Bachelor of Communication in Journalism

at Massey University - Wellington Campus New Zealand

It’s a flexible program of study with lots of choices. You’ll be introduced to the basics of art and design:

• Creative thinking
• Visual communication
• Specialist skills
• Critical awareness.
• No portfolio is required, just passion.

The Diploma in Visual Arts is made up of eight courses from the first year of our Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Design programs.
You’ll study with art and design degree students in a range of studio and lecture-based courses. These exciting courses cover everything from critical and contextual studies to social media, painting, and digital fabrication.

Combine research and practice to give you the skills you need to make your mark in the highly competitive creative industries.

You’ll learn about a range of creative roles. You will then develop innovative commercialisation models to take your creative work to the marketplace.

With taught courses in critical studies and enterprise, as well as an individual creative project, the MCE emphasises entrepreneurship and innovation. You’ll be encouraged to explore the commercial applications of your work.

Your projects will focus on building a sustainable career in the creative sector. You will learn practical skills in areas such as lighting and sound design, studio production, software development and audio-visual content, depending on your area of focus.

If you have a creative idea you want to develop and commercialise, the Master of Creative Enterprise will equip you with the tools to see your creative vision from development through to commercialisation.

The Bachelor of Screen Arts with Honours (Animation) major caters for those interested in joining the industry, as well as providing pathways for students wishing to gain studio employment or explore the medium as independent filmmakers.

Our focus is on skills using sophisticated, industry-standard 3D and 2D software to greatly enhance workflow. By becoming artistically and technically competent, you will work smarter instead of harder, freeing you to enjoy your craft as capable animators within a variety of team-based production environments.

In this major you will learn how to animate, focusing on the principles of the craft and learn how to model, texture and light 3D assets. There will be opportunities to work in team-based production environments, as well as on personal animation projects.

Concept design is about visualising and developing the ideas behind film, television, gaming, performance, products and interactive experiences.

In the Bachelor of Design with Honours (Concept Design), you’ll use traditional and contemporary art forms to communicate your concepts for new objects, characters or environments. This could include drawing and sculpting 3D models, as well as making digital plans and renders.

You could be designing characters, creatures, props, vehicles and machines, all the way to building entire worlds to form the foundations of feature films, theme parks, events, toys or exhibits.

Concept design is one of the first stages in every design process. Concept designers create the basis for further production and development, rather than finished products.

Embed yourself in a rich dialogue about your creative practice in Massey’s transdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts (Design) qualification, for artists and designers. The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) has a strong collective philosophy. By bringing together students from design and fine arts, the MFA fosters intense conversations and exploration.

For designers and artists
Choose whether you want to graduate with an MFA in design, in fine arts or without endorsement if you believe your work cannot be framed in terms of either discipline.
We have had students join the qualification whose undergraduate training is in fashion design, photography, textile design, industrial design, graphic design, fine arts and even music.

The world is undergoing a radical shift in how people communicate, work and share ideas. More people can share more ideas in more ways than ever before - photos, video, animations, tweets, graphics and experiences. We can connect with people across countries, languages and cultures. People can interact with governments and corporations in new ways, while they are using the same tools to try to influence us.

Visual communication design (VCD) offers huge scope and flexibility. At Massey, we teach a diverse range of media, like print, web and video, and give you the chance to try all of them. Within VCD you can explore and specialise in print, typographic and editorial design, information and graphic design, web, interaction and service design, and illustration and branding. You’ll learn to solve complex design problems. You’ll follow your interests and aspirations by developing a higher level of expertise in a specific area.

Commonplace across all major broadcasters and platforms is the audience's desire to consume factual series, bite-size web content and formatted shows from around the world. Factual Production is usually associated with non-fiction broadcast and includes formats such as documentary, chat shows, comedy, quiz and reality shows etc. In addition to broadcast TV, these formats are distributed across a number of different digital platforms both real-time and pre-recorded.

You will go on a journey of discovering compelling real-world true stories and characters lighting the screens of Aotearoa, as well as the international market. This deep dive into factual development, production and post- production reveals the mechanisms of fun and formatted, multi-camera, and studio shows all the way to long-form storytelling around the big issues of the day and character-based features.

We will investigate how the story or format defines the best approach to making the content, alongside explorations to discover your unique, creative voice. 

With Massey’s Master of Emergency Management, you’ll learn to become a leader in managing emergencies effectively at operational and strategic levels.

Emergency management focuses on organising communities to respond to disasters. It also examines how to survive them, rebuild social structures and infrastructure, and sustain and preserve life.

Specialise in Media Technology for your Bachelor of Screen Arts with Honours at Massey
Creativity in new technology development can provide innovative and profitable opportunities for software and hardware solutions across a wide range of industries. In this major, you will be at the forefront of creating and developing new technology with exciting concepts and ideas across a range of platforms and applications.

You will gain and apply practical skills in software and hardware production with a view to developing innovative products for the screen and creative technology sector. You will gain an understanding of prototyping and testing systems and how to develop ideas through to producing final projects such as:

• online distribution
• lighting systems
• game controllers
• performance capture and virtual production
• production workflow solutions
• custom audio systems
• interactive and kinetic set design
• media exhibition.

More than just the design of buildings, spatial design is all about how people experience spaces. It intersects with the more traditional design fields of architecture, landscape design, interior design, urban design and environmental design.

People inhabit the world in many ways, but we all have spaces where we live, work, play, relax, perform, gather, learn, heal, and celebrate. The design of spaces affects how you feel, how you act, and how you interact with others: Does the layout of your local hospital make you feel reassured or stressed? Do you find you want to linger in some cafes but not in others? Does an office space make it easy and natural for people to get together? Do the views on a walk surprise and delight you because someone has thought carefully about the experience?

Spatial design can improve the standard and quality of our lives, enrich our culture and national identity, and contribute to business success. In spatial design studio courses, you'll learn to design for a host of spaces: private, public, retail, event, work, game, furnishing, experience, display, interface and performance. You learn to use the latest technologies and approaches to design spaces at the required scale, from the big picture (eg urban planning) to the fine detail of construction and materials.