Year One

Core Concepts in Media and Communication – an introduction to the broad range of key concepts, debates and skills necessary to undertake further study in Media and Communication. This will involve the identification and interrogation of key theoretical models of analysis and provision and social/cultural contexts in which contemporary media operate and exert influence on a domestic and global scale.

Media Cultures and Everyday Life – students will consider a range of approaches to the study of media cultures and everyday life. In particular the module will examine the notion of ‘culture’ as a range of mediatised practices, cultural institutions and media/cultural industries. The module covers the everyday significance of contemporary cultural and media forms, including visual/screen media, class and culture, media/cultural policy, online culture and celebrity culture. It also focuses upon the analysis of consumer culture, the social significance of phenomena such as music, fandom and advertising, and the distinction between popular/mass and high forms of culture.

Media Institutions: National and Global Perspectives –This module introduces students to the institutional and regulatory contexts in which the contemporary media operate, both in the UK and beyond. The module provides an overview of the institutional and social history of the media in a variety of different national contexts, and considers key issues and debates related to the organisation and regulation of the media, including: the regulation of media ownership and control; the role of public service broadcasting/media; the regulation of media content, and; the impact of media convergence on these debates. A key theme of this module is the increasing globalisation of the contemporary media and communication industries.

Photography and Video 1 – This module is delivered in two component parts photography and video production The photographic component of this module allows each student to develop an aesthetic awareness and understanding of the language of photography. The video component assumes no prior knowledge of video production.  It introduces students to the practical language and grammar of video production.

Year Two

Researching Media and Communication – introduces students to the main research and analytic traditions in media and cultural studies.  Particular emphasis is placed on enabling students to conduct and critique different research methodologies.

Television Studies –  introduces students to the practices of the television industry with a special emphasis on the relationship between television schedules and the types of programmes that fill them.

Media Discourse: Events – provides students with an opportunity to explore the ways in which Media texts and discourse function within contemporary culture.

New Media 1: Design and Production – builds on the understanding of the practical application of digital media gained in the first year module: Network Media.

Media, Gender and Identity – you will consider the role the media play in our understanding of ourselves and others as individuals and as social beings.

Global Subcultures – The past forty years has witnessed the global transmission of the cultural and media phenomena of subcultures. From Russian Skinheads, Indonesian Punks, Japanese Mods and Rockers, to hybridised versions of traditional forms of Western youth cultures, globalisation and cultural (digital) homogenisation has signalled a number of recent debates in the role and function of subcultures.  This module will introduce, develop and showcase key examples from current global subculture research.

Media Texts as Historical Sources – introduces students to the study of primary source material, produced in the past as evidence – specifically a British media source from 1920-1970. It might be, for example, a newspaper published in the 1920s, a women’s magazine from the 1930s, a documentary film from the 1940s, a work of art from the 1950s or a television programme from the 1960/70s.   The module will consider the methods for analysing different kinds of primary source materials and aim to study, and evaluate the source, using appropriate secondary sources.

Journalism 1 –  introduces students to the skills and competencies needed by the working journalist; equips them with a basic knowledge of the law as it impacts on that work and engages with some of the key theoretical issues of journalism.

Photography and Video 2 (The Documentary Image) – builds on the foundation gained in first year photography and video module to extend students’ practical and aesthetic knowledge of still and moving image production.

Public Relations 1 – Students will be introduced to the theory and practice of public relations as well as learning and applying industry-relevant skills.

Political Communication – investigates the interdependent and sometimes fractious relationship between politics and the media. It begins by introducing the key components of the political communication system (political actors, the media and citizens) and considering how different theoretical perspectives (such as the public sphere) can be used to analyse the media’s coverage of politics.

Year Three

Dissertation – The dissertation is a compulsory element in your Honours Degree, and is taken in your final year.

Audiences and Fandom – examines some of the main approaches to conceptualising media audience through the study and theoretical conceptualisation of audiences across different genres and media, and assesses its implications on self-identity as well as cultural, social and economic organisation.

Writing for the Screen – aims to offer students the opportunity to receive professional training and practical guidance from an industry practitioner on techniques of creative scriptwriting for television and film.

New Media 2: Creative Project – enables students who have an appreciation of the practical application and potential of networked new media to extend their understanding of the technologies and techniques involved in production and also explore the practical possibilities which they offer.

Public Relations 2 – Building upon students’ understanding of public relations developed in Public Relations 1, this module explores in greater depth key academic debates and issues surrounding the theory and practice of public relations (PR).

Global Advertising Practices – is a 15 Credit module devoted to the study of one of the central institutions of the contemporary world. The module will interrogate the basic marketing concepts and promotional strategies associated with advertising as a commercial and creative practice, introduced from an academic perspective and informed by critical theory, and delivered through assignments that bring together a mix of practical and theoretical enquiry.

Broadcast Journalism –  will introduce students to basic broadcast skills and develop their ‘story telling’ skills for two new platforms.  Students will develop skills and critical analysis around their own skills as broadcast journalists. Through a link-up with Demon FM, DMU/DSU’s community licence radio station, Journalism students will work prepare material to be broadcast on Demon FM.

Identities: Media, Power and Difference – will consider the production and representation of “identities” across a range of media platforms – from those produced by large corporations, to those created with a grass-roots DIY ethos.

Negotiated Project – Photography or Video – enables students to research, develop and produce an individual, in depth, creative, practical, photographic or video project.

Paranormal Media – applies a range of existing, key debates and methodologies within media and communication to the growing, popular genre of Paranormal Media.

Cybernetic Media – This module investigates contemporary digital media networks through the lens of the interdisciplinary science of cybernetics. In particular the module explores the importance of key cybernetic concepts such as communication, information, feedback, networks, cyborgs and modelling.

Film Exhibition and Consumption – introduces students to the study of film exhibition and consumption with the focus on: the spaces of film exhibition and consumption – cinemas and the home; the changing technologies of film exhibition and consumption – celluloid, video, digital and the Internet; the distribution of film – programming and marketing; and film exhibition and consumption as a social practice – how films are consumed.

Sport and Media – examines the interdependent relationship between sport and the media. Against the background of the increasingly globalized media and sports industries, the module focuses on three broad areas: i) the political economy of media and sport, including the buying, selling and regulation of media rights to sporting events and/or competitions; ii) the relationship between sport, media and identity formations based on gender, race and nation; and iii) the consumption of sport and the role of audiences in the communication process.

Sports Journalism –  will help students develop the writing of sports reports or sports news story. The module will incorporate behind-the-scenes trips to Leicester City, Leicester Tigers and Leicestershire County Cricket Club, and there will be the opportunity to cover a live match from the King Power Stadium press box. It will therefore heavily feature practical sports journalism skills and also offer students the opportunity to critically engage with all aspects of modern sports writing.

Global Dissent –  is a 15 Credit module devoted to the study of a highly visible (mediated) phenomenon   the re emergence global social/protest movements. The module will address the growth and impact of these eruptions (both within the context of economic ‚austerity’, and with reference to social, cultural and historical manifestations of dissent), paying particular attention to the use of traditional and social media forms to represent the goals of the protestors, and the process of individual and collective identification that accompanies this process.

Gender and TV Fictions – What have women contributed to the production of television drama and sitcom? How have women (at the level of gender, class, sexuality, race and age) been represented within these genres? These are key questions which this module addresses by exploring British feminine-gendered fiction from the 1960s to the contemporary period.

Facilities and features