Program Overview

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Media, Culture and Communication BA (Hons)

Overview

This course explores and explains the diverse patterns of media and offers a comprehensive understanding of media power, media use, and the increasing significance of media in contemporary culture and society.

Engage with a mix of critical approaches including cultural studies, communication studies, film studies, and media studies. You'll also study a wide range of related topics including everyday life, popular culture, digital media cultures, cultural representation, and gender and ethnic identities and sexualities.

Throughout your studies, you’ll be guided and supported by our experts. You’ll work with academics at the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies and study alongside scriptwriters, filmmakers, radio producers, and independent film producers. Many of the key books you'll learn from have been written by lecturers.

Gain a range of transferable skills including presentation skills, critical analysis, independent thinking, written and research skills, and the ability to work in groups and on your own. In your final year, you'll put your skills and knowledge into practice in a major independent research project.

Why us?

• Our Media and Film Studies courses are 3rd in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2025)
• Flexibility to choose from a dynamic range of modules covering topics such as science fiction, popular music, internet subcultures, gaming, and sexuality
• Enrich your studies through activities such as cultural trips, visits, and experiences
• Our support for independent learning is praised by our external examiners; you'll work towards a major piece of independent research in Year 3
• With its emphasis on critical thinking, the degree provides an excellent basis for employment in a broad range of careers such as teaching, television, radio, journalism, marketing, and new media

Course structure

Teaching methods include lectures, seminars, group work, and e-learning. We encourage you to develop independent study skills.

As well as assessments that count towards your degree, there are ongoing assessments for feedback and consolidating your learning.

Assessment methods include essays, reports, written coursework, projects, and presentations.

Part-time study

If you study this course on a part-time basis, you'll typically complete 40-80 credits in a year, rather than the 120 credits of full-time students. All modules are taught during the day and you'll be studying alongside full-time students.

Course modules

Year 1 (national level 4):

Core modules:

• Introduction to Digital Media Cultures (20 credits)
• The Making of Popular Culture (20 credits)
• Understanding Media and Culture (20 credits)
• Sounds and Visions: Broadcasting Histories, Texts and Contexts (20 credits)

Optional modules (choose two):

• Single Camera Production (20 credits)
• Introduction to PR Theory and Practice (20 credits)
• Essential Journalism (20 credits)

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules:

• Cultural Theory and Popular Culture 1 (20 credits)
• Thinking Outside The Box: TV, Past, Present and Future (20 credits)
• Interrogating Factual Media (20 credits)
• Researching Media in Theory and Practice (20 credits)

Optional modules (choose two):

• Practical Public Relations: Strategy and Theory (20 credits)
• Podcasting (20 credits)
• Ready Player One: Operating within the Streaming Industry (20 credits)

Year 3 (national level 6):

Core modules:

• Media Research Project (40 credits)
• Media and Society (20 credits)
• Cultural Theory and Popular Culture 2 (20 credits)

Optional modules (choose two):

• Advanced Public Relations (20 credits)
• Film, Horror and the Body (20 credits)
• Popular Music Cultures (20 credits)
• Loving The Alien: Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Television (20 credits)

Facilities

• Get hands-on in our two broadcast-quality production studios complete with green room and changing facilities. Access four Steadicam rigs plus dolly, track and mini crane.
• Our field camera systems comprises Blackmagic Ursa, Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro, Blackmagic 4K Cinema Camera, Blackmagic 6k Pocket Cinema Camera and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, with associated location kits, lighting, field monitors and audio mixers.
• The library is your gateway to information resources and services both on and off campus, all through a single search box. We have digital resources and support tailored for your course including Box of Broadcasts (BoB) an on-demand TV and radio streaming service; Kanopy to access films; and a collection of DVDs for you to borrow, you're welcome to film in the library too.
• Access 1400 study places, including quiet and silent zones, 300+ PCs, group work hubs, online module reading lists and study skills support, all in our quality learning environments. You’ll have full use of two libraries, both with extensive opening hours. And ‘Live Chat’ enables you to access library support and help, from anywhere, 24/7.
• We have four journalism suites, each with Apple Mac workstations with industry-standard software including NewsCutter, Burli and ENPS.
• Our mediaHUB, a bustling newsroom and home to a team of BBC Newcastle journalists, is responsible for our suite of websites and provides a variety of experiences. Tyne & Wear TV are just downstairs, offering placements to students and jobs to several of our graduates.
• Learn in our 203-seat cinema and 7.1 surround sound facility. Access two broadcast-quality production studios complete with green room and changing facilities and equipment such as Steadicam rigs, track and mini crane.
• Go on-air in one of five radio studios, including a larger radio drama studio and a transmission suite for Spark, our award winning student-run community radio station.

