Media and Communication

Entry requirements

A minimum of a second-class honours degree in a relevant subject, or equivalent professional experience and/or qualifications. English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.5 with no component score below 6.0.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Why take this course?

This is a wide-ranging MA that combines cultural, historical and industry-specific analysis with critical and theoretical study. It provides an interdisciplinary approach to a range of current and important media contexts and industries covering broadcast, print and digital media modes. It offers a range of political, industry-based, and text-based approaches to media and its communication strategies as well as opportunities for you to develop your own interests through the dissertation, industry study, screenwriting project or work placement project.

The degree is taught by a team of experienced lecturers who have researched and published in their specialist areas, and who bring those specialisms to their teaching sessions. This course will enable you to become multi-skilled and knowledgeable in ways that employers are now demanding and will prepare you to apply for jobs in areas such as teaching, publishing, journalism, scriptwriting, film and media management. In addition, the course is ideal preparation for further postgraduate work.

What will I experience?

On this course you can:

• Produce screenplays for film and television while working with a specialist tutor
• Be involved in and contribute to our dynamic research culture through your film/TV dissertation
• Engage with our researchers and published experts, many of whom have international reputations

What opportunities might it lead to?

The skills you will develop on this course can prepare you for roles within the media and other creative industries, in particular the film and television industries. Alternatively, many of our graduates find roles within a variety of media industries and a number of them have gone on to study for PhDs or teaching qualifications.

Here are some routes our graduates have pursued:

• teaching
• writing
• journalism
• media

Module Details

You will develop a wide range of skills throughout the course such as applying theoretical approaches and using critical skills in close analysis and reading of key film and television texts. All units on this course focus on both film and television, but your final research project can cover both media or specialise in one of these two areas.

Here are the units you will study:

• Research Methods (30 credits): This unit covers how to carry out research in film archives, how to do a literature search in film and television, and how to produce a thesis which is well structured and methodologically rigorous.
• Media Contexts (30 credits): Investigate the ways in which a wide range of media texts communicate meaning. This unit will use a range of media texts as examples, including film, television, magazines, newspapers, fiction, graphic novels and comics. Theoretical approaches to all these contexts for interpreting and understanding media texts will form an important part of this unit.
• Media Politics (30 credits): You will research and explore the various ways in which media reflects and represents political issues and identities.
• Media Cultures and Industries (30 credits): You will explore a range of media industries and cultures including audience and fan cultures; film and television industry structures and policies; digital cultures and the scriptwriting industry.

Options to choose from include:

• Short screenwriting project (30 credits): A self-directed practical writing project developing a short piece of drama for either film or television.
• Industry study (30 credits): An opportunity to engage in an individual study of a media industry.
• Short dissertation (30 credits) or Dissertation (60 credits): You will research and write a thesis focused on a defined research topic and/or question.

Programme Assessment

Your learning experience will not only cover the theory of these two media forms but you will also be given the opportunity to produce your own screenplays for film and TV. This is designed to develop more applied skills that will complement the theoretical components of the course.

Assessment is predominantly essay based in order to help you develop advanced research and analysis skills. Some units also involve individual oral presentations, so you can develop presentation skills at a higher level and engage in stimulating, sophisticated academic debates in your seminars.

Student Destinations

This course will enable you to become multi-skilled in ways that employers are now demanding and will help prepare you to apply for jobs in such areas as teaching, publishing, journalism, scriptwriting, film and media management. In addition, it is ideal preparation for further postgraduate work or research at PhD level.

Fees and funding

Qualification and course duration

MA