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Studying for a Masters degree can be a very lonely pursuit.
Your unique niche of knowledge sets you apart from others and it can be very alienating. Cond Nast College of Fashion & Design aims to break that particular mold with its new MA Fashion Journalism where, as well as learning about the craft of journalism, collaboration and community is at the forefront.
As a boutique college, we strive to create a certain type of study space unlike other universities, says Johannes Reponen, MA Fashion Journalism Program Director, MA Fashion Design, MA Creative Directions for Fashion Media and MA Fashion Media Strategy in Higher Education and a name familiar to many readers. fashion and design media.
Classes are small and we strive to develop the graduate community; we make sure all our MA students know each other.
To this end, the first module, Critical Research: Understanding Audiences is taken across all seven Master’s programs for the first two terms that truly unite them. They begin to have conversations across the various courses, but also begin to understand what each is doing from their different perspectives.
Fashion Journalism is in the College Fashion Media cluster with MA Fashion Styling, MA Creative Direction for Fashion Media and MA Fashion Media Strategy. There are opportunities to collaborate across disciplines which are both more fun and more in line with life in the industry. Our journalism students strike up conversations with stylists and creative directors the way they do in the real world.
We even encourage them to collaborate on project work which helps them to start developing the professional network that will be essential throughout their careers. Working with others allows individuals to reflect on their strengths and where they need to bring other talents to their back.
One of the other things that is different about this Master is that while there is clearly a lot of work around the craft of writing and journalism, we are also extending content to broadcasting, podcasts thinking about technology and how journalism plays a continuous role. growing. We also look at the role of the editor which can mean a lot in the fashion world as some editors deal with visual content while others are more suited to roles traditionally associated with words. We need to consider what it means to edit, commission, curate or manage among other things; we try to look at the whole spectrum of fashion journalism. Of course, all journalism in some way boils down to storytelling, whatever the process or medium.
One thing that anyone aspiring to fulfill a journalistic role always has to meet is deadlines and we often put out time-limited assignments. Students begin to think about tone and voice, how you change your writing style based on audience or publication. They need to know how to conduct interviews, how to research efficiently, how to review – but this course is not very decisive; we want to give them a frame of mind about writing and journalism, but also a lot of freedom. It’s not always about fashion with an uppercase F. We have students focused on beauty and health, lifestyle and sports, all of whom in some publications will be under the control of what they may be asked to do. We want them to see that fashion is not just what happens on the catwalk. It is important to think about broader issues such as sustainability; we have a responsibility to make students consider ethical and moral issues especially those related to fashion.
One of the many benefits of being part of a big global brand like Cond Nast is the ability to meet top professionals and we have amazing guest speakers including some big names. This is a great opportunity to start that professional network because you never know in life when meeting the right person at the right time, be it an established expert or a fellow student, could change everything.
At the end of the course, students must produce their Master’s project. They put a lot of time and effort into this and again, we try to give full flexibility. This may be an entrepreneurial project or a speculative project or a life project. We had one student who created a magazine from scratch and ended up being a writer, designer, creative director of all. Not only was it a fantastic learning process but he also launched the magazine commercially. I can’t imagine a better outcome for a graduate program than that.
For more information on the MA in Fashion Journalism, please visit Cond Nast College of Fashion & Designs website.
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