Media and Communication

The rise of digital platforms, datafication and Artificial Intelligence are rapidly transforming the societies we live in. How can we best approach and understand these changing landscapes, and can old theoretical frameworks still help us make sense of the media world we live in today? This module is designed to introduce students to some of the key concepts and advanced debates relevant to the study of contemporary communications and media. Providing students with relevant theoretical background as well as practical examples from contemporary media environments, the module revisits some of the classic theoretical debates in the field and brings them into dialogue with recent technological, social, cultural and political developments.

The aim of this module is to outline the major conceptual and empirical questions raised by work on the media and cultural industries, media and cultural policy; to examine the changes that have taken place in the media and cultural industries under the impact of cultural, social, political and technological change since the 1970s and to explore the questions these changes raise for public policy. A series of practical case studies in the media and cultural industries will allow students to gain a good understanding of professional work in these sectors.

The aim of this module is to develop knowledge and understanding of a range of methodologies for the analysis of media users and institutions. The module focuses on critically discuss how qualitative and quantitative methodologies are applied, identifying their strengths and shortcomings.

The Internet is playing an increasing role in the lives of people around the globe and in the process is transforming many aspects of the ways in which we interact; yet this is a landscape that is contoured in other respects by the structure of the global economic system. This module aims to examine the relationship between new social practices and old economic structures; it offers students an introduction to the economic sociology of digital media.

The aim of this module is for the student to develop employability and academic skills relevant to conducting an individual research project and to undertake a piece of research on a communication or cultural topic of their choice, and pursue this research in depth and with rigour. The final project should build on methodological skills developed in earlier modules.

The workplace focused dissertation offers students the opportunity to work with a project partner in the private or public sector, to deliver a project related to Media and Communication. It provides students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based work, aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence. Students will identify, frame and resolve practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions. The workplace focussed dissertation will also support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds. It will provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and companies, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.

The main aim of this module is to define and critically examine key concepts and theories that help understand how media and communication are involved in shaping our sense of identity, belonging and community. It will have a particular focus on the changes brought by digital media in constructing hierarchies of belonging and the forms of inclusion and exclusion that are linked to these.

Through lectures, classroom discussions and practical tasks students will focus on a range of cultural and social identities – including gender, class, ethnicity and sexuality – and examine the impacts that different communication technologies (press, cinema, radio, television, social media) have had on the representation and evaluation of groups across time. Through this, students will be able to appreciate both the changes prompted by digital communication as well as the persistence of old forms of representation, discrimination and exclusion.

The aim of this module is for the student to develop employability and academic skills relevant to conducting an individual research project and to undertake a piece of research on a communication or cultural topic of their choice, and pursue this research in depth and with rigour. The final project should build on methodological skills developed in earlier modules.

This module examines the impact of social media on political life. By the end of the module students will have an understanding of the key issues around social media as well as a critical perspective on what the term actually means. The approach will be comparative, drawing on examples from around the world, including the developing world, but the principal focus will be on the United States and Britain.

This module addresses the ways in which social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp. and Snapchat are changing the ways in which political actors, citizens, and journalists interact with each other, advance their goals, and exercise power. We will engage with contemporary arguments and debates about the democratic implications of social media by drawing on state-of-the-art theory and cutting-edge research, as well as case studies of relevant contemporary events and controversies.

The module will enable students to understand how social media are used by citizens, political actors, and journalists to access, distribute, and coproduce content that is relevant to public affairs and provide opportunities for political learning, persuasion, mobilization, and engagement. It will use both theory and empirical research to shed light on how social media are enhancing and hindering practices and structures of citizenship and democratic politics.

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the politics of cultural memory and cultural heritage in the modern period. The module examines debates around the temporal structures of modernity and the manner in which the past is used as a rhetorical and commercial resource in the cultural industries. The module will critically evaluate the rise of the heritage industries from national and global perspectives.

The aim of this module is for the student to develop employability and academic skills relevant to conducting an individual research project and to undertake a piece of research on a communication or cultural topic of their choice, and pursue this research in depth and with rigour. The final project should build on methodological skills developed in earlier modules.

The workplace focused dissertation offers students the opportunity to work with a project partner in the private or public sector, to deliver a project related to Media and Communication. It provides students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based work, aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence. Students will identify, frame and resolve practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions. The workplace focussed dissertation will also support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds. It will provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and companies, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.