Level: 200 level. Read more information on levels in our FAQs

Fees:  Please see Fees and payments

Lectures: 36 hours 

Classes: 18 hours

Assessment*: One examination and one essay

Typical credit**: 3-4 credits (US) 7.5 ECTS points (EU)

*Assessment is optional but may be required for credit by your home institution. Your home institution will be able to advise how you can meet their credit requirements.

For more information on exams and credit, read Teaching and assessment

An interest in contemporary journalism and international politics and fluent understanding of written and spoken English. Participants should have studied at least one introductory course in either political science, international relations, sociology, economics or media and communications.

• The Media Landscape

• Networked Journalism

• Social Media, Journalism and Democracy

• Ethical Challenges to Journalism

• Social Media and Politics: Post-truth or Pre-lie

• Journalism and Collective Memory

• Reporting Terror

• What happens to News when it gets emotional?

• Truth, Trust and Technology

• Artificial Intelligence and Journalism

This course is delivered as a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, guest lectures and readings. The guest lectures will give you a unique opportunity to meet leading journalists and gain a first-hand account of the challenges of working as a modern journalist.

The course is assessed through an essay (25%) and a final examination (75%). You will also be required to submit an essay during the course that will not contribute to your final grade but will give you a better idea of what is expected of you in advance of your final essay.

Further details will be provided at the beginning of the course.

• Describe the historical context for modern news media and the role of a contemporary journalist.

• Understand the different social, economic and cultural roles journalism plays.

• Discuss the new ethical challenges and opportunities for democratic or cosmopolitan communication in a networked news environment.

• Analyse the role of news media within liberal democracies and the impact of the digital age on political journalism.

• Discuss the role of the media in collective memory and how society understands history.

• Understand the responsibilities of journalists reporting on terror events and ideologies of extreme violence.

• Analyse the role of AI technologies and the implications for journalism practice, ethics and quality.

This course is suitable if you want to develop an understanding of the shifts taking place in the practices, forms and processes within the news media and their consequences for the role of journalism in contemporary society. It is especially well suited if you are targeting a role in journalism or a media-related field. 

LSE’s Department of Media and Communications is a world-leading centre for education and research at the heart of LSE’s academic community. The Department ranked 1st in the UK and 3rd globally in its field in the 2020 QS World University Rankings.
The Department conducts critical and empirical research into the central role of media and communications within contemporary society. One of its primary aims is to conduct research that impacts on the strategies and practices of the media and communications industry, government policy makers and the third sector.

Students will study with internationally-recognised researchers with diverse expertise in media and communications, politics and democracy, regulation and policy, technological change, audiences and literacies, as well as globalisation and culture. Exposed to cutting-edge research, students will engage in a diverse, multidisciplinary approach to theoretical developments and debates in the field.

Professor Charlie Beckett
Professor of Practice, Director of Polis and the Polis/LSE JournalismAI project
Department of Media and Communications

Dr Omar Al-Ghazzi
Assistant Professor
Department of Media and Communications

C. Beckett, SuperMedia, Blackwell (2008)
R. Silverstone, Media and Morality, Polity (2006)

Other Sources:

POLIS Director’s Comentary blog: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/

POLIS on Twitter: @charliebeckett

*A more detailed reading list will be supplied prior to the start of the programme

**Course content, faculty and dates may be subject to change without prior notice