Media, Data and Society BA (Hons)

This module will give students foundational knowledge about ways that communication, media, and culture can be systematically and critically analysed: students will learn about key concepts and theories from the field of media and communication studies and about how these are applied as tools for analysis. The module offers examples of the craft of screen analysis, cultural analysis, and social scientific communication studies. These will be analytical approaches that students can subsequently use in the course of their studies.

This module will provide a broad introduction to digital communication and social media as an object of study. It will facilitate students in thinking about the role of the internet, digital platforms and social media apps and their role in culture, society and democracy. It will firstly ask what is different about digital and social media compared to more traditional media, and pose the question of whether we need new tools and ways of thinking in relation to these newer media. It will then introduce several topics and case studies to allow students to think about the role and potential influence the rise of these tools may or may not have had on society.

This module will introduce students to foundational knowledge in the field of communication and media studies. Students will learn how communication practices and media technologies have developed historically and their relevance for social, political and economic changes, as well as learning about the development of Communication and Media as a broad and diverse academic field. The module familiarises students with different theoretical perspectives both historical and contemporary.

This is an introduction to issues and concepts surrounding media and communication industries and institutions. The module gives students exposure to core and current debates and issues such as the political economy of media, relations with power and regulation, and processes of globalisation, digitalisation and conglomeration. Students will learn about creative roles and the practices and lived experiences of professional media workers, including the process of conceiving and developing media texts. Successful students will be able to critically consider media and communication studies with an emphasis on its industries and institutions.

This module will enhance students’ understanding of academic research in the field of communication and media studies. It is the first of a series of two modules that will equip students with the skills and techniques needed to analyse, execute, interpret, and present academic research. The module will also prepare them for advanced academic projects such as their final-year projects/academic dissertations. This module will introduce students to the basics of academic research – from the key elements in a research study to the difference between primary and secondary, and quantitative and qualitative research. Students will be taught how to write literature reviews and what ethical considerations to bear in mind when designing a research study.

This module will enhance students’ understanding of academic research in the field of communication and media studies. It is the second of a series of two modules that will equip students with the skills and techniques needed to analyse, execute, interpret, and present academic research. The module will also prepare them for advanced academic projects such as their final-year projects/academic dissertations. This module will introduce students to specific quantitative and qualitative research methods for the study of media texts, audiences and producers, continuing on from the semester 1 Research Methods module. These will include textual analysis, content analysis, thematic analysis, discourse analysis; surveys, interviews, focus groups, ethnography; as well as archival research and digital research. Students will also be taught how to formulate research questions, what makes a good student dissertation/final year project and how to communicate their research. They will then be required to prepare research proposals for their final year projects/dissertations.

This module will be of particular interest to students interested in data and how it is collected and used in modern society; in the politics and policy questions around social media; and in the interactions between media, platforms and citizens. It will introduce students to the study of online media and platforms, with a particular focus on ‘big’ social trace data. As well as developing their understanding of how Internet-based media systems work, students will engage with key online political communication policy questions.

The second-year module Immersive Media and Virtual Worlds explores the histories, theories, and industries related to the production of immersive experiences, digital technologies and virtual realities and worlds. In particular, the module will focus on video games and cinema.

The module aims to prepare students for a smooth transition into a work placement year and, more broadly, to develop lifelong skills, attitudes and behaviours and support students in their continuing professional development. This will help students lead flexible, fulfilling careers working as a professional in their field, and enable them to contribute meaningfully to society.

​This course examines the ongoing relationship between technological development, popular music and the cultures which surround it. Students are introduced to major perspectives on popular music and technology in order to examine social, aesthetic and historical issues.

This module introduces the core principles and techniques of computer programming. The emphasis of the module is to develop technical skills in coding, including the use of variables, loops, functions and libraries. Concepts are introduced in a practical and accessible way, and placed within the context of communication and media. The aim of the module is to develop students’ abilities in coding so they can understand better the role of algorithms in society, and are ready for further study in data science and visualisation. By the end of the module, students will have a strong grounding in coding and recognise its role in communication, media and data science.

This module examines the function and design of music in video games (including games-consoles, PCs, and smart-phone ‘apps’). It considers the historical development of music in gaming, the relationship between game-music and technological advance, and the role and function of music in different types of game (and how this dictates compositional choice). This is achieved via a combination of case-study analyses and engagement with appropriate literature and research. Delivery incorporates lectures, workshop/seminars, and directed activity. Assessment incorporates a discursive essay and a portfolio of case-study analyses. The module assumes the study and discussion of case-study examples, but is delivered and assessed in a manner which does not require technical music skills (ie notational literacy or formal analytical method).

