Master of Arts in DIGITAL JOURNALISM - Aga Khan...

1MASTER OF ARTS IN DIGITAL JOURNALISM

Master of Arts inDIGITAL JOURNALISM

MASTER OF ARTS IN DIGITAL JOURNALISM2


Our world is changing dramatically, and so are the skills needed to be a journalist in the 21st century. Globalization, technology and sweeping economic shifts have

transformed the media industry. East Africa is at the center of this revolution. It needs a journalism that makes itself heard, raises the quality of public debate, empowers citizens to think for themselves and spotlights challenges before they become crises.

The Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications is the premier training center for media leaders, communications professionals and entrepreneurs shaping East Africa’s future.

We understand the new media landscape. We cultivate the foundational skills and qualities that no journalist or media organization can survive without: ethical integrity, accurate reporting and compelling storytelling.

Our mission: to transform the media and communications industry of East Africa through our program offerings and partnerships with the world’s most prominent educational institutions. Among them: Deutsche Welle Akademie and Harvard University’s executive education

program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

We are proud to offer this first-of-its-kind MA in Digital Journalism to journalists who are primed to take on the challenge. We have designed a program that will equip you with the best in cutting-edge technologies and practice. Courses are flexible and dynamic, benefitting people at every stage of their career.

We boast an extraordinary faculty of highly experienced teachers from around the world, true stars in the international media galaxy.

Once you graduate from the Aga Khan Graduate School of Media and Communications, you will become a disciplined professional — a “pro” prepared for the future. Whether you write for a newspaper, anchor the TV news or start a new online venture, you will join a media elite, head and shoulders above the competition. We call it the Aga Khan Advantage.

If you seek the creativity, critical thinking and professional skills required to lead East Africa’s media in the 21st century, this program is for you.

Michael MeyerFounding Dean, Graduate School of Media and CommunicationsAga Khan University in Nairobi

• Academic excellence and freedom• Intellectual discipline• Impact• Commitment and passion

• Ethical practice• Creativity and innovation• Relevance and professional excellence

Our core values

Dean’s message


Accelerate your career

Our MA in Digital Journalism combines real-life practice with academic rigor to position early and mid-career journalists as leaders in their field.

You will develop the knowledge, skills and professional qualities for success at the highest levels of your proffession. You will work with world-renowned journalists and scholars as you blend practice, reflection and theory in your coursework.

The program is taught in state-of-the-art facilities and progressively builds expertise in multiplatform storytelling, specialist reporting and editorial leadership. The culmination of the program will be a specialist reporting project and research thesis.

By focusing on regional issues and drawing on local and global trends, our graduates will develop the creativity, critical thinking and professional skills required to lead East Africa’s media in the 21st century.

Program overview


Our curriculumThe curriculum fosters professional leadership, multimedia production, specialized reporting, ethics and social responsibility. Offered over a four-semester period, the program comprises 11 courses that include a specialized reporting project and research thesis.

Make a Difference

Learn from the bestOur faculty members are top scholars and experienced professionals from world-class media organizations. Among them: Nation Media Group, Standard Group, the Financial Times, CNN, BBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Get the individual attention you deserveWe keep our classes small, so you get intensive individual attention.

Study while you workOur flexible format means you can continue working.

Acquire new skills for a new eraWe equip students with the skills the Digital Age demands, as well as the broader perspective required to understand and anticipate the forces reshaping the industry.

Build a careerThe world changes fast, but some things endure.

Why MA in Digital Journalism?

SEMESTER 4

• Research Thesis

SEMESTER 1

• Content That Sells• Investigation and Analysis • Media Law and Ethics• Past, Present and Future

SEMESTER 2

• Advanced Digital Journalism

• Media Leadership in Action • Media Development and

Social Impact • Developing Your Editorial

Specialty

SEMESTER 3

• Putting Research into Action

• Specialist Reporting Project

Accurate reporting and compelling storytelling will always be the foundation of journalistic excellence. Our graduates are in high demand.

Learn by doingWe blend classroom learning and study with numerous opportunities to practice your skills in the real world of journalistic excellence.

Values matterWe hold ourselves and our students to the highest ethical standards. If you value integrity, independence, innovation, professional excellence and free inquiry, GSMC is for you.

Make a differenceJournalism is a powerful tool for social impact. We will help you to empower citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, communities, societies and governments.


