What is Communications/Law like at UTS?

[grace.estelle]

Hi guys, so I am deciding between Communications(Journalism)/Law OR Communications(Social and Political Science)/Law at UTS. Can someone give me some advantages and disadvantages for each course?

At the moment I am unsure what Journalism will be like since UTS courses are quite practical. I know I will enjoy the writing/editing aspect of it since I have worked with magazine editing before. What I am worried about is that many UTS students seem to take on roles as reporters/interviewers and I really don't want to go down that path. Anyone know what percentage of the course is teaching you how to write and what percentage is going out there to talk to people?

With Social and Political Science, I think I will find learning the course really interesting, but again, what is the practical aspect like?

[elysepopplewell]

Hi guys, so I am deciding between Communications(Journalism)/Law OR Communications(Social and Political Science)/Law at UTS. Can someone give me some advantages and disadvantages for each course?

At the moment I am unsure what Journalism will be like since UTS courses are quite practical. I know I will enjoy the writing/editing aspect of it since I have worked with magazine editing before. What I am worried about is that many UTS students seem to take on roles as reporters/interviewers and I really don't want to go down that path. Anyone know what percentage of the course is teaching you how to write and what percentage is going out there to talk to people?

With Social and Political Science, I think I will find learning the course really interesting, but again, what is the practical aspect like?

HI Grace! I studied Comms Journo at UTS and for a short time I pursued Social and Political Science as a stream choice. Social and Political Science is very interested but largely structured for people who want to research in the future, potentially as an academic path. My assignments in my year of Social and Political Science involved a lot of interviewing and anthropologic research-skills, so if that isn't the way you want to go then I don't recommend it (despite the fact that I do think it is an outstanding course, but it doesn't seem to match what you're looking for).

My experience with Journalism at UTS has very little correlation to my experience working in magazines! There are definitely aspects, but there's no specific subject I did in Journalism that made me super ready for magazine work, instead it's more the wider organic skills I've learnt from various tasks within the course. There's certain subjects for local news, online news, print stories, data stories, and so on. So I guess what I'm saying is: you'll gain various different skills from various aspects of the course. I don't think the course funnels you towards a certain type of journalism - most people stay pretty true to whatever their initial interest was (sports journalism, radio, tv, etc). But, you definitely dip your toes in everything.

Every single Journalism assignment I've ever submitted, bar one, is producing a journalism story (for the record, the one that wasn't a piece of journalism was just a preliminary report for the piece of journalism I'd produce for the final assignment). So every single assignment will involve you interviewing people! The process of writing journalism is research (for what often feels like years lol), interviewing to colour in your story, researching, interviewing, and then writing.

I think my experience at UTS Journalism has been instrumental in giving me skills across the board of writing and editing, but there's just no way I could be any kind of journalist, magazine or otherwise, if I wasn't forced to interview people (which used to be my most HATED aspect of Journalism!)

Very little of the course is actually "this is how you write." The first semester of Journo is "this is how you write local news stories" in a very specific manner, and then you pick up different aspects of how to write for different mediums along the way!

I do freelance writing for an online publication now and I didn't really have to re-learn how to write to a specific style for this publication because I'd learnt it at uni and had read enough to emulate it. But, when I was in magazines, I realised I had to learn the writing style they prefer. So while the degree helped with certain formats, other times I've had to learn other formats. BUT - this is why I think internships are essential to colouring in your knowledge and experience

Let me know if you need any help or advice!

[grace.estelle]

Every single Journalism assignment I've ever submitted, bar one, is producing a journalism story (for the record, the one that wasn't a piece of journalism was just a preliminary report for the piece of journalism I'd produce for the final assignment). So every single assignment will involve you interviewing people! The process of writing journalism is research (for what often feels like years lol), interviewing to colour in your story, researching, interviewing, and then writing.

I think my experience at UTS Journalism has been instrumental in giving me skills across the board of writing and editing, but there's just no way I could be any kind of journalist, magazine or otherwise, if I wasn't forced to interview people (which used to be my most HATED aspect of Journalism!)

Thanks Elyse! Yep, Social and Political Science doesn't seem like it is for me so I have taken it out of my preferences.

What made you hate interviewing people at first, and then what made you change your mind? And what was the interviewing process like? In terms of assignments, were they on-screen interviews or voice recordings, online etc. I'm quite shy so I'm unsure how everything will play out. Does UTS make you focus on a particular area, say, politics, or can you choose to write stories of your interest (eg. business)?