Creative Media

Creative Media is an innovative masters programme offered at the University of Brighton.

Every profession requires some understanding of the media. Yet increasingly, understanding is not enough. We need active citizens to make the media more democratic, intelligent, and passionately committed to addressing the social problems, political fears, and ethical questions of our time.

It is a maxim of our masters that as the media changes, so must the way in which we teach, learn, practice and write about it. Ignoring MP3s, iPods, HD television and mobile media is not an option. Ensuring that we handle these transformations with rigour, care and respect for the past should be our goal.

In response to the changes in our lives, environment, workplaces and education, an innovative suite of ideas has developed. We explore climate change, community media, participatory media, media literacy, sonic media, media ethics, and the role of ICTs in our daily lives.

We expect, and have received, applications from journalists, film makers, teachers, policy makers, and writers.

Course structure

Modules include the best elements from media education, creative industries, media studies and literacy theory. Choice, flexibility, and innovation are the key ideas that propel our work. The course is designed to fit in with the career goals, family and working patterns and personal interests of our students.

Of particular note is the relationship between theory and practice. Assignments are organised so that students can create innovative cycles of production and reflection through writing, photography, curriculum design, film making, and/or community and participatory media. Students are able to complete more conventional written work, but there are also many opportunities for dynamic relationships between sound and words, vision and text to develop.

There are also opportunities to complete shorter programmes in creative media at postgraduate certificate and postgraduate diploma level. Importantly - and acknowledging the needs and demands on our students - it is also possible to complete the full masters, certificate or diploma through distance learning.

There are two core modules for the masters: students tailor the rest of their course by choosing from a range of options. Postgraduate diploma students complete one core module and can select five other areas of interest. Postgraduate certificate students can choose any three modules to complete the qualification.

Career and progression opportunities

Graduates of the MA will be able to use diverse writing methods with consciousness and appropriateness to context; utilise a range of research methods in their creative media practice; work with the limitations and strengths of diverse disciplinary paradigms; interpret how cultural differences operate in mediated environments; and offer critical interventions in policy, regulation and/or literacy debates.

They will be well equipped to participate in debates about media literacy, the creative industries and cultural policy, and will have a well-developed palette of skills that move beyond the simple definitions of old/new media, analogue and digital media, theory, and practice.

Mode of Attendance : Full - time