BA Media, Journalism and Culture
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
The overall aim of our Media, Journalism and Culture course is to equip you to become a well-informed citizen in a media-saturated society.
Our courses study the many facets of journalism, media, culture and communications, and consider in an era of globalisation and dynamic social change their impact on society, politics and popular culture. They provide you with job-specific skills such as research methods and optionally, journalistic practice as well as much broader transferable skills valuable to a range of sectors.
This degree begins from the assumption that in order to understand modern society, we need to understand the central role that media and the cultural industries play in that society.
While you will be able to take a limited number of more practical modules, the emphasis of the degree is academic and analytical.
You will join a stimulating intellectual environment committed to maximising your potential through personal development and career events. Many of our experienced lecturers are internationally recognised in their subject areas.
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, Journalism and Culture 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.
The modules shown are an example of the typical curriculum and will be reviewed prior to the 2025/2026 academic year. The final modules will be published by September 2025.
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.
Five 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
- Representations
- Wales: The Senedd, The Stories and Spin
Year Two
Two core and four optional modules are 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
- Media, Power and Society
- Doing Media Research: Approaches and Methods
Optional Modules for Year Two
- Media and Gender
- Mediation of Political Violence
- 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
- Media and Democracy
Year Three
The final year consists of an optional dissertation 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
- The Making and Shaping of News
- 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
- Communicating Causes
- Palu am y Gwir
- Stori Pwy. Cyfathrebu Cymru
- Reporting the World
- Media, Money and Markets
- 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
- Visual Communication and Design
- 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 programmes and digital media, where appropriate
- Take responsibility for your own learning programme and professional development
With a humanities degree, you’ll develop the transferable skills, digital literacies, and confidence to navigate whatever the future may hold. Following your passions and interests is a great start to any journey. Not only are our graduates successful in the jobs market after they leave us but, just as importantly, they find fulfilling careers driven by their enthusiasm and curiosity.
Our second-year Employability: Knowledge, Skills and Experience module will help you gain practical experience, create an effective career plan and compete in the graduate recruitment process.
The module is delivered in collaboration with Cardiff University’s highly experienced Careers and Employability service and will provide you with vital insights into the graduate labour market, with a particular focus on opportunities for graduates in the fields of journalism, media and culture.
Your Career Options
Our graduates go on to careers in a range of fields, demonstrating how a humanities degree offers the skills and flexibility to keep your options open throughout your working life. Career paths include:
- Advertising
- Communications
- Journalism
- Movie production
- Public relations
- Publishing
- Teaching
- TV production