This change will officially come into effect from September 2024, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of our very first cohort of journalism students joining us in September 1994.
It also coincides with our recent move to The Wave, the purpose-built home for the social sciences at the University of Sheffield. Our new home has five bespoke newsrooms and the latest technical facilities, ensuring that we can educate future generations of journalists, scholars and media practitioners to the highest standard. This, paired with our tireless employability support, will enable them to continue to work and thrive in jobs in journalism, media and communication all over the world.
For those who remember us as a budding journalism department based in Minalloy House in the mid-90s, you’ll know that we’ve come a long way since then - this change reflects that.
From small beginnings we have grown over the last 30 years to become a major research and teaching School. Our new name - the School of Journalism, Media and Communication - embodies the breadth, depth and impact of our research and teaching, our interdisciplinary approaches and our strong international focus in a rapidly evolving and highly dynamic communication, media and journalism environment.
Professor Jackie Harrison
Head of Department for the School of Journalism, Media and Communication
Why the change?
Our new name was selected following a period of close consultation with our staff, students, alumni, our accrediting bodies and our advisory board.
It's not so much a sign of changes to come, but rather a reflection of the work we do in the School. The new name reflects our long-standing excellence in journalism scholarship and research, as well as our historic contribution to the broader debates and challenges that journalists face.
It also acknowledges the ever-growing relationship between journalism, media and communication and the vital role they play in societies, which underpins the ethos of all our activities both in the UK and worldwide. We’re proud to be a School rich in varied and impactful research, where our scholars conduct pioneering work on everything from journalistic safety to mis and disinformation; menstruation in the media to the effects of radio on conflict-affected areas.
What we want to achieve
By expanding our name, we’ll continue to unite and integrate our applied journalism programmes with our theoretical ones, encouraging good journalistic practice and industry-leading research to take place seamlessly across our undergraduate programme, all four of our Masters courses, and our two PhD pathways.
Whilst the new name will not officially come into effect until next September, those of you with eagle eyes will notice that we’re changing our website and social media branding from this week onwards.
If you have any questions about our new name, you can get in touch with us on journalism@sheffield.ac.uk.
