UDMEDSPA - BA Media with Spanish

The degree has a growing use of pedagogical innovation as well as utilising traditional teaching methods. The latter includes a mixture of lectures, seminars, and workshops. Within this a combination of whole group, small group, and student-led and tutor-led teaching occurs. This will include face to face teaching and discussion, but there is also an increasing emphasis on the use of blended learning opportunities. Many modules already are paper free, with considerable learning materials and resources being placed on relevant module weblearn/BlackBoard sites, e.g. lecture notes, module handbooks, video links, recorded lectures, podcasts, first hand documents, and blogs. Teaching staff provide electronic feedback, after the electronic submission of formative assessments, and through on-line office hours. A growing number of materials are also available on-line through the University library, including access to journals and e-books.

This is all designed to open up the learning space for students to enable them to access the degree 24/7, improving the student learning experience, whilst increasing cost-effectiveness and efficiency.

An additional and important part of the teaching and learning strategy is the academic research which is carried by teaching staff. This is used to support teaching through the transferring of staff research skills and knowledge to enhance the student learning experience, i.e. the research is effectively feedback to students through teaching.

Staff research specialisms are an essential component of the Media curriculum, with students benefitting from being taught by specialists.

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.
Explore the cultural and ideological debates underlying the development of the academic frameworks of media 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.

Explore and analyse national and international power relations in the mass media.

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.

Provide language development for those whose interests would be enhanced by improving their foreign language abilities in Spanish.

assist students to develop a range of cognitive, social and language skills relevant to their intellectual, vocational and personal development, with a particular emphasis on employability

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.

The following learning outcomes incorporate and depend on systematic understanding of the key aspects of the knowledge base of Media with Spanish, 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 with Spanish;
• devise and sustain arguments, and/or to solve problems, using ideas and techniques, some of which are at the forefront of Media with Spanish;
• describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in Media with Spanish, 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 with Spanish;
• 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

Languages, Cultures and Societies
Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies

The course combines both formative and summative assessment opportunities, embracing a variety of methods including: essays, exams, seminar performance, seminar presentations (both individual and group), portfolios, blogs, policy documents, and book reviews. The majority will be tutor assessed, but a number will be peer-reviewed in seminars.

The strategy is designed to maximise the development of subject specific skills and employability skills appropriate to each level of the degree.

All students will complete a work-based learning module at either level 5 or level 6.

See Course Structure

Every module on this course has embedded within it reflective learning components and personal development planning relevant to the year of study. It will be encouraged in lectures, seminars, and in assessment methods. Students will be directed to reflect on knowledge specific learning, personal and employability skills development. Students will be encouraged to engage positively with all feedback opportunities, be they with tutors or in peer-review situations, and to reflect and learn, resulting in the developing of further learning strategies.

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, an annual event is organised, in the department, to provide the student with advice on careers, and CV writing among other activities. This is primarily aimed at third year students, however second year students also attend and avail of this advice. This day long activity involves the involvement of external invited specialists.

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.

Students on this degree 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 A levels (or a minimum of 112 UCAS points from an equivalent Level 3 qualification, eg Advanced Diploma)
• English Language GCSE at grade C/grade 4 or above (or equivalent)

If you do not have traditional qualifications or cannot meet the entry requirements for this undergraduate degree, you may still be able to gain entry by completing the Media and Communications Extended degree.

There are no pre-requisites for languages, and students start at whatever level is appropriate after taking a language level assessment with the Open Language Programme staff.

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.