Journalism and Media Studies Honours
Co-ordinator: Dr Priscilla Boshoff
Room: 109
Email: p.a.boshoff@ru.ac.za
The Honours degree in Journalism and Media Studies is a NQF 8 level qualification. It is offered full time over one year, although accommodation can be made for exceptional students to do the degree part time over two years.
The Honours programme is structured to introduce students to selected key theoretical frameworks and the research methodologies and methods relevant to this level of study in the fields of journalism and media studies. The core courses are concept-driven rather than topic-driven. Honours students are expected by the end of the year to be able to evaluate key approaches to Media Studies and to be able to apply these understandings independently within a selected research area. Students should be able to recognise broad distinctions in the research paradigms taught, in particular between qualitative and quantitative research. But they are only expected to demonstrate competency in the application of one research method under the guidance of the supervisor.
Students are therefore assisted to take full responsibility for their learning strategies. As part of their intellectual journey, students are encouraged to develop the ability to interrogate knowledge and to reflect critically on the complexity of knowledge creation when working with unfamiliar, complex and problematic social issues. They also learn how to respond creatively to such problems and issues and to effectively share these responses with their classmates.
The Honours programme is weighted at a minimum of 120 credits, and consists of six papers:
Digital media and society in Africa: 15%
Media research methods: 15%
Academic writing: 15%
Two elective papers: 15% x 2 = 30%
Research paper: 25%
Digital media and society in Africa – Dr Priscilla Boshoff
This course introduces you to some key concepts that offer a critical understanding of the relationship between contemporary digital media and society in South Africa, and Africa more broadly. In order to orient ourselves to our material, we start by looking closely at our current social context and how it has been shaped by the processes of coloniality and neoliberalism. Examples from contemporary empirical research in Africa demonstrate how we can apply - and expand our understanding of - these concepts in our lived context.
Media research methods – Dr Kealeboga Aiseng
The purpose of this course is to give students the necessary tools and knowledge associated with doing research in the field of media. The course also intends to enable students to understand and critique literature from within media and cultural studies from a methodological point of view.
Academic writing – Prof Anthea Garman
The academic writing course helps postgraduate students:
- Familiarise themselves with the range of academic practices of thinking, talking, reading, writing and research which take place within the humanities and social sciences.
- Learn how to develop a practice of such thinking, talking, reading, writing and research in ways that empower them to operate as emerging members of the media studies community in South Africa.
- Learn how to operate as independent researchers who can develop research questions and research projects
The electives
Students choose two electives from the range of courses offered in terms two and three. [this needs a hyperlink to the electives page]
The research paper
Students are allocated supervisors early in the year, and will work closely with them in order to develop a research topic and proposal. All students, however, will work within the departmental research project on Digital Inequalities. This supports the research process, as students become part of a research community and can share their research journeys.
Centre for Postgraduate Studies Programme 2022
Thesis proposal format (Humanities)
Last Modified: Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:06:33 SAST