MA Media (Part Time)

 

If you are a graduate with a media or related degree, are currently working and want to change careers or simply want to upskill to M Level study and are keen to explore the creative and commercial possibilities of your ideas with the guidance of a widely experienced academic team, you might be interested in our MA in Media.

This degree is a new degree which has been specifically designed to meet the demands of an international market place.  

The MA Media scheme includes the following awards:

• MA Film
• MA Media
• MA Popular Music
• MA Television

Our teaching team

The qualifications and industry experience of our lecturers include theoretical and practice-based knowledge in digital media, film-making, journalism and publishing, marketing, script-writing for radio, television, film and stage and music theory and performance, amongst other things.  Feedback from our External Examiners repeatedly praises our team for their approachability and face to face involvement with the teaching programme and the students.

Added to this is our highly popular series of guest speakers - tailor-made specifically for postgraduate students. Our speakers are professionals with diverse profiles drawn from links with external media bodies, such as Abbey Road Productions, the BBC and the Royal Television Society.  

All this, combined with our newly updated digital studio, means you'll have a first-rate environment for research and experimentation.  It's all about choice. You can study
full-time or part-time and select which pathway best suits your area of interest.   

Unsure of which pathway to take? Don't worry. Our team will be happy to assist you with your choice. Our aim is to encourage and advise you in your area of interest and to discuss ways to publish, exhibit, and promote your work.

Course content

On this degree there are units which are required and units which you can choose from to enable you to build a media degree which relates to your experience and interest.

Core units

• Professional Development and Research Skills
• Masters Project

Options

• Social Media
• Identity, Culture and Conflict
• Diaspora Visions
• Propaganda and Persuasion
• Experimental Film History, Form and Practice
• Digital Studio
• Documentary History: Form and Practice
• Contemporary British Film and Television
• Script to Screen
• Producing Television
• Digital and Multi-platform Storytelling
• Global Popular Music

 

Professional Development and Research Skills

This unit is the introductory unit to the course where you will meet other post-graduates from the Media School. Its purpose is to provide you with top-class research skills which are relevant to your interests. In this way, the unit is different to those offered at other universities because it is not a general catch-all programme but one that is tailor-made each year to relate to the post-graduate cohort. The teaching team helps you by providing the specific terms of reference for the successful completion of your major project. We help you to hit the ground running at the outset and encourage you to begin thinking about the purpose of your MA work. Emphasis is placed on research methods and techniques that can be used in the development of strategies for employment in the Media Industries. Tutorial guidance will develop the skills pertinent to your aims and objectives in professional development.

 

Social Media

Explorations of the concept of social media as a commercial, cultural and social phenomenon with particular emphasis on its relationship with internationalisation forms the focus of the content in this unit. Forms of social media are now available in a wide variety domains. New digital communication technologies have enabled a reconfiguring of the relationships between producers and consumers of a variety of forms of media and we are interested in learning what you know about these areas and how you might apply that knowledge to a wide range of global situations. These phenomena that is now known as social media has developed at a rapid pace and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. 

Web 2.0 and the significance of the concept, social networking, productivity networking, user-generated content and political networks are areas that will be investigated and analysed by the debates centring on internationalisation.

Student assessment is based on group creative work. Lecturers provide input both in terms of academic analysis of aspects of social media and workshops developing the students’ skills in creating a social media package.

 

Identity, Culture and Conflict

Identity is often at the heart of cultural conflict. Issues of war, unrest and of dis-ease are frequently underpinned by questions about who ‘belongs’ to certain identity groupings and who doesn’t. The mapping and framing of these groupings are themselves points of contest and conquest – who gets to decide who is ‘us’ and who is ‘other’? This unit explores areas of conflict arising in relation to identity, through the study firstly of gendered and sexed identities and issues of conflict (for example debates about the global HiV/AIDS pandemic) and secondly through exploration of race and ethnicity and the areas of conflict arising from those identities (for example the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and its legacy in the form of ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Theoretically the unit will be framed through several key approaches to ‘identity’, grounded in the idea that ‘identities’ are socially and culturally constructed. Students will be asked to consider the ways in which these cultural constructions have been inscribed onto bodies (as gendered, sexed, racial and ethnic ‘difference’) through regimes of patriarchy and colonialism.  

 

Documentary: History, Form and Practice

This unit provides students with a firm grounding in documentary history, documentary form and documentary practice. It traces the key developments in the history and format of documentary but will also treat documentary as an ongoing and evolving entity, one which as Stella Bruzzi has noted, has enjoyed ‘renewed popularity’ in recent years with a number of documentaries achieving considerable success at the box office (e.g. An Inconvenient Truth and Bowling for Columbine) as well as the proliferation of reality television shows and so-called formatted documentaries (e.g. Wife Swap and Faking It) on television. The unit will also take an internationalist view of documentary film-making by examining the documentary tradition in non-western and non-Anglo contexts.

