Why study this course?
Taught by world-leading researchers with integrated media practice learning, this course allows you to gain a critical understanding of the role media play in social, economic, political and cultural life. You'll develop your expertise and practical skills in areas such as media, journalism, community radio, documentary making, advertising and social media.
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More about this course
Explore the relationship between the media and culture, identity and lifestyle, and globalisation with this degree. Combining media production and media analysis, you’ll study television, film, the internet, the press, popular music, social media and media audiences, as well as having the opportunity to develop your own media practice in photography, filmmaking and audio production.
This course will provide you with a critical understanding of the role media plays in social, economic, political and cultural life. You'll be taught by world-leading researchers and given presentations from industry experts and practitioners.
We organise regular lectures and presentations by industry experts and practitioners and educational visits to places like the London Film Festival and the British Board of Film Classification.
You can get a taste for life at our School of Computing and Digital Media by taking a look at our showcase of recent student work.
Assessment
You're assessed via essays, reports, poster presentations, creative media work, individual and group research projects, and a final dissertation with regular supportive feedback.
Fees and key information
Apply nowEntry requirements
In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:
- a minimum of grades BBC in three A levels (or a minimum of 112 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC National or Advanced Diploma)
- English Language GCSE at grade C/grade 4 or above (or equivalent)
Applications are welcome from mature students who have passed appropriate Access or other preparatory courses or have appropriate work experience.
Applications are welcome from mature students who have appropriate Access or preparatory courses or appropriate work experience, or those without formal qualifications who are able to demonstrate enthusiasm, commitment, and the ability to benefit from higher education.
If you don't have traditional qualifications or can't meet the entry requirements for this undergraduate degree, you may still be able to gain entry by completing our Media and Communications (including foundation year) BSc (Hons).
Accelerated study
If you have relevant qualifications or credit from a similar course it may be possible to enter this course at an advanced stage rather than beginning in the first year. Please note, advanced entry is only available for September start. See our information for students applying for advanced entry.
Accreditation of Prior Learning
Any university-level qualifications or relevant experience you gain prior to starting university could count towards your course at London Met. Find out more about applying for Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL).
English language requirements
To study a degree at London Met, you must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. If you require a Student visa you may need to provide the results of a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. This course requires you to meet our standard requirements
If you need (or wish) to improve your English before starting your degree, the University offers a Pre-sessional Academic English course to help you build your confidence and reach the level of English you require.
Modular structure
The modules listed below are for the academic year 2022/23 and represent the course modules at this time. Modules and module details (including, but not limited to, location and time) are subject to change over time.
Year 1 modules include:
- This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Thursday afternoon
- spring semester - Friday afternoon
This Level 4 module introduces students to debates around the use of digital media in work contexts. The module contextualises the understanding of digital media with reference to the history, theory and practice of digital media in the workplace, and the history, theory and practice of digital media careers. The module combines theory- based learning of the contexts and uses of digital media with practice-based learning around the use of social media in specific employability- oriented contexts.
This module aims to:
• Introduce students to a range of debates about the role of digital media in society and the workplace;
• Explore the ways in which digital media has transformed the nature of work and the development of careers;
• Encourage students to employ critical methods in the understanding of and analysis of digital media in workplace context and opportunities for developing digital and media careers;
• Encourage students to develop employability skills in relation to defined career goals particularly through using social media networking. - This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Wednesday morning
- summer studies - Friday afternoon
The module is an introduction to the field of digital media as an area of practice, as culture, and as a set of structures. It addresses a variety of issues ranging from digital politics to social networks, from memes and glitch to self-organization and free labour. The module provides a sound foundation to the history of new media technologies. It also introduces students to the current debates, including those of amateur vs. professional, grass-roots revolutions, and free and open source vs. proprietary software. It is a theory and practice based course, and along with engaging with abstract concepts we will explore software and network environments. The practice-based element of the module will enhance student’s digital literacy skills through exploring foundational elements of digital literacy including web searching, digital resources, and basic web design. This module aims to:
• Introduce students to digital media history and theory
• Develop a practical understanding of digital media technology
• Enable the students to critically evaluate key concepts and developments of digital media technology
• Develop students’ digital literacy skills and competencies - This module currently runs:
- all year (September start) - Monday morning
The module focuses on the role of genre in media production and consumption. Each delivery will explore two different genres, provide an introduction to the history of each, an overview of its conventions, a discussion of significant media texts within that genre, and opportunities for students to critically engage with genre texts. The module will address genre issues across a range of media forms, including film, television, radio, advertising, literature, mass publishing, and video games. The specific types of genre media addressed each year will change to reflect the changing media marketplace, and the changing critical tradition of media and cultural studies. Typical indicative genre forms covered by the module may include: science fiction, crime drama, heist movies, romantic comedies, situation comedies, soap operas, specific genres of documentary (such as biographical documentaries or science documentaries), the thriller, film noir and neo-noir, or martial arts movies. The module aims to:
● Facilitate the transition into undergraduate media, culture and communications studies and related disciplines by focussing on critical engagement with selective media texts;
● Introduce the range, diversity, and marketplace for genre based media texts;
● Provide an in-depth introduction to particular genre forms, such as soap opera or science fiction and genre conventions for those specific genre forms. - This module currently runs:
- all year (September start) - Tuesday morning
This module provides an introduction to the history of the mass media, and to key theoretical arguments and debates that have emerged in response to the rise of mass media. It explores the development of press and publishing industries, photography, cinema, television, radio, the music industry and digital media by relating the technological changes to both their socio-cultural contexts and emerging theoretical perspectives. The module also provides grounding in key academic skills as part of the extended induction programme including research, academic reading, and presentation of learning.
