Overview

This course combines traditional media studies with exciting new practices emerging in the 21st century – learning how to constantly innovate, anticipate and use new forms of communication.

You'll cover a range of traditional and new communicative and creative practices across the arts, sciences, humanities, business and industry – exploring how the field is shaped and changed by technological advances. This interdisciplinary approach will give you a thorough grounding in media and communications: as an academic field, a cultural landscape and a network of complex industries.

Examining key theories, you'll discover how media and communications both influence, and are influenced by, people and societies across the world – developing a critical understanding of media and transmedia creation and consumption.

Looking at current issues and emerging technologies, you'll learn how to analyse and develop communicative strategies to meet today's digital challenges, along with analytical techniques needed to understand audiences, data and social media.

Core modules focus on fundamental concepts in digital media and communications, and are complemented by an exciting range of elective modules that represent the breadth of issues relevant to the field – from examining the latest map-making technology with study visits to Google, to exploring 'Love in a Digital Age' with dating app founder John Kershaw of Bristler (for beard fanciers) and Charly Lester, founder of The Dating Awards and co-founder of Lumen, a dating app for over 50’s.

Your final assessment will be your choice of a dissertation, a creative project or an industry placement. You'll also take part in employability and personal development sessions to consolidate your academic experience and prepare you for the next exciting stage in your career.

Methods of assessment

A wide range of assessment methods draw from both knowledge and practice-oriented skills, based on personalised instruction, guidance and supervision. In addition to traditional assessments like essays, portfolios, presentations, you will also be asked to engage a range of creative, digital, learner, and research-oriented assessment methods, incorporating design-thinking, data visualizations, collaboration, and digital labs. Some of these more innovative methods include concept mapping, social network analysis, transmedia strategy, digital platform analysis, and foresight analysis.

Careers

This programme enables you to develop a portfolio of transferable skills that will enhance your employment prospects across a wide range of fields including:

• Academic
• Communications expert
• Media Analyst
• Journalist
• Researcher
• Public Relations Officer
• Civil Servant
• Social and digital media analyst/content developer/manager/writer