JMSC expands curriculum with Digital Media Entrepreneurship and Arts and Culture Journalism courses

The JMSC is offering two new courses, Arts and Culture Journalism and Digital Media Entrepreneurship,  for Master of Journalism and advanced undergraduate students.

These latest additions to the Master of Journalism curriculum are being taught during the current spring semester by two international lecturers, with local and international guest speakers scheduled to supplement the teaching.

Arts and Culture Journalism will be taught by Angharad Hampshire, who has over 15 years of experience covering arts, culture and science for the BBC World Service.  Hampshire said the course will teach students to critically evaluate and express their opinion of a piece of art, literature, theatre, film or music.  It will also cover how to analyse and report on the broader policy issues related to the arts and culture.

“There’s a huge focus on the creative industries in Hong Kong at the moment, as it’s trying to position itself as more than just a city of finance,” she said, “so there are these major events, like Art Basel, that are growing rapidly and will provide excellent learning opportunities for the students.”  The course will feature a wide array of guest speakers, including Tisa Ho, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and Perry Lam, one of Hong Kong’s leading film critics.

Digital Media Entrepreneurship will be taught by Ross Settles, a specialist in the field who works with the Media Development Investment Fund, advising on investments in independent digital media.  He previously held a Knight International Journalism Fellowship, helping the Malaysian digital news outlet Malaysiakini develop new lines of business, and has also worked as Online Director at the South China Morning Post.

Settles said the course will give students a solid grounding in entrepreneurship by guiding them through the conception, prototyping and development of a new digital media enterprise.  “Journalists face an environment of constant change, and being an entrepreneur is largely about being creative in achieving goals in a state of constant change,” Settles said.

“So learning media entrepreneurship and the skills that come with that is important to being successful in one’s future journalism career, regardless of whether they are working for a large institution, a new start-up, or pursuing a career as an independent.”

Professor Ying Chan, the Director of the JMSC, expressed satisfaction at having “two such experienced and dedicated lecturers teaching the new courses,” and at being able to keep expanding the JMSC’s curriculum with relevant, multi-disciplinary courses.

“The media is a fast evolving industry, and these courses will help produce critically minded students who are visually and data literate, and who also have strong business acumen and the ability to keep learning and adapting throughout their careers,” she said.