On the course we will teach you not only how to analyse a film as a cultural artefact, for instance, but you will also learn how films are made by making one of your own. Alternatively, you may want to combine practical work in public relations or journalism with the study of cultural policy.
Regardless of your area of specialisation, Communication, Culture and Media covers a broad range of subjects providing both the historical and theoretical knowledge as well as the practical experience needed for a comprehensive understanding of the field.
By developing a solid foundation of knowledges and skills you can then specialize according to your particular interests and career aspirations. In year two, you study chosen specialist topics and take part in professional experience or a group project. In your final year, you complete a dissertation, or major
practical project. Students are supported by a team of committed staff, all active in practice, research and publications.
The Communication, Culture and Media course provides you with the practical and theoretical knowledge needed for a broad understanding of the field. We begin with analytical introductions - a solid foundation upon which to develop according to your particular interests and career aspirations.
We analyse "texts" (TV programmes, films and advertisements), as well as investigating questions of economics, cultural policy and audiences. Your choice of modules includes critical studies of film, popular music, advertising and television and the critical practice of photography, video, multimedia and journalism.
In year two, you undertake a substantial work placement or project and, in your final year, a dissertation or major practical project. Students are supported by excellent facilities, including radio, TV and photographic studios and video editing suites, and by a team of committed staff, all active in practice or research.
Module information
Level One
Level Two
Level Three
Module Information: Level One
Key Concepts in Media Communication introduces students to the meaning, importance and use of fundamental concepts within the broad fields of media analysis and production. Students will be able to develop their understanding of, and ability to properly employ, crucial concepts which define the theoretical basis of their fields of enquiry and practice. Students will be expected to be able to demonstrate the proper use of such concepts in the analysis and /or production of media cultural or communications artefacts.
Contemporary Theories: Media and Cultural Issues in Context introduces students to the key theoretical paradigms that have shaped and informed the character of contemporary themes, issues and debate within the field of study of culture and media. The module traces how particular approaches to the analysis of culture, media and communication have emerged and attained saliency historically, and discusses how these various approaches have interacted to give us the multi-faceted academic field we have today.
Researching for Communication, Culture and Media provides students with the opportunity to acquire the basic generic skills required to undertake research work within this broad field of study. Students will begin to develop key research skills of source acquisition, archival searching, close-reading of texts, critical review of published sources, media form interpretation, data/evidence analysis, discussion and argumentation. These skills will be embedded within an awareness of the key concepts and debates in communication, media and culture and the theoretical implications of the decisions and choices made during the research process. The core skills and knowledges identified by the module will be developed by undertaking an active research project, focused on ‘real-life’ media, cultural or communications objects, institutions or issues.
Critical Analysis 1 introduces students to a variety of modes of critical analysis appropriate to specified objects of study with the fields of cultural, media and communication analysis. Building upon and using knowledge gained in Contemporary Theories students will be given the opportunity to consider how different theoretical approaches to a particular object produce a range of, often differentiated, understandings of the significance, meanings and functions of the object in question. Objects of analysis will be considered from a number of perspectives in order to demonstrate how these objects are simultaneously both objects of production and objects of consumption, whilst also being politically and economically determined and produced through cultural, media and communication institutions and organisations with their own particular histories and ideologies.
Media and Cultural Fields introduces students to the specific approaches themes, issues, debates and objects, which characterise definitive fields of study within communication, culture and media: film studies, television, audience studies, new media, the press. The module traces how particular fields of study have developed and how they analyse their chosen cultural, media and communications objects.
Personal Development Planning 1 will help students learn how to collect, organize and reflect on their own practice and body of work during their current year of study. It will teach current software and online technologies to record, reflect and respond.
Add+vantage 1 students will choose from an extensive range of modules to help them gain work-related knowledge, develop employability competencies such as decisiveness, initiative and adaptability, and manage your career.
Module information: Level Two
Understanding Media: Genre, Meaning and Production 1 draws upon key themes, issues and concepts covered in level one and deepens the student’s understandings of the specificities of genres within cultural and media forms. The module focuses upon the relationship between the production and consumption of cultural and media texts and artefacts, and explores the often complex relationships between texts, the determinants of their production and their audiences. The module draws upon a range of media and cultural forms and genres including those from television, film, popular music, radio, advertising and the press.
Then students choose either Film Studies or Cultural and Semiotic Analysis of Advertising
Film Studies aims to enable students to develop and extend their established awareness of issues, themes and debates in the diverse field of film, media and culture through the analysis of particular film texts in their contexts and through the interrogation of competing theoretical paradigms in their institutional, political historical and social contexts.
Cultural and Semiotic Analysis of Advertising will develop students’ understanding of and practical abilities in the industry, practice and critique of advertising. It covers Mass markets and Branding, the Regulation of Advertising, Consumer Culture, Advertising Theory and Practice and a deeper interrogation of Representation and the academic, social and political critique of advertisements. Students will develop creatively through the close analysis of contemporary advertising campaigns. Knowledge and skills gained through this module can be successfully applied to work within the advertising industry and the communications, culture and media industries, generally.