This module introduces students to feminist media studies. Throughout the module, they will become familiar with key concepts and debates relating to gender and its interaction with media and cultural practices. The module will refer to a wide range of media, such as television, journalism, and digital platforms to bring to life the character of gender relations in contemporary media cultures, as well as in historical perspective. Students will consider the power relations which characterise media production environments, the gendered nature of representations, and the political contestation of these by feminist activists. The module adopts an intersectional approach, ensuring that gender is considered alongside other identity markers such as race, class, disability and sexuality.

Converged Media and Screen Entertainment B examines key ideas and arguments in the broader field of media industry studies with a view to provide students with wide-ranging account of how the screen industries produce and distribute commercial entertainment within a converged media environment, while operating as part of organizational arrangements and professional practices that separate them from industries with an information focus. The module accounts for the local, national and global dimension of screen entertainment with case studies and examples taken from a variety of geographical contexts and covers a number of industries, mainly film and television, but also with references to games and social medial.

Organised around 4 blocks – Terms of Reference, The Global Spectre of Entertainment, The Production of Entertainment and Entertainment Labour – the module kicks off with some conceptual issues and definitions around what entertainment is and how the landscape in which it is produced and disseminated is defined by media convergence and – increasingly – deconvergence. With these terms of reference accounted for, the second block surveys some key characteristics related to the global nature of screen entertainment: the issues at stake in regulating its circulation across different geographical, political and cultural environments; the ways in which its production tends to be clustered around particular hubs and networks, the ways in which it contributes to global media flows organised around distribution power and the ways it is also disseminated through informal or piracy networks.

After an independent study week that enables students to catch up with reading and prepare for their first assignment, the module continues with a block on the production of entertainment, with an emphasis there being on some of the textual characteristics of entertainment products as these are influenced by marketing and brand integration, by intellectual property management and the increasing reliance on narrative universes and world-building, and by promotional content designed to move swiftly across media platforms and to attract online interaction. Some of these characteristics distinguish clearly entertainment media from media that revolve around information. Finally, the last block deals with issues relating to working in screen entertainment industries, focusing primarily on issues relating to unions and crafts and the ways they try to control entertainment with an environment where the power of the unions has declined as well on issue of diversity in the screen industries work force.

This module will explore theoretical perspectives on Public Relations, including critical perspectives on its role in media and digital society and the professional practice of promotional writing, a key skill within and beyond PR. Students will develop understanding of what it means to be a creative professional in the PR industries by learning to organise their time effectively, to produce work to specific briefs and to ensure attention to detail in the delivery of projects.

Introduction to Cultural Studies provides a foundational understanding of the key approaches, methods and theoretical perspectives in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies. The module starts with an historical overview of the development of cultural studies and explores its links with related fields such as anthropology, sociology, and everyday life studies. The module is taught in four blocks. Blocks 2-4 are organised around core thematic areas of focus which provide, respectively, an introduction to perspectives in the study of contemporary visual cultures; an introduction to urban cultural studies and the spatial humanities; and critical reflection on ‘future cultures’ and the shifting boundaries that define understandings of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ in the age of the posthuman and the Anthropocene. Engaging with theoretical perspectives and debates that address a broad range of contemporary issues in the study of culture, media and everyday life, the module draws extensively on ethnographic, text-based and other qualitative methods, with a particular emphasis towards understandings of culture and media as forms of social, embodied and political practice and the everyday ‘doingness’ of cultural experience.

In this module, students will learn about Artificial Intelligence algorithms that influence the development of digital media systems and content. Students will critically address key questions around the social, political and economic consequences of online platforms’ use of AI systems and how they are or could be regulated.

This is an opportunity to spend the third year of your studies working as part of your degree programme. The placement year is not just about gaining work experience, it is also about deepening your academic understanding in your subject. Whatever modules you have taken previously, your prior studies in Years 1 and 2 will have given you some appreciation of general issues and theoretical concerns in your subject area. Your placement will give you some real-world experience against which to compare that academic knowledge. The experience will in turn inform your studies in your final year, providing you with material to discuss in such modules as the Independent Project or the Dissertation. You will have the opportunities to learn and practise a range of intellectual, interpersonal and technical skills relevant to your chosen industry. You will be encouraged to think creatively and to develop skills in adapting and responding positively to changing circumstances. Ultimately, your academic learning will be enhanced in the final year of study through this opportunity to contextualise your studies in the workplace. Students who have taken SOTA600 are not allowed to take SOTA300.

