FILM4001: Introduction to Film Studies

• Terms Taught: Full Year
• US Credits: 10
• ECTS Credits: 20
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Introduce students to the academic study of film, including key critical concepts, methods of analysis, and major historical movements, films, and filmmakers.
• Develop students’ skills in the formal and technical analysis of film, including shot composition, editing, sound, mise-en-scène, performance, and narrative structure.
• Familiarise students with a range of global and national cinema traditions, examining the historical, ideological, and cultural frameworks that shape film production and reception.
• Provide students with opportunities to apply critical and analytical knowledge through collaborative filmmaking, developing foundational technical and creative skills in camera, sound, and editing.
• Support students in developing transferable skills such as research, academic writing, group collaboration, and reflective thinking, laying the foundation for progression into more advanced study at Levels 5 and 6.
• Encourage theoretical reflection on practice and the use of creative work as a mode of conceptual and critical investigation.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Describe and apply foundational concepts in film theory, history, and aesthetics.
2. Analyse key formal elements of film—such as shot composition, editing, sound, and mise-en-scène—using appropriate critical vocabulary.
3. Demonstrate basic creative and technical skills in screen production, including camera, editing, and sound, through collaborative project work.
4. Communicate ideas effectively in written, oral, and audiovisual forms, demonstrating an ability to collaborate and reflect on the relationship between film theory and practice.

Outline Syllabus

This module is structured around three integrated strands: Analysis and Interpretation, National and Historical Frameworks, and Film Production. These areas are woven across the two-semester delivery to build a strong foundation in both critical and creative approaches to film.

The first strand, Analysis and Interpretation, introduces students to the core formal and technical elements of film—such as shot composition, editing, sound, mise-en-scène, and performance. Through case study screenings and guided analysis, students learn how meaning is constructed through cinematic form and genre, and how film engages viewers through aesthetic, narrative, and affective strategies.

The second strand, National and Historical Frameworks, develops students’ understanding of global film history and international cinematic movements. Students examine a range of key films and filmmakers from different national traditions, exploring how cinema reflects, responds to, and shapes cultural and political contexts. Topics may include French New Wave, Hong Kong action cinema, Iranian melodrama, and British social realism. This strand is informed by the programme’s commitment to decolonising the curriculum and includes diverse voices, including those from non-Western and marginalised film cultures.

The third strand, Film Production, runs alongside the analytical components of the module and culminates in a collaborative short film project. Students apply their growing knowledge of film form by engaging in basic camera, editing, and sound work. The project offers a space to explore creative practice as a mode of enquiry, while also developing skills in collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.

Throughout the module, students are encouraged to reflect on their learning in relation to the programme’s graduate attributes, which include critical thinking, academic writing, creative expression, and intercultural awareness.

Assessment Proportions

This module adopts a blended approach combining lectures, screenings, seminars, and practical workshops to introduce students to film analysis, film history, and foundational screen production. It supports students in developing both academic and creative skills from the outset of their degree, laying the groundwork for more advanced study in cinema and filmmaking.

Teaching is structured to build progressively across two semesters. The first focuses on critical concepts and formal analysis, such as cinematography, editing, sound, mise-en-scène, and narrative structure. The second expands into global and historical frameworks, culminating in a collaborative short film project that encourages the practical application of theoretical knowledge. Seminars and group work reinforce close reading, critical discussion, and analytical writing, while workshops support skill development in visual storytelling.

Students complete a range of assessments designed to develop core analytical and collaborative skills:

• Essay 1 (800–1000 words, 25%) – focuses on formal analysis and introduces academic writing and research.
• Group Film Project (2 minutes) embedded into Group Presentation (10 minutes, 40%) – assess collaboration, audiovisual communication, and critical reflection on practice.
• Essay 2 (1500–2000 words, 35%) – builds on earlier work with an extended, research-led critical analysis.

A formative written task in the second half of the module provides feedback on students’ analytical writing and helping them prepare for the first summative essay. Peer review and informal feedback in seminars further support students’ development in writing, presentation, and collaboration.

This assessment structure is inclusive and varied, combining traditional essays with group-based and audiovisual work. It is carefully mapped to the module learning outcomes and ensures students begin to engage with the programme’s core graduate attributes: critical thinking, academic communication, intercultural awareness, and creative collaboration. The module also introduces essential research and reflective practices that will be developed further in Level 5 and 6 modules.

FILM4002: British Cinema

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Introduce students to a broad historical and critical understanding of British cinema, its major movements, genres, and filmmakers.
• Explore the social, political, and cultural contexts that have shaped the development of British cinema from the 1920s to the present.
• Develop students’ ability to analyse film form and style, with particular attention to how meaning is constructed and conveyed through cinematic conventions.
• Engage students with key critical debates in British film studies, including questions of national identity, realism, race, gender, class, and emotional expression.
• Support students in developing essential academic skills in film analysis, research, written and oral communication, and group collaboration.
• Introduce students to video essay as an alternative form of critical expression, providing a foundation for creative-analytical assessment pathways at Levels 5 and 6.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate knowledge of key historical developments in British cinema and critically analyse selected films, filmmakers, and movements.
2. Apply appropriate theoretical and critical concepts to explore how British cinema engages with national identity, ideology, and social issues.
3. Conduct independent research using a range of scholarly sources and communicate findings clearly in written, oral, and audiovisual formats.
4. Collaborate effectively on group presentations and critically reflect on the organisation and communication of ideas.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores British cinema across a century of film history, tracing the development of major genres, styles, movements, and critical debates. It is structured to support the development of historical knowledge, analytical skills, and engagement with national and ideological questions.

Students begin by exploring the origins and evolution of British cinema, including early studio systems, significant national genres (such as heritage cinema, social realism, and horror), and key auteurs and stars. Screenings will include a range of films that reflect the social, cultural, and industrial contexts in which they were produced.

The syllabus will also examine how British cinema represents and constructs “Britishness,” focusing on themes such as emotional repression, race, gender, class, and regional identity. Students will engage with debates around realism, national identity, and ideological critique, alongside close analysis of cinematic form.

Weekly sessions combine screenings, lectures, and seminars, with emphasis on active discussion and close reading of set texts. The module incorporates a short essay, a group presentation and a final video essay, offering students varied ways to demonstrate their learning.

Where appropriate, the module foregrounds underrepresented voices and non-mainstream works in British cinema. This reflects our ongoing commitment to decolonising the curriculum and encouraging critical engagement with structural inequalities in British film history and culture.

Assessment Proportions

This module combines lectures, screenings, and seminars to guide students through key developments in British cinema and its critical analysis. Teaching is structured to build progressively, moving from foundational historical and contextual knowledge to more independent critical thinking and research-led enquiry.

This module also serves as a key gateway into film modules across several programmes within the faculty. For this reason, the module includes a varied assessment structure that develops both critical and creative-academic capabilities.

Students complete two summative assessments:

• Scene Analysis – develops foundational skills in close reading film form, building students’ confidence in analysing how cinematic techniques construct meaning.
• Final Video Essay – fosters visual-analytical communication and research synthesis, offering an alternative format for expressing critical arguments.

Students receive structured guidance on how to produce a video essay, including support with narration, editing, critical framing, and use of audiovisual evidence. These skills are introduced accessibly, ensuring all students, regardless of prior experience, are able to succeed.

The introduction of the video essay also lays the foundation for more flexible assessment options in Levels 5 and 6, where students will have the choice between written and audiovisual submissions. This supports the programme’s broader commitment to inclusive and multimodal assessment practices.

Overall, the module advances graduate attributes such as independent research, critical communication, teamwork, and cultural awareness. It ensures students develop transferable skills relevant to both academic progression and broader creative industries contexts.

FILM5001: Global Cinemas

• Terms Taught: Full Year
• US Credits: 10
• ECTS Credits: 20
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop students’ analytical and critical skills through the close study of films from a range of historical and global contexts.
• Strengthen understanding of the relationship between film form, cultural identity, production practices, and historical context.
• Engage students in critical debates around film authorship, genre, and national/transnational identity.
• Expand students’ knowledge of global film history and key theoretical concepts in Film Studies.
• Develop Level 5 research and communication skills through a combination of written analysis, visual interpretation, and critical reflection.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate analytical understanding of film form and style across a range of global and historical contexts.
2. Critically examine how global films engage with cultural, political, and industrial contexts, drawing on relevant theoretical perspectives.
3. Critically interpret the aesthetics and visual strategies of global cinema using appropriate theoretical and conceptual tools.
4. Demonstrate the ability to carry out independent research and construct clear, critically informed arguments in relation to global film traditions.

Outline Syllabus

This module examines the stylistic, historical, and industrial diversity of global cinema. It is structured across two semesters, following a chronological and thematic order. The first half focuses on major historical movements and aesthetic developments in global film history, and the second continues the analysis of key debates in film theory and criticism.

In the first half of the module, students explore the historical evolution of global cinematic forms until the 1970s, through case studies such as Italian Neorealism, the classical Hollywood studio system, Third Cinema, Japanese post-war cinema, and Iranian New Wave. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between formal innovation and broader historical, social, and industrial contexts.

In the second half, students engage with critical debates shaping global film discourse. These include questions of authorship and cinematic style, the impact of digital technologies, transnational genre transformations (e.g. global horror or melodrama), and the politics of representation in relation to contemporary debates around gender, race, class, and national identity.

The module prioritises the inclusion of diverse film cultures and underrepresented cinematic traditions, supporting the programme’s commitment to decolonising the curriculum. Students are encouraged to consider how global cinema circulates, challenges, or reinforces dominant narratives and cultural hierarchies.

Each week combines a lecture, screening, and seminar discussion, providing an integrated framework for analytical development and critical engagement. Readings and screenings are closely aligned with the assessment structure, preparing students for visual and written analysis and research-led inquiry.

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through a combination of lectures, screenings, and seminars designed to support analytical, historical, and theoretical engagement with global cinema. Lectures introduce key movements, concepts, and contexts; screenings offer comparative case studies; and seminars promote critical discussion, collaborative learning, and close analysis.

