BA (Hons)

Media Communication Cultures

Teaching & Learning

Develop the skills to make informed critical responses to media, communication and cultures. Your studies will give you a broad-based foundation before you specialise through option modules in your second year. The tabs below detail what and how you will study in each year of your course. The balance of assessments and overall workload will be informed by your core modules and the option modules you choose to study – the information provided is an indication of what you can expect and may be subject to change. The option modules listed are also an indication of what will be available to you. Their availability is subject to demand and you will be advised which option modules you can choose at the beginning of each year of study.

What you'll learn

Draw on contemporary examples and topical cultural debates to interpret and understand the significances, affordances and impacts of social media in relation to a range of contexts. These could include communication, society, culture, identity, knowledge, politics, marketing, commerce, work and research.
This module will introduce you to the central debates and critical concepts in cultural studies. You will explore key issues such as the nature of 'culture', how media products work, how audiences experience culture, how cultural products make meaning, how the media represents the social world, and the role the media plays in cultural politics and power.
Develop an understanding of theories and debates in contemporary and 'new' media with a particular focus on the transition from analogue to digital media. You will discuss how people experience, consume and interact with the media forms they encounter in everyday settings.
You will study key approaches to researching TV texts, audiences and institutions. Your studies will equip you with the skills to critically apply models from TV studies to the content and consumption of 21st-century TV.
Gain an introduction to the organisation of cultural talk on contemporary BBC radio. You will explore the way cultural talk is administrated to fulfil the BBC's public purposes.
This module uses American cinema from the 1940s to the present as a prism through which to investigate questions of history, gender and representation. You will use gender as the key organising principle but also examine issues of class and race.
Draw on contemporary examples and topical cultural debates to interpret and understand the significances, affordances and impacts of social media in relation to a range of contexts. These could include communication, society, culture, identity, knowledge, politics, marketing, commerce, work and research.
This module will introduce you to the central debates and critical concepts in cultural studies. You will explore key issues such as the nature of 'culture', how media products work, how audiences experience culture, how cultural products make meaning, how the media represents the social world, and the role the media plays in cultural politics and power.
Develop an understanding of theories and debates in contemporary and 'new' media with a particular focus on the transition from analogue to digital media. You will discuss how people experience, consume and interact with the media forms they encounter in everyday settings.
You will study key approaches to researching TV texts, audiences and institutions. Your studies will equip you with the skills to critically apply models from TV studies to the content and consumption of 21st-century TV.
Gain an introduction to the organisation of cultural talk on contemporary BBC radio. You will explore the way cultural talk is administrated to fulfil the BBC's public purposes.
This module uses American cinema from the 1940s to the present as a prism through which to investigate questions of history, gender and representation. You will use gender as the key organising principle but also examine issues of class and race.

What you'll learn

Explore the variety of resources, questions and contexts that underpin the historical, political and geographical development of media and cultural studies. You will study the 'modern' media culture and look at a range of historical and analytical issues associated with this complex arena. You will gain a historical, political and geographical grounding and context for your studies, as well as broader perspectives on current issues in the study of media.
Study a range of theoretical perspectives on media in their mass and social communications forms and develop skills in critical thinking and analysis. You will focus on the original work of theorists whose ideas continue to be significant to the study of media, communications and culture today.
Explore the relationship between popular music and the moving image by looking at the use of music in silent and sound cinema, Hollywood musicals, Disney and Bollywood, popular music and television, promotional video, music and advertising, new media and 'live' performance. You will learn to analyse the economic, technological and cultural elements which influence the production and consumption of popular music and its visual representation.
Gain a detailed overview of research methods including qualitative and quantitative methods. You will understand the ways in which media and cultural studies research can be carried out.
Explore the variety of resources, questions and contexts that underpin the historical, political and geographical development of media and cultural studies. You will study the 'modern' media culture and look at a range of historical and analytical issues associated with this complex arena. You will gain a historical, political and geographical grounding and context for your studies, as well as broader perspectives on current issues in the study of media.
Study a range of theoretical perspectives on media in their mass and social communications forms and develop skills in critical thinking and analysis. You will focus on the original work of theorists whose ideas continue to be significant to the study of media, communications and culture today.
Explore the relationship between popular music and the moving image by looking at the use of music in silent and sound cinema, Hollywood musicals, Disney and Bollywood, popular music and television, promotional video, music and advertising, new media and 'live' performance. You will learn to analyse the economic, technological and cultural elements which influence the production and consumption of popular music and its visual representation.
Gain a detailed overview of research methods including qualitative and quantitative methods. You will understand the ways in which media and cultural studies research can be carried out.