Entry requirements

Our typical offer is:

• Qualification | Minimum grade
• Irish Leaving Certificate | 112 UCAS points – Students must have H1-H7 or O1-O4 in Maths & English.
• QQI/FETAC 5| Pass profile overall. For entry we also require H1-H7 or O1-O4 in Maths and English from Irish Leaving Certificate

If your qualification is not listed above, please contact the Student Administration team at for further advice.

Our admissions policy uses a range of flexible options to support you in studying with us. This may include a reduced offer of up to 16 UCAS tariff points, (or equivalent). Find out if you are eligible.

If English isn't your first language, please see our English language requirements.

If you're studying an HND or Foundation Degree, you may be able to enter the final year of our degree course. For more information, please contact .

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

The annual, full-time fee for this course is:

• £9,535 if you are from the UK/Europe
• £16,500 if you are an international student

*Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. The fee for your first year of study for 2025/26 will be £9,535. You will pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.

Tuition fees for part-time students are £7,145 per 90 credits. Please note that part-time courses are not available to international students who require a Student visa to study in the UK.

Read more about EU fees and funding in our Help and Advice article.

Take a look at the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Career ready

This degree provides an excellent foundation for a wide range of careers in the media. Possible sectors include TV, radio, new media, journalism, marketing, PR, organisational communications, and advertising.

Our students have gained placements or graduate roles with employers such as BBC Radio 1, Capital FM, Channel 4, Heart FM, Metro Radio, Sky TV, BBC Sport, MTV, ITV Studios (Coronation Street), Talk Sport, The Guardian, Jamie Oliver Productions, Lime Pictures, Absolute Radio, BBC Radio 6 Music, I Daniel Blake, BBC World Service, regional newspapers, and PR companies.

You could choose to continue your studies on one of our master's degrees such as MA Radio, Audio and Podcasting or MA Public Relations.

Work placements

We actively encourage students to gain relevant work experience while at university. In every year of your course, you'll be guided and encouraged to gain meaningful experience that'll fit around your studies.

In Year 2, there's a work placement opportunity with a media organisation such as the BBC, Tyne Tees Television or one of the region’s production companies. You can also choose to undertake a number of practice modules that involve practical projects.

All students studying on-campus undergraduate media courses can take up a CV-enhancing work placement, a University-led industry initiative, or a professional and business development boot camp. By the term placement, we mean we're offering you a taste of the industry which might last anything from two days to four weeks on a part-time basis.

Practical experience

Many students get involved in Spark Sunderland, a community radio station based at the University. Students are responsible for all news-gathering, programme production, and advertising. Spark has won many awards including four golds at the Student Radio Awards 2012, and holds the Nations and Regions Award for Best Radio Station in the North East.

Work alongside BBC Newcastle Journalists in our mediaHUB, home to student-run websites covering sport, news, entertainment, fashion, and Spark online magazine.

Sunderland's daily newspaper, The Sunderland Echo, has a weekly page called 'On Campus' that is written entirely by students at the University. It’s an opportunity to find and research your own stories, take photographs, meet deadlines, and see your name in print.

Throughout the course, we invite guest speakers to run workshops and masterclasses that allow you to relate your learning to real-life opportunities.