Media, Industry and Innovation 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.

Year 1

Modules

Core modules

• 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.

• Understanding Audiences: Theory and Context

  In this module you will examine the role and characteristics of media consumption in the C21st and the relationship that exists between audiences, texts and technologies of production, distribution and reception. You will encounter a range of theories and research methods through study of a range of real-world media organisations and their respective audiences, and as a practical exercise, will design a cross-media campaign for a targeted audience demographic.

• 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*

• Digital Media, Data and Society

  This module will introduce you to the study of digital media technologies, cultural and social change, and encourages a reflective approach to your own experience of using the media. You will explore the increasing number of networked devices and internet connectivity alongside the explosion of data collected, analysed and used. You will critically examine the role of data and networked media in shaping social interactions of a private and public nature, and implications for individuals and communities at home and globally.

• Understanding Television

  This module will develop your critical understanding of television as a social and cultural form by placing emphasis upon developing your understanding of television through both an introduction of key moments of its history, and by developing theoretical frameworks, which will enable you to approach an understanding of television as a particular social pleasure.

• Media and Popular Culture

  This module will introduce you to the concept of popular culture through the perspectives of media studies. You will critically engage with, explore and critique a range of popular cultural forms and practices. You will explore a range of current as well as historical examples of film, TV, music, and online popular culture through analysis of both the conditions of production - the entertainment industry - and audiences’ engagement with these texts.

• 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.

• Global Political Communication

  This module will introduce you to key concepts and thinkers in political communication and will enable you to critically explore the relationship between national, international and global political communication, as well as questions of media representation, forms of governance and democracy thus situating journalism practice in its critical context.

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

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 2 

Modules

• Research Methods for Live Projects
• Digital Media Enterprise and Innovation
• Media Project Management
• Media Placement

Options*

• Social Media Applications in Activism, Business and Life
• Brands and Branding
• Visual Media Cultures
• Media and Public Relations
• Journalism
• Community Radio
• Mobile Media Cultures
• Media Ethics
• Videogames Cultures
• Critical Perspectives on Media Work

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

Placements 

During the second year of study you will undertake a professional work placement in a media-related organisation. 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 usually around four weeks and are academically assessed. Your degree award will reflect your industry experience.

Final year 

In your final year your entire final semester will be dedicated to the ten-week live project. You will develop an innovative media idea, and run and evaluate the project in partnership with an external organisation of your choosing.

Modules

• Sustainability and Innovation in Digital Culture
• Digital Media Marketing and Innovation
• Live project

Options*

• National and Global Media Studies
• Media Policy
• Celebrity Media
• Community Project
• Inclusive Media Practice
• British Television Drama
• Television Production

*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

Dr Ryan Burns, course leader

Ryan lectures in media studies. His research draws on media studies, critical theory, cultural studies, and science and technology studies.

He has conducted ethnographic research into the use of new media technologies such as iPads and other tablet computers, by scientists working in fields such as chemistry, genetics, neuroscience and biology. His research focuses on everyday practices related to digital media, and seeks to critique ways in which media technologies are involved in the production and maintenance of identities. Find out more about Ryan.

Find out about our other teaching staff

Olu Jenzen, Frauke Behrendt, Paula Hearsum, Aristea Fotopoulou, Paul Ryan, Theo Koulouris, Irmi Karl, Peter Day, Julia Winckler, Patricia Prieto-Blanco, Paula Hearsum, Lance Dann, Maria Short, Martin de Saulles and Iestyn George.

Podcast: listen to a podcast with Senior Lecturer Iestyn George where he talks about his work in journalism and marketing, why he believes media is the most important subject to study at university and the future of magazines.

International requirements and visas

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

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

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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