Introduces key reporting skills on multimedia platforms including digital, print and social media.

This is a block delivery module that includes workshops, covering practical journalism topics, with tutorials and revision sessions as required. 

This module examines how media shapes cultural identities across gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ethnicity and ability. Through advertising, film, television and social media, you’ll explore who is represented, how, and by whom, while considering how new media challenge these portrayals.

You will gain skills in analysis, communication, and critical engagement, with debates on identity and representation.

What are today’s major global challenges?

• Inequality and poverty
• Sustainable development
• Climate change and environmental crisis
• Rise of authoritarianism
• Rights struggles
• Transnational social justice movements

This module introduces the drivers of challenges, from colonialism and colonial legacies, racial hierarchies and the role of state.

You will learn about different contemporary challenges, as well as constraints and opportunities for their resolution.

This module looks at the way the world has evolved throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first by focusing upon specific events such as the First and Second World Wars, the collapse of European empires, and revolutions in Europe.

You will also explore key ideologies and themes related to rise of extremism and terrorism, socialism, capitalism, genocide, and the development of new world order through the spread and clash of civilisations and globalisation.

Choose one of the following:

Media Audience and Psychology

This module critically considers the cultural ramifications and consequences of digital media consumption and communication across a range of audience demographics such as race, gender, ethnicity, social class, geography, and subcultures/fandoms.

Global Cold War

In this module you will look at the history of the Cold War in a global context, exploring the roots of the war and how it played out in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

The course deals with a variety of topics including sport and diplomacy, the nuclear arms race, the space race, and culture and society in the Cold War era. It also addresses the competing interpretations of the Cold War by scholars and practitioners and assesses the global legacy of the conflict.

Theories of Politics and International Relations

The world is made up of ideas. Brexit hinged on a narrative of sovereignty, yet people disagreed on what sovereignty meant. Equality is the watchword of many political movements, but what are the different types of equality and which ones do we prioritise?

You will learn to think analytically, critically, and creatively about the principles and ideas that lie behind our laws, politics, structures, systems and institutions.

Choose one of the following:

Digital Cultures and AI

This module explores the changing patterns of communication brought about by digital media (including social media, videogames and AI) and examines the creative and commercial aspects of digital cultures.

You will examine social media and influencer cultures and new patterns of content and consumption, and the social and economic significance of the videogame industry.

This module also focuses on the creative and persuasive patterns in the media spaces of entertainment, community and commerce.

Beyond News

Move beyond traditional news reporting to study constructive journalism theories. The module will develop your ability to write interesting first-person opinion columns and reviews.

Choose one of the following:

Migration, Multiculturalism and Racism

This module will examine the centrality of migration, multiculturalism and racism in the development of the modern world.

Focusing mainly on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the module will tackle themes such as theories and criticisms of:

• the concept of multiculturalism
• histories and experiences of migration
• theories of diaspora
• the social and economic status of minorities
• the ways in which ethnic, racial, migrant, religious or other types of minorities interact with the dominant society and culture
• the representation of these experiences in sports and visual culture.

Security, Conflict, Peace

Security is considered as a human need operating at varying levels of analysis – global, international, regional, national, societal and individual – with each having a set of specific concerns.

The module explores the transformation of war in the contemporary era due to the disintegration of the state’s monopoly on organised political violence.

On the module, you will examine a diverse assortment of conflict constellations, including civil wars, counterinsurgencies and counterterrorist campaigns, along with information, cyber and hybrid warfare.

What is the relationship between changes in military technology and the way particular wars are fought and justified, or conflicts managed and pacified?

How do we measure violence and conflict?

Who has a responsibility to protect, and for whom are peace and security for?

‘Humanising security’ is also considered on the module.

Choose one of the following:

Political Research in Action

This module introduces the approaches and methods that shape the creation of empirical knowledge in politics and international relations.

The module provides students with an up-to-date understanding of research methods, and the ways these methods are applied in contemporary politics and international relations research. It teaches students practical skills in research methods that can be applied in their future academic and professional work, thereby enhancing their employability.

