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
Introduction to Media and Communication
You will look at how the media is used to exert or to challenge power in society, and develop a deeper understanding of the political and cultural changes associated with both digital and legacy media. You will explore the history of the media’s development in Britain, from the printing press to the internet. Other topics studied include how news media organisations and journalists decide ‘what is news’. You will also develop applied cross-platform media practice skills.
Year Two
Explorations in Media and Communication
Your second year develops your understanding of key media industry topics. You also explore how commercial, political and cultural pressures shape the work of the media in the digital era. Other topics studied include media industries, such as format television and digital media, and applied skills, like research methods. You will develop the research skills necessary to investigate key aspects of media and communications research. You will continue to advance your cross-platform media practice skills.
Year Three
Advanced Studies in Media and Communication
Your final year gives you the opportunity to study media theories like those related to political communication and culture, gender and identity, and look at how the internet and digital developments are changing the media landscape and journalism.
You also have a choice to specialise in a practice strand such as news media or digital media.
Dissertation or research project
You complete a dissertation or research project on a topic of your choice with support from your tutor.
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 2022/23 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 2022/23 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: