UDMEDMAR - BA Media and Marketing

The BA Media and Marketing combines study of the media, marketing and mass communications to enable students to develop real expertise in media and marketing and to develop their employability profile in marketing, media relations, and corporate communications contexts. The degree explores how the media shape the way we live, and the influence of this on contemporary marketing and corporate communications professional practice, forging a dialogue between the critical study of the media and the professional study of marketing.

The media are central to the experience of modern life: television, radio, print media, cinema and the Internet all operate as channels for information, education, politics, art and entertainment. They are also channels for the marketing of goods and services, for corporate communications, and for branding. Understanding the media is central to a successful career in marketing, branding, or corporate communications. Media and marketing are inextricable mixed in the commercial world, and this course brings them together as fields of academic study and practice.

Through studying the BA Media and marketing students will develop a critical understanding of the difference the media make to the social, political, and economic worlds we inhabit, as well as the ways in which they shape our symbolic world: the world of perceptions, meanings and values.
Students will also learn about the principles of marketing, marketing in the corporate contexts, and how to integrate marketing and media strategies.

The course is taught using a combination of traditional, and innovative teaching methods, fostering problem-based and inquiry-based learning, and reflective engagement. This active learning is supported by a combination of lectures, workshops, seminars, tutorials, specially prepared online resources, work placement and field trips. Development of employability and professional practice is integrated into the curriculum. Students are encouraged to reflect on their learning process, preparing for knowledge creation, life-long learning and leadership.

A blended learning strategy is employed to enhance the learning experience, facilitate communication between students and tutors and develop collaboration among students. The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be used as a platform to support online activities, facilitate formative assessment and related feedback, as well as a tool to integrate useful online learning materials provided by research institutions, academic publications, professional organisations and other relevant sources.

In addition, students will be able to develop practical skills including photography, video production, and audio production. Student will also be developing transferable skills that will be of value in a variety of academic and employment contexts, with various modules helping to develop a range of critical abilities, a creative and imaginative approach to problem solving, and skills of analysis and presentation.

The BA Media & Marketing aims to prepare students to live and work in contemporary society by enabling them to develop competencies central to forging successful careers in media, marketing, and related roles. It aims to do these things by:

1. Introducing students to a range of appropriate theoretical, methodological and practical frameworks for understanding the media, their production, consumption, and symbolic meanings, and the relationship between these and systems of marketing, advertising, and corporate branding.
2. Encouraging students to develop mastery in the critical analysis of media texts, institutions, and audiences including their historical contexts by successfully applying their learning in a range of ways including work related learning and independent project work, in particular through applying that learning to the analysis of marketing and advertising in the development of reflective professional practice.
3. Expanding the intellectual and imaginative capacities of students through the development of a reflective understanding of the changing nature of media and marketing in society, by emphasising their responsibilities for reflecting on and questioning the diverse ideas, values and practices which underlie these changes.
4. Enabling students to develop practical and transferable skills including but not limited media production, report writing, product pitching, presenting, project work and time management. Enabling students to take responsibility for defining their future career profiles through the choices that they make in their studies.
5. Providing a supportive and nurturing educational environment where students are encouraged to pursue their intellectual, professional, or creative development and encouraged to form peer support networks as part of the wider learning community.

The following learning outcomes incorporate and depend on systematic understanding of the key aspects of the knowledge base of Media & Marketing, including a coherent and detailed knowledge of some specialist areas in depth.

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

• deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry within Media and Marketing;
  
• devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Media and Marketing;
  
• describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in Media and Marketing, recognising the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge;
  
• manage their own learning, and to make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to Media and Marketing;
  
• apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects;
  
• critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem;
  
• communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences;
  
• exercise initiative and personal responsibility, including decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts;
  
• undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature

Assessments are designed to facilitate learning and personal development by supporting the learning outcomes at programme and module level and by allowing opportunities for extensive formative feedback. Assessments are designed to test the full range of academic competencies expected of students, and to allow opportunities for students to demonstrate their individual strengths, interests, and achievements. Published assessment criteria operate at programme and module level to facilitate student understanding, learning and engagement.

Students are required to choose between fifteen credit work based learning or entrepreneurial alternative core modules at Level 5. Students will have an opportunity to engage with work experience and prepare a reflective piece of assessment associated with this placement. In addition, students have the opportunity to be part of the Study Abroad programme which involves an exchange with universities in the United States. Further, our students can engage with the Erasmus study programme and spend a semester at a university in another European country.

See Course Structure

Reflective learning and personal development planning are core dimensions of this course. A variety of learning, teaching and assessment methodologies are deployed in order to assist the student in her self-reflected personal development and in acquiring the tools to engage in living as a citizen and pursuing economic activity in contemporary societies.

In the course of their study, students are asked to engage with theory and practice in a way that is grounded and concrete as well as dealing with abstract concepts. Reflective learning will vary across modules but will involve at all times engagement with peers and tutors in dealing with both formative and summative feedback on essays and reports; practice based modules all offer the opportunity for reflection on abstract theory and critical analysis of academic literature and policies; theoretical modules present opportunities to engage with abstract theory and test this against concrete examples.

Career guidance and industry contextualisation is embedded throughout the programme. Visiting lecturers from the media industry will be arranged each year. Alumni lecturers from the media, digital media and communications subject area will also be organised regularly. Staff maintain strong links with the industry and receive requests for candidates for both volunteer or junior positions in the industry which are then passed on to the students. Further, the student has the opportunity to access the university careers service.

Industry professionals are involved in delivering some specialist lectures. In addition, students have the opportunity to attend staff student seminars where papers are delivered by a variety of specialists from the Media and Academia.

Graduates typically enter careers in media-related roles in the corporate and third sectors, including media relations work, public relations work, marketing work and media management roles. Students often pursue further study opportunities at master's level specialising in either media or marketing roles.

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:

• a minimum of grades BBC in three levels (or a minimum of 112 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC National, OCR Diploma or Advanced Diploma)
• English Language GCSE at grade C (grade 4 from 2017) or above (or equivalent)
• a passion for the media and desire to forge your career in media, marketing, public relations, or communications roles

All applicants must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. Applicants who require a Tier 4 student visa may need to provide a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. For more information about English qualifications please see our English language requirements.