Then students choose either Popular Music or Media & Communication Practice
Popular Music examines popular music both in production, and at the moment of reception. It also focuses on music as text, in other words on form and meaning within musical works. These three approaches call for a range of methods drawn from cultural studies, sociology, and, to a more limited extent, from musicology. Listening to and analysing particular examples of popular music will be a major activity during the module.
Media & Communication Practice enables students to develop their knowledge and experience of convergent Media and Communication practice; they will develop an understanding of the basic techniques and methods; and of the key issues relevant to identified areas of practice. The module will enable students to develop core skills in important fields of convergent media practice, to be able to work collaboratively with those working in other specialist areas, to contextualise their theoretical knowledge and/or to situate their professional experience and professional development in the context of a specific area of the industry. Students will be expected to develop key skills in the relevant technologies of production and software packages and an understanding of the context of production process within identified areas of practice. The development of the key skills will be supported through introductory workshops, guided-study, technical demonstration and the use of learning objects.
Critical Analysis 2: Themes and Methodologies enables students to develop their understanding and ability to utilise several key modes of analysis appropriate to the typical objects of study with the fields of cultural, media and communication. Building upon the knowledge gained in Critical Analysis I, students will examine how specific analytical approaches (both in terms of theory and methodology) should be applied to particular themes and issues. Students will work through the analysis of a series of important and current issues and themes using relevant approaches: e.g multiculturalism analysed through post-colonialism; globalization and new media structures/ownership analysed through critical political economy, the emergence and consequences of convergent media and digital technologies through post-ideological analysis and new media content – e.g. Reality TV analysed through post-semiotics and gender-politics.
Then students choose either Professional Experience or Television
Professional Experience is your chance to develop the professional skills appropriate to current work patterns and to foster flexible and adaptable attitudes towards employment opportunities.
This module enables students to experience aspects of their chosen profession through participation in a professional experience, as an individual or in a group.
Students will experience the world of work through a company placement, a live brief, a self-initiated brief or a combination of experiences. All professional experiences will be coordinated and organized through a member of staff and all students will receive supervision from an academic member of staff.
Television examines various contemporary critical approaches to the study of television, both as a textual medium as well as a socio-cultural phenomenon within the everyday domestic sphere. Discussion of these approaches is grounded in formal, historical and socio-cultural specificity, primarily within the British and American contexts. Selected case studies include individual programmes, genres, auteurs and questions of audiences and their uses of the medium.
Personal Development Planning 2 will enable students will learn to recognise their own abilities, focus on areas requiring development and identify future areas for improvement or development. This module directly informs the decisions made for the student’s Professional Experience module.
Add+vantage 2 students will choose from an extensive range of modules to help them gain work-related knowledge, develop employability competencies such as decisiveness, initiative and adaptability, and manage your career.
Module information: Level Three
Analysing Media: Genre, Meaning and Production 2 draws upon key themes, issues and concepts covered in the Understanding Media: Genre, Meaning and Production and enables the students to deepen their critical understanding of the specificities of cultural and media forms and the discourses surrounding them. The module focuses upon the relationship between the production and consumption of cultural and media texts and explores the often complex relationships between texts, the determinants of their production and their audiences. The module will focus on a number of in-depth analyses of specific institutions and contemporary issues and debates.
Specialist Research for Communication, Culture and Media aims to develop the student's ability to research and develop theoretical and analytical issues that underpin key themes and debates within the field of study. The module will help enable students to think critically and reflectively upon contemporary issues pertinent within the subject and form a sound basis for their final project.
Through a series of lectures from subject specialist staff, students will receive an insight into good research and analysis based around live projects currently being undertaken by the module team. Academic workshops will require the student to discuss their own ideas, strategies and methodologies with staff and fellow students and modify, adapt, or expand their research and or developmental work, in the light of this dialogue. The student will be expected to relate their own concepts to those of other professionals working within the field and to become increasingly aware of their own position within the broad parameters of the disciplines. The student will work both individually and in small teams as required and will be encouraged to be self-reliant and develop methods of self evaluation and reflective self-criticism
Critical Analysis 3: Independence and Ethics enables students to develop their ability to be independent in the evaluation and use of the forms of analysis appropriate to any chosen object of study within the fields of cultural, media and communication. Building upon the knowledge gained in Critical Analysis II, students will develop the skills of evaluating specific analytical approaches (both in terms of theory and methodology) and be able to apply relevant analytical methods to particular themes and issues. The module will address the analysis of a series of media and cultural objects and forms, which articulate one major chosen thematic each year. These might be: War; the post-industrial city, the post-human body, techno-cultures, globalisation, or new-ecologies.
Final Project is a double module which offers students an opportunity to gain substantial experience in one or more areas of their chosen field of study. Students will choose a relevant topic to explore and will select the process and presentation most suited to their area of interest.
Each student will be supervised by a tutor in their chosen field and will be supported by a range of activities aimed at both generic project skills and specific research and presentation methods. The project may take the form of a written dissertation or may be practice-based, with students producing their own original print or online publications or radio programmes.
Personal Development Portfolio will enable students to present themselves and their work to their practice community and their peers. This presentation must be relevant, appropriate and considered and will form your basis for securing a job on graduation.
Add+vantage 3 students will choose from an extensive range of modules to help them gain work-related knowledge, develop employability competencies such as decisiveness, initiative and adaptability, and manage your career.
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