While there are several core modules, students undertake research directly related to their specialist interests in the dissertation. There are also a number of optional modules, covering such areas as globalisation, visual cultures, media and nationalisms, citizenship, digital media, popular music, cultural policy, and consumption. Core study areas include media and modernity, the politics of representation, production and reception analysis, media and cultural industries, textual analysis research techniques and a dissertation. Optional study areas include citizenship and communications, media, nations and nationalisms, global communications, digital futures, media and cultural work, digital cultures, digital economies, cultural memory and the heritage industries, marketing politics.

Our students go on to work in media, marketing and PR divisions of major public and private institutions. They also go on to work in mainstream media careers such as journalism and broadcasting. The comprehensive theoretical introduction to media, communications and culture that the programme provides makes it an ideal stepping stone into a research career. Many of our students have also gone on to do PhDs in media, communications and culture in the UK and abroad.