional-based Learning oversees your professional development and you will also synthesise your learning in the Final Project module.

Practical journalism modules (News Journalism and Digital Journalism) explore newer, forward-thinking digital practices such as live blogging, social media and data journalism alongside the core, traditional skills of interviewing, writing skills and developing contacts. You will evaluate the most appropriate technique to the story in question and consider the ethical considerations in play.

You will study core sports journalism skills such as match reporting, preview pieces, long-form writing and sourcing sports news through the Sports Journalism module.

Professional experience

Through our Professional-Based Learning module, you will spend time in an industry environment on placement. We have close links with national and local organisations including Sky Sports News and the Eastbourne Herald. The University of Brighton won the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Innovation of the Year award for its partnership work with Brighton & Hove Albion FC that involves paid opportunities for students to cover matches in the Amex Stadium press box.

Our Employability Hub is on hand to help you secure an experience that best meets your career goals and aspirations. Professional experience will enhance your practice and academic knowledge, and many of our students have started their careers with their placement organisation. You will also compile an e-portfolio of journalistic work that will act as a showcase to prospective employers.

We have links with many organisations for placements including:

  • The Sun
  • Sky Sports News
  • The Independent
  • Daily Mail
  • The Times
  • The Guardian
  • Daily Telegraph
  • Hayters Sports Agency
  • Eastbourne Herald
  • TalkSport
  • FourFourTwo
  • Brighton and Hove Albion FC
  • Ricochet TV.
racing

Features 

Field trips
Journalism students will also benefit from field trips. Previous trips have included:

  • Sky Sports News tour and development day
  • London Lions basketball
  • Flat racing at Brighton racecourse
  • County cricket at Hove, Sussex
  • Football at Eastbourne Borough and Lewes FC
  • Sussex Senior Cup Final

Guest speakers
The journalism subject area at the University of Brighton also has a vibrant guest speaker programme. Previous visitors have included:

  • Paul Hayward, chief sports writer, Daily Telegraph
  • DickPound, ex-CEO, World Anti-Doping Agency
  • Jim White, sport columnist, Daily Telegraph
  • Stuart Mawhinney, head of Sky Sports PR
  • Geoff Shreeves, chief touchline reporter, Sky Sports
  • Kelly Cates, touchline reporter and presenter, BBC 5Live and Sky Sports
  • Sam Munnery, digital sports editor, The Times
  • Derren Howard, head of sport, East Sussex Newspapers
  • Adam Hurrey, author, Football Cliches
  • Duncan Alexander, head of editorial, Opta Sport

Facilities 

Newsroom 
Our modern newsroom is equipped with 40 computers that retract into the desk to form a workspace for editorial meetings. All computers have the Adobe Suite installed including Premiere Pro, InDesign and Photoshop. The newsroom also has five wall-hung screens showing Sky News and BBC News 24.

Digital Hub 
Next door to the newsroom is the digital hub, with editing suites and mobile journalism facilities.

 

NEWSROOMSTUDENTS_017  
Click to view a virtual tour of our journalism facilities. 

Staff profiles 


Simon Mcennis, course leader
Simon has a close working relationship with Sky Sports News where he devises and delivers a 20-session advanced journalism programme to industry professionals on how to improve their journalistic knowledge and skills. Simon writes national examination papers on sports journalism for the industry training body, the NCTJ.

Simon has a professional background in both national and local newspapers. He was a sports journalist with The Sun for nine years before joining the University of Brighton. He has been deputy sports editor of the Colchester Evening Gazette where he covered Colchester United and Ipswich Town and started out as a news reporter with the Braintree and Witham Times, and Maldon and Burnham Standard in Essex. He has also contributed sports reports to the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and the Press Association. Simon is a fully professionally qualified journalist as he holds both the National Certificate qualification for senior newspaper journalists and the NCTJ pre-entry certificate, including 100 words per minute shorthand.

 Simon has worked in academia since 2009, researches into journalism professionalism and has had scholarly work published in Digital Journalism, Journalism and Journalism Practice. He has also written articles for The Conversation website. Simon was awarded a distinction in Masters of Arts and Cultural Research (MRes) at the University of Brighton and an upper second class degree in BA Hons English Literature from the University of Sheffield.

Simon_Mcennis

Rob Steen, senior lecturer
Rob is an award-winning sports journalist and one of the world’s leading cricket writers. For 30 years he has worked extensively for the Guardian, the Independent, the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times among others.

Winner of the 2005 EU Journalism Award (UK section) ‘for diversity, against discrimination’, a long-time columnist for Cricinfo and blogger at rocksbackpages.com, he has also written more than a dozen sports books including David Gower – A Man Out of Time (winner of the 1995 Cricket Society Literary award), Spring Summer Autumn (1991 William Hill Sports Book of the Year runner-up) and an acclaimed textbook, Sports Journalism – A Multimedia Primer (second edition published in December 2014). Rob’s book Floodlights and Touchlines: A History of Spectator Sport was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 2014.

Rob has peer-reviewed articles for journals such as African and Asian Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Convergence, and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 

 

Rob Steen

Owen Evans, senior lecturer
Owen is an NCTJ-qualified journalist who started his career as a news reporter with the Surrey Advertiser before becoming editor of Sport Business International.

Owen teaches public affairs and digital journalism and his research interests are in the relationship between journalism education and the public relations industry.

He has presented widely at conferences including the Association for Journalism Educators’ annual conference in summer 2018.

OWEN_EVANS_23NOV17_009

Careers

This degree will open up career opportunities in areas including television, radio, print, web, and PR.

