Programme overview
Why choose this programme?
How media is made, who makes it, how it is consumed, and whose interests it serves are key questions you will explore in Media and Communication. These questions have significant implications for which stories and voices are prioritised and which are overlooked in the world you live in. In a media landscape that’s constantly evolving, and where media is accessible everywhere, these questions become even more important for those wanting to understand the media and those aiming to work in it. The transferable, critical, and technical skills you’ll gain during the course will prepare you for post-graduate study, work in the media industry, and many other sectors.
About foundation courses
This four-year programme has been specifically designed to allow students who do not initially meet the entry requirements for a three-year degree, to undertake additional level 3 study designed to ensure they are successful on their chosen degree programme.
After successful completion of your foundation year, you will have the flexibility to switch (should you wish to change direction) onto several related undergraduate Media degree programmes.
What's covered in this course?
You’ll be given the space and freedom to explore and develop your own research and professional interests, allowing you to build confidence and establish a clear focus for your next steps. You’ll learn how the media industries construct and depict stories and the impact this has on our understanding of media production practices, representation, identity, and culture. You will understand how audiences engage with these stories, how they interpret them, and why they do so.
Alongside these critical skills, you will also develop technical skills across a broad range of media forms, including television, radio, photography, and digital. You won’t learn these skills in isolation instead, you’ll be encouraged to combine research and production skills, using your own media content creation to explore these issues creatively. Through your work, you’ll address current societal issues, emergent media forms and platforms, and critically consider the history, present, and future of the media industry.
This course will equip you to explore and challenge intersections within the media, to ask and answer questions about why the media is the way it is, and to have the confidence and ambition to experiment with media forms. You’ll be empowered to create innovative and responsible media texts that speak to diverse audiences.
Why Choose Us?
- Top 20 in the UK for Media and Film Studies (Guardian League Tables 2024)
- Flexibility to opt for a general study of Media and Communication, or a specialist route in radio, television, web and new media, journalism, event and exhibition industries, music industries or public relations
- Specialised, sophisticated equipment for every area in our city centre campus, including six radio studios, four TV studios, one of the largest free-standing green screen in Europe, edit suites, music production studios and photography studios (including a half and a full infinity cove)
- Research-informed teaching, enabling you to critically engage with contemporary debates and innovations in theory/practice
- Huge range of guest speaker masterclasses. Past talks have included Jo Geary, UB40’s Brian Travers, Vogue fashion photographer Eliot Siegel and BSkyB’s Head of Production Services, Dave Rooke
- The course encourages you to take creative risks and be a ‘thinking’ media worker, and you will also have the opportunity to undertake two (or more) industry placements
Enhancing your employability skills
Our track record for graduate employment is excellent, with the majority of graduates going into a media-related role. Each course opens up specific employability avenues related to the production route chosen. A high number of graduates have gone into producer/director roles, journalism, public relations, web development, freelance, and setting up their own businesses.
Placements
We strongly believe in the practical application of learning and are fortunate to have very strong links with employers and the media industry. Students on placements have worked with a wide range of organisations including the BBC, Maverick Television and Endemol.