The module aims to:
● Provide an introduction to the study of media and its various rationales and methodologies.
● Promote a critical understanding of the history, content and structures of the media industries and examine the social, political and economic factors which shape them.
● Develop an understanding of the development of debates and theoretical contexts related to the media and media technologies.
● Develop and encourage confidence in the use of appropriate learning, analytical and discursive skills in both oral and written argument. To help students acquire key bibliographic research skills. - This module currently runs:
- all year (September start) - Friday afternoon
- all year (September start) - Friday morning
This module introduces students to the core concepts of filmmaking (image & sound) through lectures and practical workshops in digital photography, cinematography, sound recording and editing. Through lecture and practical engagement students will also reach a greater understanding of a number of theories and histories relating to the creative uses of image and sound.
This module aims to:
1) Introduce students to the fundamental technology of digital photography/video and sound production and to a range of basic practical skills necessary for each, and therefore provide students with a range of potentially employable skills and capabilities.
2) Support some of the theoretical priorities of the School of Computing and Digital Media courses by exposing students to various aspects of digital image and sound production in relation to various media and cultural theories (including those they have encountered or are likely to encounter on other School modules) that assume or assert a relationship between image, sound and film style, and to analyze this practice/theory process through written reflection on their practical work.
3) Provide students with the experience of collaborative working practices and to reflect on their benefits and difficulties, particularly in relation to individual/group co-ordination, all of which are important components for future employability.
4) Prepare students for a ‘practical-theoretical’ strand of School of Computing and Digital Media modules at levels 5 and 6, including the level 6 Project.
Year 2 modules include:
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Friday afternoon
This module provides a thorough overview of institutions, economics, technologies, texts, audiences and production practices, relating to television broadcasting and its contemporary online successors.
The aims of this module are to:
1. Introduce students to a range of a range of debates about the role of television in everyday life.
2. Encourage students to deploy critical methods of analysis from previous modules to television and develop these skills through examination of specific case studies. - This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Wednesday morning
This module explores the place of the cultural and creative industries in contemporary societies. It examines a range of different conceptual frameworks used to study the structure, ownership and control of the creative and cultural industries as well as the relationships between creativity, economy and politics. It considers the applicability of such conceptual frameworks in the analysis of specific industries: film, music, television, press, internet. The module provides students with an understanding of the historical context of different processes of production, distribution and consumption of cultural goods.
Aims of the module:
● To enable students to understand current critical theoretical debates in media and communication
● To enable students to understand the economic and political dynamics of specific cultural and creative industries
● To enable students to understand theories of production and consumption of cultural goods
● To enable students to understand the relations between culture and the state - This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Monday morning
This module combines critical engagement with theories of community and participatory culture; study of how media have been used to rebel and empower; and training in research and media practice.
Students will study the theory and practice of community media, oral history, and documentary traditions. They will engage in interviewing, audio recording and editing. They will research community-based organisations and initiatives. They will use a range of media in researching, producing and presenting their own audio document.
The module aims to:
● Enable students to develop a critical understanding of participatory culture and contemporary citizenship, with particular focus on community media, including their use by different social groups, and community development
● Enable students to research into community-based organisations and initiatives
● Enable students to research, produce and present their own audio document - This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Tuesday afternoon
This module critically examines the history of media audience research focusing on theoretical, methodological and ethical questions. Students study different ways of conceptualising and researching the relationship between media and audiences. They learn to evaluate and apply key concepts, theories and methods in designing and conducting their own piece of audience research.
The module aims to equip students to:
● develop a critically understanding of different approaches to conceptualising media audiences and available research strategies
● examine and evaluate existing audience research, its history and context, and the methods that have informed it
● conduct a short piece of audience research - This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Friday afternoon
- spring semester - Friday morning
This module provides practice based learning experience of television studio production, introducing students to the stages involved in planning, scripting and rehearsing an as-live television programme and providing experience of different roles in the television production process including performance roles and behind-camera production roles. Students will be encourage to work collaboratively and reflectively.
The module aims to:1. Enable students to gain experience of television studio production and develop skills in television studio practice
2. Enable students to develop a range of transferable skills in audio-visual production.
3. Encourage students to work collaboratively towards the production of an as-live television programme.
4. Encourage a critical, reflective and collaborative approach to practice based media work - This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Monday afternoon
This module enables students to develop employability skills and competencies, understand the nature of work, and work toward developing a portfolio of skills and competencies to facilitate the transition into graduate level employment. The module combines a series of taught classes combined with practical work-based learning opportunities (i.e. placements, internships, client briefs, group work related projects) to be provided in conjunction...with external employers and organisations.
Students will, individually or as a group, engage in work-based projects or activities in collaboration with external agencies and employers, Such projects or activities will have clear and defined outcomes and expectations, for example the production of marketing material, videos, photography or online content appropriate for media or media-related industries and facilitative of work and/or careers in them. Appropriate work-based learning opportunities and projects will be advertised by week 5 although it will also be possible for students to engage in projects acquired in other ways with the approval of the module leader. Participation in university-advertised projects will sometimes be based on competitive applications.
A series of taught classes will support progress through the module and will usually be timetabled for the first 8 weeks of it. An additional session in week 12 will encourage reflection and engagement in assessment activities. The module aims to enable students to:1. Consider their employability in relation to graduate careers goals, through the development of professional competencies and knowledge through work experience.
2. Develop and/or increase critical, self-reflective ability and self-efficacy.
3. Demonstrate theoretical concepts and transferable competencies and deploy them in a practical, problem-solving way.
4. Gain understanding of current issues, practices and relevant legislation within a particular and relevant organisational contexts.
5. Build personal networks, explore employment options and consider future career plans. - This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Thursday morning
This module examines the relationship between the media, crime and criminal justice. It examines the way crime and the law – and our understandings of them – are produced, reproduced and challenged in and through the contemporary media. The module considers how crime and criminals have been portrayed by the media over time, and assesses the different theoretical perspectives applied to media representations of crime and criminality. It examines the various ways the media actively work to construct crime as a news story, analysing the way the media sift and select crime stories, prioritizing some and excluding others, editing words and pictures and selecting particular tones and styles in their reports to create particular interpretations and viewpoints. The module also considers media portrayals of crime, criminals, victims and criminal justice agencies in a range of fictional and factual representations across TV, film and popular fiction. The social and cultural impact of these media representations is also discussed, with attention is given to the ways they may contribute to escalating fears of crime and how far they may contribute, themselves, to violence and criminal behaviour. Focusing on cultural, critical, and qualitative understandings of the relationships between crime and the media, the module draws on ideas and theories developed not only in the field of Criminology, but also the disciplines of in Sociology, Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.
This module aims to:
- Examine the relation between media portrayals of crime and their broader social, economic and political context.
- Examine historical shifts in the way the media represent crime and criminal behaviour.
- Familiarise students with theoretical debates about the media’s effects on crime and criminal behaviour.
- Examine the connections between media portrayals of crime and criminal justice policy.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Thursday afternoon
This module aims to provide students with a rigorous understanding of the history, theory and practices of documentary photography, and to enable them to develop key photographic skills pertinent to the practice of documentary photography. The module will introduce students to the history, theory and practice of contemporary documentary photography. The module is slanted towards practice, and provides an opportunity for students to develop photographic skills or enhance their existing photographic skills, as well as their understanding of documentary photography. The module will provide practical tuition in the skills of street photography, portraiture, photographing objects in motion, and narrative photography, and will encourage and support students in the conception and development of their own documentary photographic projects. The module will also provide historical and theoretical contexts for students’ developing photographic practices, enabling them to critically reflect on their own practice as documentary photographers.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester
- spring semester
Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester
Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.
