BA Media and Communications
Cardiff, United Kingdom
BA
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
GBP 22,700 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas | for home: £9,000
Key Summary
Through your studies, you will develop an understanding of the historical and cultural bases of the study of the media and cultural industries and their roles in modern society.
You will be instructed in the ways in which participatory access to the central sites of public culture and communication is distributed along axes of social division such as disability, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality and sexuality.
Critical and analytical thinking skills are developed in a variety of areas including the study of popular cultures. The course engages critically with major thinkers, debates and intellectual paradigms within the field and puts them to productive use.
You will be able to follow a clear culture and communication path throughout the three years of study.
While Media and Communications in particular is a product of our extensive and growing communications environment, the course also benefits from our experience teaching and researching both journalism and media studies from national and international perspectives.
While this course is both challenging and academic in nature, it does NOT provide vocational journalism training.
Why Study this Course
Leading the Way
Put yourself at the forefront of Journalism and Communications in an internationally recognised and high-ranking school.
Capital Connections
Cardiff is thriving; take advantage of growing media and creative industries plus links to BBC Wales and Media Wales, situated next door.
State-of-the-art Facilities
Including a specialised onsite library, bright study spaces and six newsrooms.
Multimedia and Multisector Insight
Beyond media industries and journalism, delve into areas like film, television, social/digital platforms and marketing and PR.
Placement Opportunities
Develop the skills, confidence and connections to accelerate your career.
Loans and Grants
Financial support information for students.
Bursaries
We wish to ensure that financial circumstances are not a barrier to your undergraduate study opportunities.
Scholarships
We wish to recruit the very best students and to help us achieve this, we offer a number of scholarships.
Part-time Undergraduate Funding
Information about funding for part-time students.
Financial Support for Asylum Seekers
Information for asylum seekers about the financial support we offer undergraduates and options for funding from outside the University.
The BA in Media and Communications is a three-year, full-time, modular course. Most modules include 12 weeks of teaching and the rest of the semester is devoted to exams and other kinds of assessment, along with the processes of marking and exam boards.
Every Welsh-speaking student will have the opportunity to undertake their first-year seminars through the medium of Welsh.
The modules shown are an example of the typical curriculum and will be reviewed prior to the 2024/2025 academic year. The final modules will be published by September 2024.
Year One
All of our Single Honours degree programmes share a common first year. This is designed to give you a sound foundation in all of the contemporary and historical contexts of journalism, media and culture. It also introduces you to the practicalities of high-quality academic writing, analysis and research.
In total six core 20-credit modules are taught mainly using a lecture/seminar format. During your lectures, you will be introduced to new ideas and approaches and carry out more applied and team-based work in your seminars.
Core Modules for Year One
- History of Mass Communication and Culture
- Media Scholarship
- An Introduction to Media Audiences
- Advertising and the Consumer Society
- Understanding Journalism Studies
Optional Modules for Year One
Year Two
You will be taught mainly using a lecture/seminar format, although the tasks developed in seminars will be more ambitious. You will be expected to develop research protocols, both on your own and in groups, and will begin to experiment with and design methodological procedures (such as survey methods, ethnography, and content and discourse analysis).
By the end of year two, you will have the skills necessary to write a dissertation in year three.
Core Modules for Year Two
- Digital Culture
- Doing Media Research: Approaches and Methods
Optional Modules for Year Two
- Media and Gender
- The Newsroom1
- The Newsroom 2
- Critical Issues in Television Production
- Managing Media Communications
- Celebrity Culture
- Fashion Futures: Technology, Innovation and Society
- Internet Governance
- Media, Globalisation and Culture
- Public Relations and Political Communication
- Media Fandom
- Employability: Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- Red Penned: Censorship and Resistance in Contemporary Arts Activism
- Media and Sexuality
- Film, Media and Cultural Theory
- War, Politics and Propaganda II
- Reporting Science, the Environment and Health
- Media Law Year 2
Year Three
Year three consists of an optional dissertation, one core module and a choice of elective modules allowing you to specialise in your areas of interest. While a number of these will be based on a lecture/workshop format, the range of teaching methods will be more diverse and involve assignments of greater complexity and challenge.
You will conduct independent research and apply theoretical ideas and approaches to practical and/or analytical work.
Optional Modules for Year Three
- Dissertation
- Mediating Childhood
- East Meets West in Film and Popular Culture
- Media, Racism, Conflict
- Spin Unspun: Public Relations and The News Media
- The Creative and Cultural Industries
- Sport and the Media
- Searching for the Truth
- Who's Story Communications Wales
- Feminism and Television History
- The Cultural Politics of Contemporary Hollywood
- Popular Music, Media, & Culture
- Understanding Digital Society through Black Mirror
- Immersive Media
- Screening Locations
- (Me) me, Myself and I: The Power and Politics of Digital Remix Culture and Online Inequalities
- Clothing Matters: Global Fashion Cultures and Politics
How will I be Assessed?
A number of modules involve formative methods of assessment. These usually involve the production of proposals for research-based essays (including the dissertation), allowing module tutors the opportunity to provide feedback before they embark on more substantial pieces of written work or other projects. In some cases, formative assignments will have a summative element, and form part of the overall assessment.
The School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies guarantees that for assessed work:
- The marking criteria will be clearly displayed
- You will receive detailed typed written comments on your text
- You will receive prompt feedback and all assessed work will be returned to you within four weeks
- The feedback will be explanatory and worded to help you improve
- Where necessary we will meet you individually to ensure you understand the feedback
What Skills will I Practise and Develop?
You will acquire and develop a range of valuable skills, both discipline-specific and more generic ‘employability skills’, which will allow you to:
- Read, analyse and synthesise complex academic texts
- Analyse different media texts, including words, images and sound
- Communicate clearly, concisely and persuasively in writing and speech
- Learn from constructive criticism and incorporate its insights
- Work both independently and as part of a team, developing a collaborative approach to problem-solving
- Carry out various forms of independent research for essays, projects, creative productions or dissertations
- Work to deadlines and priorities, managing a range of tasks at the same time
- Use IT programs and digital media, where appropriate
- Take responsibility for your own learning program and professional development
Our students have an excellent reputation for finding employment after they graduate and find their skills to be helpful in a range of communications and public relations roles.
They benefit from an ability to write copy quickly, effectively and for a specific audience. Our graduates often succeed in business due to their ability to structure coherent written and verbal arguments when pitching their business ideas.
Some of our graduates utilise their newfound knowledge of current affairs and world politics to pursue a career in journalism.
Because our undergraduate degrees do not provide journalism training or journalistic accreditation, many chose to progress on to our Masters's courses, such as broadcast, magazine, news or computational journalism, to gain their practical training. Find out more about careers and employability.
In fact, you will gain skills applicable to a range of modern media-driven jobs, recent career pathways and roles have included:
- TV Production – Producer and researcher
- Advertising – Copywriter and campaign manager
- Public Relations – Account manager and writer
- Teaching – Various disciplines
- Journalism – Local reporter and blogger
- Movie Production – Writer and producer
- Publishing – Writer and copy editor
- Communications – Press/communications officer