The module builds across the terms. The first part of the module focuses on movements and stylistic developments in global cinema, while the second builds on this knowledge to analyse more complex theoretical debates around contemporary understandings of authorship, genre, ideology, and identity. Students are encouraged to explore how global film cultures reflect and challenge wider historical, political, and industrial dynamics.

Assessment is structured to support progressive skill development and is spaced across the academic year to balance workload:

• Essay 1 (1200–1500 words) – develops written analytical skills and contextual knowledge.
• Visual Portfolio and Critical Reflection (800–1000 words) – supports visual interpretation and reflective thinking.
• Essay 2 (2000–2500 words) – allows for extended independent research and critical argumentation.

This assessment structure supports progression from close film analysis to more ambitious critical engagement with global film history and theory. The inclusion of a visual portfolio also provides a multimodal alternative to traditional written tasks, aligning with the programme’s inclusive assessment strategy.

The module contributes to broader programme goals by fostering independent research, critical thinking, and global cultural awareness—core attributes for academic and professional development.

FILM5002: Classic Hollywood Genres

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Provide students with knowledge of Hollywood film history and the development of classical genre conventions from the 1930s through the 1950s and beyond.
• Deepen understanding of the Hollywood Studio System, building on foundational knowledge from core Level 4 and 5 modules.
• Examine the industrial, cultural, and aesthetic factors that shaped classical Hollywood genres.
• Analyse and critique key genre archetypes and gender representations, such as the femme fatale, gangster, melodramatic heroine, cowboy, and damsel.
• Develop skills in genre analysis through close reading of film texts and engagement with historical and theoretical perspectives.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate knowledge of classical Hollywood genres and their historical development within the studio system.
2. Analyse the formal and thematic conventions of genre films, including recurring character types and visual styles.
3. Critically examine the cultural, industrial, and technological contexts that shaped genre production and audience reception in the classical era.
4. Present sustained, critically informed arguments through written or audiovisual formats, demonstrating engagement with theoretical frameworks and independent research.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the consolidation of key film genres during Hollywood’s classical era, focusing on how the studio system standardised genre conventions while allowing space for artistic innovation and cultural expression.

Students begin by examining the industrial structure of the Hollywood Studio System, exploring how production models, censorship constraints, the star system, audience expectations, and other pressures shaped genre filmmaking. Attention will be given to the ways “post-classical” filmmakers subsequently recycled or revised the tropes of classical genre cinema.

Through analysis of recurring themes, narrative patterns, visual styles, and character archetypes, students develop an understanding of how genre functioned as both a commercial and creative tool. The module also addresses gender representation within the classical genres, exploring how roles such as the femme fatale, the damsel, and the stoic cowboy reflect the broader social norms and ideological tensions of the time.

Critical readings introduce debates on genre theory, authorship, film style, spectatorship, and ideological analysis, with emphasis on close formal analysis and contextual understanding. The module provides essential historical grounding for students interested in genre evolution, Hollywood cinema, and cultural history.

Topics may include:

• The Western
• Film Noir
• Melodrama
• The Gangster Film
• The Musical
• The Horror film
• Romantic comedy

By the end of the module, students will have developed a strong understanding of genre as both a creative and commercial force in Hollywood cinema. The module provides essential analytical skills for further study in film history, theory, and contemporary genre cinema.

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through a combination of lectures, screenings, and seminars that support students in developing analytical, historical, and theoretical approaches to classical Hollywood genres. Lectures introduce students to key theoretical concepts and historical frameworks relevant to the study of film genre, including approaches to authorship, narrative structure, ideological analysis, and the relationship between industry and form. Screenings provide case studies of genre films from the classical to postclassical Hollywood period, while seminars facilitate close analysis, comparative discussion, and collaborative learning.

Assessment is structured to support skill development and a range of learning styles:

1. Group presentation (10 minutes) – fosters collaborative engagement, oral communication, and focused exploration of specific genres, filmmakers, or thematic concerns.
2. Final essay or video essay (1700–2000 words or 10 minutes) – enables students to demonstrate sustained, critically informed argumentation through either a written or audiovisual format.

The option to submit a video essay reflects the programme’s commitment to inclusive and flexible assessment. This format allows students to demonstrate their analytical and interpretive skills using audiovisual methods and creative-critical strategies. Students are introduced to the video essay at Level 4, ensuring all have the foundational skills needed to undertake this mode of assessment with confidence.

This strategy supports the programme’s broader goals by encouraging independent research, theoretical application, and the ability to engage critically with film history, style, and ideology across a range of expressive forms.

FILM5003: Film Theory and Aesthetics

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Build on students’ foundational knowledge of film analysis by introducing a range of advanced theoretical frameworks used to interpret film form, meaning, and spectatorship.
• Deepen students’ understanding of cinema as both an artistic and ideological medium through engagement with debates in semiotic, psychoanalytic, formalist, philosophical, and cognitivist film theory.
• Encourage critical engagement with the historical development of film theory, particularly the reassessment of modernity and the emergence of cinematic modernism.
• Strengthen students’ ability to undertake detailed textual analysis informed by theoretical perspectives and close reading of scholarly sources.
• Support the development of independent critical thinking, research fluency, and academic communication skills in preparation for further study in film theory, history, and criticism.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate understanding of key classical and contemporary theoretical frameworks used to analyse film.
2. Critically evaluate how films construct meaning through form, representation, and spectatorship.
3. Apply advanced theoretical approaches—such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, formalism, and cognitivism—to the analysis of selected film texts.
4. Independently interpret and assess scholarly arguments in film theory, demonstrating the ability to synthesise ideas in written or audiovisual form.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores key developments in classical and contemporary film theory, deepening students’ understanding of how meaning is constructed through film form, aesthetics, and audience engagement. The syllabus is organised thematically, guiding students through a range of theoretical perspectives and critical debates that have shaped the field of film studies since its emergence as an academic discipline.

The first part of the module focuses on foundational movements in film theory, such as formalism and semiotics, examining how early theorists sought to define the medium and its specific artistic and communicative potential. This section introduces concepts such as montage, signification, and cinematic language.

In the second part of the module, students engage with psychoanalytic and philosophical approaches to film, including theories of the gaze, subjectivity, spectatorship, and affect. Key topics may include cinematic modernism, the reassessment of modernity, and cinema’s relationship with ideology and perception.

The final section of the module introduces cognitivist and contemporary theoretical developments, encouraging students to evaluate the relevance and limitations of different approaches when applied to a variety of film texts.

Throughout, students will be encouraged to critically engage with the writings of influential theorists and to apply theoretical frameworks to close readings of film. Readings, screenings, and seminar discussions are designed to support both the article review and final essay/video essay, gradually building students’ independence and fluency in theoretical analysis.

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through a combination of lectures, readings, screenings, and seminars that promote deep engagement with film theory and aesthetics. Lectures introduce students to key theoretical frameworks and critical debates, while seminars provide a space for close reading of key texts, discussion of core concepts, and application of theory to selected films. Screenings are integrated into the weekly structure to serve as case studies for analytical practice.

Teaching is designed to support progression from descriptive understanding to critical application and independent theoretical engagement. Students are encouraged to develop their own critical perspectives by interrogating influential texts and applying theoretical tools to detailed film analysis.

Assessment is structured to develop and demonstrate both research and analytical skills:

1. Article Review (450–500 words, 30%) – introduces students to academic research methods and strengthens their ability to summarise, critique, and reflect on scholarly arguments in film theory.
2. Final Essay or Video Essay (1700–2000 words or 10 minutes, 70%) – allows students to produce a sustained and conceptually informed piece of work, either in written or audiovisual form, based on independent research and theoretical analysis.

The inclusion of the video essay option reflects the programme’s commitment to inclusive assessment and diverse learning styles, allowing students to demonstrate theoretical understanding through both traditional and creative-critical modes. As this format is introduced at Level 4, all students will have the foundational skills needed to engage with it confidently.

This strategy supports the programme’s broader aims by advancing students’ critical thinking, theoretical fluency, research autonomy, and ability to communicate complex ideas through a range of academic forms.

FILM5004: Film, Gender, Race and Ideology

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This Level 5 module builds on foundational analysis and theoretical concepts explored in core modules to critically examine cinema’s role in shaping and challenging dominant ideologies of gender, race, and identity.

This module aims to:

• Critically engage with the ways film reveals, reinforces or resists dominant ideologies through formal, narrative, and spectatorial strategies.
• Apply and evaluate key theoretical approaches—including feminist and queer theory, film phenomenology, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and postcolonial theory—to the analysis of global cinema.
• Analyse how screen representations intersect with historical and cultural conditions to construct ideas of identity, power, and otherness.
• Investigate the work of women filmmakers, Third Cinema movements, and films that give a platform to marginalised voices or challenge dominant perspectives.
• Extend students’ capacity for independent critical reflection, theoretical synthesis, and socially engaged analysis of cinema.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse how film constructs and negotiates ideologies of gender, race, and identity through form, narrative, and spectatorship.
2. Apply critical frameworks—including feminist, queer, psychoanalytic, Marxist, and postcolonial theory—to the interpretation of global cinema.
3. Evaluate how cultural, historical, and political contexts shape the representation of marginalised identities in mainstream and alternative film traditions.
4. Develop independent, theoretically informed arguments about cinema’s role in reinforcing or challenging dominant power structures.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores how cinema both reflects and shapes dominant and resistant ideologies surrounding gender, race, class and identity. Organised thematically, it draws on a range of global case studies to examine the intersections of representation, power, and cultural politics through film.

In the first part of the module, students engage with key critical frameworks—feminist and queer phenomenology, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and postcolonial theory—used to interrogate cinema’s ideological work. Through close analysis of selected texts, students explore how meaning is constructed not only through narrative and character, but through visual style, cinematic form, and spectatorial address.

The second half of the module focuses on global case studies of resistance and reimagining. These include the work of women filmmakers, politically engaged cinemas (e.g. Third Cinema), and films that foreground intersectional and postcolonial critiques of identity. Students will examine how race, gender, sexuality, and class are negotiated on screen, considering the implications of both representation and authorship.

