BA (Hons) Digital Communications & Social Media

All of our students at Richmond graduate with both a UK and US degree, opening up international opportunities. Like our other undergraduate programs, this BA is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which offers a multi-disciplinary approach. That’s why your first and second year will include Visual Thinking and Narratives of Change, as well as Visual Culture and Advertising Practice.

Choose from a range of electives which offer you the option to specialise: such as Sociology, Mass Media and Communications, and Research and Writing.

Your journey on this program will continue in the third and fourth year, as you study such courses as Mass Communications and Society, Creating Digital Images, Coding and Social Research (developing your research skills), providing valuable knowledge essential for any digital campaign.

This program also has a high practical content as you develop skills in New Media and Web Design, providing an understanding and application of key production processes and professional practices relevant to social media, cultural and communication industries.

Year 1

Modules

• Foundations in Photography
• Foundations in Media Production: Sonic Media

Plus one of the following:

• Foundations of Mass Media & Communications
• Foundations of Sociology
• Tools for Change
• Research and Writing I

Plus one of the following:

• Visual Thinking
• Narratives of Change

Year 2

Modules

• Introduction to Visual Culture
• Digital Society
• Introduction to Advertising Practice
• Coding, Content and Context I
• Data Analysis for Social Media
• Social Change in Practice
• Advertising, PR and the Media
• Research and Writing II

Year 3

Modules

• Principles of Advertising and PR
• Mass Communications and Society
• Creating Digital Images
• Coding, Content and Context 2
• Social Research

Plus one of the following:

• Video Production
• Cultural Theory
• Communications for PR and Advertising
• Celebrity, Fan Cultures, and the Media
• Principles of Marketing

Plus one of the following:

• Service Learning: Digital Collaboration
• Service Learning: Leadership in a Changing World
• Service Learning: Environment and Society
• Service Learning: Global Citizenship and Migration

Year 4

Modules

• Web Design
• New Media
• Advertising and PR campaigns
• Senior Project

Plus one of the following:

• Photojournalism
• New Media and Visual Power
• Advanced Digital Video
• From Script to Screen
• Digital Marketing and Social Media

• Gain all the digital skills you will need for any workplace or career, from building your own personal brand to a digital role in a large organisation
• Combine breadth of approach with opportunity to specialise in area of digital communication which interests you the most
• Benefit from the teaching of our renowned academics and guest lecturers
• Gain vital work experience through an internship in a digital role internationally or in London, a hub of the global media communications industry
• Develop strong communication skills in small classes within an international environment, alongside students from all over the world