BA (Hons) Communication, Media and Culture

You'll investigate the role of digital media in young people's identity practices across a range of practices and platforms. You'll look at changing ways in which commercial, political and social identities are researched and understood online. This includes how selfhood is expressed and communicated, perceptions of private and public identity, and issues of engagement and exclusion by gender, age, class and geopolitics. You’ll also consider adult perceptions and representations of digital worlds and their youthful inhabitants, and how far these match youth experiences.

How can the skills in persuasive speaking (rhetorics) help us understand and solve cultural problems? In this module, you’ll gain invaluable speaking and writing skills for your future career. You’ll also understand key rhetorical practices and how they affect society. You’ll explore the rhetorical tools likely to produce social change. You’ll put these to use, crafting persuasive messages that are:

• clear
• attractive
• well-crafted
• ethical.

You’ll become a skilled writer and speaker, able to take into account your audience, message and genre as you craft persuasive language.

On this module you’ll look at the role of the audience in mass communication, and how understanding of this shapes approaches to research. You’ll examine conceptualisations of media audiences from early media panics to contemporary ideas about users and 'prod-users 'online. In workshops you’ll consider a range of approaches to audience research, from 'creative play' methods to ways of understanding the audience in the digital age. As you develop your understanding of theory and method in audience research, you’ll be able to apply this to your own research.

In this module, you’ll develop your skills in research methods so that you are ready to carry out small-scale research projects at university and in the world of work. You’ll design and use various data collection methods, such as questionnaires and interviews, and gain practical experience of data analysis techniques (both quantitative and qualitative). You’ll look at important methodological issues such as sampling, reliability, validity and ethics. You’ll also learn how to carry out a literature review, a key skill for undertaking a dissertation in your final year.

Designing a successful website requires specialist skills, knowledge and creativity. In this module, you’ll examine issues of design, layout, usability and accessibility, and find out how to create a site that’s both attractive and easy to navigate. You’ll be introduced to the fundamental practical elements of web design, including HTML and CSS, and create a site of your own design using established software. No previous experience of web design is needed.

How do individuals relate and interact with each other in organisations? Do we lose a sense of our identity within corporations, or find ourselves through a sense of belonging to an organisation with a strong culture? In this module, you’ll analyse the importance of communication and cultural practices within organisations from both an individual and company perspective. You will examine organisations from a multi-disciplinary perspective with a view to appreciating the challenges of the modern workplace. You will acquire interpretive tools through which you can understand the complex dynamics within the media, creative, and cultural industries in which you are likely to work in the future.

What makes a story newsworthy? How can we spot fake news? In this module, you’ll explore key issues including questions of balance and bias, the style and format of TV news and the global news environment, including CNN and Al-Jazeera. You’ll link theoretical issues to practice through the analysis of TV news items, before working in a team to write, film and edit your own news bulletin.

In this module, you’ll explore the relationship between language, culture and globalisation. You’ll gain key analytical skills as you observe how language operates in local and global contexts. You’ll look at language through a sociolinguistic approach - considering the relationship between language and society and how they affect each other. You’ll explore how English rose to become an international language, spoken in countries all over the world. You’ll explore a range of topics, including:

• language and gender
• language and politics
• language and standardisation
• globalisation discourses
• linguistic imperialism (when we impose our language on speakers of another language).

In this module, you’ll get to grips with intercultural identity (connections between cultures) and intracultural identity (connections between people of the same culture). You’ll gain core ethnographic knowledge for your degree, meaning you’ll gain a strong awareness of how to study people and their cultures. You’ll dig into the philosophical foundations of critical theory. You’ll also gain strong self-awareness, as you analyse your own cultural traditions and norms. You’ll explore the dimensions of your own identity, and develop sensitivity to seeing the world as others see it.

What does it mean to say ‘woman’? Are binary conceptions of gender unhelpful? This module challenges you to question your ‘common sense’ understanding of terms such as gender and sexuality, and to think about how such terms are used in contemporary culture. You’ll draw on insights from many disciplines, including:

• gender studies
• critical theory
• queer theory
• feminist criticism.

In this module, you undertake individual or group work on an appropriate topic. You’ll work on a clearly defined topic or undertake a work placement or project under supervision and with approval from the module leader. The independent study gives you the chance to reflect critically work-related learning project or explore connections between themes and questions you’ve encountered in other modules.

This module will enable you to access a work-related learning / placement opportunity in a relevant setting and where you’ll be able to apply your learned subject knowledge and/or developed skills and competencies, and this module will help you to progress and build your employability profile.

This module offers the opportunity to study abroad, experience a new culture, and apply your skills in different contexts to enhance your employability. It will help you develop self-management, cross-cultural communication, and interpersonal skills.

