PhD media and communication, UK

Doctoral research in media and communication studies brings students into a multi-faceted and internationally vibrant research area that has an increasingly vital importance to contemporary society.

Research in media and communications examines the ways in which our social, cultural and political lives are represented and influenced through all types of media and mediated discourse. We welcome applications for PhDs focused on, for example, social media and digital media cultures as well as traditional media and the changing landscape of media industries and cultural production.

The University of Brighton fosters a thriving community of theorists and practitioners in the development of new knowledge around media cultures, technologies and practices. Our researchers develop inter-disciplinary projects with networks across the university and with external partners and wider media industries, using theoretical, practical and creative research to better understand the fabric of modern societal experience in terms of its communications and media.

We have a change-making, impactful approach which embraces applied, co-created, multi-disciplinary and creative methodologies. With a long-standing reputation in media scholarship that underpins social justice, identity, equality and environmental issues, we welcome students for PhDs in media and communications who have ambitions to inform cultural, social and govermental change.

Join a community of scholars whose research examines audiences and reception, social media use, film and screen studies, digital media, gender and communication, communication and democracy, as well as media history, policy and law. We are ideally placed to offer supervisory support in this diverse and complex area.

Contact an expert in this field

Successful applicants have invariably had support with their application from one of our academics. We suggest you approach a suitable academic staff member with relevant research interests before progressing with your application.

PhD Digital media cultures

PhD Art and creative practices

What can a doctorate in media and communications studies cover?

With the support of cross-university centres and media-focused experts our doctoral media studies and communication students benefit from a productive academic network where media and communication studies inform diverse investigations.

Our staff and postgraduate community critically engage with some of the most exciting and pressing issues of our time - they explore the effects of changes in media technologies and practices upon everyday life, the cultural and creative economy, politics, social well-being and identity. Researchers work at the local, national and global level, engaging as partners and co-producers with many different businesses, communities and policy actors including media producers, publishers, digital companies, community groups and NGOs.

Our PhD students are a diverse group of young scholars that engage in both theoretical and practice-based research. You will have the opportunity to be engaged in a range of activities, including involvements in research centres, organising research events, contributing the research culture and gaining teaching experience.

We welcome approaches for PhD supervision across the breadth of possibilities that are opened through media and communications scholarship. The following is a broad indicative list of media and communication research possibilities at the University of Brighton:

Sunflare on mobile phone held up between fingers. Image by Rodion Kutsaev via Unsplash

Environmental communication
Media practice and journalism
Inclusive digital community practices
Digital health and mediated healthcare
Digital media
Data culture
Community media
Journalism and news consumption
mass communication
Digital transformations
Digitally connected mobility and transport
Mediated issues of equality, diversity and representation
Telecommunications
Digital innovation
New media forms and social media
Cultural informatics

Creative industries and their product
Migration and asylum seeker communications
Activism
Popular culture
Photographic media culture and history
Game studies
Immersive Media/AR/VR
Creative media and media arts (See also PhD arts and creative practices)
Sound studies and music
Media in museums and heritage sectors (See also PhD comupter science)
Digital humanities
Screen cultures, television and film studies (See also PhD Film studies)

Selected, recent PhD completions:

Details of our PhD media and communication

Research supervisors for your doctorate in media and communication

You will benefit from research supervision comprising two or maximum three members of academic staff. As well as media communications academics, supervision can also be aligned to cross-disciplinary work with one supervisory expert in, for example, media arts practices, heritage technologies, computing, cultural studies, healthcare, human geography, politics or philosophy. Some PhD students have also had a third supervisor from outside the university, for example an expert from the media industries.

You will identify your primary potential supervisor for your doctorate in communication and media studies from the early stages of application and they will usually then support you throughout your programme of study, helping you find any additional support to carry out your research, guiding your learning of rigorous research methods and preparing you for the next stage of your career.

You should consider the staff listed at the foot of the page and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism.

