Media with Arabic - BA (Hons)

Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.

Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.

The module focuses on the role of genre in media production and consumption. Each delivery will explore three different genres, provide an introduction to the history of each, an overview of its conventions, a discussion of significant media texts within that genre, and opportunities for students to critically engage with genre texts. The module will address genre issues across a range of media forms, including film, television, radio, advertising, literature, mass publishing, and video games. The specific types of media genres addressed each year will change to reflect the changing media marketplace, and the changing critical tradition of media and cultural studies. Typical indicative genre forms covered by the module may include: science fiction, crime drama, heist movies, romantic comedies, situation comedies, soap operas, specific genres of documentary (such as biographical documentaries or science documentaries), the thriller, film noir and neo-noir, or martial arts movies.

The module provides an introduction to media history and some of the key arguments and research areas in the field. Both history and theory are approached through contemporary issues and debates and the relationship of each to theoretical, social, cultural and economic contexts is emphasised. Discussion of theory addresses the problems posed by different intellectual traditions and places them in their appropriate critical contexts, while a historical perspective enables the technologies of the mass and new social media to be understood in relation to wider social developments.

This module introduces students to a range of photographic and digital video and sound practices, through a variety of practical exercises. This will provide them with a range of potentially employable skills. Through this practical engagement with digital video and photographic technologies, students will also reach a greater understanding of a number of theories and histories relating to photography and to the moving image and sound.

Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.

Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.

This module combines critical engagement with theories of community, citizenship and participatory culture; study of the ways media have been used to rebel and empower; and training in research and media practice.

This module provides a thorough grounding into the institutions, economics, technologies, texts, audiences and production practices, of television broadcasting. The module combines theoretical discussion of the television medium, with practice-based learning in television studio production.

This module enables students to undertake a short period of professional activity and to gain credit for their achievements. The activity can be employment, a work placement, professional training, volunteering in the not-for-profit sector, or where available, within a Virtual Business Environment within the University.

This module examines the relationship between the media, crime and criminal justice. It examines the way crime and the law – and our understandings of them – are produced, reproduced and challenged in and through the contemporary media. The module considers how crime and criminals have been portrayed by the media over time, and assesses the different theoretical perspectives applied to media representations of crime and criminality. It examines the various ways the media actively work to construct crime as a news story, analysing the way the media sift and select crime stories, prioritizing some and excluding others, editing words and pictures and selecting particular tones and styles in their reports to create particular interpretations and viewpoints. The module also considers media portrayals of crime, criminals, victims and criminal justice agencies in a range of fictional and factual representations across TV, film and popular fiction. The social and cultural impact of these media representations is also discussed, with attention is given to the ways they may contribute to escalating fears of crime and how far they may contribute, themselves, to violence and criminal behaviour. Focusing on cultural, critical, and qualitative understandings of the relationships between crime and the media, the module draws on ideas and theories developed not only in the field of Criminology, but also the disciplines of in Sociology, Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.

From analysing cultural data sets to curating online collections this module introduces students to the intersection of computing and humanities. It will critically analyse and question existing data structures and categories and discuss the ethical dimensions in handling and creating data sets.
Additionally it will explore tools and technologies to produce, curate and interact with knowledge from born-digital to digitised data and content – from single creator to participatory projects. Students will learn how to effectively evaluate, organise and visualise data in practical workshops and seminar discussions.

This module introduces students to the history, theory and practice of photojournalism and documentary photography. The module is slanted towards practice, and provides an opportunity for students to enhance their existing photographic skills as well as their understanding of journalistic and documentary photography. The module will provide practical tuition in the skills of street photography, portraiture, photographing objects in motion, and narrative photography, and will encourage and support students in the conception and development of their own documentary photographic projects. The module will also provide historical and theoretical contexts for students’ developing photographic practices, enabling them to critically reflect of their practice.

This module critically examines the history of media audience research focusing on theoretical, methodological and ethical questions. Students study different ways of conceptualising and researching the relationship between media and audiences. They learn to evaluate and apply key concepts, theories and methods in designing and conducting their own piece of audience research.

Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.

Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.

This module will examine and analyse traditional and modern visual special effects using examples from film, music video, television and games to illustrate the development of new techniques from old. Practical exercises, lectures, and demonstrations will aid students in developing a wide spectrum of technical and analytical skills in the field of digital post-production and visual special effects. Students will be expected to undertake all stages of the creative planning process to deliver an integrated digital video and audio project in order to complete the module.

This module is focused around the production of an engaged and lengthy piece of independent research. It provides students the opportunity to specialise in one area of the curriculum in their Honours year.

This module addresses the role of mediated representation and communication in the development and reproduction of cultural and social identities. Drawing on a range of recent critical theories, it considers a broad spectrum of symbolic forms from the fields of film, TV, magazines, popular literature and advertising, and relates them to the social construction of social identities including ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. The module has a particular emphasis on anti-essentialist notions of identity, and on the influence of post-structuralism on identity and subjectivity.

This module enables students to undertake a short period of professional activity and to gain credit for their achievements. The activity can be employment, a work placement, professional training, volunteering in the not-for-profit sector, or where available, within a Virtual Business Environment within the University.

This module examines key theoretical approaches in the analysis of the production, distribution, consumption and meaning of popular music. It locates popular music as both a cultural form and a commercial enterprise. Examining the history and contemporary organisation of the music industry, the module considers the social production of popular music, and the impact of technological change on its creation and circulation. The module also considers key critical analyses of the nature and development of popular music as a cultural form. It explores the key social and cultural factors that shape our experience of music and the way we give it meaning within our lives, giving particular attention to issues such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality and social class. Drawing on studies produced within a range of theoretical fields, the module includes discussion of the impact of digital technologies on the music industry, the relationship between popular music and processes of globalisation, the construction of star personas and celebrity culture, and the nature of audiences, fans and subcultures.

This module investigates theories of realism and representation in relation to documentary, whether made for cinema or television. The student will explore the production of meaning across a range of documentary genres. Conventions of realism will be analysed in relation to changing industrial, technological and cultural contexts. Students will work in small groups to produce a short documentary through which to advance their filmmaking skills, and to engage with the challenge of representation in our culturally diverse communities.

This module focuses on international communications and the debates around globalisation and cultural imperialism; development and modernisation; the role of transnational regulatory bodies such as the WTO; the structure of the global media industries and centres of power; the development of contra flow in media and culture; Media Systems models; and de-westernising of media studies. The module includes engagement with studies of media in various countries and regions and analyses developments in telecommunications and the cultural industries.
The study draws on economics, politics, and sociology in considering the contemporary debates around shifts in power and the potential role of social and new media.

The aim of this course is to present a critical review of key aspects of contemporary theory, research and practice in political communications and to address how these may be challenged by and transformed by new technologies and by sophisticated methods for shaping personalised messages. Using an inter-disciplinary perspective, the course will present the key theoretical concepts pertaining to political communication as normally understood in the West, then pose normative and empirical questions on how they can be assessed outside those contexts.

This module provides aims to develop students’ independent critical and analytical skills by exploring the relationship between situation comedy and the socio-cultural context of comedy production. The module will examine the history of situation comedy, and the development of the genre, focusing on both television and radio forms. The module will incorporate screenings of significant examples of British and US situation comedies, and analyse their relationship to the socio-cultural context of their production. The module will discuss key themes in the development of situation comedy including the representation of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, family, and modes of production including studio based production, mockumentary, and documentary style.