UDMECOFY - BSc Media and Communications (including foundation year)
Course Specification
Validation status | Validated | |||||||||||
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Highest award | Bachelor of Science | Level | Honours | |||||||||
Possible interim awards | Bachelor of Science, Diploma of Higher Education, Certificate of Higher Education, Bachelor of Science | |||||||||||
Total credits for course | 480 | |||||||||||
Awarding institution | London Metropolitan University | |||||||||||
Teaching institutions | London Metropolitan University | |||||||||||
School | School of Computing and Digital Media | |||||||||||
Subject Area | Creative Technologies and Digital Media | |||||||||||
Attendance options |
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Course leader |
About the course and its strategy towards teaching and learning and towards blended learning/e-learning
The BSc Media and Communications (including Foundation Year) addresses how the media shape both the way we live and the world around us, differing from the BSc Media and Communications in its incorporation of an additional year of study at Level 3/Foundation level.
The media are central to the experience of modern life. Television, radio, print media, cinema, and digital media all operate as channels for communicating information, education, politics, art and entertainment. They can build and connect local, national and international communities. They can shape our views of the world, our values, identities and our fantasies.
The BSc Media and Communications (including Foundation Year) engages with all these aspects of contemporary cultural life. Key issues in this field of study are: how the various media are produced; the development of the media and their contemporary transformations; the relationship between the media and questions of gender and race; how the media are used and understood by particular audiences; how the media are regulated and the role of transnational organisations; and how the media now integrate with wider industry through marketing, advertising, and public relations. The course approaches these questions from a variety of perspectives: theoretical, social, historical, textual, political, economic, creative and practical.
Throughout the BSc Media and Communications (including Foundation Year) programme students will develop informed and critical understandings of the difference made by mass media and communications technologies 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. In addition students will develop factual understandings of the institutions and operations of the media and communications industries, their modes of representation and their place within a wider ‘Circuit of Culture’. Knowledge and a comparative understanding of media in a range of historical and contemporary contexts, and in a variety of national and global environments will also be acquired. Students will also become familiar with a range of interdisciplinary approaches to media institutions, media texts and media audiences, and will engage critically with major thinkers, debates and intellectual theories within the field.
The course is taught using a combination of traditional, and innovative teaching methods, fostering problem-based and inquiry-based learning, and reflective engagement. Active learning is supported by a combination of lectures, workshops, seminars, tutorials, online resources, work placement and field trips. Development of employability and professional practice is both integrated across the curriculum and addressed in specific modules. Students are encouraged to reflect on their learning process, preparing for knowledge creation, life-long learning and leadership. The additional Foundation year within this programme provides students with a broad field of study of several different areas of media theory and practice.
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.
Students will be able to develop practical skills in a range of media and media-related activities, including photography, film, television, and radio production, audio and video editing, and web design. Students will develop transferable skills 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.
Course aims
The aims of the course are to prepare students and give them an education that will provide them with the tools to live and work in an advanced industrial society. In this context the Media and Communications (including Foundation Year) programme of education and its aims are rooted in the central role played by media and communications as it is integrated into every aspect of our social, political, economic and cultural life.
The aims of the programme are to:
- Establish a sound theoretical and methodological framework for the coherent and systematic exploration of the languages and forms of the mass media and the relationship between production, distribution, reception, and the construction of meaning in the media.
- Develop a knowledge and understanding of the media and culture in their historical contexts through the examination of an appropriate range of materials and practices in both their contemporary and historical forms.
- Explore the cultural and ideological debates underlying the development of the academic frameworks of media and communications studies, with particular reference to mass media’s negotiations of power, gender, sexuality, race, and class.
- Develop in students a confident understanding of their particular interests and abilities and the ways in which these might be directed in relation to contemporary media and cultural concerns and aspirations.
- Introduce students to a range of approaches that will enable them to analyse the structures and processes whereby media and popular culture texts and practices are produced and consumed.
- Facilitate an understanding of various global and international contexts increasingly influenced by media, communications and cultural industries and enable students to explore and analyse national and international power relations in media and communications.
- Expand the intellectual and imaginative capacities of students, through the development of an understanding of the changing nature of communications and culture in society, by emphasising their responsibilities for reflecting on and questioning the diverse ideas, values and practices which underlie these changes.
- Provide students with an integrated and thorough understanding of the ways in which social practices and cultural processes inform our consciousness of our affiliations and ourselves.
- Introduce students to a range of theoretical approaches focusing on the interconnections between various forms of public and media culture and the structures of individual, everyday lived experience.
- Consider the critical importance of the mass media as a significant area of contemporary culture.
- Widen access to higher education and to create an enabling environment for non-standard and standard students, thereby promoting equality of opportunity for UK, EU and international students.
