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Media and Communication BA (Hons)

Dynamic and forward-focused, this degree course provides you with practical research skills and critical perspectives in media, television and cultural studies to set you up for a career in the industry.

Overview

The media and communication industry has a widespread influence on the world around us, and this degree course helps enable you to be a part of that revolution.

By studying both the theory and practice of media and communications, this course can equip you with the skills and insights required to be successful in the media environment.

This can enable you to progress into diverse careers in sectors such as PR, journalism, marketing, entertainment, international relations, politics and education.

A modern focus in the teaching of this course enables students to adapt to changes and developments in industry and proficiently use the most up-to-date technology. 

Key features:

  • Designed with your employability in mind, this course includes modules focusing on media culture, photography and video and television studies.
  • Gain valuable international experience as part of your studies with our DMU Global programme. Previous Media and Communication students have immersed themselves in Hollywood’s fan culture, learned about Berlin’s fascinating media history and explored 100 years’ worth of TV archives in New York.
  • Benefit from our close links with local media partners including BBC Radio Leicester, Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, and community media organisations.
  • Access a range of multimillion-pound facilities, including editing suites, TV studios, radio studios, dark rooms, blue and green screen studios and video production laboratories.
  • Our communication, cultural and media studies has been ranked joint first in the UK for the proportion of its research outputs, rated as world leading (4*) in the Research Excellence Framework 2014, the most recent evaluation of its kind.

 

More courses like this

Film Studies BA (Hons)

Media and Communication with Modern Languages BA (Hons)

Media Production BSc (Hons)

 

 

News

Media and Communication academic explains why period drama Bridgerton is winning the TV ratings war in lockdown

  • UK
  • EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: P300

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees and funding: 

2024/25 tuition fees for UK students: £9,250

Find out about additional costs and optional extras.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Book an Open Day

Submit a study-related enquiry

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: P300

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees and funding: 

2023/24 tuition fees for international students: £15,750

Find out more about available funding for international students.

Find out about additional costs and optional extras.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

  • Normally 104 UCAS points from at least two A-levels, or
  • BTEC National Diploma/ Extended Diploma at DMM 

Plus, five GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including English or equivalent.

Alternative qualifications include:

  • Pass in the QAA-accredited Access to HE with English GCSE required as a separate qualification

We will normally require students to have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

  • International Baccalaureate: 24+ points

Portfolio Required : No

Interview Required: No

Mature students

We welcome applications from mature students with non-standard qualifications and recognise all other equivalent and international qualifications.

English language

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential. English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

UCAS tariff information

Students applying for courses starting in September will be made offers based on the latest UCAS Tariff.

Contextual offer 

To make sure you get fair and equal access to higher education, when looking at your application, we consider more than just your grades. So if you are eligible, you may receive a contextual offer. Find our more about contextual offers.

 

 

Structure and assessment

 

Course modules

Teaching and assessments

Academic expertise 

 

 

Year one

  • Core Concepts in Media and Communication
  • Media Industries: National and Global Perspectives
  • Media Cultures and Everyday Life
  • Introduction to Photography & Video

Year two

  • Researching Media and Communication
  • TV Studies
  • Media Discourse: Events
  • Media, Gender and Identity
  • Streaming Cultures
  • Global Subcultures
  • Race & the Media
  • Public Relations
  • New Media Design and Production
  • Photography & Video 2: The Documentary Image

Year three

  • Dissertation
  • Sport and the Media
  • Paranormal Media
  • Future Media
  • Gender and TV Fictions
  • Global Advertising Practice
  • Audiences and Fandom
  • Global Dissent
  • International Public Relations 
  • Writing for the Screen
  • New Media 2: Creative Project
  • Negotiated Practice: Photography or Video

More detailed module information


Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Teaching

The course is taught both by academics whose research puts them at the forefront of contemporary knowledge and well-connected creative industry practitioners. 

Students are taught through a series of one, two or three-hour lectures, seminars/screenings and tutor supported workshops.  In addition students can also arrange one-to-one meetings with staff which enables you to receive personal or small-group support for assignments, to discuss career paths, or simply to develop topics discussed in class.

Assessed work will make demands on your academic, critical and creative skills and includes essays, analytical portfolios, scripts, news articles, online work, research tasks, presentations, and practical projects. Students may be required to work both individually and in teams and in doing so will build industry-relevant skills. The culmination of the course is the submission of either a dissertation or a negotiated project on the media-related subject of your choice.

Students have access to a full range of student support services including the Centre for Learning and Study Support (CLaSS) and a dedicated careers service.

On many modules there are regular visiting lecturers from both industry and relevant academic research fields.  You can also work on the university’s award winning Demon Media, which includes The Demon student newspaper, DemonFM and DemonTV.  There are also plenty of opportunities to get involved in media roles while at DMU whether as a press office for a sports team or university society or working in a media-focussed Frontrunner role where students carry out paid work within the university.