As well as providing an overview of the codes and conventions of documentary and of documentary traditions in different places, the unit will also provide students with the means to successfully make a short documentary film. Students will study technical and creative aspects of documentary filmmaking and will master the full range of skills in camera, lights, sound and digital video editing. They also draw upon some of the principles outlined in the more theoretically-oriented section of the course in relation to form and history and apply them to their own practice as film-makers.

 

Experimental Film: History, Form and Practice

Experimental film employs film-making techniques, styles and approaches that are distinctive from the kinds of filmic conventions that are present within mainstream film-making. This unit will introduce students to and provide them with a firm understanding of the history, codes, formats and practice of experimental film-making. The theoretical side of the unit will address aspects of experimental film form including its take on narrative forms, its use of non-diegetic sound and its use of abstractions, alongside elements of history. This might include an examination of such avant-garde art movements as dada and surrealism, and the New American Cinema of the 1960s. The unit will also look at the relationship between mainstream and avant-garde / underground film-making and the way in which these categories have become blurred. In this way, the unit will ask students to think about the commercial possibilities of experimental film-making. Students will view a range of experimental films from the dawn of cinema through to the present day.

Alongside theoretical sessions, the unit will also through practical workshop sessions in camera, lights, sound and digital video editing, which will provide students with the means to successfully make a short experimental film. Students will study the technical and creative aspects of experimental film-making and will be expected to demonstrate through assessment a high degree of technical and creative competency in the use of cameras, lighting, sound and digital video editing. As with the unit of documentary, students will also be expected to draw upon some of the principles outlined in the more theoretically-oriented section of the course in relation to form and history and apply them to their own practice.

 

Digital Studio

This unit places the processes of digital media production in historical and social contexts. It provides an overview of production development relevant to different digital production formats and opportunities to develop specific skills in one or more of the areas of study, such as studios, on offer. The student will individually create and composite content in one or more of the available studios such as 3D, digital audio, digital video/film or web design. The unit will focus on the fundamental skills and principles involved in the creation of content to a high standard. The mode of distribution will also be considered. Lecturers and technician instructors will support the students as they develop both their practical and creative/imaginative skills in their chosen studio/s. A practice-based lecture series examines in aspects of digital media from the perspectives of interaction, internationalisation and localisation. Tutorials will take the form of production meetings. The production meetings will take place throughout the unit offering opportunities for tutors to engage the student with issues relating to the cultural, political, ethic, legal and creative significance of their production decisions.

 

Contemporary British Film and Television

This unit offers students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of contemporary British film and television, including current issues in scholarship. It explores the diverse range of national film and television, paying particular attention to the links between British film, television, society and culture. The unit encourages domestic, transatlantic and international perspectives, situating British film and television within ideas of the national and a wider global context. Students will be expected to reflect on the role of British film in shaping and responding to contemporary social and cultural themes and issues while engaging with relevant critical debates about the British film and television industries.

 

Script to Screen

This unit will engage the student in developing their own original (or adapted) story to create a professional screenplay; this will be in conjunction with creating an industry-standard pre-production package (which may be used for their final Masters Project in Period 3). Understanding character development, archetypes, myth, and subtext are crucial elements in developing a dynamic screen-story. Students will formulate an idea for an original short film, paying close attention to how the production should be placed in terms of budget, logistics, characters/casting, settings and overall design. Students will be asked to write a treatment and step-outline for their idea, along with a screenplay and an investigation into their creative and organisational processes. The intention is that students will have a completed a good 2^nd to 3^rd draft of their script for submission and a full pre-production plan.

The unit reinforces the ‘reality of the industry’ parameters for both indie and studio-based scriptwriting and pre-production parameters and combines theory and practice to enable students to study an array of screenwriters and producers that may influence and inspire their own practice. Students will be asked to reflect on these practices and compare them to their own developing methods on this unit. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with form, content, and genre to develop innovative story ideas and the techniques to invoke those concepts into a workable and realisable short screenplay.

Students will negotiate their creative needs with their tutor in the first three weeks of the unit – in tandem with a skills audit in the Research and Professional Development unit undertaken in Period 1 ensuring that they are able to fulfil the brief.

 

Producing TV

The producer is the recognised head of most productions, being responsible for teambuilding, people-management, brainstorming, format design and audience targeting, delegated research and content gathering, instilling reliability and professional practice, budgetary, ethical and legal issues, through to final delivery of a show or shows for television and, as is most common these days, additional multi-platform distribution. This unit will demonstrate how each area of responsibility can best be handled; how to get the best out of a group or individuals, noting and acting on latest professional theories on understanding group dynamics; communicating the most effective/shortcut ways of developing ideas; running orders and formats, and researching content to enhance entertainment value; and to guide and advise on legal and ethical issues which may arise. Though a sizeable production would engage a programme manager to manage the budget, the producer would also need to know what s/he has to spend, and how best to spend it.