Research training and support

PhD students in media and communications studies are offered a range of developmental opportunities to help challenge and broaden their academic and professional thinking. There are opportunities to develop skills towards your PhD and prepare for life beyond it. These might include writing skills and project management, conference presentation preparation, with research planning and publication activities as well as grant applications and network-building, digital storytelling or developing a public profile. Read more about our doctoral training provision.

As a member of the Brighton Doctoral College, you will benefit from regular opportunities on a training programme designed to support postgraduate researchers at all stages of the PhD and help them achieve their career goals. Attendance at appropriate workshops within this programme is encouraged, as is contribution to the various seminar series hosted by the school and the annual Postgraduate Research Festival. Academic and technical staff also provide more subject-specific training.

Resources for PhD media communications students

You will benefit from access to international research resources, including a contemporary range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as the physical book and journal collections housed within campus libraries. The library services are connected to national and international collections and students also have the option of inter-library loans. Our media research students have use of a range of computing, media production, creative engagement and social science labs as well as the Screen Archive South East.

As well as your expert and experienced supervisory team, your network of fellow postgraduate research students and expert staff may well intersect with other PhD programme areas. Many students have benefited from the free intellectual exchange between scholars in humantities, social sciences, healthcare and medicine, business and law or sports culture - all of which generate interesting research questions for media and communications academics.

The University of Brighton has a system of research centres and groups, Centres of Research and Knowledge Exchange Excellence (COREs) and Research Excellence Groups (REGs), with many that our postgraduate media research students have joined, for example:

Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender
Centre for Arts and Wellbeing
Care, Health and Emotional Wellbeing Research Excellence Group
Comics and Graphic Narratives Research Excellence Group
Communication and Creative Ecologies Research Excellence Group
Creative Sound and Music Research Excellence Group
Inclusive Digital Societies Research Excellence Group
Photography Research Excellence Group

Research Excellence Framework (REF)

The research in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies (UoA D34) at the University of Brighton has been recognised for world-leading elements in successive Research Excellence Frameworks (RAE2008, REF2014, REF2021).

In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2021):

our research environment was judged 100 per cent world-leading or internationally excellent
our impact case studies were judged 80 per cent world-leading or internationally excellent
over 98 per cent of our research outputs were judged world-leading, internationally excellent or recognised internationally.

Our research impact – research with a positive application to communities outside the university – included research projects that:

used visual and participatory communication methods to engage and mobilise activists, artists, young people and citizens in UK, Europe, South Africa and Mauritius;
became integral to the 5G roll-out and the UK’s strategic development of the digital and immersive economy;
expanded the scope and content of theatre history, heritage exhibitions and commemorative events;
and lead to the growth, nationally and internationally, of mainstream and marginalised audiences for film heritage and film curation.

At a transformative climate learning retreat in Austria led by Professor Julie Doyle, climate science combines with cultural and visual communication about climate change to recognise a more nuanced understanding of human-environmental relations that link climate change to the cultural politics of the everyday.

Supervisors for PhD in media and communications

We strongly recommend that you apply with the support of one of our academics. By establishing your supervisor from the early stages of application, you will be supported through the application process and can make the best start to your programme of study.

You should consider the staff listed below and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism and your place in the wider context of the department's research ambitions. Their contact details are available on their full profile.

Our primary staff supervising in the discipline are listed. For further information on university supervisory staff, including cross-disciplinary options, please visit research staff on our research website.

Dr Ryan Burns

I supervise Doctoral projects in the areas of media and cultural studies & science and technology studies. If you're interested in undertaking research that examines media technologies the please feel free to contact me for an informal chat. I'm always keen to talk about potential doctoral research projects.

Prof Julie Doyle

Professor Doyle has supervised doctoral work on creative and visual climate change communication and engagement, media discourses of environment, gender and popular culture, branding and consumption. She would be happy to supervise work on any aspect of:

* climate and environmental communication

* creative climate communication and engagement

* media, popular culture and environment

* climate activism and social movements

* visual climate and environmental communication

* veganism, popular culture/media and ethics

* intersectional feminist ecological ethics

Completed students, awarded the degree of PhD:

Dr Viktoria Erlacher-Downing (2024). 'Climate change and mental health: a co-produced, transformative study with young people in Blackpool'. University of Brighton

Dr Kate Monson (2024). ‘Staying with the muddle: learning to live well on anthropocene island’. University of Brighton.

