Global Media and Culture

Each module is given a credit rating within the national Masters framework. These may be transferable from, or to, other institutions where the learning outcomes are comparable.
Postgraduate Certificate in Global Media and Culture: 60 credits
Postgraduate Diploma in Global Media and Culture: 120 credits
Masters in Global Media and Culture: total 180 credits
An outline of the structure of the programme is provided in the table below . Core modules are shown in bold; optional modules are in regular font.
Full-time students complete the course over one year (September to September); part-time students over two years.
SEMESTER 1
SEMESTER 2
SEMESTER 3
Research Skills (15 credits) (Core)
Globalisation, Culture, Media I (15 credits) (Core)
Contemporary Cultural and Media Theory
(30 credits) (Core)
Research Methods (15 credits) (Core)
Globalisation, Culture, Media II (15 credits) (Core)
Postcolonial and World Literature in English (30 credits) (Option)
Creative Media Practice (30 credits) (Option)
Visual Pleasures: From Carnival to Disney (30 credits) (option)
Dissertation (60 credits (Optional Core)
OR
Media Project (60 credits) (Optional Core)
Course Modules
MDS-40024: Research Skills (15 credits)
The purpose of this module is to provide students with the research skills necessary to complete masters level work in Media and Cultural Studies. The module is designed to teach students to cite and reference rigorously, construct reading lists, critically analyze texts, complete internet research and assess the relative validity of secondary sources taken from the internet, and plan and write essays.
MDS-40023: Research Methods (15 credits)
The purpose of this module is to provide students with a Masters-level introduction to methodological issues in the discipline of media and cultural studies. As such. the module considers notions of method and methodology, explores the construction of meaning in texts, and practices literary and film analysis. Moving beyond these methods, the module looks at ethnographic approaches to research, interviewing, and addresses issues of ethics. Finally, the module provides guidance on doing literature searches and surveys and explains the mechanics of writing a Masters-level thesis or producing a media project.
Globalisation, Culture, Media (30 credits)
This module aims to enable students to engage critically with the processual nature of globalisation and to recognise the impact of the processes of globalisation on contemporary culture and society. It will also allow students to identify and analyse critically a variety of theoretical perspectives on processes of globalisation, and to enable students to apply cultural theories of globalisation to a variety of substantive examples. Topics covered on the course may include diaspora and diasporic culture; the rise of alternative media politics; the cultural politics of globalisation through an exploration of everyday life; anti-capitalist culture; and the rise of fundamentalism.
Contemporary Cultural and Media Theory (30 credits)
This module aims to introduce students to, and further develop their knowledge of, cultural theory appropriate to the field of Media, Communications and Culture. It enables students to explore some of the major movements in cultural
theory, including film theory. Students will examine key issues in twentieth-century cultural theory and explore the complexity of these issues in relation to social and cultural change. The module will introduce students to the theory and practice of reading culture in general as well as various specific forms and modes of cultural self-representation. Authors and topics to be considered may include Cultural Materialism, Cultural History, Subcultures, Cybercultures, Cultural Geographies, Modernity, Postmodernism, (Post-) Feminism, Postcolonialism, Psychoanalysis, Ecocriticism, Jean Baudrillard, Noam Chomsky, Jonathan Crary, Michel Foucault, David Harvey, Dick Hebdige, Fredric Jameson, Margaret Morse, Judith Butler and Slavoj Žižek.
Postcolonial and World Literature in English (30 credits)
This module aims to introduce students to the diversity of literature and film produced in postcolonial contexts since the end of World War II. We will compare material from a number of formerly colonised regions – including Africa, the Caribbean, India, and Australasia – and explore how postcolonial texts relate to local cultural and historical experiences. The module is structured around some of the most highly charged issues tackled by postcolonial writers and filmmakers: cultural identity and nationhood; race, gender, and the body; globalisation; economic development; environmental disaster; and war. As we address these, we will look at ways of critically applying the exciting and challenging ideas raised by postcolonial theory, and consider how world literature is consumed in a global marketplace. The module covers a wide range of texts including prose, poetry, drama, and film, and will examine how postcolonial writers and directors have made innovative uses form and genre.
Creative Media Practice (30 credits)
Creative Media Practice provides the necessary theoretical and practical base for work on the final Media Project in semester 3 (and students wishing to carry out the Media Project are required to take this module in semester 2). Through taught sessions and close work with allotted supervisors, students will start to plan a creative project, culminating in these plans being 'pitched' to tutors and peers. The aim of the module is to consider the viability of, and rationale behind, creative choices and decisions. Combining practical experience with theory of practice, students will develop a stronger working sense of using media (such as film, video, photography or website) and an awareness of the possibilities of their chosen form
Dissertation (60 credits)
The dissertation module is a substantial piece of postgraduate work that engages the student in independent and original work in the field of global media and cultural studies. The project will be based on a topic agreed between the student and the supervisor. It will draw on the research interests of the student as developed during the first two semesters of the MA in Global Media and Cultures programme and will benefit from the research expertise of relevant supervisors in the Schools of Humanities and/or Criminology and Sociology. The successful completion of the dissertation will represent a substantial piece of postgraduate work that will enable the student to go on either to do further advanced academic research at MPhil or PhD level or to pursue a career at an advanced level in a relevant area of the media and culture industries.
Media Project (60 credits)
The media project module is a substantial piece of postgraduate work that engages the student in independent and original work in the field of global media and cultural studies. The project will be based on a topic agreed between the student and the supervisor. It will draw on the research interests of the student as developed during the first two semesters of the MA in Global Media and Cultures programme and will benefit from the research expertise of relevant supervisors in the School of Humanities. The successful completion of the media project will represent a substantial piece of postgraduate work that will enable the student to go on either to do further advanced academic research at MPhil or PhD level or to pursue a career at an advanced level in a relevant area of the media and culture industries.