- This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Wednesday morning
This module provides aims to develop students’ independent critical and analytical skills by exploring the relationship between situation comedy and the socio-cultural context of comedy production. The module will examine the history of situation comedy, and the development of the genre, focusing on both television and radio forms. The module will incorporate screenings of significant examples of British and US situation comedies, and analyse their relationship to the socio-cultural context of their production. The module will discuss key themes in the development of situation comedy including the representation of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, family, and modes of production including studio-based production, mockumentary, and documentary style. The module aims to:
1. Develop an understanding of the history and development of British and American situation comedy, including significant examples of situation comedy.
2. Enable students to understand and analyse the relationship between situation comedy and the socio-cultural context of its production
3. Encourage students to analyse the representations, ideologies and political ideas inherent in situation comedy. - This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Thursday morning
This module explores the important relationships between the media and young people’s cultural experiences and expressions. The media are a ubiquitous presence in the lives of contemporary youth - the television shows they watch, the music they listen to, the video games they play, and the websites they visit all play a major part in young people’s lives, offering them a stream of different experiences, ideas and knowledge. This module considers the broad body of interdisciplinary scholarship that analyses youth’s relationship with media, and the nature of media texts aimed at young people. Attention is given to the way the media represent youth and target young people as a specific market for goods and entertainment, and also to the development of particular media forms aimed at young audiences – for example, specific kinds of advertising, distinctive film genres and TV formats, and particular kinds of social networking websites. Consideration is also given to the possible influence of the media on youth’s behaviour, and to the ways young people actively engage with the media and make it meaningful in their lives. Here, particular attention is given to issues of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and social class, and the role they play in patterns of young people’s media usage and their practices of cultural expression.
This module aims to:
- Examine the historical development of media forms geared to the youth market.
- Critically consider key theoretical perspectives developed in relation to the analysis of young people’s engagement with the media.
- Examine the nature, significance and impact of media representations of young people.
- Familiarise students with theoretical debates about the media’s effects on young people’s behaviour.
Year 3 modules include:
- This module currently runs:
- all year (September start) - Wednesday afternoon
This module is focused around the production of an engaged and lengthy piece of independent research and academic writing. It provides students the opportunity to specialise in one area of the curriculum in their Honours year. Students may choose to develop a structured dissertation describing an independent primary research project (Route A), or a semi-structured extended literature review based on an independent secondary research project (Route B). This module aims to:
● To enable students to conduct a piece of independent primary or secondary research.
● To encourage students to draw on their previous studies in synthesising their personal perspective on a topic related to Media and Communications, and to develop their individual academic interests. - This module currently runs:
- all year (September start) - Tuesday afternoon
This module addresses the role of mediated representation and communication in the development and reproduction of cultural and social identities. Drawing on a range of recent critical theories, it considers a broad spectrum of symbolic forms from the fields of film, TV, magazines, popular literature and advertising, and relates them to the social construction of social identities including ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. The module has a particular emphasis on anti-essentialist notions of identity, and on the influence of post-structuralism on identity and subjectivity. The module aims to:
● Encourage informed engagement with theories of the nature of cultural identity in contemporary societies.
● Facilitate the critical analysis of the relationship between cultural identities and the meanings of media texts and cultural practices.
● Provide a supportive environment for the development of competence in discussion and presentation - This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Wednesday afternoon
This module presents a critical review of key aspects of contemporary theory, research and practice in political communication and the mediatisation of politics. It considers how these may be challenged and transformed by new technologies and methods for shaping personalised messages. Using an inter-disciplinary perspective, the module examines key theoretical concepts pertaining to political communication as normally understood in the West, then goes on to pose normative and empirical questions on how they can be assessed outside those contexts.
The module aims to:
● explore social and political theory in the areas of power and policy-making;
● introduce students to key developments in political communications in the UK and internationally;
● introduce students to alternative political communication systems and comparative work;
● examine political communication issues at the global level and related debates about transnational communications, citizenship, identity, nation branding and soft power.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Wednesday morning
The focus of this module is the examination of Popular Music with respect to culture and society, as well as the identification of Popular Music as a commercial enterprise.
The module introduces key critical analyses of the nature and development of popular music as a cultural form. In doing so it explores the key social and cultural factors that shape our experience of music and the way we give it meaning within our lives, giving particular attention to issues such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality and social class.
Drawing on studies produced within a range of theoretical fields, the module includes discussion of the relationship between popular music and processes of globalisation, the construction of star personas and celebrity culture, and the nature of audiences, fans and subcultures.
By also examining examples of the historical development and the contemporary organisation of the music industry, the module encourages students to reflection upon the social production of popular music, and the impact of technological change on its creation and distribution.
