MA Media and Communication

Course details On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry. Core units Communication Theory: The study of communication theory, with an emphasis on the role of the media and its relationships with societies and cultures. You'll explore the historical development of mass media and theories for studying mass communication and its processes, with a focus on the professionalisation of communication and its impact on the public sphere. This covers contemporary issues associated with communication theory. You'll develop a critical awareness of the role and influence of communication in contemporary society. Media in Transition: How media institutions are evolving as a response to societal, economic and technological changes. The unit offers contextual knowledge to underpin the remainder of the course, and you'll be expected to develop an advanced understanding of an area in media and communication that interests you and supports your future career goals. Research Methods in Media & Communication: Develop an appreciation of the key principles and practices of research in the field of media and communication. You'll be offered a broad grounding in social science research methods and be prepared to rigorously design, conduct, report and evaluate research. You'll also be introduced to opportunities and challenges of conducting applied research using industry data collection and analysis techniques. The course is built around three complementary strands. These are generic social science research training, subject specific research training and industry specific research commissioning and interpretation. Communicating Ideas: You'll be expected to deliver research outcomes in a variety of ways, including text, video and audio. This unit’s intention is to improve your ability to communicate with a range of audiences and to generate impact from the research which emerges from your educational experience, and the future research projects you might be involved in. You'll develop skills in a new language of academic expression, and your fluency with media technology will help you articulate ideas. Exhibition: An opportunity to share key ideas and thinking within your research project to an audience of students and academics. The skills developed in Communicating Ideas will help you present your ideas using a range of media technology. Your work will also be informed by the underpinning provided in the Research Methods in Media & Communication unit. Master’s Project: Generate an individual piece of research adopting either a humanities or social sciences approach. This is likely to draw from what you learnt during the postgraduate diploma stage of the course. It's possible your Project will embrace practice-led research if your production skills gained from the Communicating Ideas unit are excelling. Option units You'll also choose two units from the lists below*: Media, Social Cohesion & Extremisms Exploring Word-of-Mouth Communication Cross-Platform Media: Theory & Practice Media, Power & Conflict Critical Perspectives in Media Communication Applied Creativity Women, Gender & Media Brand & Brand Communication Media & Fictional Violence Intercultural Communication Digital Media Literacies Media History Media & Crisis Media Economics Youth Culture & Media Alternative Media Media Power & Conflict Media, Journalism & the Environment Music, Media & Communication New Media Innovation *Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year. Programme specification Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used. Download the programme specification for Media and Communication. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.