Media and Environmental Communication BA(Hons)

How this course is delivered

COVID-19 has changed everything. We’ve made some changes to the way our courses are taught to keep everyone safe and that will help you stay connected and involved in university life.

From the start of term in September, you’ll learn through a blend of on-campus and digitally enabled remote learning that will provide lots of opportunities to interact and engage. Together with carefully managed access to libraries, labs, workshops and studios this means your studies are as collaborative, practical and flexible as possible.

Course structure

The course includes the following areas of study:

• the local and global processes of environmental and social change and their spatial outcomes;
• the relationship between media, culture and society in a globalised world;
• contemporary environmental issues and approaches to their management;
• media industries;
• IT in community development; and
• the production and consumption of global environmental imagery and narratives.

It allows you to develop a programme of study that reflects your interests.

What does media have to do with Geography? Read what our student says

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 1

The first year introduces you to the complex interactions between science, policy and culture.

Modules

Core modules

• Global Environmental Issues

  This module introduces pressing global environmental issues which you'll explore through natural science and social science case studies. The module focuses on scientific, social, economic and political aspects of current and past environmental issues and examines how some of the issues may be addressed through interdisciplinary management and mitigation.

• Human Geography

  This module provides a critical introduction to key themes in human geography. You will develop an appreciation of geographical concepts such as nature, space, place and scale through consideration of geographies of global political-economic change, past and contemporary cultural geographies and geographical imaginations, and social geographies of everyday life.

• Community Media for Social Action

  Tools, spaces and processes of community communications form the basis of inquiry into community media and social action. You will engage with theories of empowerment and voice as well as engaging in introductory practices of community media for social action. Your outputs from the practice component will be presented in class before being archived on the student learning space. You will also learn to reflect critically on your experiences and the processes of contextualised content generation through online communicative learning.

• 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.

• 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.

Options*

• Video Production 1

  This module will equip you with the essential skills and practical experience required to create short-form non-fictional audio-visual content, suitable in form to contemporary web-based - as well as more traditional - delivery platforms and audiences. It covers all three stages of video production: pre-production research and planning, production and post-production, including editing. It will introduce the fundamentals of video and sound-recording techniques as well as give you the skills required for successfully engaging with contributors/participants.

• Photographic Practice 1

  In this module you will explore the role and use of photography in visual media. You will engage with various aspects of the language and production of promotional and editorial photography. You will respond to set briefs and create your own website that includes an online portfolio as well as learn the core skills in which to consider, articulate and document reflections on your practice.

• Business, Creative/Digital Industries and Innovation

  On this module you will develop a sense of commercial awareness, including key entrepreneurial skills and knowledge required to engage with innovation in the creative and digital industries. You will work as a part of a team to recognise trends and opportunities and then develop your ideas into a business plan. You will reflect on your ideas, considering issues around collaboration, innovation, sustainability and intellectual property.

• Creative Industries and Promotional Cultures

  This module will introduce you to the creative and promotional industries such as advertising, public relations, marketing and branding. It offers a historical overview of and contemporary perspectives on their development and change. You will engage critically with questions surrounding the political economy of the cultural industries, new consumer practices and the politics of consumption, and will develop an understanding of a range of mainstream practices as well as critical interventions in the language and dynamics of promotional cultures.

• Film Language and History

  This module will introduce you to the contribution made by the formal language of cinema (cinematography, editing, sound, shot composition, etc.) in establishing a film’s narrative. The module will frame the history of mainstream Western cinema, through reference to the key technical, institutional and economic developments of the medium.

• Past Landscapes and People

  This module introduces key concepts surrounding past societies and the way they viewed, interacted with, and changed their environment. You will explore the techniques and theories that archaeologists use to engage with the past, and how the subject of archaeology interacts with physical and human geography. You will explore human impacts on past environments and put how the modern landscape has been created through the human activities into context. 

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

Year 2

Year 2 greatly expands your number of options in both environment and media studies.

Modules

• Sustainable Development 
• Research Methods and Methodology
• Media Placement

Options*

• Environmental Pollution
• Social and Cultural Geography
• GIS and Remote Sensing Principles and Practice
• Video Production 2
• Photographic Practice 2
• Social Media Applications in Activism, Business and Life
• Media and Political Engagement in the Post-truth Era
• Community Radio
• Brands and Branding
• Visual Media Culture
• Media Project Management
• Media and Public Relations
• Journalism
• Film Studies
• Popular Music 
• Mobile Media Cultures
• Critical Perspectives on Media Work

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

Placement year

Short placement

During the second year of study you will undertake a four week professional work placement in an environment or media-related organisation. Placements are usually unpaid. You will receive guidance to help you focus your search from a dedicated placement team who will support you with writing your CV and cover letter, making online applications, setting up a portfolio and managing your online presence. 