Throughout the module, readings and screenings are closely integrated. Topics may include:

• The gaze and gendered spectatorship
• Racialised bodies and cinematic visibility
• Queer aesthetics and affect
• Cinema and colonial/postcolonial discourse
• Class, ideology, and realism
• Resistance and authorship in minoritarian filmmaking

Students are encouraged to bring theoretical insights into dialogue with detailed textual analysis, developing a critical vocabulary for analysing cinema as a site of ideological contestation.

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through lectures, screenings, and seminars, providing students with the analytical tools to interrogate cinema’s ideological functions in relation to gender, race, and identity. Lectures frame key theoretical debates and cultural contexts, while screenings offer global examples that challenge or reinforce dominant representational norms. Seminars are designed to deepen understanding of critical texts and encourage open discussion of complex political and aesthetic questions.

The module is structured to support Level 5 progression by building students’ capacity to work independently with theoretical material and to apply those frameworks to the analysis of film texts. The focus is on critical engagement with feminist, queer, postcolonial, psychoanalytic, and Marxist approaches to representation and spectatorship.

The assessment strategy is designed to develop both collaborative and independent skills while offering multiple modes of engagement:

• Group Presentation (10 minutes, 30%) – encourages students to collaborate on a focused topic related to the module’s themes, developing research, communication, and critical synthesis skills.
• Visual Portfolio or Zine (6–12 pages) + Critical Reflection (800–1000 words, 70%) – enables students to explore theoretical and ideological questions through curated visual content. The written reflection requires critical engagement with the ideas underpinning the portfolio, demonstrating depth of analysis and independent thought.

This combination supports students in engaging with politically charged material through a range of critical lenses and expressive formats. The visual portfolio is designed as an inclusive alternative to the traditional essay, reflecting the programme’s commitment to diverse and accessible assessment methods (as well as the formal diversity of the films examined in this module)

The module contributes to the wider aims of the programme by fostering critical thinking, theoretical fluency, and intercultural awareness—core graduate attributes necessary for further study in film, media, and cultural analysis.

FILM5006: Short Film Production

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to:

• Develop students’ technical and creative proficiency in the production of a short dramatic film, following industry-standard workflows.
• Strengthen students’ collaborative and communication skills through team-based production roles across two film projects.
• Deepen students’ understanding of the artistic, logistical, and administrative dimensions of filmmaking.
• Encourage critical reflection on the production process, challenges encountered, and professional working practices.
• Equip students with transferable skills in planning, time management, creative problem-solving, and peer evaluation

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Apply industry-standard processes and workflows in the development, production, and post-production of a short film.
2. Demonstrate advanced technical and creative competence in a designated production role.
3. Work effectively as part of a production team, articulating their own contributions and supporting collaborative decision-making.
4. Reflect critically on the production process, evaluating creative, technical, and organisational challenges.

Outline Syllabus

In this module, students will collaboratively develop, produce, and complete a short dramatic film while engaging with sustainable industry-standard production practices. The emphasis is on technical competence, creative problem-solving, and reflective collaboration.

At the start of the module, students will form their own production groups and assign themselves one of the key creative roles within the team—Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Art Director, Sound Recordist/Designer, or Editor. Where needed, roles may be shared or doubled up to ensure all production responsibilities are met.

Each group will first complete a 1-minute exercise video based on a given brief. This task helps the group build practical rapport and test core technical and collaborative skills before entering the main project.

Every student also writes a short script, for which they receive formative feedback from the tutor. Each group selects two of their scripts to present in an in-class pitching session, where the full cohort and tutor offer oral feedback. Based on this feedback, each group selects one project for development and production.

The module is supported by advanced technical workshops in camera, lighting, grip, sound, editing, and post-production workflows, preparing students to meet contemporary professional standards while reflecting on sustainability and resource-conscious filmmaking.

Each group will submit a Digital Production Booklet, including an Electronic Press Kit (EPK), outlining the film’s development from concept to completion. The final short film (6–8 minutes) is submitted alongside this documentation as a group assessment.

Individually, students will also complete a reflective report, critically analysing the production process, the formal and aesthetic choices made, and their contribution to both key and supporting roles across projects.

Indicative topics include:

• Group dynamics and role allocation in film production
• Scriptwriting and feedback
• Pitching techniques and project selection
• Production planning, scheduling, and logistics
• Advanced workshops: camera, lighting, grip, sound, editing
• Post-production workflows and file management
• Sustainable and ethical production practices
• Creating a digital production booklet and EPK
• Reflective practice and critical evaluation

Assessment Proportions

This module is taught through a combination of themed lectures, practical workshops, technical demonstrations, production meetings, and supervised project work. The teaching strategy emphasises active learning through collaboration, technical experimentation, and critical reflection, all underpinned by sustainable industry-standard production practices.

Themed lectures provide conceptual and practical frameworks covering the full short film production process. Topics include group dynamics and role allocation, writing short films, pitching and project selection, sustainable and ethical production practices, scheduling and logistics, and the creation of a digital production booklet and EPK. These sessions support students in understanding how creative, technical, and organisational elements intersect across all stages of production.

Students form their own production groups and take on both a key creative role and a supporting crew role across two short film projects. The early part of the module focuses on building group cohesion and technical confidence through a short exercise video and formative scriptwriting tasks. These are followed by project pitches, tutor and peer feedback, and intensive workshops in camera, lighting, grip, sound, editing, and post-production workflows.

The assessment strategy supports both collaborative production and individual reflection:

• Group short film (6–8 mins) and digital production booklet (70%) – assesses technical competence, creative execution, sustainability awareness, and group planning.
• Individual written or recorded reflective report (800–1000 words or 7–10 mins, 30%) – evaluates students’ critical engagement with the production process, their contribution to each project, and their understanding of creative and logistical decision-making.

This strategy supports the programme’s broader aims by fostering professional readiness, collaborative leadership, and critical engagement with film as both artistic and industrial practice.

FILM6001: Independent Project (Film, English, Creative Writing and Media)

• Terms Taught: Full Year
• US Credits: 10
• ECTS Credits: 20
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Support students in designing and delivering a major written, creative, or practice-based project aligned with their disciplinary interests;
• Provide a flexible structure through three pathways: a long-form written research project; an individual practice-based project (creative writing, screenwriting, film or multimodal media); or a collaborative film-production route with individual critical reflections;
• Encourage advanced conceptual, analytical, and/or creative work that draws on appropriate research, technical skills and disciplinary frameworks;
• Promote independence, critical self-reflection, and effective project management;
• Prepare students for further research, postgraduate study or careers in creative industries, filmmaking, screenwriting, writing, criticism, publishing, media or cultural sectors.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Formulate and articulate an original research question or creative concept appropriate to their disciplinary area (Film, Media, English or Creative Writing).
2. Plan and manage a substantial written, creative, or practice-based project using suitable methodologies, sources, and development processes.
3. Demonstrate advanced analytical, critical, or creative skills in the production of written, practical, or hybrid work.
4. Produce a coherent, original final output that shows conceptual depth, contextual understanding, and disciplinary engagement.
5. Reflect critically on the research and/or creative process, articulating decisions, challenges, and the relationship between theory, form and practice.

Outline Syllabus

The module is delivered primarily through individual supervision, supported by a small number of lectures and group workshops designed to guide students through the early stages of project planning and development. Indicative content includes:

Introductory lecture outlining the structure, expectations, and assessment options for the module:

• Written dissertation
• Individual practice-based project (e.g. short film, screenplay)
• Group practical project with individual critical reflections

Workshop on project design and development, which may include:

• Defining a research question or creative concept
• Project planning, timelines, and methodologies
• Ethics, risk assessment, and supervisory expectations
• Guidance on reflective writing and critical commentary

One-to-one supervision sessions tailored to each student’s chosen pathway, providing:

• Ongoing support for research, writing, or creative development
• Feedback on drafts, rushes, edits, or written components
• Discussion of theoretical, conceptual, or technical challenges
• Space for critical reflection on process and decision-making

The module encourages independence, creativity, and critical thinking, culminating in a substantial final submission that reflects sustained engagement with film and/or media through a chosen pathway.

Assessment Proportions

This module prioritises independent learning and sustains self-directed work, supported by a small number of lectures and workshops, and regular one-to-one supervision with an assigned academic supervisor.

Learning and teaching methods include:

• An introductory lecture outlining the module structure, assessment options, and expectations.
• Discipline specific lecture for the chosen pathway by discipline specific convenors.
• Group workshops focusing on project design, research planning, ethics, methodology, and critical reflection.
• Individual supervision sessions offering tailored support for each student’s chosen pathway, including feedback on research questions, drafts, creative work, and reflective writing.
• Independent study, forming the core of the module, through which students develop and deliver their final project.
• Group work, for those students who choose the option of a collaboratively produced practical project.

These approaches are designed to foster autonomy, critical thinking, and advanced research or creative development appropriate to final-year undergraduate work.

For the assessment, students select one of the following assessment pathways:

• Independent written research project: A 7,000–7,500-word dissertation exploring a film-related topic through critical and/or historical research.
• Individual Creative Writing project: A creative writing component 6000-words (e.g. Creative-fiction (novel, short stories, etc.) or Poetry, or Creative-non-fiction genre (memoir, travel writing, life writing, etc.) accompanied by 1500-word critical reflections (assessed 80:20)
• Individual practice-based project: A creative component (e.g. short film (Fiction, Documentary, Experimental), or screenplay, or media artefact) accompanied by a 3,500–4,000-word research and critical reflection written component (assessed 50:50).
• Group practical project: A collaboratively produced short film submitted jointly, with each student submitting an individually written 3,500–4,000-word research and critical reflection written component (assessed 50:50).

All pathways are assessed against the same learning outcomes and are designed to demonstrate conceptual rigour, critical engagement, and independent project management.

