Awards

Target Award

Award Description:Bachelor of Arts with Honours - BAH
Alternative Exit
Alternative Exit
Alternative Exit

Programme Offerings

Full-Time

F2F-JMU-SEP

Educational Aims of the Course

To provide an intellectually challenging programme that encourages students to reflect critically on media texts, institutions, communication practices and the cultures in which they are produced and circulated. To deliver an academic programme that focuses on key analytical and critical issues in the relationship between media, culture and communication. To develop subject knowledge and transferable skills sensitive to the changing needs of the communication, media and cultural industries which provides the basis for students to pursue a variety of careers. To support students' learning through diverse teaching and assessment practices; underpinned by staff development and research informed teaching. To develop knowledge of the ways in which individual and collective identities are constructed and contested through engagements with media, culture and communication. To show insight into the range of ethical issues and value judgements arising from the complexity and diversity of contemporary media, cultural and communication practices. To encourage students to engage with employability skills by completing a self-awareness statement.

Learning Outcomes

1.
Engage with theoretical, historical and critical debates in the field of Media, Culture & Communication.
2.
Communicate the consideration and evaluation of their own work in a reflexive manner with reference to academic debates and personal development.
3.
Synthesise information, conceptual ideas, critical perspectives and contextual insight.
4.
Formulate and investigate problems/issues.
5.
Analyse, interpret and apply major theories and concepts in the study of media and cultural texts, practices and industries.
6.
Identify a range of research strategies and methods and assess their relative merits.
7.
Design, carry out and present various forms of research.
8.
Apply key methods and concepts for the purpose of media, communication and cultural analysis.
9.
Evaluate and draw upon a range of sources and appropriate conceptual frameworks in carrying out independent study.
10.
Critically appraise popular understanding of debates in the field of media, culture & communication.
11.
Critically evaluate the texts and practices of the media, communication and cultural industries.
12.
Communicate effectively findings about the variety of media forms, cultural practices and industrial contexts in which texts are produced, disseminated and received.
13.
Produce work which demonstrates an understanding of media forms and structures, audiences and specific communication registers.
14.
Approach tasks in a flexible, independent and disciplined manner.
15.
Undertake critical research: formulate a topic; gather, organise and make use of ideas and information in order to formulate arguments; express them effectively in written, oral, electronic and other forms.
16.
Demonstrate skills of self-organisation, time management, the ability for self-reflection and self-improvement.
17.
Collaborate with others to achieve collective goals.
18.
Use ICT and traditional methods for the retrieval and presentation of information (word processing, spreadsheets etc.).
19.
Communicate ideas verbally in an effective and fluent manner.
20.
Communicate ideas coherently in written form, utilising appropriate academic form.
21.
Develop Graduate Skills (e.g. the exercise of initiative, personal responsibility, decision-making, problem-solving and the ability to pursue further training) necessary for future employment.
22.
Demonstrate a critical understanding of the nature of differentiated access, participation and modes of representation in media and cultural texts.
23.
Appreciate the development of communication forms and their role in social change.
24.
Critically evaluate media and cultural consumption and their role in identity formation.
25.
Apply appropriate methods of enquiry to investigate how media, culture and communication policies are devised and implemented and the ways in which citizens and cultural communities can play a part in shaping them.
26.
Critically engage with theoretical perspectives and be able to apply them.
27.
Examine forms of media, culture and communication with reference to social contexts, interactions and processes differentiated by media and cultural participation and the relations of social and political power.
28.
Analyse media, communication and cultural forms and demonstrate critical judgement in their evaluation.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Media, Culture, Communication is a single honours programme which acknowledges the interdisciplinary nature of its subject area but takes an integrated approach to the consideration of theoretical, historical and critical debates on media, communication and culture. Students are introduced to formal methods of analysis and a range of conceptual approaches appropriate to the study of media, culture and communication.  In addition they consider a broad range of professional issues related to media institutions, cultural practices and communications processes. At L4 the programme focuses on establishing academic literacy and introducing students to the broad range of topics covered. All modules are core. Students study 4100MEDCUL Studying Culture, 4101MEDCUL Media Texts, 4106MEDCUL Communicating Politics and Protest, 4103MEDCUL Media Institutions and Audiences, 4105MEDCUL Professional Writing and 4105MEDCUL Introduction to Media and Cultural Industries, which is the level 4 work-related learning module, designed to develop  early awareness of potential careers in the media, culture and communication industries. Students will be asked to critically reflect upon their production of practical work and their response to and use of different genres of both professional and academic writing. Students will be expected to conform to the requirements of a range of assessment briefs and tasks throughout level 4. 4101MEDCUL Media Texts has a particular focus on fostering the development of academic literacy. L5 concentrates on developing research skills and critical perspectives. Modules in semester one are all core. These are: 5100MEDCUL Public Communication, 5101MEDCUL Analysing Entertainment Media and 5102MEDCUL Research Methods. In semester two 5103MEDCUL Media and Cultural Theory is core and then students can choose two from three optional 20 credit modules: 5104MEDCUL Public Relations, 5105MEDCUL Popular Journalism, 5109MEDCUL Mediating Popular Culture. Modules at L5 focus on the application of knowledge and the production of independent analysis in response to assessment tasks. The modules are structured in relation to case studies and aim to develop students' ability to analyse and solve research, communication and professional problems taking into consideration innovations in the study of media, culture and communication. The modules examine different media forms, cultural practices and professional and persuasive communications. 5100MEDCUL Public Communication is a work related learning module which involves students work on a group campaign pitch for an external client. The optional Public Relations and Popular Journalism modules are also important to the programme’s work-related and employability agenda. L6 provides students with the opportunity to pursue more specialist interests, both through their choice of yearlong  independent study and research module or through the taught core and option modules they undertake. Students will either take a yearlong academic research option, 6100MEDCUL Dissertation, or a yearlong work-based learning module, 6119MEDCUL Media and Cultural Industries. At L6 students will study the following core modules: 6103MEDCUL Culture and Identity and 6104MEDCUL Media Policy and Regulation. The programme offers students the opportunity to examine theoretical and practice-based issues in more detail, through option modules such as 6108MEDCUL Consumer Culture, 6109MEDCUL Digital Writing, 6117MEDCUL Screen Media, 6110MEDCUL Popular Fiction and Publishing, 6116MEDCUL Social and Digital Media, 6106SOC Sport, Crime and Society and 6118MEDCUL Britain, Brexit, Europe and the Media. These modules will enable them to develop a critical understanding of research perspectives, industrial contexts and contemporary media forms and practices. Teaching and learning includes both formal and interactive lectures and seminars which provide opportunities to present, discuss and reflect upon ideas and case studies.