Option modules may include

Explore some of the features of professional working practices within the media and cultural industry sectors. During this module you will have the opportunity to work on a practice-based project and learn from visiting tutors who are working in areas such as online marketing, publishing, television and radio production. You will also undertake a series of online-workshop reflective tasks covering aspects of a range of professional skills to help you identify your strengths, develop your skills and prepare you for your future career.
Understand the way that humanities disciplines and skills intersect with a range of professional working contexts. You will complete 36 hours of live-brief learning to gain first-hand experience of planning, delivery and evaluating a professional working brief set by an industry partner organisation. You will work as a group across 10 weeks alongside a tutor to design, deliver, present and evaluate the brief to industry standards. As well as conducting a reflective case study of your brief, you will complete a CV, cover letter, LinkedIn profile and undertake a recorded mock interview.
Examine comedy in contemporary media and society. You will explore the analytical and theoretical literature on comedy's purposes and structures before exploring up to three forms of comedy in detail. Firstly, you will study stand-up, secondly the sit-com genre on television and, thirdly romantic comedy in cinema.
This module will see you explore the relationship between young people, crime and media culture. You will approach the study of youth and crime cultures through various historical, theoretical and sociological perspectives and address a range of themes including deviance, resistance, labelling, policing, violence, and crime as a fiction/film genre. You will critically consider these themes in relation to different theories of youth and criminality including delinquency, antisocial behaviour, countercultures, subcultures, club cultures, gangs, drug use and surveillance.
Explore some of the features of professional working practices within the media and cultural industry sectors. During this module you will have the opportunity to work on a practice-based project and learn from visiting tutors who are working in areas such as online marketing, publishing, television and radio production. You will also undertake a series of online-workshop reflective tasks covering aspects of a range of professional skills to help you identify your strengths, develop your skills and prepare you for your future career.
Understand the way that humanities disciplines and skills intersect with a range of professional working contexts. You will complete 36 hours of live-brief learning to gain first-hand experience of planning, delivery and evaluating a professional working brief set by an industry partner organisation. You will work as a group across 10 weeks alongside a tutor to design, deliver, present and evaluate the brief to industry standards. As well as conducting a reflective case study of your brief, you will complete a CV, cover letter, LinkedIn profile and undertake a recorded mock interview.
Examine comedy in contemporary media and society. You will explore the analytical and theoretical literature on comedy's purposes and structures before exploring up to three forms of comedy in detail. Firstly, you will study stand-up, secondly the sit-com genre on television and, thirdly romantic comedy in cinema.
This module will see you explore the relationship between young people, crime and media culture. You will approach the study of youth and crime cultures through various historical, theoretical and sociological perspectives and address a range of themes including deviance, resistance, labelling, policing, violence, and crime as a fiction/film genre. You will critically consider these themes in relation to different theories of youth and criminality including delinquency, antisocial behaviour, countercultures, subcultures, club cultures, gangs, drug use and surveillance.

What you'll learn

You will demonstrate a full range of skills, knowledge, and competencies developed over three years of study. This module provides an opportunity for you to choose and explore a field of study that has particularly engaged your interest.
You will demonstrate a full range of skills, knowledge, and competencies developed over three years of study. This module provides an opportunity for you to choose and explore a field of study that has particularly engaged your interest.

