ºÚÁÏÍø

Key facts

Typical offer

UCAS points:

104


A Level:

BCC


BTEC:

DMM


Contextual Offer:

Minimum of one to two grade reduction from our typical offer. Full details at dmu.ac.uk/contextual

Key facts

Duration:

3 yrs full-time, 4 yrs with placement


Study mode:

Full-time


UCAS code:

P300


Institution code:

D26

Typical offer

UCAS points:

104


A Level:

BCC


BTEC:

DMM


Contextual Offer:

Minimum of one to two grade reduction from our typical offer. Full details at dmu.ac.uk/contextual

UCAS code

P300

Duration

Three years full-time, four years with placement

Study mode

Full-time

ºÚÁÏÍø is one of the few universities where you’ll benefit from a unique block teaching approach.

Enhance your studies and broaden your horizons, and develop new skills with our international experience programme, ºÚÁÏÍø Global.

We offer more than a degree — every course is designed with employability and real-world experience at its core.

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.

  • Designed with your employability in mind, this course includes modules focusing on media industries, digital cultures and new media.
  • Select a route through this degree in Creative Writing, Drama, English Literature, Film Studies, History or Journalism. These carefully chosen routes will complement and enrich your understanding of your main subject, alongside broadening your skillset to give you a wider range of career paths upon graduation.
  • 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.
  • Benefit from our close links with local media partners including BBC Radio Leicester, Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, and community media organisations.
  • Gain valuable international experience as part of your studies with our ºÚÁÏÍø Global programme. Previous Media and Communication students have immersed themselves in Hollywood’s fan culture, learned about Berlin’s fascinating media history and explored TV archives in New York.

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Join us in 31 days and 10 hours.

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What you will study

Block 1: Media: Identities and Representations

This module considers the role the media play in our understanding of cultural identities. It examines the social and textual construction of intersecting identities (gender, sexuality; class; race; age, ethnicity and ability) through the analysis of specific media examples drawn from advertising, television, film and social media.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, utilising lectures, seminars and workshops over each week.  

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

Block 2: Media Industries

A key theme of this module is the increasing globalization of the contemporary media and communication industries. The module will therefore also examine the key characteristics of the global trade in media content, as well as the general interplay between the local and the global in the making of communications policy.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, made up of lectures, seminars and tutorial sessions over each week.  

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

Block 3: Choice of modules

Media, Culture and Society

Introduces students to the broad range of key concepts, debates, and skills necessary to undertake further study in Media and Communication. It will consider a range of approaches to the study of media, culture, and society, particularly focusing on the identification and interrogation of key theoretical models of analysis, and socio-cultural contexts in which contemporary media operate on a domestic and global scale.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, in a mix of weekly lectures, seminars, tutorials and workshops.  

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

OR you can select to study one route module from the list below:

Film Studies: Disney, Warner Bros and the Film Studio

Journalism: Understanding Journalism

Creative Writing: Writers Salon

English Literature: Introduction to Drama: Shakespeare

History: Global Cities

Drama: Shifting Stages

Block 4: New Media: Website Design and Coding

Delivered mainly in the form of computer workshops and designed to develop skills and an approach of innovative and exploration, students will be working creatively and practically using advanced software and multimedia techniques.  Practical work will be set against a background of an understanding of theoretical context, and there will be an emphasis on students undertaking work which has a creative approach.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time. Teaching takes the form of lab sessions throughout each week.  

  • Studio/lab: 90 hours
  • Self-directed study: 150 hours
  • Assessment: 60 hours

Block 1: Digital Cultures

Introduces the academic study of digital cultures, focusing on videogames and associated phenomena such as social media and live-streaming. This module will give students some background, as well as methodologies, to reflect critically on recent changes in media, technology, and society.

This is a block delivery module made up of lectures, seminars and tutorials which run over seven weeks of teaching time. 

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

Block 2: Streaming Cultures OR New Media: Creative Project

Streaming Cultures

Provides an overview of the cultural significance of online television streaming platforms. Its structure coalesces around Netflix as key platform driving the industry and traces the historic origins of the emergence and current cultural dominance of streaming television.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, with a mix of lectures, seminars and tutorials over each week.  

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

OR

New Media: Creative Project

This module is predominantly practical and enables students to become familiar with the ways in which they may apply their understanding of this new field by proposing, prototyping and carrying through to successful delivery of a significant piece of work utilising new media. 

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time with the following delivery pattern:

  • Studio/lab: 90 hours
  • Self-directed study: 150 hours
  • Assessment: 60 hours 

Block 3: Choice of modules

Global Subcultures and Music

Introduce, develop and showcase key examples from current global subculture research. This principle aim is to showcase current research in this area while factoring in the notion of global digital subcultural networks and the diffusion of subcultural norms, values and practices across the world.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time. It is delivered in a mix of weekly lectures, seminars and tutorials.  

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

OR

Public Relations and Strategic Communication

This module introduces to students the concepts and debates that underpin both the practice and the academic discipline of public relations. Students will be introduced to the different strands of public relations, the industry structures and the tools used by practitioners to engage with their audiences.  

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time with the following delivery pattern:

  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Workshop: 20 hours
  • Self-directed study: 150 hours
  • Assessment: 100 hours

OR continue with the route selected in the first year:

Film Studies: Screen Archives

Journalism: Beyond News

Creative Writing: Story Craft

English Literature: Digital Humanities

History: Humans and the Natural World

Drama: Theatre Revolutions

Block 4: Researching Media and Communication

The purpose of this module is to introduce students to key theories and approaches to researching media and communication and provide the practical skills needed to undertake the major independent research project offered in their final year – the core/compulsory Dissertation. 

