It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Radio Section of the Department of Media and Communications. The MA Radio Course has a reputation for developing creative, resourceful and outstanding students who make a powerful and significant contribution to the art of radio practice as well as the operation of the industry. Many of our past students are producing award-winning programmes and hold responsible positions in the media throughout the world. We certainly hope you will be able to join them.

Our commitment to an international and multi-cultural outlook is designed to enrich your experience of learning and contact with people from all parts of the world. We are now teaching in our purpose built new building overlooking the College Green, NAB (New Academic Building). Students, staff and visitors are relishing the new design, position and qualitative facilities.

The culture of the Department is such that practice tutors are encouraged to participate in contemporary professional media practice as well as maintain the professional demands of teaching. I continue to be involved in professional media law training, directing radio drama, scriptwriting, radio documentary production and investigative journalism. I am the course convenor and will be your personal tutor throughout the year. I will be teaching you Media Law and Ethics, and Radio Studies practice theory throughout the year. Nikki Townley and will be teaching you Radio Journalism throughout the autumn and spring terms. The radio journalism teaching takes place in the context of an integrated digital networked radio newsroom with ENPS, networked sound editing stations and professional wire services such as the Press Association and Agence France Press. You are also given access to a professional news diary service. Alan Hall will be taking the Creative Radio course during the Autumn and Spring terms. I will be teaching you Creative Radio during the Summer term. The technical aspects of radio production and broadcast are taught and managed by our Senior Studio Manager Neil Bull. Teaching of the multi-media context of radio and journalism with output on the published community news site East London Lines are supported by a team that includes Angela Phillips, Terry Kirby, Alex Drinkwater and Ellie Levenson. During the Summer term the MA Radio students take editorial control of East London Lines and provide intensive coverage of Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Lewisham and Croydon.

There is also an opportunity to learn Teeline shorthand, which is taught by visiting lecturer Margaret Hales. Anita Elias will be teaching you voice presentation in the Spring term. In the coming year you will also be meeting a number of professionals and radio artists as visiting lecturers and workshop leaders. There is a course on journalism research methodologies for covering local government, central government, researching online, and investigating politics. This explores the relationship between journalists and institutions that exercise power. This is convened by Peter Lee Wright and runs on Wednesdays. The course involves ‘the beat project’ in which you research contacts and sources in teams with students on the MA Journalism and MA Television Journalism courses as well a journalism based research project towards the end of the term.

The MA in Radio became the first course in the College to receive full recognition by a vocational training body. The Broadcast Journalism Training Council has provided accreditation for the radio journalism taught on the course. The programme was also the first Master of Arts degree in the UK to be given recognition by BJTC.

There are other optional courses available that you can participate in where there is no assessment. For example I run a voluntary course on British Culture that introduces an informed introductory understanding of Media Studies, British History and English Literatures.

Supporting your teaching and learning throughout the year is exclusive access to lecture, training and learning materials on the college’s Intranet learn.gold.ac.uk. This is accessible via your college username and password for email and the following courses have extensive multi-media resources to support the lectures and seminars: Media Law & Ethics, Radio Journalism, Sound Story Telling- Intertextuality of Narrative, and Radio Studies- A Cultural Enquiry, Teeline Shorthand, and Creative Radio. Finally, allow me to commend to you the hard work, talent, and commitment of our administration and resources team. The most familiar face in the office will be Brenda Ludlow, the Postgraduate Secretary, who you will come to know rather well in the coming year. We all very much look forward to working together to do our best for you. All my colleagues and I extend a warm welcome and we sincerely hope that you will find participating in our course a fulfilling and enjoyable experience.

Tim Crook, LLB(Hons), BA(Hons)Hum, BA(Hons)Open, ACIEA, Dip Lit, Dip Eur Hum, Cert Rad Journ, FHEA, FRSA, OWC. External examiner for Birmingham City University. MA Radio Programme Convenor. Departmental Research Ethics Officer.

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