- Provide opportunities for students to acquire a range of transferable skills that will enable them to engage critically and creatively in contemporary media and popular cultures.
Course learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course students will be able to:
1) Accurately deploy established techniques of analysis and enquiry within Media and Communications;
2) Devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Media and Communications;
3) Describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in Media and Communications, recognising the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge;
4) 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 Communications;
5) 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;
6) 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;
7) Communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences;
8) Exercise initiative and personal responsibility, including decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts;
9) Undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature.
10) University Learning Outcome (ULO) - Demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition and creativity and will act as inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioners/professionals in their discipline.
Principle QAA benchmark statements
Subject Benchmark Statement: Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies [2019]
https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/subject-benchmark-statements/subject-benchmark-statement-communication-media-film-and-cultural-studies.pdf
The above latest subject benchmark statement is used in the design, delivery and review of the course and in
facilitating the knowledge and skills normally expected of a typical course graduate.
Assessment strategy
The course combines practice-based and theory-based modules, and through the curriculum aims both to critically analyse the media and communication’s sectors and explore how these fit into contemporary industrialised societies. Relationships with other sectors of industry and national and transnational organisations are explored. Core modules require students to engage with both theory and practice in the field and option module choices enable students to extend their expertise in specific areas of media, information and communications. The dissertation module enables students to develop an in-depth understanding of a sector of their choice.
Assessment instruments are tailored to the aims and learning outcomes of each module. Students are expected to produce a mixture of written, visual and oral work and are required to demonstrate working within a team. Students will also produce creative practice-based assessed work as a part of their programme of study, and are required to engage with theoretical frameworks and concepts from a range of disciplinary contexts, as appropriate to the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of Media and Communications.
The course makes use of formative and summative assessment strategies. The course makes extensive use of formative feedback in supporting and developing student attainment. Self-assessment and reflection on the process of learning are part of the modules’ assessment strategies. Most assessment is coursework based.
Organised work experience, work based learning, sandwich year or year abroad
Work based learning is undertaken as a part of the L5 module FC**** Work Based Learning for Media, in which students can either participate in a work placement or in simulated work based learning. Preparatory work for this is undertaken during the L4 Module Digital Work. 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
Course specific regulations
PART-TIME MODE OF STUDY Part-time mode of study is defined as 60 credits per year. Consequently, in part-time mode, the duration of study for a 120-credit award will be 2 years.
At Level 3 the following school-wide regulations shall apply.
ACADEMIC PROGRESSION: As a condition of progressing from level 3to 4 students are required to have gained 120 credits per level, that is, by achieving pass marks (40%) in all four modules in the preceding level of study.
Courses shall conform to both framework and University Academic Regulations. Where a course in addition has course specific regulations which have been formally approved by the University, these should be included below.
Modules required for interim awards
All core modules are required to gain the BSc (Hons) Media and Communications awards.
Awards below this can be gained with any combination of modules on the programme to the requisite credit values; these can be made-up of core or option modules from the programme or suitable alternative option modules agreed by the course leader.
Arrangements for promoting reflective learning and personal development
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. Reflective learning is also integral to the practice-based creative work that is integrated into the curriculum.
PDP is integrated within the curriculum through the Work Based Learning (WBL) for Media modules, which encourage students to reflect on their future career aspirations, and the ways of using their learning to achieve those aspirations. Students begin this at L4 in the module Digital Work, develop it at L5 through the module Work Based Learning for Media, and master this through their independent dissertation work at L6.
Career, employability and opportunities for continuing professional development
Students pursuing the BSc Media and Communications develop the creative, analytical and communication skills to pursue employment in the field of Media and/or Post graduate study as evidenced by national statistics. Graduates also frequently pursue careers in media-related fields such as Marketing, Public Relations, and Social Media Management. Graduates often progress on to Masters Level study in the UK and other European countries, including pan European Masters Programmes, in a variety of field including Media, Communications and Media Production programmes.
Career opportunities
Our creative technologies and digital media graduates have gone on to exciting careers as content programmers, fashion copywriters, motion graphic designers, multimedia journalists and visual effects production assistants, radio presenters, studio runners and producers in companies such as D2 Interactive, TK MAXX, Motion Picture Company, Virtual Arts, Volant Media and We Are Capture.
Entry requirements
In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:
- at least one A level (or a minimum of 32 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg BTEC Subsidiary/National/BTEC Extended Diploma)
- English Language GCSE at grade C/grade 4 or above (or equivalent eg Functional Skills at Level 2)
We encourage applications from International/EU students with equivalent qualifications. We also accept mature students with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Suitable applicants living in the UK may be invited to a portfolio interview. Applicants living outside the UK may be required to submit a small portfolio of work via email.
