Explore our Global Media and Communication taught Master's degree.

P-W4PG

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time (Home/EU)

30 September 2024 

Centre for Cultural and Media Policy StudiesLink opens in a new window

University of Warwick

Global Media and Communication MA takes an interdisciplinary and critical approach to the exponential growth of global media. Join Warwick's Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies to gain in-depth understanding of how media are produced and consumed, implicated in political and social change, and how media is increasingly shaping the world in which we live.

This course combines rigorous research of global media products, content and technologies with the creative skills needed. You will take an interdisciplinary approach to develop an oversight of media, communication, culture, politics, power, business, marketing and creativity. It will deepen your understanding of these complex dynamics and practices, preparing you for a career in this fast-changing industry.

You will explore the role of ideas, beliefs and values in media production and consumption. You will also learn how media products and content enable us to communicate creatively and effectively across global markets and cultural borders. You will consider how media can inform new kinds of professional practice and anticipate future developments.

You will learn in an international environment through interaction with academic experts and industry practitioners.

The core modules are taught through a combination of lectures, workshops and student-led presentations and discussions. These sessions are complemented by self-directed learning and access to resources and activities in a virtual learning environment.

The course is designed to facilitate participation and critical reflection and in some modules you will have the opportunity to apply your learning in a professional context. The course will enhance your research, writing and communication skills through guided and autonomous reading, group projects, presentations, case studies, reports, critiques and assignments that may require engagement with audio-visual technologies.

We traditionally limit class size to 20-35 students on each of the three taught Master's courses.

Typical contact hours range between 6-10 hours each week for core teaching – this excludes additional tutorials, workshops, and research seminars.

• All coursework
• Written assignments come in a variety of forms: essays, case studies, evaluations, reports, proposals, portfolios and business plans
• Group presentations and tasks, team building exercises, and creative and practical projects
• A major project (written dissertation of 12,000 words) on a research topic of your choice

Additional course costs

For all MA courses, the cost of field trips or off-campus assignments are estimated to cost between £100-£200, although this will depend on which option module has been chosen or the nature of a project or placement undertaken for an applied management module.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

There are no additional entry requirements for this course. However, we may ask applicants to write a short essay, provide a video statement, attend an interview or respond to a set of questions.

Approaching Global Media

The module explores interdisciplinary perspectives in order to understand how the media and communication industries operate. In this module you will gain an overview of the various disciplinary approaches taken in the academic understanding of the global media. Drawing on perspectives from Sociology, Cultural and Communication Studies, amongst others, the module will deepen your understanding of the historical, social and political contexts in which the media industries are located, and help to shed light on the contemporary landscape in which they operate.

You will also examine the place of the media industries in creating a 'global' society and engage with debates about economic and cultural globalization. The latter part of the module you will consider the role of the global media in shaping and transforming a global public sphere. Further examination of the structure and organisation of the media and cultural industries will help to reveal what is at stake in the proliferation of channels and flows of media messages around the globe.

Creativity, Communication and Technology

In this module you will evaluate the impact of creativity, communication and technology upon personal, local, national and global issues. Creative media communication is central to most innovation today, and is an effective way of researching the power of media and exploring new levels of value creation. The latest research exploring alternative media, community media, digital media, open source and new communication dynamics will update your understanding. From crowd sourcing to citizen journalism, mobile connectivity to convergence, peer-to-peer and civic participation, you will investigate the creative use of communications and technology in the current globalized media ecology. Engagement with innovative media studies research methods will provide the tools for investigating global media and communication in more depth.

Whilst paying attention to the impact of creativity and technology on media discourses, forms, practices and industries, you are also expected to be creative in this module. Our sub-focus is on creating communication for personal, local, national and global impact. Using simple media tools, you will develop your ideas on how personal, local, national, or global issues can be constructed creatively for private, public or third sector political and cultural economies.

Applied Communication Project

In this practice based module you will focus on contemporary challenges in media and creative industries. You will engage with professionalsand practitioners and respond to their inputs by developing a creative media project. You and your group will address that challenge through research, creative and strategic thinking and communication planning/research. This module is one of our Applied Practice Modules. It is project-based, and gives you the opportunity to apply your learning in situ or in practice related contexts.

Research Design

This module aims to prepare you for your Major Project, which is a substantial piece of independent research on a topic of your choice. The module will equip you with a broad understanding of relevant research methods from which to select an appropriate approach for your own project. It will introduce you to ethical dimensions of research. It will equip you to write an effective proposal (including research questions, rationale, explanation and justification of research methods, identifying relevant literature and data sources).

By the end of the module, you should be ready to submit your proposal and be equipped with a broad understanding of research methods in the cultural, creative and media industries field.

Plus the following:

Major Project

The Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies is an interdisciplinary centre for teaching and research in the fields of cultural and media policy and the creative industries. The commitment to interdisciplinarity is reflected in our Major Projects, where you will be encouraged to draw on approaches from across the humanities and social sciences in producing your work. Successful projects can emerge from creative engagement with scholarly debates, from the design and analysis of original empirical work, or from some combination of these. This openness of approach is also reflected in how Major Project research can be represented.

• The Global Audience
• Marketing and Markets
• Media, Policy and Markets
• Cultural Entrepreneurship
• Developing Audiences for Cultural Organisations

All students will take one optional module. There are four core modules, which also includes their course-specific applied management module. The bespoke applied management module for this MA is ‘Applied Communication Project’ (as above). This module gives you the opportunity to apply your learning in practice- or industry-related contexts.

Read more about the MA in Global Media and Communication on the Centre's website.Link opens in a new window

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