BA (Hons) Journalism portfolio guide

Your portfolio

As part of your BA (Hons) Journalism application, you must provide some pieces of journalistic work.

Why we need a portfolio

This is a professionally accredited course aimed at producing the next generation of journalists and other media professionals. A portfolio will help us find out what you already know about journalism and the media, as well as what you know about writing and producing material for a target audience. We'll also get a better idea of your passion for writing and the media industry. All this will help us assess your application.

What to include in your portfolio

We’d like to see, in your portfolio, three pieces of content you’ve produced under any of the following conditions.

Content for the professional media

These could be stories from a work experience stint with a local newspaper, radio station or online publication. It might include work you have sent to a local newspaper for publication. It does not matter if the work is published or not.

Content for a school, college newspaper/magazine or online publication

This can include news stories or features, or sports reports or lifestyle articles, but might also be examples of other artefacts like creative writing, quizzes or comment pieces on national news, or feature issues.

Content as part of a previous study

These include:

• blogs
• vlogs
• videos
• radio packages
• stories
• magazine designs
• photographs
• smartphone packages

Other types of content

These can include:

• Content you’ve produced for your own blog
• Any academic coursework that might demonstrate a broader understanding of the media industry
• Any other material you believe supports your application for a journalism course

How to present your portfolio

Please upload your work to your applicant view. Your work can be collated into a PDF, uploaded to a site such as Flickr or as a word document listing any relevant URLs (or a mixture).

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for your portfolio to demonstrate your:

• Passion for writing and communication
• Understanding of news and feature story gathering and story producing techniques for different platforms
• Understanding of what makes news and how it is produced
• Enthusiasm for, and commitment to, the study of journalism at university

And finally…

Don’t worry if you don’t have material that meets all the above. We don’t expect you to be able to do that at this stage of your development. Just provide as much evidence as you can to help us understand more about you and your interest in, and aptitude for, journalism.