You’ll receive support to secure a place at a partner institution abroad, where you can choose modules related to your degree or explore new areas that complement your studies.

Studying at an international university will help you enhance your interpersonal skills through cross-cultural communication with students and tutors, allowing you to build lasting relationships. You'll also improve your study skills by focusing on your chosen areas of interest, gaining valuable international experience that will strengthen your CV.

This year abroad module lasts for one academic year and is taken after the conclusion of your second year of study, once you’ve completed all your level 5 studies. Your year abroad is not credit-bearing.

The Dissertation gives you the opportunity to become a specialist in an area of law that interests you most, carrying out an in-depth independent research project with the support of an expert academic supervisor.

You'll strengthen your legal research, critical analysis and written communication skills as you investigate a contemporary legal issue of your choice. Whether you're exploring hate crime, the impact of Brexit, sexual consent or another area aligned with your interests, you'll evaluate complex legal questions, develop well-reasoned arguments and communicate your findings effectively.

The Dissertation provides the opportunity to explore your chosen area of specialism in greater depth while preparing for postgraduate study or a wide range of professional careers.

This module is compulsory if studying one of the named pathways.

What does ‘identity’ mean in a market-driven society? To what extent do we live our lives through brands? And what happens to the values of not-for-profit organisations when they adopt branding techniques developed for businesses?

These are the types of questions you’ll encounter in this module, which looks at how organisations manage their public images. You’ll examine the practices that support brand image, including advertising, PR and sponsorship, discussing their practical effectiveness and their social implications. You’ll also look at how globalisation has affected branded communication, and at the impacts of developments such as e-commerce and social media. Through this module you’ll develop knowledge that’s relevant in the workplace, but also leads towards a critical understanding of one of the forces that shapes our lives.

In this module, you’ll learn about citizen journalism and civic engagement in online contexts. You’ll study the growth of participatory journalism and its changing relationship with the mainstream press. You’ll consider the role of citizen journalism in democratic processes and look at how it can encourage people to become more socially active and informed. As well as engaging with these questions, you’ll develop your skills in information-gathering, interviewing and writing as you work on your own, original piece of op-ed or investigative journalism in the form of a blog or podcast.

Look at the controversial narratives woven within media ecosystems, encompassing newspapers, current affairs magazines, social media, and broadcast news. Trace the historical trajectory of propaganda from the tumultuous twentieth-century wars, such as the First and Second World Wars, to its contemporary manifestations in the digital age. You’ll also explore how media and propaganda have been harnessed to shape public opinion, rally support, and challenge power structures.

By the end of this module, you’ll build the ability to critically analyse the dual nature of social media and broadcast news as both agents of control and catalysts for social change. Alongside that, you’ll acquire the tools to assess historical and contemporary instances of propaganda in media, to then build a nuanced vocabulary to articulate your findings and insight.

This module allows you to engage in depth with compelling current issues in Communication, Media and Culture studies. You’ll take part in student-led discussions and seminar sessions, and develop your portfolio for the research part of this course. You’ll prepare a seminar presentation, giving you the chance to hone your skills in reviewing and evaluating a set of readings and in communicating your findings.

We all like to think that we’re unique, with our own personality and identity, beliefs and ideas. But are we really all so different, or are we subject to a variety of cultural and social pressures that determine who we are?

Examining a range of objects and artefacts that you have chosen, you’ll consider new and challenging ways of thinking about your place in culture, and about how culture places itself in you. In this honours level module we’ll investigate how we’re all subject to culture.

What is the influence of social and cultural practices on our actions? In this module you will examine your relationship with several elements of culture, both as an individual and as a member of society. You will analyse how cultural factors influence values, identities, and the sense of self, including how these manifest in our daily lives and in our interactions with others. You will have the opportunity to explore many themes and theories. You will discuss topics like:

• gender
• race
• subculture
• disability
• religion
• surveillance
• ancient Greek practices of self-mastery.

You’ll examine the intersection of ethnicity, media representation and how media is produced, received and consumed - thinking critically about the notion of ethnicity and its many manifestations in the media. You’ll explore the long-standing association with othering practices across social, national, cultural and geographical contexts and how images of ethnicity in the media are characterised by a tendency to either marginalise and criminalise, or exoticize and romanticise ethnically-coded subjects. You'll draw from the insights of different disciplinary fields, including;

• ethnic and race studies
• media studies
• cultural studies
• critical theory.

Focussing on approaches and theories which explore both historical and contemporary understandings of ethnicity, providing you with the tools to analyse the different meanings and functions of ethnic identities in a variety of media contexts. You’ll also develop practical skills by engaging in creative audiovisual media production.