Media and Communication

This module focuses on the collaborative production of creative media projects. Working in teams, students will research, design, and produce a range of digital outputs, such as podcasts, videos, posters, and social media content. Emphasis is placed on understanding audiences and applying a variety of design and production techniques to create engaging, user-centred media. Alongside the practical work, students will be introduced to project management and research principles, and will critically reflect on their creative and technical practice. By the end of the module, students will have developed core skills in teamwork, communication, and digital media production.

This module introduces key themes in the study of media and communication to help students to develop a critical understanding of conceptual and theoretical frameworks by putting these and a range of media forms and institutions into their cultural and historical contexts. The module provides students with opportunities to learn and apply key concepts that are central to the analysis of media, from modes of production and consumption, to the dynamics of power and control, to the construction of genres and meanings, and use them to explore some of the most pertinent issues in the contemporary digital landscape, including uses and abuses of new media, concerns about politics and citizenship, the importance of representation and identity, as well as security, surveillance and safety. By engaging with these themes, students will also begin to develop an understanding of how academic frameworks such as feminism, political economies (especially of class, race, and gender), representations and effects may serve to identify inclusions and exclusions, and ethical considerations of these across a range of media.

This module introduces students to the importance of storytelling in shaping media, culture and society. Combining theoretical exploration and creative practice, students will explore how narratives construct meaning, identity, and reality across different media forms and contexts.

Students will examine and apply narrative theories and concepts, from classical structures to contemporary approaches, and consider how stories circulate and evolve within the media. Alongside critical discussion, students will develop their own original narratives in a chosen medium—such as video, audio, digital, or interactive design—aimed at attracting and engaging specific audiences.

The module encourages reflection on the ethical, social and material implications, including environmental and sustainability concerns, of storytelling in a connected world and supports the development of narrative skills, a key attribute across media, creative and communication industries.

This module introduces students to the essential technical and creative skills required for digital media production. It provides a foundation in multi-media design principles, media capture, editing, and integration using industry-standard tools. Emphasis is placed on building confidence with software, file management, and digital working practices while developing an understanding of how tools are used to create and refine visual outcomes. Students will explore the role of digital media in contemporary communication and develop a portfolio of practical work using industry-standard software including the Adobe Creative Cloud. The module also introduces and develops various skills required for the production of digital video, such as how to handle a camera, how to assess and capture sound and light, and how to edit footage.

This module aims to provide students with a thorough understanding of a number of the main theoretical approaches and research methodologies used in the discipline of media and communication. It focuses upon a number of key theoretical perspectives used in the study of the media, and connects these to relevant research techniques that are employed in researching texts, institutions and audiences, both in contemporary as well as historical contexts.

On completing this module, students will be able to choose which theories and research methods are most appropriate in developing their own original research questions, and be fully prepared to begin work on research that may form the basis of their final year projects. 

A proliferating array of internet-connected devices now enable vast quantities of digital data to be extracted from increasingly intimate areas of our everyday lives. Search engines supposedly know our deepest fears. Algorithms track our tastes and provide us with targeted ads and media recommendations. Likewise, as more of us turn to the ‘cloud’ to store our photos and files, growing volumes of digital information and assets are moving into the hands of multinational technology corporations, intersecting in complex ways with the development of generative AI tools and platforms. This module will interrogate the bleeding edge of media today by presenting a range of theories and concepts needed to critically navigate our contemporary culture and society – particularly how it is increasingly shaped by the interests of Big Tech. Students will consider the impact of technology on society and the environment to understand how to use it responsibly, and trace lines of development to explore potential futures and effects on their own lives and career trajectories.

This module introduces students to the study and practice of social media. It develops students’ ability to use social media strategically, while encouraging them to understand its applications across a range of contexts. Through theoretical perspectives and practical exercises, students will engage with key debates about the influence of social media on contemporary social and political issues, analyse campaigns and brand initiatives, and apply techniques in branding, storytelling, PR, and audience engagement. The module also addresses the ethical, legal, and professional challenges associated with social media use.

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Popular Media and Culture

In this module students will explore approaches and debates in the field of contemporary Popular Cultural Studies and are encouraged to develop and engage with these in relation to their own cultural interests. students will explore the cultural value of popular media and its varying genres and forms, as well as socio-political contexts that have influenced and been influenced by popular culture. This may include subjects such as popular music and journalism, video games, as well as the study of film and television. At the end of the module students will produce their own video project, for example a video essay or a documentary on an aspect of popular media and culture.

Collaboration Wins: Global Projects with Impact

This module develops students’ ability to work collaboratively within global and socially engaged design contexts. Students work in teams using UX and design thinking methodologies to research and define the delivery of a design response to a real-world project brief. Students work on projects, proposed by leading organisations such as: RSA sparks, James Dyson awards, ISTD, A’ Design awards, D&AD pencil. Through this process they develop skills in shared ownership of decision-making. Emphasis is placed on strong communication, intercultural awareness and ethical responsibility. Students reflect on group dynamics and contribution throughout the process. As the project develops, students take increasing responsibility for defining impact, managing complexity and responding to change, using reflection and evidence to evaluate both outcomes and collaboration. The project culminates in a group design outcome supported by individual reflective analysis, preparing students for professional team-based practice at Level 6.