This module develops research and critical skills when examining digital cultures with a particular focus on the Americas. It takes examples that encompass North, Central, and South America as well as the Caribbean. Building confidence in handling theoretical tools in the analysis of digital cultures it examines a range of professional and amateur content creators from social, institutional and personal perspectives and considers issues of curatorship, archival approaches, the ethics of (re)appropriation and remediation, and the relationship between the self and the public and private spheres.

A dissertation is a self-contained piece of original research. It is your chance to study a topic that interests you in depth, guided by a member of the Department’s academic staff who will act as a supervisor for your research. While it is not expected that the dissertation will achieve the standard of a published article, a general idea of the length, format and style of presentation envisaged can be obtained by scanning academic articles in the area that the dissertation will deal with.

This module will provide students with the opportunity to work on a final year project. The nature of the project will be negotiated between the students and their supervisors. It might include: working on live academic research projects or working on live projects in collaboration with academic staff and external partners or working on practical outputs related to a specified (research) task.

Games and Algorithmic Culture investigates how videogames are responding and contributing to the current technological and cultural changes in the use of AI, data mining, procedurally generated content, metrics and automation. The module provides a fundamental knowledge of the videogame industry and its new markets and trends, such as eSports, live streaming, independent productions, casual and mobile gaming. It explores how these new social, cultural and aesthetic trends of game culture are framed around a broader algorithmic culture that pervades our contemporary technics of digital production and distribution. The module will enable students to understand the specificity of games as new media, to critically analyse the technical, economic and social factors that frame contemporary digital culture, and identify areas of intervention within the global entertainment industry.

This module offers students an introduction to study of strategic communication, seen as an interdisciplinary field of research and professional practice. Students will familiarise themselves with key concepts for critical understanding and analysis of how organisations communicate strategically in social contexts. The teaching content combines theories and case studies which relate to strategic communication phenomena in different sectors (e.g. business, politics, non-profit). Assessment is based on an essay and a group project.

The module studies human rights through the lens of the media in order to critically understand the changing nature of human rights’ representation and the role media play in representing and responding to critical human rights issues. It explores the interconnections between media and human rights focusing on media and human rights theory, policy and practice and exploring both historical developments and contemporary issues. In particular, the implications of the global media in the current information age for a range of key human rights’ issues are analysed. Among the issues that will be reviewed are terrorism and war on terror, freedom of speech, human trafficking, asylum and immigration, torture and genocide, humanitarian intervention.

This module examines the concept of news, how it is constructed and disseminated, and the implications this has for society. Students will be introduced to key debates related to the historical development of journalistic norms and ideals such as the rise of objectivity and impartiality. The module also considers key theories which help to explain how news is selected and produced such as ‘news values’ and ‘agenda-setting’, and furthermore, the potential implications for audiences as citizens. The module will also consider the political and economic pressures which journalists face when reporting the news. We will also consider the future of journalism in a digital age, examining the challenges of producing news in times of declining revenue and the rise of the Internet and social media platforms.   

The module explores how popular culture can be political by examining a range of popular cultural commodities discursively. The module surveys a range of views on how to examine popular culture in order to contextualise discourse analysis. This is examined and then used to critically consider the political potential of popular culture. Successful students will be able to critically analyse a range of popular cultural commodities such as film, television programmes, digital popular culture, popular music and the tabloid press. The module is delivered in the forms of lectures and more hands-on analysis during seminars. Students are assessed by an essay, which is an analysis of a popular culture commodity.

This module is an opportunity for you to undertake a placement in a setting which matches your academic and possible career/industry interests, develop materials and/or undertake tasks within a practical or vocational context, apply academic knowledge from your degree, and develop your personal and employability skills within a working environment. SOTA300 is not open to students who have taken SOTA600.

This module offers students a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical production skills enabling the design, production and marketing of ‘viral videos’. Students develop their own creative practice and take a highly active role in designing, presenting and producing their own videos, and promoting them through video-sharing and social media networks.

Viral videos are an important and rapidly evolving cultural phenomenon. As yet there is little consensus on a definition but essentially they are videos that gain popularity by being shared and recommended through online and offline sharing and recommendations (France et al 2016: 20).