FILM6002: Global Film Genres

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Develop advanced analytical skills through the close examination of contemporary global film genres and their historical evolution.
• Deepen understanding of how genre conventions are sustained, subverted, and hybridised across different national, regional, and transnational film cultures.
• Explore the impact of industrial, technological, and cultural changes—including digital effects, streaming platforms, and franchise logic—on genre production and reception.
• Encourage critical engagement with fan cultures, audience reception, and the political or ideological functions of genre in global cinema.
• Equip students with the theoretical and conceptual tools necessary to interrogate the shifting boundaries of genre in a global media landscape.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically analyse contemporary global genre films, demonstrating advanced understanding of genre conventions and innovations.
2. Evaluate how national and transnational contexts shape genre production, distribution, and reception across diverse cinematic traditions.
3. Apply theoretical frameworks to examine genre hybridity, world-building, and the role of digital technologies and platforms in shaping contemporary genre cinema.
4. Synthesise research and critical perspectives to construct well-evidenced arguments about the cultural, political, and industrial significance of genre in the global media landscape.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores how contemporary filmmakers across the globe adapt, hybridise, and innovate within established genre frameworks. Focusing on case studies and aesthetic discussions, students will examine the formal and stylistic norms and traditions of contemporary genre cinema, as well as the cultural, industrial, and technological developments shaping modern genre filmmaking. This module extends topics covered on FILM5002 Classical Hollywood Genres by exploring the ways filmmakers around the globe have creatively adopted, reworked, and subverted classical genre frameworks.

Indicative topics include:

• Genre hybridity and global circulation
• Contemporary horror and psychological suspense
• Science fiction and speculative futures
• The global musical: from Bollywood to postmodern revivals
• Comic book and superhero franchises
• Streaming platforms and new genre forms
• World-building, digital aesthetics, and franchises
• Genre revisionism

Students will engage with a range of films from different national and transnational contexts, applying critical and theoretical frameworks to assess how genre functions in a rapidly evolving media landscape.

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through a combination of lectures, screenings, and seminars that support students in developing analytical, historical, and theoretical approaches

This module uses a blended approach combining lectures, film screenings, seminars, and guided independent study. Lectures establish key theoretical and industrial frameworks for analysing contemporary genre cinema, while seminars enable in-depth

Assessment is designed to develop advanced analytical, collaborative, and communication skills. Students complete:

• A group presentation (in-class or pre-recorded) to develop teamwork, oral communication, and research synthesis skills through collaborative genre analysis;
• A final essay or video essay, allowing students to demonstrate independent research and advanced critical engagement with global genre cinema in a format that supports diverse learning styles.

This inclusive assessment model builds on previous opportunities offered at Levels 4 and 5, ensuring all students are equipped to succeed regardless of preferred learning mode. It also supports graduate attributes including cultural awareness, creativity, and the ability to apply complex theoretical knowledge in clear and compelling forms.

FILM6003: Film Industries, Practices and Movements

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This Level 6 module builds on historical and contextual knowledge gained in core modules to examine the industrial forces and movements that have shaped global film production.

This module aims to:

• Critically examine the historical development and global diversity of film industry structures and practices.
• Analyse how film industries respond to technological, economic, environmental, and political change across national and transnational contexts.
• Investigate the role of industrial processes—such as censorship, promotion, regulation, and sustainability—in shaping filmmaking practices and audience engagement.
• Explore the relationship between major film movements and the industrial conditions from which they emerged, with reference to case studies such as Hong Kong cinema, New Wave movements, and digital production cultures.
• Develop advanced critical and contextual understanding of the institutions, infrastructures, and industrial dynamics that underpin contemporary cinema.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of global film industry structures, practices, and institutional frameworks.
2. Evaluate the impact of technological, economic, environmental, and political factors on national and transnational film production.
3. Apply historical and contextual analysis to case studies of key industrial processes and global film movements.
4. Synthesise research to develop independent, critically informed arguments about the evolution and future of film industries.

Outline Syllabus

This module examines the evolving structures, practices, and challenges of film industries across different historical and global contexts. Students will explore key industrial processes such as censorship, marketing and promotion, and sustainability, while also engaging with major film movements that have shaped contemporary cinema.

Through historical and contemporary case studies, students will analyse how national and transnational film industries adapt to technological, economic, and political shifts. Emphasis is placed on how filmmakers, institutions, and movements respond to industrial pressures and opportunities, shaping cinematic practices and forms.

The module foregrounds both mainstream and alternative models of production, considering the role of institutions (such as the BFI, CNC, and NFDC), independent and regional cinemas, and the emergence of new platforms and digital infrastructures. Attention is also paid to how movements such as the pre-and post-handover Hong Kong cinema, European New Wave, Bollywood cinema, the American underground cinema, and the New Iranian Cinema have redefined production norms, aesthetic strategies, and global circulation.

Topics may include:

• National and transnational film industries
• Censorship, regulation, and state policy
• Marketing, festivals, and promotional ecologies
• Green and sustainable production practices
• Labour conditions, precarity, and global production networks
• The economics of streaming and digital platforms
• The role of institutions in shaping industry standards
• Alternative and oppositional movements

Students will develop critical and contextual knowledge of how industrial frameworks shape cinematic output, and gain critical understanding of cultural policy and industrial practices.

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through a combination of weekly lectures, seminars, and case study-based discussions that introduce students to key industrial and historical frameworks. Lectures provide conceptual and contextual grounding in the operations of global film industries and major production movements, while seminars foster independent critical thinking through group discussion, close analysis, and comparative exploration of case studies.

The learning strategy encourages students to develop confidence in applying theoretical insights to real-world industrial contexts, enabling them to make connections between creative practice, institutional structures, and broader political and economic trends. Students are expected to engage critically with set readings, contribute to seminar discussions, and conduct independent research into industry case studies.

The assessment strategy is designed to develop both collaborative and independent skills while offering multiple modes of engagement:

• Group Presentation (10 minutes, 30%) – encourages students to collaborate on a focused topic related to the module’s themes, developing research, communication, and critical synthesis skills.
• Visual Portfolio or Zine (6–12 pages) + Critical Reflection (800–1000 words, 70%) – enables students to explore industrial and historical questions through curated visual content. The written reflection requires critical engagement with the ideas underpinning the portfolio, demonstrating depth of analysis and independent thought.

The module aligns with the programme’s graduate attributes by developing students’ critical awareness, research independence, and ability to contextualise cinema within broader industrial and cultural frameworks.

FILM6004: Film Circulation, Exhibition and Audiences

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module critically examines cinema as a socio-cultural institution by exploring how films are circulated, exhibited, and received across historical and contemporary contexts. Students will analyse the role of key mediators—such as curators, distributors, and critics—as well as the spaces and platforms where cinema is consumed, including theatres, archives, festivals, and digital environments.

The module aims to:

• Develop advanced understanding of film exhibition and circulation as cultural, political, and economic processes.
• Analyse how institutional infrastructures and curatorial practices shape access, heritage, and audience engagement.
• Explore the historical evolution of cinema-going, cinephilia, and reception, with case studies from diverse global contexts.
• Equip students with the research and analytical skills necessary to interrogate cinema's institutional dynamics and audience relations, preparing them for further academic or professional work in film curation, policy, or distribution.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically evaluate the development of film cultures across historical periods and global contexts, with particular attention to infrastructural, technological, and economic transformations.
2. Analyse the roles of film professionals and institutions—such as curators, distributors, exhibitors, and archivists—in shaping audience access, engagement, and cultural value.
3. Apply theoretical and historical frameworks to assess how exhibition platforms and viewing contexts influence meaning-making and audience reception.
4. Demonstrate independent research and critical synthesis through the investigation of film cultures, institutions, and audiences across diverse temporal and geographic sites.

Outline Syllabus

This module examines cinema as a dynamic socio-cultural institution by exploring how films are circulated, exhibited, and received across a range of historical and global contexts. Students will engage with the spaces, practices, and infrastructures that shape cinematic experiences, as well as the roles of mediators such as distributors, programmers, critics, and audiences.

Through a combination of theoretical frameworks and case studies, the module considers how film cultures emerge, evolve, and are preserved—from early cine-clubs and colonial exhibition circuits to contemporary film festivals, archives, and digital platforms. Particular emphasis is placed on the cultural, political, and economic forces that influence film circulation and reception, and on the significance of curatorial practices in shaping film heritage and access.

The module draws on examples from both dominant and marginalised contexts to highlight how film cultures are constituted and contested, and how audiences engage with cinema through formal and informal channels.

Topics may include:

• Circulation, infrastructure, and the global flow of cinema
• Cinemas and exhibition sites: from picture palaces to multiplexes and mobile screenings
• Film festivals, programming, and curatorial politics
• Film archives, heritage, and cultural memory
• Informal distribution, piracy, and digital cinephilia
• Cinephilia, criticism, and the role of mediators
• Access, inclusion, and exclusion in film cultures

Students will develop advanced critical and contextual knowledge of how cinema operates within broader cultural ecologies, gaining transferable skills in exhibition analysis, curatorial research, and cultural interpretation.

Assessment Proportions

This module uses a blended approach combining lectures, screenings, seminars, and guided independent research to examine the historical and contemporary infrastructures of film circulation, exhibition, and reception. Teaching is designed to develop students’ critical and contextual understanding of cinema’s cultural role and to support progression into curatorial, archival, and critical pathways in film.

Learning activities encourage students to analyse case studies from multiple global contexts and to engage with diverse modes of reception—from festival circuits and archives to digital platforms and informal networks. Weekly sessions integrate theoretical readings with practical examples to enhance both critical insight and analytical confidence.

The assessment strategy is designed to support students’ ability to communicate effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences, while developing independent research and writing skills:

• 2 x Blog Posts (450–550 words each, 30%) – encourage concise, public-facing writing and critical engagement with key module concepts in accessible formats.
• Essay (1700–2000 words, 70%) – supports in-depth critical analysis of a chosen topic related to the circulation, exhibition, or reception of cinema, enabling students to demonstrate advanced research and academic communication skills.

Together, these assessments foster analytical precision, audience awareness, and independent thinking, equipping students for future study or work in film criticism, curation, or cultural programming.