Content That Sells explores a wide range of reporting and storytelling formats, including new reporting techniques, investigative journalism, feature writing, visual storytelling and long-form and interactive narratives.

Investigation and Analysis focuses on sourcing, investigation and verification strategies for the 21st century. It provides an overview of a range of traditional and contemporary investigation practices used by journalists to research stories and multimedia productions, including a critical introduction to the traditions of interview, observation, data and archival research.

Media Law and Ethics explores key legal and ethical issues relevant to media practice and journalism, including emergent areas of digital regulation.

Past, Present and Future examines the changing media landscape in Africa and globally. By reflecting on the history of journalism, students will come away with a firm grasp of current and future issues and media practice.

Advanced Digital Journalism provides an opportunity for students to work in teams and experiment with new technologies and novel forms of storytelling to build a real-world audience for a new media product or project.

Media Leadership in Action prepares students for responsibilities they will take on during their careers, fostering adaptive leadership skills.

Media Development and Social Impact builds rigorous reporting skills to help journalists respond to social problems. Focusing on the unique issues arising in developing countries, the course helps to rebalance the news so that everyday people can better understand the problems and challenges shaping their lives.

Developing Your Editorial Specialty prepares students for undertaking a specialized reporting project. At the conclusion of this course, students will present a fully researched pitch and proposal for a multiplatform media project to be undertaken in the next semester.

Putting Research into Action exposes students to deeper methodological issues and approaches by introducing them to techniques specific to mass media research that can be applied to journalism.

Specialist Reporting Project prepares students to be specialist reporters who can assume editorial leadership of in-depth, multimedia projects in a particular ‘beat’. This course is conducted in two parts: a production component where students work with a specialist reporter in their nominated field, and a contextual study component where students work with an academic advisor in their chosen specialty. At the conclusion of this course, students will produce a digital portfolio and a critical essay explaining how their work advances public understanding of their topic.

Research Thesis offers the opportunity for students to engage in original research.

Our courses


Our faculty

This program will be taught by award-winning local and international faculty and distinguished guests, from the industry.

Michael MeyerMr. Meyer is an award-winning editor and correspondent for Newsweek. He came to Nairobi from the United Nations, where he served for five years as the communications director and chief speechwriter for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He is the author of the Alexander Complex, an examination of the psychology of American empire builders, and the Year that Changed the World: the Untold Story of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, an eye-witness account of the revolutions of 1989, published in eleven languages and rated one of the “ten best books of 2009” by The Washington Post. He is a member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations.

Rhonda BreitProf. Breit is the author of Professional Communication: Legal and Ethical Issues and previously headed the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. She was the vice-president of research at the Journalism Education Association Australia (2009-2013) and spearheaded a national discipline standards project for Journalism, Media and Communications in Australia (2011-2014).

Nancy BookerDr. Booker is a distinguished journalist and senior lecturer in Kenya and beyond and the former head of the Department of Journalism and Communication at Multimedia University of Kenya. She is also the founding Chair of Department of Communication at ABC University in post-war Liberia. Dr. Booker writes and speaks widely on issues of broadcast journalism, the state of the media and health communication. She has several academic publications in journalism and health communication. She has also conducted several training workshops for journalists and communication experts throughout Africa. She is currently a juror for the Annual Journalism Excellence Awards organised by the Media Council of Kenya, and is the treasurer of the East African Communication Association.

Sam KamauDr. Kamau has taught and published extensively in the areas of political communication, communication research and theory, social media and blogging, and development communication. He previously taught at the University of Nairobi School of Journalism and has conducted training programs for various groups, including journalists, public health workers and young professionals.


Our faculty

Peter KimaniDr. Kimani is an award-winning journalist and author. A leading African writer, he was a senior editor at The Standard. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The New African and Sky News, among others. Dr. Kimani is the author of three novels: Before The Rooster Crows and Upside Down, for which he was awarded the 2011 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Kenya’s highest literary honor, and most recently Dance of the Jakaranda, which received an Editors’ Choice recommendation from The New York Times. Dr. Kimani was one of three international poets commissioned by National Public Radio to compose poems marking Barack Obama’s inauguration as US President in January 2009.

