Media and environmental communication ba(hons)

Year 1

The first year introduces you to the complex interactions between science, policy and culture.

• Global Environmental Issues

  This module will introduce you to a range of pressing global environmental issues which are explored from both natural science and social science angles, via a range of case studies. The module focuses on scientific, social, economic and political aspects of current and past environmental issues and explores how some of the issues may be addressed through interdisciplinary management and mitigation. Workshop sessions involving targeted pre-reading and small group working will take place at specific intervals.

• Human Geography

  This module provides a critical introduction to key themes in human geography. You will develop an appreciation of geographical concepts such as nature, space, place and scale through consideration of geographies of global political-economic change, past and contemporary cultural geographies and geographical imaginations, and social geographies of everyday life.

• Community Media for Social Action

  Tools, spaces and processes of community communications form the basis of inquiry into community media and social action. You will engage with theories of empowerment and voice as well as engaging in introductory practices of community media for social action. Your outputs from the practice component will be presented in class before being archived on the student learning space. You will also learn to reflect critically on your experiences and the processes of contextualised content generation through online communicative learning.

• Critical Approaches to Media 1

  This module will introduce you to a range of critical academic approaches to media. It tackles the most cutting-edge topics in media studies and introduces canonical approaches used in their analysis. An introduction to these approaches will enable you to understand the workings of media audiences, industries and texts. The module will focus on media experiences that are relevant to your everyday life, ensuring that as well as academic development, the module will give you the tools to analyse your own engagement with, and consumption of, the media.

• Critical Approaches to Media 2

  This module introduces key media studies theories and concepts and applies them to the analysis of real-world issues. You will develop skills and techniques to critique media representations, showing the importance of media analysis in everyday life. By analysing media technologies, you will engage with the most innovative media content, forms and practices of the day. By questioning mediation, the module will bring to life the role of media in society and enable you to critique the media in terms of culture, politics, innovation and environment.

• Video Production 1

  Module code: LM115

  This module will equip you with the essential skills and practical experience required to create short-form non-fictional audio-visual content, suitable in form to contemporary web-based - as well as more traditional - delivery platforms and audiences. It covers all three stages of video production: pre-production research and planning, production and post-production, including editing. It will introduce the fundamentals of video and sound-recording techniques as well as give you the skills required for successfully engaging with contributors/participants.

• Photographic Practice 1

  Module code: LM116

  In this module you will explore the role and use of photography in visual media. You will engage with various aspects of the language and production of promotional and editorial photography. You will respond to set briefs and create your own website that includes an online portfolio as well as learn the core skills in which to consider, articulate and document reflections on your practice.

• Business, Creative/Digital Industries and Innovation

  Module code: LM130

  On this module you will develop a sense of commercial awareness, including key entrepreneurial skills and knowledge required to engage with innovation in the creative and digital industries. You will work as a part of a team to recognise trends and opportunities and then develop your ideas into a business plan. You will reflect on your ideas, considering issues around collaboration, innovation, sustainability and intellectual property.

• Creative Industries and Promotional Cultures

  Module code: LM131

  This module will introduce you to the creative and promotional industries such as advertising, public relations, marketing and branding. It offers a historical overview of and contemporary perspectives on their development and change. You will engage critically with questions surrounding the political economy of the cultural industries, new consumer practices and the politics of consumption, and will develop an understanding of a range of mainstream practices as well as critical interventions in the language and dynamics of promotional cultures.

• Film Language and History

  Module code: LM166

  This module will introduce you to the contribution made by the formal language of cinema (cinematography, editing, sound, shot composition, etc.) in establishing a film’s narrative. The module will frame the history of mainstream Western cinema, through reference to the key technical, institutional and economic developments of the medium.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.