FILM6005: Documentary Production

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to:

• Develop students’ advanced technical and conceptual skills in documentary filmmaking through sustained, collaborative practice.
• Equip students with the ability to research, plan, and produce a short documentary film as part of a team, either by developing their own concept or responding to a stakeholder brief.
• Encourage creative experimentation with documentary form while upholding ethical and professional standards in production.
• Provide insight into industry practices, including funding models, stakeholder engagement, and distribution across traditional and digital platforms.
• Support students in critically reflecting on their creative process, team collaboration, and the broader cultural and ethical implications of their work.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Apply advanced technical and creative skills to the collaborative development and production of a short documentary film.
2. Demonstrate critical awareness of documentary forms and conventions, including ethical, cultural, and political dimensions of representation.
3. Conduct research and project planning appropriate to professional documentary practice, including stakeholder engagement, budgeting, and scheduling.
4. Critically reflect on their creative process, evaluating individual and group contributions and articulating the conceptual and practical decisions made throughout production.

Outline Syllabus

This practice-based module introduces students to advanced techniques in documentary filmmaking, supporting the creation of a short documentary project from concept to final cut. It combines critical engagement with documentary form and ethics alongside hands-on training in key production skills.

Working in small collaborative groups, students will develop a short documentary either based on their own concept or in response to a brief provided by tutors. In both pathways, students will be expected to research, plan, and manage their production using sustainable and industry-informed practices.

Workshops cover technical and conceptual aspects of documentary production, including cinematography, location sound, editing, and post-production workflows, alongside guidance on proposal writing, budgeting, scheduling, and ethical storytelling. The module also addresses the evolving landscape of documentary distribution, from festivals to digital platforms.

Formative feedback is embedded throughout the module via pitching sessions, group tutorials, and rough-cut reviews. Emphasis is placed on critical reflection, collaboration, and professional responsibility, equipping students with the skills to navigate creative and logistical challenges in real-world documentary practice.

Indicative topics may include:

• Modes and ethics of documentary storytelling
• Research strategies and proposal development
• Working with contributors and issues of consent
• Cinematography, sound, and field production
• Budgeting, scheduling, and project management
• Editing and narrative construction
• Documentary aesthetics and visual style
• Distribution strategies and audience engagement

Assessment Proportions

This module is delivered through a combination of workshops, lectures, group tutorials, and in-class screenings. Workshops provide hands-on training in camera, sound, and editing techniques, while lectures introduce key debates in documentary ethics, style, and production contexts. Group tutorials support the development of each project, with structured sessions for pitching, production planning, and feedback.

Collaboration and critical reflection are central to the learning process. Students receive regular formative feedback through rough-cut reviews and peer discussion, and are encouraged to critically situate their work through engagement with diverse case studies and examples of documentary practice.

The assessment strategy reflects the collaborative and reflective nature of documentary production:

• Group Documentary Project (8–10 mins) + Production Booklet (70%) – assesses students’ ability to work collaboratively to produce a complete short documentary, supported by a production booklet detailing the planning, research, ethical considerations, and creative rationale behind the work.
• Individual Reflective Report (1000–1500 words or 7–10 mins recorded, 30%) – invites students to critically evaluate their own role and contribution to the group project, addressing challenges, successes, and lessons learned, with reference to relevant theoretical or contextual frameworks.

This strategy supports the programme’s broader aims by fostering professional readiness, ethical awareness, and collaborative problem-solving within documentary film practice.

FILM6006: Experimental Film Production

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Formative background in Film Studies - the same prerequisite applies to all Level 5 and 6 Film modules

Course Description

This module aims to:

• Critically engage with the historical development and conceptual foundations of experimental cinema, including key avant-garde movements and their influence on contemporary practice.
• Examine how experimental film challenges dominant cinematic conventions through formal innovation, non-linear narrative structures, expanded temporality, and alternative modes of spectatorship.
• Encourage creative risk-taking and critical reflection through hands-on filmmaking projects that question mainstream production norms and explore new artisanal potentials of the moving image.
• Develop students’ ability to synthesise theoretical knowledge and practical experimentation, fostering independent artistic voices and equipping them with research informed advanced skills in creative practice.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate advanced critical and contextual understanding of experimental cinema, including its historical, aesthetic, and theoretical frameworks.
2. Apply creative and conceptual approaches to short film production that challenge conventional cinematic form, structure, and spectatorship.
3. Independently produce and present experimental film work, demonstrating technical competence, artistic innovation, and critical intent.
4. Critically evaluate their own creative process and outcomes, situating their practice within broader debates in experimental and artists’ moving image.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores experimental cinema as both a historical and creative field, examining how filmmakers challenge dominant narrative and aesthetic conventions. Students engage with a wide range of practices that foreground formal innovation, non-linearity, and political critique.

The module is delivered through a combination of screenings, lectures, workshops, and critique sessions. Students will respond to three creative briefs, each designed to encourage hands-on experimentation with specific aspects of film form. The resulting works (maximum 2minutes each) will be presented during peer critique sessions, where students receive oral feedback from the tutor and classmates. These sessions foster reflective practice and critical engagement with both one’s own work and that of peers.

A portfolio containing the three experimental video exercises plus the final piece will be submitted at the end of the module, evidencing creative development and conceptual progression across the semester.

Screenings and lectures introduce students to key historical movements and strategies in experimental cinema, while workshops provide space for investigative and conceptual exploration and discussion. Group discussions and readings support the development of an individual creative language informed by critical awareness.

Indicative topics include:

• The early Avant-gardes
• Dada and Surrealist cinema
• The Visionary Film
• Structural film and expanded cinema
• Filmmakers’ cooperatives
• Identity-ideology-agency Feminist and queer film practices
• Artists’ moving image and gallery installations Language-text-image experimentation
• Experimental documentary /Autoethnography / found footage
• Politics of representation and political aesthetics

By combining historical inquiry with creative experimentation, the module provides a space for students to challenge the boundaries of mainstream filmmaking and explore the political potential of form.

Assessment Proportions

This module is taught through a blend of screenings, lectures, and hands-on workshops. It encourages students to learn through doing, developing their own experimental works in dialogue with critical, historical, and aesthetic contexts. Technical workshops introduce students to key digital methods used in contemporary experimental moving-image practice, including editing, compositing and sound design, as well as introductory animation techniques to support projects that wish to draw on traditions of experimental and abstract animation. The emphasis is on creative risk-taking, reflective practice, and conceptual rigour, supporting students to test ideas, challenge conventions, and extend their filmmaking vocabulary.

Formative feedback is embedded throughout the module. Students receive regular input from tutors during weekly workshops and are encouraged to share works-in-progress for peer discussion. Students deliver a formative presentation in which they articulate the central concept for their experimental project, identify the historical avant-garde artist, movement, or technique they are responding to, and propose how they intend to adapt or transform that method using contemporary digital tools. This presentation allows students to refine their conceptual direction and receive targeted feedback prior to completing their final film. This iterative process fosters independent thinking, creative development, and critical responsiveness.

The assessment strategy enables students to demonstrate their creative and critical engagement with experimental cinema through two summative components:

• Experimental Project (70%): Students will develop a 5–7-minute experimental film that responds to the work of an existing avant-garde or experimental artist or movement. Each student will select a historical experimental method or aesthetic and explore its original context, then formulate a central concept for their own project. The aim is not to replicate the chosen technique, but to reinterpret and update it using contemporary digital tools, demonstrating how experimental methods can be transformed for the present moment. Students may work individually or, with permission from the module convenor, in pairs.
• Critical Commentary and Evaluation (30%) — 1000-1500 words: Each student will submit an individual written commentary that critically reflects on their completed film. This commentary should theorise and contextualise their practice, situating the project within relevant historical, aesthetic, or political frameworks and evaluating how successfully their intentions were realised.

The module is research-led and student-centred, drawing on constructivist and developmental approaches to learning that are particularly well-suited to creative practice. Students are supported to become independent practitioners capable of synthesising theory and practice through experimentation, reflection, and critical enquiry.

Formative feedback is integrated throughout the course in workshops and structured critique sessions, allowing students to develop and refine their projects iteratively. Summative assessments are designed to evaluate progress in both theoretical understanding and practical realisation. Together, these assessments measure students’ ability to demonstrate formal innovation, contextual awareness, and informed, reflective decision-making in their creative work.

MECU4001: Understanding Media and Culture

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module will introduce you to a range of key critical approaches in the interdisciplinary field of Media and Cultural Studies. As part of the module, you will engage with a wide range of academic writings on culture and media, and will analyse a diverse range of cultural material from different media: television, film, photography, print media, and types of digital media ranging from social media to apps. You will explore the ways in which our identities, aspirations, beliefs and value systems are shaped by the cultural environment in which we live. The module will be taught by means of a number of inter-connected blocks, delivered by the module team. Each block will have a distinctive focus, but they will together compose a clear and coherent introduction to studying media and culture, which provides vital foundational knowledge for students to take into the rest of the programme(s).

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of key theories, concepts and debates in the study of media and culture.
2. Demonstrate awareness of the ambiguity and diversity of identities, experiences, viewpoints and representations present in contemporary media, culture and society.
3. Make use of a selection of critical concepts in media and culture in the context of written academic work.

Outline Syllabus

What does it mean to study media today? In this module, you’ll be introduced to major debates, theories and thinkers in studying media and culture. You will encounter a diverse range of material from different media, including: television, film, news, advertisements, social media, video games and more. You will explore the intersections between our cultural environment and our identities, aspirations, beliefs and value systems, to develop essential skills in critical thinking and analysis.

Indicative topics/themes:

• What could we learn by studying media and culture?
• How ideologies are produced and reproduced
• Media and medium
• Practices of remediation
• Culture, meaning and representation
• Media and the production of consent

Assessment Proportions

The module employs an interactive and student-centred learning approach that combines theoretical exploration with hands-on engagement. Students will engage with real-world case studies and contemporary debates, building an understanding of why we might study media and culture, what it can tell us about the world around us, and how this relates to students’ experiences with media in their lives. The module focuses on orienting students’ engagement with theory, introducing them to key ideas of critical analysis, critical reading skills, and writing for an academic audience.

One teaching session will be dedicated to assessment preparation, where students have the opportunity to ask questions and receive feedback from peers and lecturers.

