Length of course:	Eight-month, full-time
Location:	Harrow
Course fees:	See westminster.ac.uk/fees

Building on the success of our unique one-year Medical Journalism BA (Honours) course for third or fourth year medical students, we are now offering a similar course chiefly aimed at a wider range of health professionals. If you are a nurse, a pharmacist, a psychologist or trained in any other therapeutic occupation, you may have considered broadening your base of skills to include journalism. This specialism could be aimed at either a wider audience, particularly as health stories play an increasing part in the news agenda, or at a more specialised or ‘in-house’ audience. The course is also suitable to others who have a strong interest in medical and health issues, and who wish to pursue a more specialist career in journalism

This course is designed to equip you with the practical and intellectual skills necessary for a career or part-time employment in medical journalism. You will be working alongside our postgraduate journalism MA students, mainly those who are specialising in print and online journalism, but also developing some broadcasting skills alongside the Broadcast MA students, studying on an MA accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council.

The course has a strong practical focus, and you are expected to develop story ideas and contacts, and gather your own material for journalistic course work. You will be given full training in using our up-to-date media resources, newsrooms and studios, ensuring that you graduate from the course as a multi-skilled journalist, able to work across different platforms.

Our teaching staff are highly experienced journalism professionals, and you will have specialist tuition from a leading medical journalist. Many of our Medical Journalism BA graduates have successfully combined their medical careers with journalistic work.

Course content

There’s a strong emphasis on learning through ‘hands-on’ practice, and on making you aware of multi-platform journalism; much of your assessed course-work will be ‘real’ journalism assignments. The course is broadly very similar to that taken by our postgraduate MA Journalism students, who will be your classmates, and your specially adapted modules will largely be taken alongside them to give you a broader journalism education.

You will also be able to learn TeeLine shorthand and undertake a work placement at a medical publication. You will also be able to contribute to one of University’s two multimedia news sites, Westminster News Online (www.wnol.info) and HA1 (www.theHA1.co.uk), and there’s also the opportunity to broadcast on Smoke Radio, the University’s multi-award-winning internet radio station.

Semester One

Multimedia Journalism Skills (Medical)

This module aims to give you a critical understanding of the intellectual and practical skills and techniques of contemporary convergent journalism. These include understanding news values, story research, news-writing and reporting techniques both in general journalism, and in your specialist field.

Media Law & Current Affairs (Medical)

You will gain an in-depth working knowledge of the law, and the ethical considerations which are of key concern to medical journalists, as well as develop an understanding of  the structure of government, public institutions in the UK, including the NHS and other health organizations, and how they relate to journalists.

Medical News and Feature Writing

In this module you will develop your skills in writing general, and medical and health-related, news stories and features across both print and web platforms. You will gain an understanding of the concepts and pressures of newsgathering, and the importance of developing contacts. You will also be able to add some radio experience, both as interviewer and expert interviewee to your journalism portfolio.

Web Journalism - Westminster News Online (www.wnol.info)

Together with students from our MA in Journalism courses, you will be developing the best online techniques to run a live, multi-media news website, as well as gaining some TV and video experience.

Magazine Project – Online or Print

During this module you will develop advanced skills in the content and design/layout of either a team produced glossy, or an online ‘webzine’, in order to originate, write, design and produce a magazine working in an editorial team, and provide medical and health content.

Medical and Health Specialist Journalism

This module examines in depth the role of the specialist medical and health correspondent, and provides a critical understanding of the importance of sources, contacts and consideration of ethical issues and current debate in the field. You will also develop further your specialist reporting techniques to provide a number of ‘multi-platform’ pieces of journalism.

Entry Requirements

For the Postgraduate Diploma applicants will have a good Honours degree (Upper Second Class or equivalent) in a relevant discipline, and significant relevant professional experience. For the Diploma, you would need to have a good degree and/or the relevant professional experience. Unless a large part of your education has been in English, you should have a score of 7.0 in speaking and writing, in IELTS or its equivalent. You will need to be able to demonstrate a strong interest in the UK news media.

Associated Careers

Though designed to prepare students for a future in medical journalism, this course could also lead to working in public relations, in charity sector communications, or any other professional pathway which requires effective communication skills.