Programme Specification
MA Media and Cultural Analysis
Academic Year: 2016/17
This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if full advantage is taken of the learning opportunities that are provided.
This specification applies to delivery of the programme in the Academic Year indicated above. Prospective students reviewing this information for a later year of study should be aware that these details are subject to change as outlined in our .
This specification should be read in conjunction with:
- Reg. XXI (Postgraduate Awards) (see
- Module Specifications
- Summary
- Aims
- Learning outcomes
- Structure
- Progression & weighting
Programme summary
| Awarding body/institution | Â鶹ֱ²¥ University |
| Teaching institution (if different) | N/A |
| Owning school/department | Department of Social Sciences - pre 2018 |
| Details of accreditation by a professional/statutory body | N/A |
| Final award | MA or PG Diploma or PG Certificate |
| Programme title | Media and Cultural Analysis (SSPT36) |
| Programme code | SSPT36 |
| Length of programme | One year |
| UCAS code | N/A |
| Admissions criteria | Media and Cultural Analysis: |
| Date at which the programme specification was published | Wed, 20 Apr 2016 13:10:56 BST |
1. Programme Aims
- To enable students to gain a systematic and critical awareness of current issues and debates in communication media studies and related disciplines.
- To develop students' skills and competencies in a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of media communications and related disciplines.
- To enable students to interpret evaluate and apply advanced knowledge in the discpline in an innovative way.
- To prepare students for employment in diverse professional environment through a combination of independent work and industry exposure.
- To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about the relationship between media and modernity.
- To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about the politics of representation.
2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external reference points used to inform programme outcomes:
The Benchmark Statement for Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies
3. Programme Learning Outcomes
3.1 Knowledge and Understanding
On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to demonstrate and apply knowledge and understanding in the following areas:
K1. The major traditions, theories and frameworks of inquiry relevant to the analysis of media, communications and associated disciplines.
K2. The historical expansion of communications media, the institutionalisation of media systems, various audiences uses of the media, and the implications of new media for cultural life.
K3. The range of relevant research methods employed in the analysis of media and culture.
K4. The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates in the analysis of media and cultural texts and audiences.
K5. The ways media and communicative forms construct the shared meanings that comprise public cultures and subcultures and of the issues of representation these practices raise.
3.2 Skills and other attributes
a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:
On successful completion of the programme, students should be able, with reference to media communication and culture, to:
C1. Generate research data according to set procedures and methods.
C2. Independently organise, classify and critically evaluate information gathered in the course of their projects and assignments.
C3. Use advanced concepts and theories drawn from media, communications and associated disciplines to analyse relevant empirical evidence.
C4. Discuss their research and the issues it raises reflexively.
C5. Interpret media texts, representations and cultural identities.
b. Subject-specific practical skills:
On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to:
P1. Engage with major thinkers, debates and intellectual paradigms within the fields of media, communication and culture, productively employing the insights gained in their own work.
P2. Demonstrate their capacity to develop appropriate research strategies to address the issues they have selected for sustained investigation in self-chosen projects.
P3. Analyse new and emerging trends and interrogate both common sense understanding and received wisdom in relevant areas of inquiry.
P4. Discuss historical transformations in media, communication, and culture and wield this understanding in appraising current patterns of development, such as cultural globalisation and media convergence.
c. Key transferable skills:
On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to:
T1. Critically evaluate a range of academic and industry sources.
T2. Communicate effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
T3. Deploy qualitative and quantitative research techniques.
T4. Plan, organise and manage, with appropriate supervision, a significant self-directed project.
T5. Work flexibly, creatively and independently, displayhing a high degree of self-direction and initiative.
T6. Deploy their independent learning ability required for continuing professional development.
4. Programme structure
MEDIA AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS (SSPT36):
COMPULSORY MODULES (Total modular weight 135)
|
Code |
Module title |
Modular Weight |
Semester |
|
SSP301 |
Media and Modernity |
15 |
2 |
|
SSP302 |
Media & Cultural Industries: Political Economy & Public Policy |
15 |
1 |
|
SSP303 |
The Politics of Representation |
15 |
1 |
|
SSP317 |
Production and Reception Analysis |
15 |
2 |
|
SSP503 |
Online Research Methods and Media Analysis |
15 |
1 |
|
SSP353 |
Key Debates in Media and Cultural Analysis |
10 |
1+2 |
|
SSP399 or SSP400 |
Dissertation or Dissertation (Placement Experience) |
50 |
1+2 |
MA students must also attend SSA306, a media landscapes module.
OPTIONAL MODULES (combined modular weight 45)
One optional module must come from semester 1 and two must come from semester 2.
|
Code |
Module title |
Modular weight |
Semester |
|
SSP305 |
Digital Futures: Explorations in New Media |
15 |
1 |
|
SSP314 |
Global Communications |
15 |
2 |
|
SSP316 |
Media and Cultural Work: Inequality and Discrimination in the Creative Industries |
15 |
2 |
|
SSP318 |
Digital Economies |
15 |
1 |
|
SSP319 |
Digital Cultures |
15 |
2 |
|
SSP323 |
Marketing Politics |
15 |
1 |
5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award
In order to be eligible for the award, candidates must satisfy the requirements of Regulation XXI.
In accordance with Regulation XXI, but with the exclusion of dissertation modules SSP399 and SSP400, candidates who have a right of reassessment in a module may choose to be reassessed in the Special Assessment Period (SAP).
6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the Purposes of Final Degree Classification
This section relates to undergraduate degrees only.