Assessments:

• Critical review - As the first assessment on the programme, this is designed to introduce students to key critical analysis skills. Students are asked to pick one of the key readings from the module, and develop critical and analytical skills by writing a critical review. This is also an opportunity to practice effective referencing skills. Students can use the feedback from this assignment, which is only worth 30%, to develop their second assignment which has a larger percentage.
• Essay - Students are asked to choose an essay question from a list, and write a critically engaged response. The essay should make use of effective referencing and evidencing skills.

MECU4002: Media, Power and Identity

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

The module Media, Power and Identity is designed to foster critical engagement with how media both reflects and shapes power relations, cultural connection and identity formations in contemporary society. The teaching on this module provides a dynamic and inclusive environment in which students are introduced to the discipline of cultural studies; lectures introduce core concepts, theoretical frameworks, and case studies, and students are then encouraged to engage in discussion, debate, and collaborative analysis of media and cultural texts, communities and practices. This module will explore the dynamic relationship between media, society, and culture, examining how media influences and reflects cultural norms, identities, and power structures. You’ll consider the material, social and institutional contexts in which media forms have been produced, and think about the role of the media in creating communities, and both reproducing and tackling social inequalities. This module provides you with the skills to navigate complex debates about media and culture as you progress with your studies, and will provide vital foundational knowledge to take into the rest of the programme(s).

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate knowledge of key theories, concepts and debates concerning media, power, and identity, and how these intersect in contemporary societies.
2. Show an awareness of the contested nature of identity formations, social difference, and power relations as represented and negotiated in media and cultural contexts.
3. Formulate, express and present ideas and arguments clearly, both orally and in writing, with attention to structure, evidence and academic conventions.

Outline Syllabus

In this module, you’ll explore the dynamic relationship between media, society, and culture, examining how media influences and reflects cultural norms, identities, and power structures. You’ll consider the material, social and institutional contexts in which media forms have been produced, and think about the role of the media in creating communities, and both reproducing and tackling social inequalities. This module provides you with the skills to navigate complex debates about media and culture as you progress with your studies.

Indicative topics/themes:

• How media reflects, constructs and influences cultural norms and identities
• Power structures in media culture
• Contexts of media production
• The media and community
• The media and creating/resisting social inequalities
• Intersectional approaches to media, including race, gender, class, sexuality and disability studies.

Assessment Proportions

Teaching and Assessment Approach:

Formative assessment includes guided activities, peer feedback, and short reflective tasks to support the development of academic skills and critical thinking. One week’s session will be dedicated to assessment preparation. Summative assessment comprises a written critical essay and a media analysis task, allowing students to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts and apply them to real-world examples. This blend of assessments supports varied learning styles and promotes analytical, research, and communication skills.

This module aligns closely with the programme’s broader learning, teaching and assessment strategies by promoting active, student-centred learning and critical inquiry. It embeds key graduate attributes such as independence, digital literacy, and cultural awareness. The assessment strategy reflects the programme’s commitment to inclusive and authentic assessment, supporting progression and scaffolding intellectual development. Students are encouraged to engage with interdisciplinary approaches and diverse media sources, in line with the programme's emphasis on global and intersectional perspectives. By fostering analytical rigour, reflexivity, and research competence, the module supports students in becoming critically engaged scholars equipped to navigate and challenge contemporary media landscapes.

Assessments:

• Group poster presentation - In groups, students design a poster based on a theme of their choice from the module. In class time, groups will display their posters around the classroom in an exhibition format, and staff/students will travel round the room to listen to the 5-minute presentations explaining the posters. The 5-minute Q&A facilitates class engagement with the presentations.
• Individual critical reflection - Students write a critical reflective essay on the same topic as their group project, reflecting on the process of creating the poster as well as a critical analysis of the topic itself.

MECU4004: Transformations in Digital Media

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to explore the historical development of digital media, tracing its evolution from earlier forms of mass media to the ever-expanding range of contemporary digital landscapes. Students will examine how different types of digital media, at different moments in time and in different local and global contexts, have often been accompanied by hopes, imaginaries, debates and concerns. These have focused on what digital media can do and the kinds of problems digital media can either solve or create. The module will encourage students to compare and discuss their own experiences with digital media to how others, in different contexts, have engaged with, confronted, and managed their relationships with types of digital media. They will also examine how forms of ‘old’ and ‘new media’ interact in media industries. This will enable students to develop the skills necessary to critically analyse the place of digital media in our collective social and cultural worlds, and to understand how this has changed over time, which will be important threads throughout the rest of the programme(s). The assessments will also help students build skills in academic writing in the field of media studies, as well as experience in team working and presentation.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Use and understand concepts and theories from the field of media studies related to the study of transformations in digital media.
2. Identify, and situate socially and culturally, narratives of technological development.
3. Identify and utilise a range of data sources (library and information systems, online sources and databases) in the development of their academic work.

Outline Syllabus

Digital media both displaces and complements ‘traditional’ media, in ways that complicate the current media landscape and challenge some of our most fundamental media concepts.?This module explores how this happens through the integration of “old” and “new” media and ongoing transformations in the media industries. We examine how relations between consumers and producers are changing as the boundaries of media cultures are shifting, producing intercultural exchange but also fragmentation and radicalisation.?This module invites students to investigate their everyday digital media use and reflect on the expansion of digital media, its potentials and its pitfalls.

The module explores these issues by introducing students to a range of approaches from the field of media studies that have been developed to critically analyse transformations in digital media. Indicative topics to be explored in the module include:

• What concepts can we use to study the continually changing digital media landscape in which we all live?
• How should we understand the relationships between “new” media forms and their predecessors? Do newer media forms simply replace older media forms? Or can they be interrelated? If so, how?
• How are cultural transformations related to technological transformations in digital media? And what drives change in media technologies in the first place? Is it advancements in these technologies themselves? Or is it how people use and understand these technologies? Or do we need to ask these kinds of questions in different ways?
• How are the ‘consumers' and the ‘producers’ of digital media related? Has the relationship between consumer and producer of digital media changed over time? How is this related to the need for many digital media industries to generate profits?

Assessment Proportions

The module employs an interactive and student-centred learning approach that combines theoretical exploration with hands-on engagement, including with original empirical material. Students will engage with real-world case studies and contemporary debates, building an understanding of how to analyse transformations in digital media. The two assessments are designed to build key information management and empirical analysis skills relevant to the programme, as well as skills in critical analysis, During the module, time will be allocated during session for students to undertake micro analyses of provided texts and to obtain formative feedback from the module tutor and peers about their analysis. A full week during the module will be dedicated to assessment preparation.

Assessments:

• Historical Analysis (40%) - This individual assessment requires students to use Lancaster University library’s newspaper databases to select a single historical opinion piece relating to an emerging digital technology. Students will be required to identify the hopes and/or concerns about technology expressed in the writing, historically situating the piece in the social/cultural context at the time.
• Essay (60%) - This individual assessment allows students to build on skills employed in the first assessment, to develop a more detailed analysis of how a type of digital media is represented in contemporary documents. Students should write an essay in response to a pre-given list of questions. The essay should address the question in part by reference to a case study of one form of digital media, as represented in at least one contemporary public domain document of their own choosing. Examples of such sources include, but are not limited to, newspapers, blog posts, government reports, consultancy reports, company websites. The aim is to further build skills in the analysis of original, empirical material in the public domain, as well as essay writing.

MECU4005: Screens and Selves

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to introduce students to concepts around identity formation and to reflect on the significance of media, film and culture in these processes. As a core module for students on BA Media and Cultural Studies, BA Digital Media, BA Film Studies and BA Film, Media and Cultural Studies programmes, it is an opportunity for students across the disciplines of MCS and Film to think and learn together about their own mediated selves. Students are introduced to different ways of thinking about the self, identity and self-representation, using media as a space of analysis and as a tool for action. The module explores how selves and subjects are manifested and performed across a variety of media genres and forms, and on different kinds of media and film screens. The module asks students to reflect on how their own sense of self is formulated to a large degree via media, film and cultural texts, digital and social media platforms and artefacts, and introduces analytical tools and techniques that enable students to see, map, interrogate, and transform the possibilities and potential of mediated selves. The module aims to build both critical and reflective skills in relation to students’ own mediated identities, and offers space to develop practice opportunities around self-representation, using a variety of media and film screens, which provides vital foundational knowledge for the degree programmes.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of concepts from interdisciplinary media studies disciplines related to self, identity and self-representation.
2. Show an awareness of the ambiguity and diversity of media screens, platforms and genres that offer opportunities for self-representation.
3. Plan and undertake media or film practice that uses an element of self-representation, and critically reflect on the process of using the self as resource and method.

Outline Syllabus

Media do not just reflect identities, but play an active role in bringing them into being. In this module, you will consider the role our screens – in all their many forms – play in producing our sense of self and the world around us. From selfies and avatars to being the subjects of film or advertisements, our ‘mediated selves’ cannot be avoided. How do we use media to represent and transmit a sense of ourselves to others? In what ways does self-representation allow us to assume and feel agency in our lives, and to connect with other selves? What does it mean to be shaped by media culture? You will critically engage with various media forms to understand their influence on identity formation and societal perceptions.

Topics and debates covered in this module could include:

• Mediated selves: applying and anchoring theories of the self to/within media
• Culture, (digital) media and film as space and opportunity for self-identity and self-representation
• Understanding self-representational genres - memoir, reflexive and autobiographical media forms
• Monetising the self – how is media and culture used to maximise exposure and develop mediated forms of self-branding
• Selfie culture and self-representation

Assessment Proportions

This module introduces conceptual ideas around the self, identity and self-representation, maps a variety of genres and forms that shape mediated selves, develops student skills in identifying and analysing these genres and forms, and equips students with the skills and knowledge to plan and execute their own mediated self project. Students are introduced to key concepts and debates and meet to discuss and reflect on how these concepts map onto their own screen lives and experiences, as well as to their individual degree programmes.

One session will be dedicated to assessment preparation, where students will be introduced to the assessment(s) and have the opportunity to receive peer and lecturer feedback, ask questions, etc.