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time with the following delivery pattern:

  • Lecture: 18 hours
  • Seminar: 30 hours
  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 30 hours
  • Self-directed study: 130 hours
  • Assessment: 62 hours

Block 1: Global Communications and Strategic Advertising Management OR Media Discourse: Global Events

Global Communications and Strategic Advertising Management

This 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.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time in a mix of weekly tutorials and workshops.  

  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Workshop 30 hours
  • Self-directed study 140 hours
  • Assessment 100 hours

OR

Media Discourse: Global Events

Devoted to the study of a highly visible phenomenon - the persistent mediated appearance of global social/protest movements. The module will address the growth and impact of these eruptions, 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.  

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, with a mix of lectures and workshops over each week.  

  • Lecture 18 hours
  • Seminar 30 hours
  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Workshop 30 hours
  • Self-directed study 130 hours
  • Assessment 62 hours

Block 2: Writing for the Screen OR Paranormal Media

Writing for the Screen

Offers students the opportunity to receive professional training and practical guidance from industry practitioners on techniques of creative scriptwriting for television and film. The module will begin by outlining the fundamentals of good storytelling and of successful script presentation before providing a comprehensive survey of different modes and methods of scriptwriting across both television and film.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, using a mix of lectures, seminars and extended workshops, as well as smaller tutorials over each week.

  • Lecture 18 hours
  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Studio/lab 60 hours
  • Self-directed study 130 hours
  • Assessment 62 hours

OR

Paranormal Media

Applies a range of existing, key debates and methodologies within media and communication to the growing, popular genre of Paranormal Media.  Students will critically examine a competing range of histories of production, policy, content and develop discussion/scholarship skills regarding key established theoretical debates around rational scepticism versus irrationality/ambiguity, and internet discourse/representations of the paranormal. 

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, with a mix of lectures, seminars and tutorials each week.  

  • Lecture 18 hours
  • Seminar 30 hours
  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Self-directed study 130 hours
  • Assessment 62 hours

Block 3: Choice of modules

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: the political economy of media and sport, the relationship between sport, media and identity formations based on gender, race and nation, and the consumption of sport and the role of audiences in the communication process. 

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, utilising lectures, seminars and tutorials over each week.  

  • Lecture 18 hours
  • Seminar 30 hours
  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Workshop 30 hours
  • Self-directed study 130 hours
  • Assessment 62 hours

OR

Gender and TV Fictions

What have women/those who identify as women contributed to the production of television drama and sitcom? This module explores British feminine-gendered fiction from the 1960s to the contemporary period. Taking an historical approach, this module contextualises key shifts to women’s positioning on both sides of the television screen in relation to broader cultural, economic, social and industrial change.

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, with a mix of lectures, seminars, tutorials and workshops over each week.  

  • Lecture 18 hours
  • Seminar 30 hours
  • Tutorial 30 hours
  • Workshop 30 hours
  • Self-directed study 130 hours
  • Assessment 62 hours

OR continue with the study route selected in the first and second year:

Film Studies: British Cinema

Journalism: Music, Film and Entertainment Journalism

Creative Writing: Creative Misbehaviour

English Literature: World Englishes

History: The World on Display

Drama: Performance, Identity and Society

Block 4: Dissertation

The dissertation offers students the opportunity to define and explore in some depth a topic of their own choice. They will also develop the skill of managing their own project as well as competence in the extended application of the methodologies of their own subject discipline.  

This is a block delivery module, which runs over seven weeks of teaching time, and is self-directed, with developmental workshops and tutorials.  

  • Tutorial: 30 hours
  • Workshop: 20 hours
  • Self-directed study: 150 hours
  • Assessment: 100 hours

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.

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Our facilities

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.

Digital Technology Learning Hub

As part of the Digital Technology learning hub, we have invested heavily in our facilities. You will benefit from industry-standard TV and broadcasting equipment, ensuring you gain hands-on experience in a professional setting. All workshops, labs, and studios are supported by expert technicians and academics, providing guidance to help refine your skills and prepare you for the industry.

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What makes us special

Students looking over a city from a balcony

ºÚÁÏÍø Global

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

Through , 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.

Where we could take you

Students in a radio broadcast studio

Placements

Work placements are offered as part of this course through ºÚÁÏÍø 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 ºÚÁÏÍø have taken part in work experience placements at a number of local and national companies, including ºÚÁÏÍø, 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.

Students at the Careers Hub

Graduate careers

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

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.

Course specifications

Course title

Media and Communications

Award

BA (Hons)

UCAS code

P300

Institution code

D26

Study level

Undergraduate

Study mode

Full-time

Start date

September

Duration

Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees

2026/27 UK tuition fees:
£9,535

2025/26 international tuition:
£16,250

Entry requirements

Typical offer

UCAS points:

104


A Level:

BCC


BTEC Extended Diploma:

DMM


Contextual Offer:

ºÚÁÏÍø operates a generous contextual offer for students from underrepresented backgrounds in Higher Education.

This is a minimum of one to two grade reduction from our typical offer and full details including eligibility criteria can be found at dmu.ac.uk/contextual


T Levels:

Merit


Access to HE:

Pass with 30 Level 3 credits at Merit


International Baccalaureate (IB):

24


GCSEs:

5 x GCSEs at grade 4/C or above including English and Maths


English language requirements

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.

Interview and portfolio

Interview required: No

Portfolio required: No