Investigating the Past: Research Projects Methods in History

The module will examine core themes in history and the sources/methods associated with them. The methodologies studied will then be adapted to a personal research project, which will lead to the Level 6 dissertation. Study of sources may include:

• Maps
• Economic data
• Census
• National and local government records
• Diplomatic and military records
• Press and media
• Records of education, health, poverty/charity and criminality
• Church and religious history
• Oral history
• Visual sources.

There will be visits to archives and relevant research depositories.

Choose one from the following:

Media Discourse: Global Power

This module starts from the theory that power in the social order is exercised at a number of levels, from the individual ability to express opinions through speech, to the structural power of State, Corporate, and Transnational systems.

The use of power to achieve collective goals is evident everywhere from the classroom to national parliaments. It can be exercised openly or in secret, but the central issue in analysing its effects is to ask who benefits from its application.

You will study the global hierarchies of power as they appear in case studies that highlight public and private authority, together with material on the irrepressible appearance of global protest movements.

American Politics

This module takes a thematic approach to the study of politics across the Americas, offering a political, historical, social, cultural and international focus, which enables you to engage and consider government and the governed from a range of perspectives.

It seeks to challenge US perceptions of the continent, by drawing on aspects of trans-continental relations as well as UK relations across the Americas.

From bureaucratic corridors of power to activism and street protests, all levels of political participation are discussed. You are encouraged to consider different and sometimes conflicting participants in the political process: from national leadership at times of foreign policy crisis, to subregional political coalitions, to grassroots and international activism.

This module will provide you with useful expertise in international politics and develop a set of key research and presentation skills that will be applicable in your future career.

Choose one from the following:

Empire and its Aftermath

This module introduces you to the history of independence movements and the creation of new nation-states. Case studies will be used from South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South America.

It will explore different events in the decolonization processes across time. The module also explores the relationships between ideologies and resistance against imperial rule, as well as post-colonial conflicts in nation-building and the social and economic legacies of imperial rule in the post-colonial world.

You will develop an understanding of the key factors instrumental in developing post-independence relations of neo-colonialism in post-colonial nation-states as a historical unit of analysis in the context of global politics.

The module will further introduce you to relevant historiographical approaches such as post-colonialism and Subaltern Studies.

Decolonising Politics

This module explores how historical empires and colonialism continue to shape modern global politics, power structures, and societal inequalities. It focuses on the lived experiences of marginalised groups within contemporary diverse societies, using critical academic frameworks to analyse these dynamics.

Additionally, the module invites you to develop critical understandings of the ways in which colonial legacies impact political representation of minorities and policies around minoritised communities across a range of political settings, both at the structural and interpersonal level.

The module links to DMU initiatives such as Decolonising DMU, EDI groups and the extracurricular student-led anti-racist reading group. The module will afford you the opportunity to speak with leading scholarly experts and practitioners in the field of decolonising politics.

Choose one from the following:

Global Capitalism

This module examines global capitalism as the dominant socio-economic system shaping contemporary societies across the world.

It situates the historical development of global capitalism within a broad, comparative context, drawing on global histories and engaging with debates that challenge Eurocentric interpretations. Particular attention is given to the uneven and diverse trajectories through which capitalist development has unfolded across different regions and periods.

You will engage with major theoretical approaches used to analyse and critique capitalism, including Liberalism, Statism, Marxism, Feminism, Postcolonialism and Anti-racism. These perspectives inform the exploration of a range of key issues and debates surrounding global capitalism today.

Podcasting and Photojournalism

Introduces the essentials of producing a podcast: the branding, style, hosting opportunities, marketing, and audio production. The module also explores the theories and practices of photojournalism and visual culture to address the key issues of our global contemporary society.

This module enables you to consolidate your skills and knowledge development through a significant piece of independent work. It places emphasis on the application of research methods and learning developed throughout your studies, enabling you to independently further your own knowledge and practice.

You will select either a written or creative industries practice-based project in a topic of your choosing, with one-to-one support from an allocated tutor.