Assessments:

• Mediated Self Project - This is an individual project that invites students to identify, map and interrogate an element of their ‘mediated self’. The variety of elements and aspects that students might select for this project will be presented in teaching sessions (for example they could produce a photo essay, vlog, avatar design, reflexive short film, etc)
• Critical Reflection - Students reflect on the process and practice elements of their mediated self-project, situating their project within key concepts and debates from the module. In this reflection, they consider how selves might be used as resource and method in media and film practice.

MECU5001: Key Perspectives in Global Media and Culture

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to further develop students’ critical understanding and analytical skills in relation to a range of key topics in media and culture in relation to global, (trans)national, regional and local contexts, providing a solid theoretical base for the students as they progress through the programme. With the increasing internationalisation of the University, the module equips students with the conceptual tools to reflect on their own surroundings and the role of media in global systems of power and meaning. It encourages students to understand the complexity and diversity of identities, experiences, viewpoints, and representations in contemporary media and culture. This module further introduces students to practical media skills and teaches students how to make meaningful connections between theoretical and practical approaches to the study of media and culture.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Implement and outline an understanding of key media and culture theories, concepts and debates through the construction of meaningful connections between media and culture theories and practice in a global context
2. Make use of digital media technologies to present key theories and concepts in an engaging manner.
3. Reflect on the diverse skillsets of themselves and/or others in producing academic work.

Outline Syllabus

Much of what constitutes contemporary media culture is so familiar to us that it makes it hard for us to take a distanced, critical view of our mediatised societies. In this module, you will develop an understanding of the relationship between the culture that is always all around you, and the overarching structures of power and social contexts that help to explain that culture. We will pay particular attention to the role of media in global systems of power and meaning through various sociological and interdisciplinary lenses, such as media studies, cultural studies, critical race theory and postcolonial studies. We will explore essential theoretical perspectives and longstanding global debates in media and cultural studies, and you will learn how to form your own opinions and arguments concerning the mediated world.

Topics covered may include:

• Identity, Representation, and ideology
• De-westernizing media studies
• Media Power
• Cultural globalization beyond the dominant narratives of the West vs. the rest
• Postcolonialism
• Visual Cultures
• Cultural Industries
• Popular Culture
• Postmodernism

Assessment Proportions

This module encourages student participation, with the pedagogical aim of producing a learning environment that encourages student engagement. Activities are designed for students to extend their learning by sharing their ideas and developing stronger understandings of key media and culture theories and practice.

One session of the module will be dedicated to assessment prep, including formative feedback and peer review.

This module will be assessed through two means:

• Practical Groupwork: students will work together to develop a piece of media practice (e.g. a podcast) drawing on key theories and concepts taught on the module. Students experiencing significant issues with groupmates must inform the module convenor at least 3 weeks before the submission of the project for alternative assessment consideration.
• Individual Critical Reflective Essay: students will work independently to develop a piece of critical and analytical work, which reflects on their practical groupwork by relating it to key theories and concepts of the module and extending this into a critical academic discussion.

MECU5005: Digital Cultures

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to engage students with critical digital media and cultural studies. It encourages students to pay critical attention to digital technologies in their everyday lives, how they relate to these technologies, and how technology relates to wider society. It trains students in critically understanding and analysing contemporary issues and problems at the intersection of technology and society

This module aims to help students reach programme level learning outcomes such as interpreting key concepts, identifying real-world examples, and connecting them with theoretical frameworks. It furthermore gives students an opportunity to deepen their familiarity with research ethics, which will become important for their final project at Level 6. Students also develop team-working skills through collaborative research project.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate understanding of key theoretical debates in critical digital media studies and cultural studies, across historical and contemporary contexts.
2. Analyse and reflect on how everyday digital media practices raise questions of power and identity, particularly in relation to ethical, social, cultural, economic, ecological and/or environmental impacts.
3. Demonstrate skills in research design and navigating research ethics to support the critical study of everyday media practices.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores how digital technologies, in their multiple forms, figure in our everyday lives and the global societies we live in. This includes social media platforms, search engines, publicly available artificial intelligence chatbots as well as the multitude of apps that mediate every aspect of our lives, from access to news and information to dating, food and consumption, education, and professional life. We will analyse the affordances of digital technologies in connection to questions of power, context, and embodiment. This module will stimulate you to start seeing how media and technology do more than transmitting messages and information. Instead, they have an ontological role in shaping social relations, subjectivities, practices and cultures. Attuning you to this role, this module allows you to understand media as much more than simply channels of representation or communication. The assessments in this module give students plenty of space to articulate their own experiences in everyday life to the theoretical literature and conceptual frameworks that they are introduced to in this module.

Assessment Proportions

The module is designed to accommodate participatory and collaborative learning. Students have the opportunity to critically engage with theories and ideas presented in lectures through group discussion and in-class activities.

The proposal presentation and progress presentation are opportunities to collect feedforward and to enable student participation through peer input. Feedforward is delivered orally and through group discussion in class so that students can learn from each other and the learning process is collective and participatory.

Assessments:

• Group research report: This assessment stimulates students to develop research design skills and awareness of research ethics through the team-based production of a case study of their own choice. Students are encouraged to do original data collection and design the research project in such a way that there are clear research questions, methods, and findings, related to the role of digital media in everyday life and their intersection with power. Students are welcome to include media beyond text into the report in a way that reflects a carefully designed representational strategy. The use of media needs to strengthen the argumentation and add to the persuasive capacity of the report, rather than being decorative. Students will present first proposal and then progress updates in class (around weeks 6-7 and 10-11 respectively). The 5-minute presentations are non-graded, but provide occasions for verbal feedforward in the form of input by the instructor as well as peers.
• Individual reflective essay: This assessment offers students an opportunity to reflect on how digital media objects shape everyday life. Students are invited to use auto-ethnographical methods or reflect on everyday experiences and observations and to articulate this to theoretical and critical concepts and perspectives learned in this module. The emphasis in this assessment lies with conceptualisation, reflectivity and theorisation. The assessment asks the student to develop their own voice in writing and demonstrate critical thinking and reflexivity. Multimedia elements are welcome as long as they strengthen the narrative.

MECU5006: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to train students in critically understanding and analysing contemporary theories and debates surrounding intersectional sexualities and gender identities. It aims to develop an understanding of the way normative and binary identities and norms are taught and enforced through media and cultural institutions, as well as how media can play a key role in engendered resistance and change. These concepts are central to current research in MCS, and connect with themes of identity, power and representation that build across the programme as a whole. The module builds on students’ understanding of queer and feminist theories and debates to develop their knowledge and confidence as gender scholars.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate understanding of the way theorists have framed media and popular culture as a key site of struggle over gendered and queer lives, identities and visibility.
2. Demonstrate the ability to apply key feminist and/or queer theories to media case studies, including selecting appropriate examples.
3. Engage critically and reflexively with a diversity of identities, experiences, viewpoints and representations to understand how gender and sexuality intersect with race, disability, mental health, age and/or class.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores how gender identities and sexualities are constructed, normalised, and navigated in relation to media and popular culture. Drawing on feminist and queer media research, we examine how representations in the media play a role in reinforcing gender binaries and heteronormative social roles and identities, focussing on how media and popular culture have been co-opted as a space of creative resistance. The module takes an intersectional approach, examining gender and sexuality within complex relations of class, race, ethnicity, dis/ability and age. We examine these questions by engaging with a wide range of spaces and platforms including film, television, fashion, music, public space, and digital and social media.

Indicative topics for the module might include:

• The gaze and practices of looking
• Masculinities
• Gender and the celebrity industries
• Queer and trans lives on screen
• Gendered media and resistance
• Gender and the fashion industries

Assessment Proportions

On this module, our teaching and learning approaches will engage you with a wide range of media and popular culture, with a particular emphasis on gender and sexuality. You will explore how we live in increasingly intimate relationships with media texts, and how they are instrumental in shaping, reinforcing, and challenging intersectional gendered and sexual identities. Our teaching approach, grounded in critical queer and feminist pedagogy, aims to empower and enable you to build critical, analytical, and interpretive skills as you apply key concepts and theoretical frameworks to the study of gender, sexuality and intersectional identities, communities and activism.

This module will support you to generate your own ideas through discussion, writing and reflection both individually and as part of a group. We will engage with key ideas, thinkers and movements, and work together to understand how their ideas can be put to use in an ever-changing media landscape where ideas about gender identity and sexuality are radically shifting. We will work together to learn how feminist and queer scholars have made sense of shifting media platforms, texts and discourses, as well as developing our own readings in response to the media that shape our world and our sense of ourselves as gendered, racialised, classed and embodied subjects. Teaching sessions will give ample opportunities to test ideas and receive formative feedback from module staff and peers. We use learning technologies such as Padlet to help students build media analysis skills which are key to the media analysis assessment and can be used in essay writing.

These teaching and learning strategies are also woven into our approach to assessment. The assessments enable you to develop your own voice as a critical scholar of gender and sexuality through writing and reading, but also through creative work that encourages you to engage with feminist and queer practices of activism, creativity and politics. One week will be dedicated to assessment preparation, giving opportunities to receive peer feedback as well as formative advice from teaching staff.

Assessments:

• Media analysis: Using one theme, debate or theory from the module, students must develop their own media analysis of a popular culture figure of their choice as if they were writing about them for a blog on gender and media. The blog must make use of academic theory.
• Essay: Students choose one question from a list of questions and write a response drawing on appropriate academic theory.

MECU5007: Visual Cultures

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to engage you with visual media and cultures. This engagement involves interpreting theories, concepts and frameworks, through application to real world examples. You will appraise various forms of visual media, including advertising, television, photography and film. Your evaluation of relevant identities, representations and diversities will increase your understanding of key theories, concepts and debates and enhance your self-reflexivity, through discussion and independent work, to improve the expression of your ideas and arguments. This contributes to the programmes as a whole by developing specific expertise in visual media theories and methodologies: a popular topic amongst students for final year projects.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Interpret a range of visual media, utilising relevant key theories, concepts and debates.
2. Identify diverse viewpoints and perspectives found in visual media, including in relation to local and global media, and various forms and formats, texts, technologies, practices and industries.
3. Clearly express ideas and information in written and visual form for different audiences.