Stephen BuckleyMr. Buckley is the school’s professor of practice and heads its professional development program. An award-winning reporter and editor who has been in and around journalism for three decades, Mr. Buckley began his career with The Washington Post, where he spent 12 years as a local reporter and foreign correspondent, based in Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro. He subsequently became managing editor of the St. Petersburg Times and, later, dean of the Poynter Institute, a leading US journalism training center. He has served four times as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes and has taught at the Nieman Narrative Conference at Harvard University. He conducts writing and leadership training workshops for journalists throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Africa.

Andrew TkachMr. Tkach, an eight-time Emmy winner for his documentary films, has spent more than 25 years filing TV documentaries and news reports from some of the world’s most difficult places. He has been a lead producer at CNN, NBC and CBS, where he was the principal long-form producer for Christiane Amanpour on 60 Minutes. Mr. Tkach is the creator and executive producer of Giving Nature a Voice, an environmental reporting project produced by the Graduate School of Media and Communications and airing weekly on Kenya’s NTV television network.

Thomas LansnerMr. Lansner is a former London Observer correspondent and lecturer at Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris. He taught international media and policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs from 1994-2012 and has led workshops on media advocacy for CSOs in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. Mr. Lansner runs the graduate school’s Social Accountability Media Initiative project in partnership with the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability.


The program is delivered at GSMC’s state-of-the-art facility at the 9 West building in Nairobi. GSMC features fully equipped specialist media suites for both television and radio as well as:• Post-production labs equipped with iMacs and

the latest editing software• Video and photography cameras• A large lecture hall and multiple flexi-

classrooms

• Break-out discussion rooms • A television and studio control room with

professional software• Fully stocked information resource centre and

reading spaces• Coffee lounge

Our facilities


Early to mid-career journalists and media professionals.

Entry requirements

1. A four-year undergraduate degree from an accredited/recognized university, with a minimum CGPA of 3.00 (on a four-point scale) or its equivalent. Additionally, a minimum of two years of professional experience in journalism or a related field is required OR

2. A four-year undergraduate degree (or equivalent) from an accredited/recognized university with a minimum CGPA of 2.50 or its equivalent will be considered, provided

the candidate has a minimum of four years of professional experience in journalism or a related field.

Preference will be given to applicants with: 1. Demonstrated academic and intellectual

ability to complete post graduate studies2. Outstanding written and verbal

communication skills in English3. Computer literacy and basic digital media

production techniques4. Broad knowledge of history and current

affairs5. Relevant work experience as evidenced by a

portfolio of work and professional references

Who should apply?


Application Process

Advertising

Working in coordination with GSMC, the Office of the Registrar advertises for students to apply to the programme of interest.

Application

Applicants submit application to the AKU Registrar’s Office.

Initial shortlisting

The Registrar’s Office ensures that the applications received are in order and then submit them to GSMC. Applicants are then shortlisted based on a review of admission documentation against the minimum university admission criteria set and a shortlist of applicants is developed.

Evaluation of the portfolio of work

GSMC selection panel will evaluate the portfolio of work submitted by the applicants and develop a shortlist of applicants based on the quality, duration and relevance of the portfolio submitted. The portfolio shall have a weighting of no more than 35% in the calculation of the final aggregate score used for admission decisions.

English language proficiency test

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attempt the English language proficiency test which will include a component of knowledge test and written test.

Admissions Test

Applicants shortlisted under step 5 above will be invited to attempt the GSMC admissions test. The test scores shall have a weighting of no more than 35% in the calculation of the final aggregate score used for admission decisions.

Interviews

Applicants will then be invited for interview with the selection panel. During the interview, applicant’s publications and curriculum vitae will be probed. The interview scores shall have a weighting of no more than 25% in the calculation of the final aggregate score used for admission decisions.

Final selection

Applications are ranked according to an admissions matrix prepared by the Admissions Committee.

Offer of admission

The list of selected applicants is submitted for approval by Board of Graduate Studies. On approval, the candidates are offered admission to the programme to which they have applied.

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Contacts

Graduate School of Media and Communications

9 West Building, 7th Floor

Mkungu Close, off Parklands Road

P.O. Box 30270-00100

Nairobi, Kenya

Phone: +254 731 888 055, +254 719 231 530

Email: [email protected] • [email protected]

Website: akumedia.aku.edu

Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications

@AKU_GSMC@AKUGSMC

Scholarships: A number of scholarships are available each year.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.akumedia.aku.edu

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