Fiona Reidy, MA in Journalism
I started the Masters in Journalism at the start of this year, I also play rugby for Ireland so I thought UL was the perfect choice for me to manage a master’s programme while training for the World Cup that will be hosted in Dublin next year. It’s been brilliant so far. Our national regional training centre is based in UL. I earned a UL Sports scholarship so I live on campus student accommodation, everything is on my doorstep; it’s quite handy. I chose to come back here again because I think UL is a highly recognised institution worldwide and to get a qualification from here is well worth it; the academic standards in UL are quite high. The student academic supports are good too; take the First Seven Weeks programme for new students to the university, its huge for someone who might be struggling or doesn’t know anyone and to give them that extra hand is important.
I studied New Media and English in UL and I always had an interest in journalism; I love to read and write. The main reason I chose to do this programme is that it is only takes one year but it is full on! Modules in our first semester include Professional Skills for Journalism and a team project where we are putting together a newspaper, The Limerick Voice; there is also an online section for that.
There are also modules on Media Law, Introduction to Broadcasting and another writing module: Journalistic Writing for News. It covers everything but you are expected to do a lot of work for The Limerick Voice and the law module is a lot of extra work as well; you have to be prepared to immerse yourself. The academic facilities for this programme are excellent. We have a newsroom equipped with new Mac computers with all the software you need.I think my employability will be good, there are so many different parts to the course so you get a good foundation and you can go into any element of broadcasting from research to reporting and digital design, anything!"