Extended Independent Study in Media and Communication will give students opportunities to employ the academic, critical and practical skills that they have acquired through the Media and Communication programme in order to pursue their own interests in developing either:

• a traditional academic research project (10,000-word dissertation)
• a practical media project (e.g. a portfolio of journalism, videos, advertising campaign, public awareness campaign, producing a video game) alongside a shorter critical reflection (approximately 4,000 words)

Teaching and support will be delivered throughout the year through regular tutorials with a designated supervisor as well as regular group study sessions.

This module supports students in connecting academic study with professional creative practice through industry engagement and career-focused development. Students undertake a work placement or client-led project that enables them to apply their skills within real or simulated professional contexts, building confidence, independence, and professional judgement. Alongside this, students develop a coherent professional portfolio and career strategy aligned to their chosen pathway within the creative industries. The course emphasises reflective practice, ethical awareness, research-informed decision-making, and professional communication. Through their portfolio development and critical reflection for career planning, students consolidate their creative and professional identity and prepare for transition into graduate employment, freelance practice, or postgraduate study.

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Contemporary Media in Crisis: Art, Conflict and Dissent

In an era of ecological breakdown, political unrest, and digital disruption, media plays a pivotal role in shaping how societies understand and respond to crisis.

Taking the climate crisis as a starting point and narratives around sustainability, this module critically examines the media’s role in the manufacture of contemporary crises and conflict, as well as how media producers and activists use media to represent, resist, and reimagine global challenges.

Students will examine key case studies in contemporary culture and digital activism, analysing how aesthetics and technologies mediate power, emotion, and truth. Building on this critical awareness, students will explore the interactive nature of the media and interrogate their own subjectivity and positioning by media artefacts and institutions, exploring spaces for dissent and resistance through media practice.

This module supports students to become critically-aware and socially-conscious media professionals.

Stardom and Desire

The module raises questions about notions of stardom, evolutions of star systems, the history of star studies, and the relationships between star, audience, fandom and desire. Broad areas include correlations and discrepancies between connotations of ‘star’, ‘celebrity’ and ‘actor’. A range of methodologies are investigated, including textual analysis, semiotics, intertextuality and ethnography, illuminating the shifting signification of specific stars, over time, and across different cultures. Debates surrounding authorship and genre are explored, together with identity concepts such as race, ethnicity and gender. The module provides a close study of critical approaches to gender, desire and sexuality in film and media, interrogating critical frameworks, including psychoanalytic concepts of fantasy or desire and cultural constructions of sexuality. A range of materials are studied to explore these areas including film, popular magazines, social media, video games, advertisements, photography, music and television, analysing the complex relationship between star image, fandom, identity, desire and context.

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Media and Mythologies

A mythology is a narrative and symbolic structural formation which, rooted in socio-cultural beliefs and understandings concerning the nature of the world, gives shape and definition to relationship between individuals, communities, and wider societies.

In this module, students will explore mythologies both of the media and those which perpetuate through the media in our contemporary digital culture. Drawing from the work of Roland Barthes and later critics and theorists, they will critically engage with how the notion of a ‘mythology’ can be useful for articulating not just ancient belief systems, but the disposition of cultural discourses and socio-political narratives in the world today.

Topics may include media iconography and semiotics, transmedia and multimedia franchises, processes of remediation and reconciliation via technology and spectacle, virality and memetic media, affective media structures, the relationship between aesthetics and politics, as well as celebrity culture and 'relational media.'

Ghost in the Machine: Empathy, Design and Artificial Intelligence

In the 21^st Century, we have seen the shift from broadcast to participatory media. Now, empathic media is coming to the fore. This is media that monitors, responds to, and potentially manipulates users’ emotions and motivations. This might take the form of social media algorithms that seek emotional triggers to stoke our anger and maintain our attention; facial recognition technology that categorises and simplifies our rich emotional life to make predictions of our future behaviour; or AI-chatbots, masquerading as companions and friends, mimicking social relationships to drive platform use. This raises a range of new challenges for media consumers and producers.

Building on theory and approaches to categorising and understanding emotion and distinctions between human and emulated empathy, this module equips students to critically engage with and understand contemporary and future forms of media, interrogating trends to understand the social and industry-related impacts of this form of technology.  

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Political Communication: Media, Power and Society

This module introduces students to the field of political communication by critically examining how political actors, media institutions, and citizens interact within contemporary democracies. Emphasising the role of the media in politics, students will engage with key theoretical frameworks in political communication, such as framing theory and the mediatization of politics, to understand how the media influences political processes including election campaigns, policy debates, social movements and armed conflicts. Drawing on these theoretical approaches, students will apply their understanding to analyse media texts and contemporary political issues and concerns, such as trust, through a series of case studies.

Creativity and AI

Creativity and AI in design explores the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and creative automation in the design industry. Students will develop an understanding of AI-driven tools, generative design, and ethical considerations while mastering both traditional and emerging design techniques. This module prepares students to work with innovative digital technologies and understand the evolving nature of design work.