Dr Shai Kassirer (2020). ‘Media Analysis of Hydro-Policies for Climate-Resilience in Israel: Depoliticisation of Desalination Discourse (2001-2018)’. University of Brighton.

Dr Lucy O’Brien (2018). ‘Express Yourself: Reframing women’s participation, agency and power in popular music’. PhD by Publication. University of Brighton.

Dr Antigoni Themistokleous (2018). ‘Self regulation by the press in Cyprus’. University of Brighton.

Dr Chloe Peacock (2013). ‘Double Distinction’: An analysis of consumer participation in Apple branding’. University of Brighton.

Dr Joanna Boehnert (2012). ‘The Visual Communication of Ecological Literacy’. University of Brighton.

Dr Theodore Koulouris

(Digital) media theory, literary theory/history (esp. Virginia Woolf, Anglophone and European modernisms, and post-1850s receptions of Hellenism); deconstruction, ethics, ontology, feminism, mourning, narrative, nationalism(s), death, loss, and memory.

Current PhD/MPhil supervision

Sylvie J. Lewis (lead supervisor - live) / techne-funded / themes / topics: Virginia Woolf, modernism, fairies, shyness in early twentieth-century anglophone literature

Jack Maginn (lead supervisor – live) / themes / topics: Virginia Woolf, time, queer theory, Continental philosophy https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/jack-maginn

Kate Anthony (lead supervisor – live) / themes / topics: digital memes, the American alt-right, nationalism, Christian fundamentalism https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/katherine-anthony

Dr Darius Malek

Darius is open to supervising masters or doctorate students in game studies. He can supervise both practice-based/led and traditional research projects. Although he currently specialises in indie games, Darius' interest and expertise in game studies make him open to supervising a broad range of research subjects.

Dr Douglas McNaughton

Political economy of television production. Aesthetics and narrative in television. Historical development of British television. Representations of space, place and identities in British screen cultures. Science fiction, fantasy and horror, in particular, British folk horror. Telefantasy, world cinema, screen technologies, the sociology of space. Screen acting and performance.

Dr Julia Winckler

Julia Winckler's interdisciplinary research focuses on working with visual archives and collections. Memory and migration narratives, contested topographies, exile studies, co-production of knowledge and photography & activism are particular areas of interest.

For PhD applicants:

Winckler currently co-supervises six Phd students at the University of Brighton and one Phd student at the University of Salzburg. Two of these Phd projects are practice-based; one is Techne funded, a second is an AHRC CPD studentship.

Winckler welcomes Phd inquiries that interact with any of the following:

Working with Archives and Collections: Photographic archives, Community archives, Museums, Private Collections

Memory Studies: Postmemory, transnational memory, cultural memory, communicative memory, personal memory

Art practice as research: visual, creative and ethnographic research methods/photo voice/photo elicitation/digital media technologies, site-specific interventions

Co-production of knowledge: popular education methodology, participatory methods, oral history, histoire croisée/regards croisés methodologies

Photography and activism: community art practice (global, historical & contemporary) and critical pedagogy

Photographers in Exile in Britain: contributions made by emigrés to the field of Applied Arts

Dr Emma Withers

Emma is particularly interested in supervising research projects that address one or more of the following areas:

Science fiction and horror
AI, posthumanism and cyborgs
Phenomenological or haptic reading practices
Identity and representation
Gender, sexuality and sexual politics
Special effects
Narrative and spectacle
Cinema and digital culture

The above is indicative but not exhaustive. Feel free to email Emma if you would like to discuss supervision of your project.

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the University of Brighton through our online application portal. When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of Brighton staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2024–25

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
	Full-time	Part-time
UK	£4,786	£2,393
International (including EU)	£15,900	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£14,500	N/A

PhD by Publication
Full-time	Part-time
N/A	£2,393

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of Brighton we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.