English Language and Media BA(Hons)

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Year 1

In year 1, you will be introduced key conceptual areas in media studies through the study of popular contemporary forms in film, television and the print media in both non-digital and digital platforms. 

Modules

• Critical Approaches to Media 1

  This module will introduce you to a range of critical academic approaches to media. It tackles the most cutting-edge topics in media studies and introduces canonical approaches used in their analysis. An introduction to these approaches will enable you to understand the workings of media audiences, industries and texts. The module will focus on media experiences that are relevant to your everyday life, ensuring that as well as academic development, the module will give you the tools to analyse your own engagement with, and consumption of, the media.

• Producing and Consuming Digital Media

  This module explores your critical understanding of consuming and producing social media in  personal and professional settings.

• Understanding Language

  This module introduces the study of language (linguistics) and its main branches of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. It will enable you to carry out analysis of real language data using different linguistic frameworks. You'll be encouraged to be more critical of your own language ability and to develop and hone communication skills whilst also developing your written work.

• Critical Approaches to Media 2

  This module introduces key media studies theories and concepts and applies them to the analysis of real-world issues. You will develop skills and techniques to critique media representations, showing the importance of media analysis in everyday life. By analysing media technologies, you will engage with the most innovative media content, forms and practices of the day. By questioning mediation, the module will bring to life the role of media in society and enable you to critique the media in terms of culture, politics, innovation and environment.

• Intercultural Communication

  This module explores intercultural communication in a technologically connected world. Through examining communication in national and individual-level communities and groups, you'll investigate how different narratives and positions emerge. You will explore the challenges and opportunities of intercultural communication in a complex, interconnected and inequitable world shaped by technology and other global forces.

• Understanding Culture

  This module introduces the relationship of language and culture through the discipline of linguistic anthropology. You'll build skills in key areas such as linguistic determinism and relativism, the ethnography of communication and communicative competence. Through this intellectual framing (a concept introduced in the module), you will be able to make connections about your own cultural experience of language use.

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through Student View.

Your first year also provides you with an essential introduction to the study of English language at degree level. The core English language modules will enable you to develop the meta language to describe language features and their use in different genres. You will also explore the historical perspective of the development of the English language.

Year 2

In year 2, you study the history and theory of film, and examine the history, nature and impact of digital media in society. The second year also provides an essential grounding in understanding language in society and how it varies according to both context and the user. The focus of several second year modules is also on enabling independent study and research in preparation for the skills required in your final year dissertation or creative project.

You can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects.  

Core modules

• Visual Media Cultures
• Power and Persuasion
• Research Methods
• Language, Theory, Society

Options*

• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
• Language, Identity and Power
• Language Minoritisation and Revitalisation
• Regional Englishes
• Deconstruction: Language, Theory, Society
• Spoken and Written Language
• Mind and Language
• Linguistics and Grammar: Concepts and Analyses
• Video Production 2
• Social Media for Activist and Community Groups  
• Community Radio
• Brands and Public Relations
• Videogame Cultures
• Film Studies
• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
• Journalism
• Contemporary Narratives in Society  
• Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

You can also choose option modules from across our humanities and arts subjects. 

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placement 

In year 2 you can choose a placement module which will allow you to gain professional experience in industries such as publishing, broadcasting, social media marketing, PR and the charity sector. 

Recent placement hosts include:

• Action Medical Research
• Action Tutoring
• Airstream Photo Booth
• Brighton Dome and Festival
• British Forces Broadcasting Services
• Epoque Press
• Factory Films
• The Old Market Theatre
• Little Green Pig
• Men’s Health Magazine
• Prsnt.

In year 3 you can choose the Community Placement module aimed at further building your professional experience. This is 30 to 50 hours of voluntary work with a not-for-profit or community organisation. The placement is assessed and contributes to your degree.

Mia Kurian, graduate

“My placement was with Metropolitan City Church Brighton as their Social Media Manager. I learnt a lot about myself and my interests and the type of career I may want to pursue. I got to try my hand at website design, something I had never done before, and it was a great opportunity for me to expand my creativity. Professionally, I gained a lot of experience that has been extremely useful in my career today. I learnt about creating brand cohesion and creating a brand image from scratch, something I’ve never done before.

"I absolutely loved it. It was an incredible learning experience as well as insightful. It allowed me to learn a lot about myself and the future I want. My placement manager was lovely and supportive and allowed me the freedom to explore my creativity.”

Final year

In year 3 you have one core module, the dissertation or creative project, and you can select four options from English language and media degree subject areas.

Modules

• Ethics, Power, Professionalism
• Dissertation

Options*

• World Englishes
• Language of Gender and Sexuality
• Language, Law and the State: The Politics of Force
• Analysing Big Data: Quantitative Methods in Language Research
• Approaches to Analysing Discourse
• Citizen Journalism
• English Language Teaching
• Community Placement: Theory in Practice
• Approaches to the Study of Meaning
• Media Policy
• Promotional Media Culture
• Digital Media Marketing and Innovation  
• Community Project
• Special Case Study: Screening Sexualities
• Critical Approaches to the Videogame
• Television Production

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Meet the team 

Patricia McManus, course leader

Patricia's teaching crosses contemporary media theory and mass-mediated forms of narrative, with particular interests in feminist, Marxist and post-Marxist theoretical traditions.

Her research has primarily examined the history of the novel, particular the interaction with film and of television drama in terms of story-telling practices. Read Patricia's full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include:

• Dr Jelena Timotijevic
• Dr Vy Rajapillai
• Dr Barbara Chamberlin
• Dr Chrystie Myketiak
• Dr Julie Everton
• Dr Ross Adamson
• Robyn Moellemi.

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2023–24.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• About the university’s fees by checking our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

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