Assessment

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work and self-directed study. Assessment is through coursework (presentations, essays and reports) and usually an exam or test. Your precise timetable will depend on the optional modules you choose to take, however, you will normally attend around 15 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 15 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.

Creative and professional options are taught by vastly experienced former and current practitioners from the fields of public relations, web development and lobbying. All have excellent industry contacts and are keen to help students with their career ambitions.

 

Recent staff publications include Dr Paul Smith’s The Politics of Television Policy: The Introduction of Digital Television in Great Britain, Dr Helen Wood’s Talking with Television, Professor Tim O’ Sullivan’s The Cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph (with Alan Burton) and Dr Stuart Price’s Brute Reality: Power, Discourse, and the Mediation of War, Margaret Montgomerie’s Screen Fictions and Discourses of Disability: Dodgy Discourse and the Moral Low Ground Continuum and Dr Scott Davidson’s Going Grey: The Mediation of Politics in an Ageing Society.

All staff are active researchers and recent articles in academic journals include Simon Mills ‘Cultural Anxiety 2.0’ in Media, Culture and Society (with Dave Everitt) and Andrew Tolson’s co-authored article ‘Belligerent Broadcasting and Makeover Television: Professional Incivility in Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’ in the International Journal of Cultural Studies.

 

 

 

Facilities and features

 
Placements
Placements
 

Facilities and features

Teaching takes place in lecture and seminar rooms equipped with high-definition projection screens. Practical workshops are taught using the latest technology in our media labs equipped with Apple Mac Pro and iMac computers running on the latest operating software and with access to Adobe Creative Cloud.

Students can also use computer labs equipped with both Macs and PCs, plus there are fully equipped workspaces across the university for group and collaborative work.

Students on creative media modules have full access to a range of facilities including editing suites, TV studios, digital and analogue radio studios, dark rooms, multi-camera blue and green screen studios, video production labs designed for high-definition video extraction, high-definition editing, CGI, and DVD creation and mastering.

 

Library and learning zones

On campus, the main Kimberlin Library offers a space where you can work, study and access a vast range of print materials, with computer stations, laptops, plasma screens and assistive technology also available. 

As well as providing a physical space in which to work, we offer online tools to support your studies, and our extensive online collection of resources accessible from our Library website, e-books, specialised databases and electronic journals and films which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose. 

We will support you to confidently use a huge range of learning technologies, including the Virtual Learning Environment, Collaborate Ultra, DMU Replay, MS Teams, Turnitin and more. Alongside this, you can access LinkedIn Learning and learn how to use Microsoft 365, and study support software such as mind mapping and note-taking through our new Digital Student Skills Hub. 

The library staff offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching, reference management and assistive technology. There is also a ‘Just Ask’ service for help and advice, live LibChat, online workshops, tutorials and drop-ins available from our Learning Services, and weekly library live chat sessions that give you the chance to ask the library teams for help.

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Opportunities and careers

Find the people who will open doors for you

DMU's award-winning careers service provides guaranteed work experience opportunities DMU Careers Team
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Placements

Work placements are offered as part of this course through DMU Careers Team, and can boost your skills and experience while studying, as well as improving your chances of gaining a graduate level job.

We have links with organisations both in the UK and internationally, and the placements team will help you find a placement to suit your interests and aspirations.

Media and Communication students at DMU have taken part in work experience placements at a number of local and national companies, including DMU, HBO and Tempur Sealy International.

You can also gain valuable, industry-relevant experience by taking part in the Demon Media group, featuring The Demon magazine, Demon FM radio station, Demon TV and The Demon website. The Media and Communication Society, Film Society and Media Discourse Group also give the opportunity to add to your knowledge and experience.

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DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich studies, broaden cultural horizons and develop key skills valued by employers. 

Through DMU Global, we offer an exciting mix of overseas, on-campus and online international experiences, including the opportunity to study or work abroad for up to a year.

Media and Communications students visited the Paley Center for Media in New York which houses digital archives, with 150,000 pieces of video footage from as early as the 1940s and radio materials from as far back as the 1920s.

Students have also immersed themselves in fan culture, having visited internationally renowned fan convention WonderCon, and even met celebrities on the red carpet of a film premiere in Hollywood, California.

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Graduate careers

Media and Communications graduates have gone on to work for Cosmopolitan, the BBC, CBeebies, Mentorn Media. 

In addition, graduates have pursued careers in the public and private sectors and have gone on to work in advertising, SEO, TV production, journalism, independent media, film, teaching and public relations. These are all professions where knowledge of the media and good, critical communication skills are valued. 

Take your next steps

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