About Sports Journalism in Staffordshire University

On our Sports Journalism MA, you’ll work with a team of top journalists and academics. You’ll learn how self-shoot and edit a TV package, how to write and present on television and radio and how to operate as a multi-media journalist. Not only this, you’ll learn the advanced theory that underpins journalism, so you’ll always be a step ahead of the game.

Our teaching staff have many years’ experience of working in newspapers, online journalism, radio and television. Also, you’ll have access to cutting-edge equipment throughout your studies.

You’ll undertake a fully assessed work placement and have an opportunity to visit several leading London newsrooms, including Sky News, Sky Sports News, ITV News and The Daily Telegraph, which is included in the course fees.

Work placements

You have the option to choose your own work placement.

To help you out, we have connections and work placement arrangements with many leading companies such as:

• Manchester United TV
• Eurosport
• BBC Sport
• Sky Sports News
• Birmingham Mail
• Express & Star
• The Stoke Sentinel

Our Sports Journalism MA covers a variety of modules that aim to give you the skills to thrive in the competitive world of broadcasting. You will study core modules that work to give you an in-depth background, such as Sport, Media and Culture, Broadcast Journalism: Theory and Practice, Sports Broadcast Studies and Law.

While giving you an advanced knowledge of the background in Sports Broadcasting, we will work to ready you for specialist careers after graduation. Sports Writing will focus on developing your sub-editing and writing skills. Our Multi-Platform Feature Production will give you the technical knowledge you need to report and present sports-based news. During your course you will undertake 120 hours of work placement, assessed via a professional portfolio. You will need to use basic reporting skills of researching, writing, presentation and digital editing to gather information, and assemble and produce sports stories for broadcast according to a brief given by your news editor or supervisor.

More importantly, you will complete a final project where you’ll be required to make a 40-minute radio or 25-minute TV documentary. The topic is completely up to you! Once complete, the project, alongside your portfolio and the valuable experience you will gain during teaching hours, will prepare you for a career as a professional sports broadcasting journalist.

Entry requirements

Courses requiring a 2:1 degree

• First Class Degree in a relevant subject with a minimum grade of 60% or 6.5/10 CGPA

Courses requiring a 2:2 degree

• Second Class Degree in a relevant subject with a minimum grade of 55.5% or 6.0/10 CGPA