Official use and codes
Approved to run from | 2019/20 | Specification version | 1 | Specification status | Validated |
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Original validation date | 05 Aug 2019 | Last validation date | 05 Aug 2019 | ||
Sources of funding | HE FUNDING COUNCIL FOR ENGLAND | ||||
JACS codes | |||||
Route code | MECOFY |
Stage 1 Level 03 September start Offered
Code | Module title | Info | Type | Credits | Location | Period | Day | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SJ3050 | Introduction: Journalism and Writing for the Media | Core | 15 | NORTH | AUT | THU | PM | |
SJ3051 | Journalism and Professional Writing | Core | 15 | NORTH | SPR | TUE | AM | |
SM3017 | Introduction: Media and Communications | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | WED | AM | |
SM3018 | Introduction : Film, TV and Broadcast Media | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | TUE | PM | |
NORTH | AUT+SPR | TUE | AM | |||||
SM3019 | Introduction: Digital Media | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | WED | PM |
Stage 1 Level 03 January start Not currently offered
Code | Module title | Info | Type | Credits | Location | Period | Day | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SJ3050 | Introduction: Journalism and Writing for the Media | Core | 15 | |||||
SJ3051 | Journalism and Professional Writing | Core | 15 | |||||
SM3017 | Introduction: Media and Communications | Core | 30 | |||||
SM3018 | Introduction : Film, TV and Broadcast Media | Core | 30 | |||||
SM3019 | Introduction: Digital Media | Core | 30 |
Stage 2 Level 04 September start Offered
Code | Module title | Info | Type | Credits | Location | Period | Day | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SJ4046 | Moving Image and Sound Practice | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | FRI | PM | |
NORTH | AUT+SPR | FRI | AM | |||||
SM4001 | Media Genres | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | MON | AM | |
SM4013 | Media Histories | Core | 30 | NORTH | SPR+SUM | WED | PM | |
NORTH | AUT+SPR | TUE | AM | |||||
SM4050 | Introduction to Digital Media | Core | 15 | NORTH | SUM | FRI | PM | |
NORTH | AUT | FRI | PM | |||||
SM4052 | Digital Work | Core | 15 | NORTH | SPR | FRI | PM | |
NORTH | SPR | THU | PM |
Stage 3 Level 05 September start Offered
Code | Module title | Info | Type | Credits | Location | Period | Day | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SJ5090 | Contemporary Television Studies | Core | 15 | NORTH | AUT | FRI | PM | |
SM5067 | Television Studio Practice | Core | 15 | NORTH | SPR | FRI | AM | |
NORTH | SPR | FRI | PM | |||||
SM5068 | Researching Media Audiences | Core | 15 | NORTH | AUT | TUE | PM | |
SM5W50 | Work Based Learning for Media | Core | 15 | NORTH | SPR | MON | PM | |
OL0001 | Language Module (Arabic, French, Spanish or Eng... | Option | 15 | NORTH | AUT | NA | ||
OL0002 | Language Module (Arabic, French, Spanish or Eng... | Option | 15 | NORTH | SPR | NA | ||
NORTH | AUT | NA | ||||||
SM5051 | Crime and the Media | Option | 15 | NORTH | SPR | THU | AM | |
SM5052 | Youth Culture and the Media | Option | 15 | NORTH | AUT | THU | AM | |
SM5059 | Situation Comedy | Option | 15 | NORTH | SPR | WED | AM | |
SM5072 | Documentary Photography | Option | 15 | NORTH | AUT | THU | PM |
Stage 4 Level 06 September start Offered
Code | Module title | Info | Type | Credits | Location | Period | Day | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SM6003 | Media, Culture and Identity | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | MON | PM | |
SM6052 | Media, Power and Politics | Core | 15 | NORTH | SPR | WED | PM | |
SM6070 | Research in Visual Culture | Core | 15 | NORTH | AUT | MON | AM | |
SM6P05 | Media and Communication Dissertation | Core | 30 | NORTH | AUT+SPR | WED | PM | |
OL0001 | Language Module (Arabic, French, Spanish or Eng... | Option | 15 | NORTH | AUT | NA | ||
OL0002 | Language Module (Arabic, French, Spanish or Eng... | Option | 15 | NORTH | SPR | NA | ||
NORTH | AUT | NA | ||||||
SJ6060 | Documentary Filmmaking | Option | 15 | NORTH | SPR | MON | AM | |
SM6053 | Digital Video Post-Production | Option | 15 | NORTH | AUT | THU | AM | |
SM6054 | Analysing Popular Music | Option | 15 | NORTH | AUT | WED | AM |