Television History and Practice

MA Television History and Practice

Full-Time Programme

This Masters programme provides students with both a history of the television medium and understanding of a range of standard and evolving television practices before gradually increasing engagement with practical aspects and skills. Among the special features of the course is a recognition of how television is progressively more concerned with its own history, turning this into new sources of revenue and programming; and with the convergence of broadcast television and 'new media'. The practical elements of the course are intended for those who want to 'work behind the scenes', as researchers, script readers and editors, archivists and production assistants rather than being a vocational training ground for such roles as script writing, directing, producing, camera operation and the like.

Overview of the Course:

The core course is designed to introduce the interrelationship between technology and culture in television history, which will include the place of film, advertising, experimental art, music and new media.

Options allow you to follow your own particular interests or explore new and unexpected areas of media history.

The research report or placement brings you into direct contact with the industry or enables you to research the contemporary industry through an empirical project.

The dissertation allows you to develop ideas or topics, either encountered on the course or introduced from outside, as a substantial and detailed piece of research.

Study Resources:

You will have access to Birkbeck Library and subsidised membership of the British Film Institute Library, located close to Birkbeck.