The module is aimed at students considering a career in digital communications, public relations and corporate, political and third sector communications.

France, S., Vaghefi, M. and Zhao, H. (2016) Characterizing viral videos: Methodology and applications. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 19: 19–32.

This module focuses on debates about the nature, cultural television practices and significance of ‘cult’ television. Students will critique the idea of ‘cult’ from textual, industry and audience perspectives, as well as considering its relationships with the rise of ‘quality’ TV forms in the US and UK and with fan studies, including tracing shifts in representation and audience practices related to marginal groups and identities.

Screen Industries and Sports is a new module that aims to examine the complex and multifaceted relationship between screen media and sports, focusing primarily on the ways in which the screen industries engage with sports as a commercial product that reaches audiences globally through a proliferation of legacy and digital media. In doing this the module asks questions about how sports are produced, packaged and disseminated, how global media corporations increasingly control sports and the kinds of issues that are at stake. It is organised around 4 blocks, with the first block examining primarily the relationship between the television industries and sports, the second looking at how the relationship between sports and screen media is being reconfigured in the digital arena, the third on how mega sports events shape and are being shaped by screen industries and the final one focusing on issues of diversity and cultural difference and how they figure in the broader picture. Together, all these sessions are designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of how screen industries are intricately linked to the evolution of sports as one of the most commercial media products of the 20th and 21st century.

This module builds on the skills developed in the Introduction to Programming module to explore more advanced data analysis and visualisation techniques, based around coding. The full data lifecycle is considered, with a focus on data collection, processing, analysis and visualisation. Methods covered include probability distributions, statistical regression and multidimensional plotting. The module will focus on analysing and visualising data relevant to communication and media, but it will also critique how data are used and presented in the media. It will also touch on the machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques that underlie many of the most powerful digital applications. By the end of the module, students will be able to select and use appropriate methods to analyse and visualise a range of data.

This module explores entertainment (specifically film and television) as an “unofficial” source of historical knowledge. For many people, entertainment is the primary site of engagement with history and one that makes history relevant, accessible and enjoyable in the present. It will consider what is required to make history entertaining and what this suggests about the kinds of stories that are enjoyable to consume compared to those that are omitted and silenced. The majority of screenings are British/American productions and we will consider the way in which this shapes those perspectives, but we will also draw on international examples during the course. These non-academic popular encounters with history offer a space for alternative and challenging versions of history. In this module we will consider the ways in which this can reinforce, resist or disrupt “official” accounts of history.

Global heating, deforestation, natural disasters, mass extinction of wildlife – the world is currently facing extraordinary environmental degradation that increasingly affects people’s daily lives and our common future on this planet. At the same time, the veracity of these issues as well as questions of remedies are being heavily contested. It is the news media and social media platforms where viewpoints are promoted, exchanged, discussed and the battle for dominant issue interpretations is fought. In this module, students will learn about the most salient fault lines of mediated environmental discourse. Who are the stakeholders that engage in environmental debates and what are their arguments? What are the challenges for journalists and other content providers in communicating complex environmental issues to their respective audience? And what do we know about the short and long term effects of different forms of communication and sometimes widely differing arguments and narratives? Students will develop the knowledge and analytical skills to be able to tackle these issues via their own theory-driven and empirical work.

This module considers propaganda, its relationship to power, and its capacity to persuade individuals and groups. Exploring both historical and contemporary case studies, it introduces students to different types of propaganda, such as political speeches, television commercials, and sponsored content on social media, and different types of propagandist, from the emperors of Ancient Rome to the multinational corporations of the twenty-first century.

One of its central contentions is that propaganda has both represented and contributed to many of the defining events of the recent (and not so recent) past. Another is that no analysis of the modern world, communications technologies, and the audiences that access and contribute to them would be complete without at least some attention to propaganda.

Students enrolled on the module will learn how to identify propaganda and how to analyse its place within larger political, social, and economic structures. Part of the module will be devoted to propaganda in times of war and crisis, part to propaganda during general elections and referenda, and part to rituals of consumption in late capitalist societies.

It will be taught through a combination of weekly lectures and workshops and assessed with two summative assignments: a plan for an analysis of a propaganda campaign (chosen by the student) and an analysis that considers how the campaign was planned and organised, what impact (if any) it had, and what lessons can be learned from it.