Placements are academically assessed and your degree award will reflect your industry experience. 

For examples of places where students have undertaken please see the careers section below. 

Optional placement year

You can also choose to spend your third year on a year-long placement extending your studies to four years.

Final year

For your dissertation, you can either write a traditional essay or do a production-based project. The rest of the final year consists of optional modules for you to choose from as you start thinking about life beyond university.

Modules

• Dissertation

Options*

• Aquatic Environments
• Geographies of Heritage
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Water, Sanitation and Health
• Atmospheric Environment
• Waste Management and the Circular Economy
• Gender, Space and the Body
• Political Ecology: Contested Environments
• Territory, Power and Security
• Advanced GIS and Remote Sensing
• Audiovisual Professional Practice
• National and Global Media Studies
• Media Policy
• Mediating Science and Technology
• Critical Approaches to the Video Game
• Celebrity Media
• Sustainability and Innovation in Digital Culture
• Digital Media Marketing and Innovation
• Critical Issues in Political Communication
• Communication for International Development
• Community Project
• Genre and Film

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

Facilities 

• Digital and analogue stills equipment, including DSLRs and a range of lenses plus an offsite darkroom 
• Video recording equipment, from Canon DSLRs to Blackmagic cameras, in a dedicated TV studio 
• Audio recording kit and facilities, including bookable sound/radio booths 
• Dedicated video editing suites including Mac and PC computers with specialist software.

Meet the team

Patricia Prieto-Blanco, course leader
Patricia Prieto-Blanco lectures in photography in media studies, but defines herself as a critical thinker and visual maker. Her research interests are: photography, methods and methodologies, mediation of the everyday and migration. Patricia employs photography and video-art as ways to subvert neo-liberal, capitalist, patriarchal norms.

Find out about our other teaching staff
Julie Doyle,  Olu Jenzen, Paula Hearsum, Aristea Fotopoulou, Paul Ryan, Theo Koulouris, Irmi Karl, Peter Day, Julia Winckler, Ryan Burns, Patricia Prieto-Blanco, Paula Hearsum, Lance Dann, Maria Short, Martin de Saulles, Lestyn George, Doug Lyon, Paul Gilchrist, Rebecca Elmhirst, James Ebdon, Leila Dawney, Jason Lim

Meet our students

Tegan Sonvico-Christov

“I'm really enjoying the course. It's important to realise how multidisciplinary it is – we go into classes from media studies, environmental studies and human geography. I personally love the mix because it's almost impossible to get bored and it can open your mind and take you to interests you wouldn't discover otherwise. I aspire to train as an environmental journalist after I graduate.”

Lola Odessey-Waters

“I really enjoy the course. So far I have really been able to merge my personal interest (photography, drawing, music) with the course thanks to the support of the tutors. The media side of the course and the environmental are very much complementary; the reading of one module is often very useful for another. I have really enjoyed the hands-on side of the course, with a field trip to Morocco and practice-based work for media.”

Charles El-Zeind

"The main reason I picked this course was because it combined two very different subjects which form a very interesting relationship with each other. It gave me the opportunity to learn how to use them so as to inform and educate people about environmental issues.

"The most interesting aspect of the course was relating the issues discussed in our classes with the actual world, and gaining further perception of how things work. The lecturers provided a lot of support and feedback, and all of my encounters with them gave me a positive feeling, reassuring me that in times of need I would have somewhere to turn to."

Tegan Sonvico-Christov on a march against climate change

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

If you choose to take the professional placement (sandwich) year offered on this course you will pay a reduced fee during this year. Our fee for the professional placement year is £1,290 for home students and £2,076 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies, although we have tried to keep this to a minimum. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in your fees, while studying a course in the School of Media are listed here.

• There will be opportunities to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but you can budget approximately £30–£700 for these. The nature of the costs vary from provisions for a packed-lunch to flight and accommodation costs for international field trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
• Typically, practice-based courses incur more costs than text-based subjects. These costs are normally associated with specialist equipment and materials for making work and for the public presentation of work.
• Specialist equipment is provided to cover essential learning. Students may choose to buy their own specialist equipment, these may include cameras, or computers and software. Budgets can range from £50–£2,000. Buying specialist equipment is best undertaken in consultation with our academic and technical staff. This expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• For some courses you will need to budget up to £200 for printing and publishing. Photography courses may incur higher costs (£500–£2,000) when printing and framing images of professional standard for public presentation.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget up to £200 to buy your own copies.
• For some courses you will need to budget up to £150 for stationery.
• Final-year graduation shows are opportunities to present your final, independent project work to the public. Practice-based courses will typically incur higher costs. Depending on the specific nature of your final project you will need to budget between £20–£2,500. 

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

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