Media & Communication BA (Hons) (with Foundation Year)
UCAS Code: Combined honours only - See combinations tab|Duration: 4 years|Full Time|Hope Park|UCAS Campus Code: L46Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
If you want an exciting career in the media but also want to understand how and why the media reports and represents the world in the ways it does, studying at Hope is the next step for you. Media and Communication provides you with an opportunity to closely study and analyse the ways in which the media industry shapes and is shaped by our world. Our degrees are designed to help you become an industry leader equipped to take on the key task of working towards a more reliable, trustworthy media industry, and to work as a cross-platform media practitioner.
If you choose to take Media and Communication, you explore the history and theory of film and other visual media, such as photography and animation, and the cultural and creative contexts in which they are produced and consumed. We also think one of the best ways to study creativity is by making things, so you have the opportunity to make films (drama, documentary or animation), produce photographic portfolios, work in a studio and write screenplays. Our curriculum is taught by lecturers with a reputation for international research and by a practitioner who has made BAFTA and EMMY award winning programmes and animated films.
Media and Communication at Liverpool Hope is underpinned by the notion of interrogating power. We believe that the media must always be held to account and has a responsibility to pursue social justice. Whether it be through journalism, digital and social media theory and applied skills, our aim is to produce graduates who will make a better world.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, seminars which have smaller groups, and tutorials which typically have no more than 10 students in the first year.
In your first year of study there are approximately 6 teaching hours per week, which reduce to approximately 5 teaching hours in your second and third years. (You will have an equivalent number of contact hours in the other subject in your combination.)
On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend a number of hours studying independently each week, as well as studying in groups to prepare for any group assessments you may have.
Assessment and feedback
Throughout your studies, you will have a number of assessments including written exams, essays, and applied skills through cross-platform media portfolios.
You will be given written feedback on your assessments, and you will have the opportunity to discuss this with your tutor in more detail.
Foundation Year
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
Year One
Media and Communication at Hope offers you the opportunity to study the subject from a theoretical perspective while also gaining practical applied-skills. Through this approach, we will support you in becoming a more rounded student of Media and Communication, with your understanding of theory complementing and enriching your practice skills.
Introducing media’s theoretical, cultural, historical, and ideological underpinnings
In your first year lectures and tutorials you will explore the past, the present, and the future of Media and Communication. You will examine the ways in which the historical development of older forms of media, including print, radio, and television, have influenced the development of digital media today. You will consider how the lessons we have learned from the past help us to anticipate how the media will develop in the future, and to reflect on the implications of this for our society and for us as citizens and communication professionals.
Skills-based practice: News Media and Digital Media
These practical sessions in media and journalistic practice run throughout the year and allow you to deepen your own applied-skills, to develop and deliver on your own creative ideas and interests, and to become a more confident and efficient communicator in cross-platform, digital environments.
Year Two
The second year of your studies builds on both the theoretical knowledge and applied skills you developed in year one. Here, you will have the opportunity to study the world of media in more depth, gaining insight into how media industries such as social media, music, and format television work in the real world and have adapted to recent digital developments.
Understanding The Media: Interrogating Power
The curriculum focuses, in increasing depth, on areas such as the following: Global Media Industries, including music, social media, publishing, advertising, format television, and the power of media corporations. You will also study marketization of news, journalistic ideologies/editorial policies, research methodologies, and cross-platform media.
Skills-based practice: News Media and Digital Media
In the practice based sessions you will have the chance to deepen your technical knowledge and understanding in relation to the production of media output. You will have the opportunity to advance your creative design, technical and content creation skills, to equip you to become a more assured communicator in a cross-platform environment. These sessions also give you the opportunity to see and take into account the issues discussed in your ‘interrogating power’ part of the course, such as the ethics of news production and the boundaries of copyright.
Year Three
Year three is the culmination of your studies and is designed to allow you to both consolidate your understandings from previous years but also to refine and develop your skills in your own area of interest. There are both optional elements at this level of study as well as an individual research project or integrated dissertation.
Contemporary Media: Its Impact, Influence and Dynamism in a Shifting Global Context
This final year of lectures brings you up to date and working at the cutting edge of media studies. You will explore the shifting landscape of media output in an ever-shrinking world. You will explore issues such as media and gender, identity, political communication, celebrity, fandom, satire, and public good journalism in the digital age. This part of the course will challenge you to develop your own stance in relation to media as you grow as a media practitioner.
Honours Seminar
Through all levels of this major in Media and Communication, there is an emphasis on the development of the skills and knowledge required for the world of work. This culminates in the choices you can make in your final year of practice-based sessions. You will be able to follow your particular interests and choose between the topics on offer in any particular year. Areas of specialism have included Advanced Studies in Journalism and Advanced Studies in Digital Media.
Individual Research Project/Dissertation
As part of your final year of studies, you will conduct your own research for a Research Project (5,000 words) or Integrated Dissertation (10,000). The Research Project allows you to pursue those areas of media and communications that have sparked your interest and passions. The Integrated Dissertation allows you to bring together the topics of both your majors to produce research which addresses both areas. For example, if you were to be interested in a career as a social media manager or marketeer and you are a Media and Communication and Marketing student, you might complete your research on the emerging marketing techniques on social media platforms.
Entry requirements
There may be some flexibility for mature students offering non-tariff qualifications and students meeting particular widening participation criteria.
Careers
Recent Media and Communications graduates are working as cinema managers, film education officers, BBC radio reporters, local and magazine journalists, academic proof-readers, screen writers, and independent international filmmakers.
More generally, you will have gained a degree which will have provided both a broad base of learning about media and the opportunity to develop specific areas of specialism in news media or visual communication, such as film. Alongside classroom work, you will have embraced the many opportunities offered by Hope to enhance your skills and knowledge –masterclasses with leading radio and newspaper journalists and creative practitioners, and the Film Society – each combining to help ensure a graduate ready to make their mark on the industry.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2023/24 academic year are £9,250 for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,250.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
Additional costs
On top of tuition fees, you will need approximately £100 to purchase core textbooks.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2023/24 are £12,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available with Foundation Year as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: