MA Media & Communications

Program Overview

MA Media and Communications

Overview

Join a pioneering MA Media and Communications programme in a world-leading department. Founded in 1993, this Master's programme reflects the research-led interdisciplinary approach we take to media and communications that has made us leaders in the field. We value the creative and the critical and their interrelationships, to explore and interrogate how the complex, mediated worlds we live in work.

Why Study MA Media and Communications at Goldsmiths

• You’ll study in one of the top Media, Communications and Cultural Studies departments globally. We are ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 16th in the world (third in the UK) in the 2024 QS World Rankings by Subject.
• The programme aims to provide you with ways to understand, analyse and intervene within the complex, mediated worlds we live in, from how the digital age has transformed our communicative experiences to how the mediated worlds impact the rituals of our daily lives.
• Our teaching is theory-driven, but you will also have the opportunity to undertake a practice option in a range of areas, including journalism, campaigns and design, and the Screen School.
• You’ll complete a dissertation, where you will research a subject that ignites your interest. From creativity and AI, and post-pandemic digital practices to queerness in gaming, these are just some of the topics that past students have researched, but your dissertation topic is entirely up to you.
• We encourage you to look at issues holistically. Alongside lectures and seminars, we run workshops, screenings and cultural trips to encourage you to explore the role of the media in our lives as widely as possible – from the individual and organisational level to corporations, the state, and the market across both the public and private sectors.
• Every year we change the content you study to relate to existing issues, so we’ll always be working on what’s current. We take a collaborative approach, bringing in many different intellectual ideas and calling upon a whole range of ways of thinking which have been traditionally compartmentalised.
• Together, we will investigate modern-day issues to establish how the media are implicated in different aspects of life and the way the world functions.

Length

• 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time

Entry Requirements

• You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant/related subject.
• You might also be considered if you have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level.

Fees

• Home - full-time: £12,150
• Home - part-time: £6,075
• International - full-time: £22,000

Department

• Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

What You'll Study

Compulsory Modules

• Introduction to Media and Communications Theory (30 credits)
• Dissertation (60 credits)

Optional Modules

• You will choose optional modules worth 90 credits, at least 60 of which must be from the list offered by the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.

Assessment

• The MA is assessed primarily through coursework essays and written projects.
• Practical modules may require audiovisual elements to be submitted.
• It will also include a dissertation of approximately 12,000 words.

Research in the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

• Members of the department have published many books with high-impact international presses, and articles in leading international journals on a diverse range of topics including:
  • Affect and emotion
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Bioethics
  • The body and experience
  • Branding
  • Broadcasting
  • Media democracies
  • Film history, screen studies
  • Technocolonialism
  • Critical disinformation studies
  • The future of journalism
  • Media geographies
  • The mediation of power
  • Mediated feminisms
  • Postcolonial and decolonial politics
  • Sound and video cultures
  • Media arts and XR technologies
  • Critical media psychology
  • Body studies
  • Media and migration
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Cultures of creativity and digital labour
  • Media histories
  • Politics of data and AI
  • Geo/politics
  • Economics and history of news media around the world
  • Media and citizenship

Research Units

• Our current research centres and units are:
  • Digital Culture Unit
  • Centre for Feminist Research
  • Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre
  • Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy
  • Topology Research Unit

Careers

• The Department has a strong record of employment prospects for its graduates and has established strong links with the creative industries in London and beyond.
• Graduates from this degree go into:
  • Advertising
  • Marketing and public relations
  • Broadcasting and print media
  • Social media
  • NGOs and intergovernmental organisations
  • The arts and heritage sector
  • Digital media and communications heads/managers across a variety of sectors

Funding Opportunities

• Aziz Foundation Scholarship: Up to nine full fee waiver scholarships are available. The scholarship is open to British Muslims who are Masters offer holders with specific career aspirations, including a career in media or journalism.