Journalism Major

The Journalism Major is offered in four Concentrations: Chinese Journalism, International Journalism, Financial Journalism and Data and Media Communication. All choices share a core of Required and Elective Courses dealing with the activities and responsibilities of the print, broadcast and internet journalists. Each choice requires bilingualism, but stresses the particular language and professional skills appropriate for the specialists in Chinese, International, Financial and Data and Media Communication journalism.

Students in the Journalism Major pursue studies in three major areas: (1) professional journalism, in which students learn the principles and skills of gathering, presenting, and producing news and current affairs; (2) the theoretical foundations of the profession, in which students develop a conceptual understanding of the profession and its role in society through legal, ethical, political, historical, economic and media communication theory courses; and (3) complementary studies of the relationship between broadcast or print or internet journalism and society as well as the way politics, government, business and law operate in both local and international communities. In all these areas, emphasis is in Hong Kong and mainland China, with due attention to the international context in which both communities operate.

All students are expected to undertake a professional internship during the summer following the third year. Students in each Concentration have elective courses in which to explore aspects of journalism in greater depth or to increase their knowledge of some specialized type of reporting. In their final semester students integrate their conceptual and practical knowledge in the Honours Project.

Chinese Journalism (CJ): The backbone of the CJ comprises several basic to advanced level “writing” courses, which spread through the curriculum. Those courses emphasize basic news writing, investigative reporting as well as feature writing. Moreover, a wide range of production courses prepare the students for output in multi-platforms including internet, mobile and traditional media; the four laboratory courses which run consecutively in four semesters, provide the opportunity to put the resulting news gathering, reporting and editing skills into practice. At the same time students will undertake a number of conceptual courses which stress the theoretical aspects of journalism and its practice. Journalism Elective is provided. Media Law and Ethics is required as a major core course. The Honours Project (3 units) is taken in the final semester of the programme. CJ students who wish to specialize in broadcast journalism will take one advanced broadcasting course and undergo News Anchoring training. Broadcast Journalism is offered as a stream under Chinese Journalism.

Financial Journalism (FJ): The FJ has the structure as far as the writing and production courses, which are specialized in business and financial news, are concerned. Similarly the laboratory courses run for four semesters and the Honours Project provides an opportunity to integrate theory and practice at the end of the programme.

International Journalism (IJ): IJ curriculum is built upon a strong foundation in English-language newswriting with courses in both the theory and production of news. Though there is an emphasis on print, students also learn multimedia skills, including broadcast and online journalism. Two years of practicum running a student news site give IJ students a grounding in news production, and the curriculum finishes with an Honours Project allowing students to draw upon all knowledge gained during their studies to produce a project of note. Though students study and cover local news in English, IJ also draws upon the international perspective in its curriculum design.

Data and Media Communication (DMC): The curriculum structure of DMC contains three components: bridging courses, required courses, and elective courses. The bridging courses provide fundamental knowledge on data science for journalism students, whereas provide an overall introduction on journalism and communication and basic news reporting skills for computer science students. The required courses emphasise key elements in both solid journalism training, such as investigative reporting and data-driven storytelling, as well as applied data analytic skills, such as data analysis and data visualization. The elective courses cover a wide range in the interdisciplinary field of data and media communication, such as big data analytics, data mining and knowledge discovery, multiplatform journalism, media management, among many others. In the Honours Project, students are expected to be able to apply these data media and communication skills to produce analytics, solutions and insights for media organisations and others in or connected to the industry.

Requirements