Media degrees to enhance career prospects for journalists and media managers

Navigating hundreds of courses through aggregators can be tiresome. General QS and Times rankings might not be much of help, since they can hardly give one a grip of a particular program’s content. Instead, it’s better to inquire if a degree has points of touch with the industry, is reputable among practitioners or scores high in subject-specific rankings.

Here is a list of postgraduate programs that can boast some of these features.

For journalists 

Partnerships with media companies or the opportunity to establish ones are vital when it comes to degrees in journalism. 

City, University of London doesn’t come in the top 10 when you google the best universities in the UK. But it has the largest dedicated department among the rest, which made it №1 in subject rankings. 

One can choose to dive into financial or investigative reporting alone; explore broadcasting, newspapers, digital or even podcasting separately. Many prominent anchors, reporters and editors from companies like BBC News, The Observer, The Times, The Daily Mail have become the department’s alumni, and programs typically include workshops and guest lectures held by the current employees of the above. Younger, aspiring journalists who drive changes all over the world could also be easily found among the alumni (the head of investigations at The Kyiv Independent can serve as an example).

Goldsmith, University of London with names like Vivienne Westwood and Damien Hirst among its former scholars has a reputation for being artsy but was named the second-best media and communications department in the UK. The institution has placed much value on up-to-date soft and hard skills and now offers degrees in magazine, television, audio, podcasting, and digital journalism. Here, you can choose between MA or MSc, with Digital Journalism requiring you to study JavaScript and learn programming skills. The list of guest lectures is also exceptional and you may get your final project published thanks to the university’s partnerships with BBC News.

Erasmus Mundus Journalism that can be funded either privately or through the Erasmus scholarship offers a unique opportunity to explore journalism globally and build professional ties through worldwide networking. The two-year Journalism, Media and Globalisation MA is split between at least two countries with a long list of universities to choose from. After a compulsory semester at Aarhus University, you are free to depart to Amsterdam (the University of Amsterdam), London (City, University of London), Prague (Charles University), Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians University), Berkeley (the University of California) or other cities to pursue the area of your interest and get valuable contacts.

For managers 

A media management degree can be either a blessing or a huge disappointment. Schools feature very different subjects under the same program titles and it matters a lot if you know precisely what you need. 

Together with City, University of London, Cardiff University was sometimes regarded by practitioners as “Oxbridge for journalism” with its wide range of media degrees. 

For years, they have run a one-of-a-kind MBA with Media for already experienced practitioners eager to chase senior roles. Today they also offer an MBA with Artificial Intelligence which may be of relevance for those interested in launching innovative media products. 

Offering a similar focus on business development in media, Erasmus University Rotterdam runs the MA in Media and Business, which places you within an existing organisation (such as the Dutch Broadcasting Organisation) to work on a thesis at the end of your studies. A joint MoDE (Master of Digital Entrepreneurship) degree offered by the European University Viadrina and the Adam Mickiewicz University adapts a similar project and case-based approach with the added benefit of gaining experience in two different countries and an edge in teaching hard technical skills.

The MSc Media Management program at the University of Glasgow, being somewhat more research-focused, would benefit those aiming to work for public interest media, public institutions or NGOs with its extensive courses on policy taught by the CCPR staff. The University itself was the first in the UK to introduce the subject of media economics at a master’s level, and works produced by its current lecturers became core textbooks for similar modules at other universities, such as the University of Westminster.

On the contrary, Royal Holloway, University of London provides one of the very few media management courses wholly dedicated to commercial film and TV industries, featuring modules on fundraising and production study within the framework of its International Media Management MA. 

As different as they seem, all the courses hold master classes or guest lectures with practitioners as the studies’ integral part.

For marketers 

A good course in marketing is especially hard to locate, given its sought-after nature. In some cases, general marketing with solid theory would be sufficient for a media employee. 

Such can be found, for instance, at the City, University of London, the University of Bristol or the University of Manchester among others, according to The Guardian’s 2024 subject-specific guide. 

As a rule of thumb, marketing, PR or branding are integrated into the majority of media management degrees, including all the above-mentioned, with different numbers of credits and quality of teaching. However, if one is looking for meaningful specialisation, student satisfaction and ties with the industry are good search starting points. 

The University of Westminster, despite being a former polytechnic and a young university, has large media and marketing departments. Their MSc Digital Marketing is fully practice-oriented and offers an optional job placement embedded into a studying journey. The institution is trying hard to compensate for its mediocre academic background with hands-on experiences for students, relevant innovative courses, and real-life assignments.

The English-language MSc in Marketing and Consumption at the University of Gothenburg has a special focus on sustainability and provides students with an opportunity to spend a semester at a partner university outside of Sweden. Digital marketing can be chosen as an elective course, with the overall mix of modules being enticing for many industries.

For researchers

For research degrees, the academic staff’s background and their projects matter most. 

Ranked second in the UK in media and communications, Goldsmith, University of London is very keen on media studies, accommodating lots of MA degrees concerned with media affecting culture and society. 

One of the programs they offer for scholars is Media and Communications MRes. The course prepares students for a future academic career narrowing their interest to one of the five strands explored by the department staff: the economy of media, its future implications, relationships with democracy, gender, culture, screen or media arts.

A similar and also reputable MRes at the University of Liverpool has a somewhat different research focus, offering analysis of everyday life and practices through media among the rest. There’s also a strong emphasis on computational quantitative methods to conduct such a study.

The University of Amsterdam is probably most famous for employing professors like Mark Deuze who immediately pops up once you google books on journalism. It offers fascinating and cutting-edge MA courses in TV, cross-media, AI, new media and digital culture. Upon achieving some academic success during your master’s program, you can transfer to an MRes degree to further your research at a world-leading institution.

Source of the cover photo: courtesy of Anastasiia Kuzmenko

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