Students will be introduced to the important ways in which digital technologies in particular currently impact upon Popular Music and its audiences. This includes the roles of digital distribution and streaming in Popular Music, along with the use of social media and the creation of global audiences.
This module aims to:
1. Critically consider key theoretical perspectives developed in relation to the analysis of popular musical forms and genres.
2. Examine historical shifts in the nature and operation of the popular music industry.
3. Examine the impact of new technologies on the production, circulation and consumption of popular music.
4. Familiarise students with theories regarding the social and cultural significance of popular music. - This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Thursday morning
This module will examine and analyse traditional and modern visual special effects using examples from film, music video, television and games to illustrate the development of new techniques from old. Practical exercises, lectures, and demonstrations will aid students in developing a wide spectrum of technical and analytical skills in the field of digital post-production and visual special effects. Students will be expected to undertake all stages of the creative planning process to deliver an integrated digital video and audio project in order to complete the module. This module aims to:
● Develop and encourage confidence in the integration of appropriate motion graphics software
● Examine the effects of visual special effects on audiences and contemporary culture
● Illustrate how new digital imaging techniques have built upon traditional methods
Analyse the most effective approach to a variety of visual effects problems - This module currently runs:
- spring semester - Monday morning
Students will develop professional practices working in small groups to produce a short documentary. They will be required to research, pitch and develop a documentary proposal following industry guidelines and legal frameworks. The module will give an overview of the commissioning process and will include input from industry professionals. There will be an emphasis on how to film and work with documentary subjects (or characters) in an ethical way.
Students will learn about a range of documentary modes, genres and techniques via screenings, discussion and practice. Key figures and films will be explored as well as emerging styles and formats.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester
- spring semester
Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester
Please check the Open Language Centre for confirmation of language level.
- This module currently runs:
- autumn semester - Monday morning
This one-semester module aims to develop students’ appreciation for and understanding of research in relation to visual aspects of culture. The module provides students with methods and conceptual tools for approaching independent research into visual culture, including art, photography, film and television, and using for visual material as a research tool.
The module builds upon students prior knowledge of theories and debates relevant to visual works and materials, and it will encourage and facilitate the development of deeper engagement with, and understanding of this area of research. The module provides preparation for dissertation research involving visual culture using visual material within research.
The module has two distinct halves: first considering theories and methods relevant to the undertaking of research on visual culture, and second examining the use of visual material as research method in itself. As such, the module will both draw on traditional academic qualitative research methods insofar as they are applicable, and draw on the insights and methodologies offered by visual anthropology/sociology.
The module will facilitate the development of skills and knowledge pertinent to the design of independent research, including:
● understanding the essential relationship between research methods and the problems they are intended to address
● appreciation of the value of visual material in research
● understanding the gains and limitations of visual material
The practical and intellectual skills gained are all transferrable and highly relevant to future employment in a wide range of areas, and particularly within parts of the cultural industries specifically concerned with visual materials.
What our students say
"I have really enjoyed this course. Being able to work with different companies outside of the University due to being on my course has been a major highlight."
National Student Survey (NSS)
Where this course can take you
Previous graduates have found employment in news organisations, advertising, digital media, education, market research, media production, public relations and publishing. Graduates can also go on to undertake postgraduate study.
Additional costs
Please note, in addition to the tuition fee there may be additional costs for things like equipment, materials, printing, textbooks, trips or professional body fees.
Additionally, there may be other activities that are not formally part of your course and not required to complete your course, but which you may find helpful (for example, optional field trips). The costs of these are additional to your tuition fee and the fees set out above and will be notified when the activity is being arranged.
Discover Uni – key statistics about this course
Discover Uni is an official source of information about university and college courses across the UK. The widget below draws data from the corresponding course on the Discover Uni website, which is compiled from national surveys and data collected from universities and colleges. If a course is taught both full-time and part-time, information for each mode of study will be displayed here.
How to apply
If you're a UK applicant wanting to study full-time starting in September, you must apply via UCAS unless otherwise specified. If you're an international applicant wanting to study full-time, you can choose to apply via UCAS or directly to the University.
If you're applying for part-time study, you should apply directly to the University. If you require a Student visa, please be aware that you will not be able to study as a part-time student at undergraduate level.
When to apply
The University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) accepts applications for full-time courses starting in September from one year before the start of the course. Our UCAS institution code is L68.
If you will be applying direct to the University you are advised to apply as early as possible as we will only be able to consider your application if there are places available on the course.
To find out when teaching for this degree will begin, as well as welcome week and any induction activities, view our academic term dates.
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