The first students will graduate from this course in 2020 and we expect them to build successful careers in the industry as our undergraduates have, including:

  • Jack Wilson, head of digital sport at the Daily Express and Daily Star
  • Gemma Nash, sports presenter on Sky News
  • Jordan Halford, social media editor at Sky Sports
  • Lee Price, head of PR at Paddy Power
  • Jack De Menezes, deputy sports editor at The Independent
  • Anthony Hay, assistant sports editor at Mail Online
  • Anna Bonar, senior producer at Red Bull Media House.

Joel Tadman interviews Padraig Harrington

You could be lucky enough to interview sports stars such as Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington



Entry criteria

Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed here are our typical offer for this course if you wish to begin studying with us in 2019. They should be used as a general guide. 

Degree and experience
Honours degree in any subject normally with a minimum 2:2 or equivalent from a NARIC-recognised institution, or an HND equivalent plus at least five years of relevant work experience. Other applicants with extensive industry experience will be considered on an individual basis.

English language requirements
IELTS 6.5 overall, with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

International students whose language skills do not match the IELTS scores set out here should consider applying for this course through the Extended Masters programme at the university's Language Institute.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country
 
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For degree preparation courses.

Fees

Fees

UK/EU (full-time)6,426 GBP

International (full-time)13,338 GBP


Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2019–20.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Location

Location

Easy-going Eastbourne

The South Downs National Park, the bustling town centre and the beach with the pier, prom and bandstand are all within a 15-minute walk of our Eastbourne campus. Officially the sunniest place in the UK, Eastbourne has loads on offer: a year-round calendar of sporting events, the independent shops and cafes of Little Chelsea, music and arts festivals, theatres, galleries, great restaurants and high street shopping.

Every June, leading tennis players descend on Eastbourne for one of the main warm-up tournaments for Wimbledon. One of the UK's biggest free extreme sports festivals, Beach Life, takes place on the seafront in July, bringing hi-octane action on land and sea. The international airshow Airbourne is another summer highlight.

Every autumn our students and staff participate in and support the Beachy Head Marathon, one of the UK's largest off-road marathons with challenging climbs and descents along the Seven Sisters.

The beach and the South Downs provide sports opportunities including horse riding, mountain biking, paragliding, sailing, canoeing, body boarding, kayaking, windsurfing and kite surfing.

The Towner Art Gallery has world-class exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and entry is free. Eastbourne also has four theatres, two cinemas and hosts a varied programme of arts and music events throughout the year.

Walking along Eastbourne seafront
Enjoying sport above Eastbourne

Campus where this course is taught

Eastbourne campus

Our campus is within 15 minutes' walk of the beach, South Downs National Park and the Eastbourne's busy town centre. There are excellent sport and exercise facilities, on-site halls of residence and social spaces include the Students' Union pub, the Starting Gate.

Sport and exercise, events, hospitality, journalism, nursing and midwifery, physical education, physiotherapy, podiatry and tourism students are all based here.

Specialist learning facilities include accredited exercise physiology laboratories, a newsroom, clinical simulation suites, human movement lab, culinary arts studio, the Leaf Hospital podiatric clinic and occupational health studios. Campus learning facilities include the Queenwood library, computer rooms, a media centre and a learning and technology suite.

Sports facilities include a 25-metre swimming pool, sports hall and gym, artificial outdoor pitch, dance studio and climbing wall.

Eastbourne Student Centre provides services including careers, volunteering, counselling and wellbeing, student advice, disability and dyslexia support and chaplaincy.

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The Starting Gate, students' union pub in Eastbourne

Accommodation

Eastbourne

All eligible 2019-entry firm and insurance offer holders are guaranteed an offer of university-managed accommodation.

Welkin halls
Located in the Meads area of Eastbourne, right next to the Students' Union and Student Services, Welkin halls are a short walk or bike ride to other areas of the campus.

  • Ensuite halls with a choice of room and flat sizes.
  • Breakfast and an evening meal are provided from Monday to Friday during term-time, this is included in your rent. You have access to shared, fully equipped kitchen facilities.
  • Rent also includes all utilities, 24/7 staff cover, contents insurance, cleaning of communal areas and off-peak access to university fitness facilities including a 25m pool.

Find out more about our accommodation in Eastbourne.

Unihomes
A unihome is a student house which the university manages on behalf of a private landlord. This option can work particularly well when you’re balancing learning with placements and other life commitments.

  • Rent includes all utilities, broadband, contents insurance, cleaning of communal areas.
  • Generally shared bathroom with a variety of locations, room and house sizes. Some unihomes offer off-road parking.

Find out more about unihomes.

Private renting
Eastbourne offers good choice when it comes to student accommodation.

There’s a good supply of affordable, high quality private rented accommodation and plenty of support and advice from us if you choose this option. Your first stop should be our studenthomes database. This lists accommodation offered by landlords who have signed up to our code of standards.

Every summer we provide online events and resources, as well as other advice services, for students looking for a place to live and people to share with.

Student accommodation in Eastbourne

Student accommodation in Eastbourne

Welkin bedroom

Student bedroom in Welkin halls

Modern kitchen in Welkin Halls

Modern kitchen in Welkin Halls

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house Accommodation
campus University building

Eastbourne campus map

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Ask a question about this course

If you have a question about this course, our enquiries team will be happy to help.

01273 644644

Read the latest course news on our postgraduate course blog. You can also get in touch with postgraduate students, graduates and staff by joining our postgraduate Facebook group.

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