Modules

Year 0 (foundation year)
Learning to Learn (Study Skills)
These two-hour weekly sessions are designed to help you develop the skills you will need to thrive in Undergraduate study. They cover aspects of academic practice such as writing for academic purposes; how to unpack an essay question; how to get organised; how to read and make notes; how to reference; how to cite your source material and how to compile a bibliography. They include access to an academic tutor who is available for one-to-one tutorial sessions.

An Introduction to Media and Cultural Theory
On this module, you will be introduced to the key traditions and foundational theories of media and cultural studies. These will help you develop an understanding of the relationship between media forms, institutions and our societies. You will also be encouraged to develop critical thinking skills, begin to understand the importance of the relationship between media theory and practice and demonstrate your growing skills in academic writing (with the help of the weekly 'Learning to Learn' sessions). Each week there is a lecture on a particular topic, accompanied by set reading, which you are asked to discuss in more detail in our weekly seminars.

Media practice
Media practice gives you the opportunity to create small-scale projects in TV and video, radio, stop motion animation and photography. You will have the opportunity to work through your ideas from conception to finished product, begin to develop production skills, and understand the importance of teamwork and the sharing of ideas.

You are taught in groups for TV and video, radio and stop motion animation and individually for photography. These 5-week ‘taster’ modules are taught by highly experienced tutors and technicians in studio settings, and utilise our industry-standard facilities.

Students must achieve 60% in all sections of the programme to proceed onto Year 1 of BA Media and Communications.

Year 1 (credit level 4)
Media Theory - You take the following compulsory 15 credit modules:
Media History and Politics
Culture and Cultural Studies
Key Debates in Media Studies
Film and the Audiovisual: Theory and Analysis
Media Arts

Media Practice - Media Production Option 1

Year 2 (credit level 5)
Media Theory - You take the following compulsory modules:
Psychology, Subjectivity and Power
Media, Modernity and Social Thought

And a choice of two 15 credit option modules. Options offered recently have included:
Culture, Society and the Individual
Moving Image and Spectatorship
Money, Society, and Culture
Media, Memory and Conflict
Television and After

Media Practice - Practice modules introduce you to media production in a different area to the one you studied in year one. You'll apply production skills in the creation of small-scale projects, and develop critical skills through the analysis of examples and of work produced in each area. You then choose a practice area in which to specialise.

You take: Media Production Option 2

Year 3 (credit level 6)
Media Theory - you can choose any combination of options to the value of 60 credits. Options offered recently have included:
Structure of Contemporary Political Communication
Race, Empire and Nation
The City and Consumer Culture
Music as Communication and Creative Practice
Embodiment and Experience
Media Law and Ethics
Media, Ritual and Contemporary Public Cultures
Promotional Culture
Politics of the Audiovisual
Social Media in Everyday Life
Media Geographies
Dissertation

You can also undertake a work placement as one of your option modules.

Media Practice - you undertake the research, planning and production of a major project or a portfolio of work in the practice area in which you specialised in Year 2 (60 credits).

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.

Assessment methods

You’ll be assessed by a variety of methods, depending on your module choices. These include coursework assignments such as extended essays, reports, presentations, practice-based projects or essays/logs, group projects and reflective essays, as well as seen and unseen written examinations.