Option modules may include

This module draws on recent social theory and on the work of Pierre Bourdieu as a means of examining how identities of class and gender are represented in contemporary media culture. You will use ethnographic case studies to look at the ways audiences consume and interact with lifestyle texts.
Explore 'race' as a mechanism used to justify oppression, slavery and genocide. But what exactly is `race'? How do racisms manifest and change over time? How can we challenge racial discrimination within the media and wider society? These are some of the important questions that this module critically investigates. You will examine and understand the historical and contemporary significance of `race', ethnicity and culture before beginning to apply your knowledge to different aspects of popular culture such as film, TV, social media, advertising and fashion, music, and sport.
Gain a critical overview of the historical, social, technological and cultural context surrounding digital media such as mobile devices, software apps and computer games. This module explores definitions and interpretations of the term 'digital reality' and how it is used in contemporary culture. You will be encouraged to critically engage with the issues surrounding digitally mediated experiences, especially in relation to interactivity, creativity, community and embodiment.
Examine the complex relationship between media and sport at both the industry and audience level. You will understand the role sports coverage plays across print, broadcast and online media in all contexts: local, regional, national and global.
Gain a critical introduction to celebrity studies and literature on film stardom. It also explores their recent cross-overs, hybridisation and yet continuing distinction in the contemporary world. Media celebrity gives focus to television, radio and new media; the dynamics of contemporary celebrity and the theory, analysis and research necessary to make sense of contemporary media celebrity. Particular use is made of the journal Celebrity Studies to explore the cutting edge of developments in ideas and research and methods. Historical contexts of film stardom are addressed yet the key focus is on recent developments of such stardom and research exploring its contemporary dynamics.
This module will introduce you to the growing area of game studies and will give you diverse methodological tools to approach video games as texts that need a multi-angle approach. Regardless of your gaming background, you will be encouraged to engage with a regular gaming practice and to adopt a reflective and critical approach toward your experiences of play and spectatorship. This module will provide you with the methodological and critical tools to focus on game mechanics and narratives, but also signs, semiotics and politics. In addition to reflecting upon workshops involving play sessions and analytical discussions, this module will include consideration of the game industry and its intricacies.
By reflecting on learning acquired through work placements, this module will focus on promoting self-awareness of your ‘career story’. You will look at how you evaluate your current skills, explore the future possibilities in your career development and navigate pathways through those chosen possibilities. This module will enable you to become ‘cartographer’ of your own future experience. You will embark upon a minimum of 80 hours work placement, supported by reflective exercises, and build expertise and confidence through a range of assessments designed by the course team and employer partners. Conceptualised and designed by digital specialists, the module is purposefully created to be delivered and experienced online – reflecting the increasingly distributed nature of work communications and embracing digital environments as an integral aspect of how employees and the self-employed progress their careers.
Examine the ways artificial intelligence and robots are replacing human personnel in automobile manufacture, banks and even social care. You'll explore a series of critical questions, such as: how will society deal with joblessness and the social trauma of transformational change? Can workers re-invent themselves in an increasingly uncertain world? How will society ensure that its innovations are designed ethically and responsibly? And can technological change help to reduce inequalities while nurturing prosperity, well-being and health benefits?
This module will consider the impact of digital technologies on the making, marketing and distribution of musical works. You'll study the shift from analogue to digital modes of recording and the rise of digital formats and streaming services. You'll also examine how music and digital technologies have together driven innovation and creativity in the development of the media technologies employed to capture, distribute and market music.
Explore the significances of diverse space media on discursive processes of 'worlding', or the generation of understandings of our world and new worlds out in the cosmos. Questions about 'who space is for' and 'who is excluded from actual and imaginary space explorations' will be key to developing a critical approach to space media. You'll engage with the public communication of space to ensure that the potentials of space are available to everyone.
This module will examine how stories told in a range of media forms can drive social change. You'll engage with complex social issues and find out how stories can raise awareness and bring about attitudinal changes in audiences. You'll learn how characters can be used to create empathy and offer multiple perspectives on social problems. You'll also learn how to structure stories, the role of narration and how to craft compelling messages for different audiences.
The spread and normalisation of surveillance encourages us to ask if surveillance is the primary form of contemporary governance. You'll examine the impact of surveillance on our identities and lives with specific concerns about issues of privacy, the inability to 'forget', and the need to self-surveil and 'share' as part of normal citizenship.
This module will offer new ways to think about cities. You'll study the history of urbanization, and the emergence of new spaces of leisure, commerce and interaction. You'll consider how new media emerged in cities and explore debates around the transformation of material and symbolic spaces and places that media technologies engender. The module will enable you to understand how the history of urbanisation is bound up with the development of media technologies. In turn, you'll discover how the entertainment demands of urban populations has driven the development and organisation of cities.
