Erasmus Mundus Master in Journalism, Media and Globalisation (EMJ)

Program Structure

The first year of the degree is spent in Denmark with the entire cohort. The aim of the first year is to give students the analytical skills needed to identify and analyze cultural, political, and technological challenges and opportunities for journalism across the globe. Moreover, the courses in Aarhus are designed to prepare students for your specialization and thesis work in the second year. In order to realize that aim, the courses in Aarhus will combine theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives.

In the second year, students split into smaller groups choosing the specialization of their interest. The courses in Prague’s specialization "Totalitarianism & Transition" will give them a solid understanding of the contemporary history of post-totalitarian countries, and they will work with key issues facing journalism in light of ongoing political, market-related, and technological transformations. This theoretical knowledge furthermore constitutes the point of departure for the practical courses in audio, video, and multimedia journalism production.

Prague’s program is divided into several courses:

• Media and journalism and their performance are key issues of liberal democracy. The status of media is, therefore, a crucial point in the transition from a totalitarian to a liberal political environment. The course Media in Post-Totalitarian Countries offers basic knowledge of the development of media in post-totalitarian countries on examples of Central Europe (mainly Czechia, but also Poland, Hungary, and Germany) from 1989 until now. It supports students' critical approach to reflections on mass media and social media, and on contemporary societies and their political communication.
• The course Contemporary History of Post-Totalitarian Countries will provide the students' knowledge of the contemporary history of post-totalitarian countries in Central (and Eastern) Europe in order to understand the specifics of its political, socio-economic, and cultural developments in the recent past that have an impact on the societies of Central European countries today. The course uses a variety of methodological approaches to deal with key historical and contemporary issues such as the process of nation-building; dealing with the German political, economic and cultural hegemony; expulsion/resettlement of Germans and coming to terms with the past; dynamics of the development of societies in the communist era; achievements and failures of the post-communist transformation; and important recent topics such as the migration crisis, etc. Students are expected to work in groups and discuss the issues based on their presentations.
• Audiovisual Journalism of the 21st Century aims to develop journalism and reporting skills. The first part of the course combines excursions to public and private news TV broadcasters and lectures that provide essential editorial and technological knowledge in the field of TV journalism. Within its practical part, the course combines TV studio and fieldwork both with professional broadcast technologies and widely used consumer devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets). Students will work on simulated TV newscasts which will include work in the TV studio, editing news stories, and live reporting.
• The course Post-Digital Photojournalism discusses the current situation of visual journalism. With the rise of digital technologies, theoreticians began talking about the death of traditional photography and describing the era as post-photographic. Now, twenty years later, it is obvious that visual messages are more powerful than ever in and beyond political discourse.
• The course Foreign Correspondence covers both the very interesting history of the profession, as well as its current situation that is influenced by both technological and economic challenges. The course makes use of the practical skills students gained from the previous courses to simulate the work of foreign correspondents. The students' knowledge about the Central and Eastern Europe region is used in their journalistic stories, thereby deeply grounding their theoretical knowledge.
• The Master's thesis courses 1 & 2 have two main objectives. The first objective is to provide the relevant methodological and theoretical knowledge and skills, at an advanced level, which are necessary for MA students to produce a master's thesis. The second objective is to guide students in developing the core design of their thesis, i.e. their research questions, theoretical/conceptual framework, methods and research design, and textual structure.

Why choose Mundus Journalism?

The Mundus Journalism MA program gives you state-of-the-art insights into the current topics within journalism, media, and globalization. The curriculum combines academic, theoretical knowledge with journalistic skills to improve your ability to analyze, interpret and understand the global changes that increasingly challenge traditional boundaries between media, politics, technology, and culture. All in all, the program prepares you to work practically towards improving and maintaining the societal and cultural legitimacy of journalism globally.

A vibrant and international community

Join the Mundus Journalism program to engage with peers and staff from more than 100 countries across the globe in an ambitious, interdisciplinary and multicultural environment. The Erasmus Mundus Journalism master's degree offers you a truly unique and international educational experience. At Mundus Journalism, you will study at leading universities in at least two European countries, work with top researchers in media studies, political science, and journalism, and gain an outstanding professional network for life.

Customize your Mundus Journalism degree

Year 1: Studying in Aarhus, Denmark

All students spend the first year of their master’s degree in Aarhus, Denmark studying at both Aarhus University - taught by faculty from the Department of Political Science and the Department of Information and Media Studies - and the Danish School of Media and Journalism.

The aim of the first year is to give you the analytical skills needed to identify and analyze cultural, political, and technological challenges and opportunities for journalism across the globe. You will also learn how to integrate this sophisticated theoretical understanding with practical approaches to assert journalism within a public sphere that is undergoing decisive changes.

You can customize your studies by choosing to take electives or an approved internship as part of your second semester. Or you can apply (after the course start in Aarhus) to be one of the selected students who can study their second semester (30 ECTS) at one of our prestigious credit awarding universities:

• Berkeley University of California in the USA
• Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
• The University of Technology Sydney in Australia
• Fudan University in Shanghai in China
• The University of Cape Town in South Africa
• Lebanese American University in Lebanon
• The University of Hamburg in Germany

Year 2: Studying in either Amsterdam, London, or Prague

In the second year, you will be able to specialize in the area of your choice to delve into field-specific topics and strengthen your reflexive journalism skills. In the 2021-2023 program, we are offering the specializations listed below, while we expect that we will be able to add a fourth specialization called ‘Cultures and Contexts’ at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in our 2022-2024 program.

Specializations in the 2021-2023 program:

• Totalitarianism & Transition at Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic
• Business & Innovation at City, the University of London in the United Kingdom
• Politics & Communication at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands

While the specializations in Totalitarianism & Transition and Business & Innovation offer more practical journalism training, the specialization in Politics and Communication is more theory-oriented and focuses on substantive issues and empirical research analyzing the content, production, and effects of journalism and other forms of political communication. While some of the Amsterdam courses, as well as the thesis, offer the opportunity to engage in practical journalism, this specialization does not offer practical journalism training as such.

Given the combination of theoretical and practical skills you will gain in this program, one of many possible career paths leads to the field of audiovisual journalism or foreign correspondence.