The unit will also engage with pitching and presenting skills as if to a programme commissioner. Producing calls for toughness, and leading by example. S/he would invariable work closely with a director responsible for the look and sound of the show, though the buck stops with the producer, who invariably holds the intellectual property rights to the product.

 

Digital and Multi-platform Storytelling

The unit delivers both a theoretical and practical perspective on the development and possibilities of storytelling in the digital domain. Defined by the use of interactivity, digital narrative has the potential to immerse the audience in stories by engaging in decision-making and the implementation of user skills. Areas of contextual study will examine game play, braided narrative and transmedia projects with the content providing a level of understanding that is applicable to both current TV commissioning protocols and modelling innovative future trends in digital storytelling.

 

Global Popular Music

This unit investigates a variety of globalised popular musics and the cultural exchanges which occur when music, musicians and record companies operate on a global scale. With the diminishing importance of the Anglo-American centre and the growth of emerging regional and national genres, styles and markets, it is increasingly important to investigate how major trans-national record companies interact with institutions, industries and agencies in local and national contexts. Alongside industrial perspectives, the unit will consider associated themes including globalisation and hybridity, Americanisation, cultural imperialism, appropriation, national identity and the relationship between the global and local.

 

Diaspora Visions

This unit studies and analyzes the origins and histories of ‘diasporas’ and the effect these have had on world international relations and culture.

Starting with the Jewish Diaspora, in many ways the metaphor for all subsequent ‘scattering’ experiences, the unit will explore a number of others: the Irish, the Hungarian, the Polish, the German, etc. in Europe; the Greek and Arab in the Middle East; and those from the continents of Asia, Africa and Australia. Ideas centring on the conflict between Civilization and Empire will be examined in historical and contemporary contexts. Science, the arts, politics and religion will all be put under scrutiny within and outside of the different Diaspora experiences. There will be an opportunity for students to specialise in a particular Diaspora or to follow a specific subject pathway, for example, literature, politics, art, etc.

 

Propaganda and Persuasion

Influence, coercion, propaganda and spin are all terms that have been used in relation to international media messages in a constantly shifting global environment. In our contemporary world, advertisers, agencies and traditional media outlets are constantly adapting to try to thrive in these changing environments and the proliferation of ‘How to’ texts represents the demand for solutions to these changes. The ability to persuade and influence audiences through new technologies and the ways in which they attempt to reach sceptical new consumers can be read in a wide range of different contexts. The material in this unit will provide an overview of the history of propaganda and ‘persuasive texts’ through a survey of the history of mass media (from literature and the arts to press, radio, TV, film and digital forms) and will analyse how they are fundamentally linked to propaganda and persuasion across the political, cultural and social domains.

 

Masters Project

The Masters Project is where students are will design, execute and present an individually demanding piece of work that deploys a systematic and in-depth understanding of the skills and debates relevant to their particular discipline of study. The template for the Project will be negotiated via a proposal that will be discussed with the supervisor to ensure that a researchable project exists.

The Major Project can take a number of different forms depending on the discipline of the study investigated by the student. In each case, the student will be expected to present a Project that critically synthesises approaches and methodologies within the discipline and demonstrates initiative and autonomy in its execution.

The “appropriate” final form of the Project is decided through negotiation between the student and the Project advisor and is determined by the nature of the work undertaken.

Assessment

Assessment ranges from presentations of ideas and concepts through to written essays, project work and exams.  

Special features

• Unique programme of study
  As one of the only MA Schemes in the country offering a diverse range of pathways for post-graduates, we attract students with impressive portfolios of skills and interests.  
• Speaker series
  A popular feature of the course which gives you the chance to meet and talk with media professionals from a broad range of media industries.  
• Choice
  Project or Dissertation? Students indicate that the opportunity to choose what they want to do for their final piece, is a feature of the course that appeals to them more than any is often the reason why they chose us over our competitors.   
• Satisfied students
  Previous graduates generate a considerable amount of word-of-mouth publicity by telling others about their positive experiences in studying with us at post-graduate level.  Many remain in contact with us long after they have graduated.   
• Approachable staff
  We see our students as colleagues who teach us as much as we teach them.  In order to keep our fingers 'on-the-pulse' in the fast-paced, rapidly changing media environment, many of us continue to work as freelancers and consultants.  We pride ourselves on the diversity of our Master's scheme and work with you to 'hit the ground running' in the job market.  

Attendance

Single day timetable

While the campus facilities are available to you in the same way that they are to undergraduates, our class contact sessions are on Wednesdays.  This is particularly helpful to students who need to ask employers for time off to attend classes.  

Field trips

MA study groups have visited London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam and Prague.  The trips are usually organised to coincide with an event such as a documentary film festival or art exhibition.  While you have to cover your own expenses, we have access to low-cost travel companies which provide very reasonable rates for student groups.     

Fees

 

Fees for the 2011/12 academic year are:

Full-time
UK and EU students: £3,625 pa
Overseas students: £9,400 pa

Part-time
UK and EU students: £1,815 pa
Overseas students: £4,700 pa