This module draws on recent social theory and on the work of Pierre Bourdieu as a means of examining how identities of class and gender are represented in contemporary media culture. You will use ethnographic case studies to look at the ways audiences consume and interact with lifestyle texts.
Explore 'race' as a mechanism used to justify oppression, slavery and genocide. But what exactly is `race'? How do racisms manifest and change over time? How can we challenge racial discrimination within the media and wider society? These are some of the important questions that this module critically investigates. You will examine and understand the historical and contemporary significance of `race', ethnicity and culture before beginning to apply your knowledge to different aspects of popular culture such as film, TV, social media, advertising and fashion, music, and sport.
Gain a critical overview of the historical, social, technological and cultural context surrounding digital media such as mobile devices, software apps and computer games. This module explores definitions and interpretations of the term 'digital reality' and how it is used in contemporary culture. You will be encouraged to critically engage with the issues surrounding digitally mediated experiences, especially in relation to interactivity, creativity, community and embodiment.
Examine the complex relationship between media and sport at both the industry and audience level. You will understand the role sports coverage plays across print, broadcast and online media in all contexts: local, regional, national and global.
Gain a critical introduction to celebrity studies and literature on film stardom. It also explores their recent cross-overs, hybridisation and yet continuing distinction in the contemporary world. Media celebrity gives focus to television, radio and new media; the dynamics of contemporary celebrity and the theory, analysis and research necessary to make sense of contemporary media celebrity. Particular use is made of the journal Celebrity Studies to explore the cutting edge of developments in ideas and research and methods. Historical contexts of film stardom are addressed yet the key focus is on recent developments of such stardom and research exploring its contemporary dynamics.
This module will introduce you to the growing area of game studies and will give you diverse methodological tools to approach video games as texts that need a multi-angle approach. Regardless of your gaming background, you will be encouraged to engage with a regular gaming practice and to adopt a reflective and critical approach toward your experiences of play and spectatorship. This module will provide you with the methodological and critical tools to focus on game mechanics and narratives, but also signs, semiotics and politics. In addition to reflecting upon workshops involving play sessions and analytical discussions, this module will include consideration of the game industry and its intricacies.
By reflecting on learning acquired through work placements, this module will focus on promoting self-awareness of your ‘career story’. You will look at how you evaluate your current skills, explore the future possibilities in your career development and navigate pathways through those chosen possibilities. This module will enable you to become ‘cartographer’ of your own future experience. You will embark upon a minimum of 80 hours work placement, supported by reflective exercises, and build expertise and confidence through a range of assessments designed by the course team and employer partners. Conceptualised and designed by digital specialists, the module is purposefully created to be delivered and experienced online – reflecting the increasingly distributed nature of work communications and embracing digital environments as an integral aspect of how employees and the self-employed progress their careers.
Examine the ways artificial intelligence and robots are replacing human personnel in automobile manufacture, banks and even social care. You'll explore a series of critical questions, such as: how will society deal with joblessness and the social trauma of transformational change? Can workers re-invent themselves in an increasingly uncertain world? How will society ensure that its innovations are designed ethically and responsibly? And can technological change help to reduce inequalities while nurturing prosperity, well-being and health benefits?
This module will consider the impact of digital technologies on the making, marketing and distribution of musical works. You'll study the shift from analogue to digital modes of recording and the rise of digital formats and streaming services. You'll also examine how music and digital technologies have together driven innovation and creativity in the development of the media technologies employed to capture, distribute and market music.
Explore the significances of diverse space media on discursive processes of 'worlding', or the generation of understandings of our world and new worlds out in the cosmos. Questions about 'who space is for' and 'who is excluded from actual and imaginary space explorations' will be key to developing a critical approach to space media. You'll engage with the public communication of space to ensure that the potentials of space are available to everyone.
This module will examine how stories told in a range of media forms can drive social change. You'll engage with complex social issues and find out how stories can raise awareness and bring about attitudinal changes in audiences. You'll learn how characters can be used to create empathy and offer multiple perspectives on social problems. You'll also learn how to structure stories, the role of narration and how to craft compelling messages for different audiences.
The spread and normalisation of surveillance encourages us to ask if surveillance is the primary form of contemporary governance. You'll examine the impact of surveillance on our identities and lives with specific concerns about issues of privacy, the inability to 'forget', and the need to self-surveil and 'share' as part of normal citizenship.
This module will offer new ways to think about cities. You'll study the history of urbanization, and the emergence of new spaces of leisure, commerce and interaction. You'll consider how new media emerged in cities and explore debates around the transformation of material and symbolic spaces and places that media technologies engender. The module will enable you to understand how the history of urbanisation is bound up with the development of media technologies. In turn, you'll discover how the entertainment demands of urban populations has driven the development and organisation of cities.