Opportunities for work related learning

The programme offers students the opportunity for WRL at level 4 in the core module 4105MEDCUL Introduction to Media and Cultural Industries where students are introduced to a range of practices and practitioners related to the media, culture and communication industries. At level 5 the assessment for the core module 5100MEDCUL Public Communication requires students to respond to a brief for a public information campaign created by a partner from the media, cultural and communication industries or the public sector and to prepare and evaluate a practical portfolio of persuasive communication. In addition, 5104MEDCUL Public Relations and 5105MEDCUL Popular Journalism offer students the opportunity to practice and reflect upon work-related skills, particularly in relation to communicating and assessing the needs of a variety of audiences. At level 6 students may take the work based learning option 6119MEDCUL Media and Cultural Industries. The module gives students the opportunity to undertake a combination of placement and career planning activity in order to enhance their employability.

Programme Structure

Programme Structure Description

Level 4 students undertake 120 credits of core modules: 4100MEDCUL, 4101MEDCUL, 4103MEDUL, 4104MEDCUL, 4105MEDCUL, 4106MEDCUL. Level 5 students will undertake 80 credits of core modules: 5100MEDCUL, 5101MEDCUL, 5102MEDCUL, and 5103MEDCUL. Their remaining 40 credits at level 5 will be taken from the following 20 credit option modules: 5104MEDCUL, 5105MEDCUL, 5109MEDCUL. … For more content click the Read More button below.

Structure

Entry Requirements

A levels
Alternative qualifications considered
BTECs
International Baccalaureate
Other international requirements

HECoS Code(s)

(CAH24-01) media, journalism and communications