Outline Syllabus

Our everyday lives are saturated by images of all kinds. This module will introduce you to some key ‘ways of seeing’ our world of images. We will explore questions such as: How are images made, who gets to produce them and, importantly, from whose point of view? How do pictures circulate? How do viewers read and interpret images? Who gets to look and through whose eyes? And how do these processes and practices relate to power? We’ll consider these questions in relation to a range of media texts, from photographs and advertisements to television and film.

Indicative topics/themes:

• the production, dissemination, and reception of images
• practices of encoding / decoding
• the recognition and contestation of ideology, mythology and domination
• multiple conceptions of the gaze and spectatorship
• Semotics and ways of seeing
• Image-making and storytelling

Assessment Proportions

On this module, our teaching and learning approaches will engage you with a range of visual media, relevant theories and forms of expression. This material includes evaluating the relationships between media and power, as well as identifying the shaping of identity through media. The teaching on this module will develop your critical, analytical and interpretive skills, as you utilise key concepts and theories for the evaluation of visual media and culture. Through the expression of your own ideas and interpretations, you will develop self-reflexivity in response to your work and practice.

Your learning will involve active analysis, interpretation and discussion of different visual forms, such as advertisements, television, social media and film. Teaching will incorporate learning technologies to facilitate your understanding, such as the creation and manipulation of images including the relevance of generative AI. As part of this inclusive learning experience, you will appraise visual media from diverse national and cultural contexts.

The teaching and learning approaches relate directly to your assessments. Learning presents various challenges, challenges that are themselves opportunities. Your assessments allow you to capitalise on those opportunities, expressing your ideas both in visual and written form. One teaching session will be dedicated to assessment preparation, including opportunity for peer feedforward, lecturer feedback, and an opportunity to ask questions.

Assessments:

• Group visual media project. The first assessment helps students develop teamwork skills to assemble a visual media project. This project can be photo essay, video essay, Instagram, TikTok account, vodcast or other. The project must express key themes or narratives from the module through the media practice form, in agreement with module convenor.
• Reflective report. The second assessment involves two parts: a critical reflection on the students own work in the group visual media project; and an analysis of one of the other team’s projects. This encourages students to compare different approaches and forms of media, and consider different forms of visual representation. Your learning on this module will support your design of study plans and different ways of expressing your understanding.

MECU6003: The Making of Media and AI Futures

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Some prior study of digital media.

Course Description

This module intends to offer students an opportunity to explore how socio-technical futures are “made” by different actors and entities across temporal, social and geopolitical contexts. It will enable students to consider how technological futures have been collectively, imagined, and debated historically – and how past imaginaries inform present speculation concerning futures of digital media and AI. The module will encourage students to understand and engage with socio-technical future-making as a collaborative and contested process with a range of social, cultural, political, economic implications. It will enable students to develop skills in critical analysis, written communication, collaborative thinking, and practice-based scholarship.

Contributing to programme learning outcomes, the module will enable students to engage critically with key theories, concepts, and debates in the study of digital media and culture, bringing relevant theoretical frameworks to bear on real-world examples situated in local and global contexts. It will provide students with opportunities to evaluate the importance of different forms of diversity and of social and environmental responsibility as they pertain to the “making" of digital media and AI futures. It will allow students to refine their ability to express ideas clearly and coherently, to work independently and reflexively, and to make appropriate use of scholarly and other relevant resources.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically reflect upon a range of key theories concepts and debates in the study of digital media and AI futures.
2. Engage in analysis of socio-technical imaginaries and the making of digital futures and their implications for culture, society, politics and everyday life.
3. Demonstrate the capacity to think reflexively about the complex issues involved in “making” digital futures across contexts.

Outline Syllabus

What will our digital future look like? How could AI transform global societies? What media will we watch, listen to, wear, be tracked by, or collaborate with – whether in smart cities, virtual workplaces, or even in outer space? These are big questions this module will explore, addressing how past visions of technological futures inform the speculative digital landscapes we imagine today. This module examines the social, cultural, and political implications of these technologies, addressing issues such as personalisation, surveillance, platform governance, and digital inequalities. You will explore critical debates on issues such as automation, data governance, digital labour, and ethics while reflecting on the future of digital media in everyday life.

Indicative topics/themes:

• How digital and AI futures are imagined, contested, and “made real” across different temporal, social and geopolitical contexts
• The relationship between past and present socio-technical imaginaries
• Emergent digital technologies and their transnational cultural, social, political, economic, and ethical implications
• How AI is changing everyday life with attention to knowledge-making, work, leisure, popular culture, the environment, and/or political governance.
• Speculating, debating, and “making” our own futures of digital media

Assessment Proportions

This module builds on the knowledge and skills students have developed through their degree, including critical analysis of media imaginaries, technologies, and societies, it will provide an advanced exploration of the making of digital media and AI futures. The teaching sessions enable students to actively engage with the conceptual material presented in lectures and elaborated in guided discussion, which will be linked to a weekly set of key and further readings. Group discussions will enable students to imagine, debate, contest, and “make” digital media and AI futures across contexts. These activities foster the skills that are assessed in the module’s two assessments. Opportunities for feedback will be integrated throughout the module: during the workshop which incorporates opportunities for discussion of debate as well as assignments; during staff office hours; feedback on the first assessment will feed into students’ work on their second assessment.

Assessments:

• Portfolio. The portfolio assessment will provide students with an opportunity to offer a creative response to the theme of ‘speculative digital media futures’ (which takes a written, visual, oral, and/or multi-media form) accompanied by a short reflective commentary.
• Essay. The essay assessment will ask students to draw from material pertaining to at least two weeks of the module, and write a critically engaged essay.

MECU6004: Media Industries

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module offers an advanced exploration of a range of media industries, analysing the structure, function and evolution of ‘traditional’ and digital media industries, such as advertising, public relations, journalism and digital content creation. The module examines the social and cultural impact of such industries, the experience of media workers in such industries, and the significance of media regulation and policy. The module therefore contributes to the degree programmes an advanced social and cultural analysis of the structure and practices of selected media industries and their impact on society that builds on understandings developed at Levels 4 and 5. The module will develop skills in critical analysis and written communication.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically reflect upon a range of key theories, concepts and debates in the study of media industries.
2. Engage in critical analysis of local and global media industries and their products, including considering the ethical and societal significance of the media industries.
3. Collate and deploy complex ideas and information relating to media industries in order to formulate and express arguments cogently.

Outline Syllabus

In this module, you’ll delve into the structure, function, and evolution of ‘traditional’ and digital media industries, ranging from journalism and consumer industries to streaming services and online content creation. You will consider the economic, cultural, and technological forces driving these industries, and their societal impact. You’ll debate the role of media regulation and policy in shaping the ever-changing media industries today.

Indicative topics and themes:

• Mapping and conceptualising the field of media industries, locally and globally
• Analysing the structure and practices of selected media industries. The focus will vary from year to year but may include advertising, journalism, public relations, (digital) media content creation, social media, or television.
• Analysing the impact of media regulation and media policy in shaping the media industries and reflecting on the social and cultural significance of regulation and policy
• Discussing the experiences of media workers, the demographics of those working in the media industries (including a focus gender, race and/or class), and forms of labour involved in media industries work
• Assessing the challenges, transformations and potential futures faced by media industries, including changes to working practices, new technologies and shifting ideologies

Assessment Proportions

This optional module builds on both the content and skills students will have developed throughout their degree, including critical reflection and media literacy, to provide an advanced analysis that focuses on the specificities of a range of media industries. The teaching sessions encourage students to actively engage with the conceptual material provided in lecture slides and lecture-style input through student groupwork activities. These activities are centred on students debating and analysing examples and case studies and linking that material to a weekly set reading. These activities foster the skills that are assessed in the module’s two assignments.

Opportunities for feedback – and ‘feedforward’ – will be available throughout the module: during workshops which incorporate opportunities for discussion of debates and also assignments; during staff office hours; feedback on the first assignment will feed into students’ work on their second assignment.

Assessments:

• Case Study analysis: Students will be provided with a choice of case studies. They will select one, research it online and discuss it using conceptual material covered in the module. Case studies will vary from year to year but may include analysis of a specific media regulatory policy (or transnational comparison) or an analysis of demographic figures relating to media industry workers.
• Essay: Students will be provided with a list of essay questions to choose from and will be expected to provide a critically engaged response.

MECU6005: Audiences, Fans and Participatory Cultures

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of fandom and audiences in a global and transnational context. It enables students to analyse and evaluate the multi-layered dynamics between individual fan, fan community, audience participation, media texts, and the industry through interdisciplinary lenses; for example, cultural studies, feminist studies, queer studies, and postcolonial studies. The module also fosters an appreciation of participatory media practices, forms and phenomena. In so doing, the moule contributes to the programme’s emphasis upon the interactive potentialities of digital media and the appreciation of diverse and multiple forms of agency within contemporary media ecologies.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically reflect upon a range of key theories, concepts and debates in the study of media and participatory cultures, using interdisciplinary lenses from, for example, cultural studies, feminist studies, queer studies, and postcolonial studies.
2. Employ critical and analytical skills in the discussion and examination of a variety of media and cultural forms and formats, texts, technologies, participatory practices, industries and fandoms, with particular attention to the dynamics between fan communities, audiences’ participation, media texts, and media industries.
3. Situate fan practices and communities in relation to broader historical, sociocultural, economic, and political contexts at the local, regional, and global levels.

Outline Syllabus

How has the experience of being part of a media audience transformed in recent years? How do we make sense of being a fan nowadays? In what ways do fan culture and audience community manifest social transformations on both local and global scales? This module explores how fan practices and audience formations reflect broader social, cultural, and political transformations, both locally and globally. From casual viewers to highly invested fans, students will examine the diverse ways individuals and communities engage with media texts and contribute to cultural production.

This module provides students with a critical understanding of fandom and audiences in a global and transnational context. It introduces students to the contested concepts and typologies of ‘audience’ and ‘fan’, unpacking the cultural hierarchies of knowledge that underlie these definitions. Drawing on case studies across different media forms such as television, music, film, and anime, the module focuses on four key dimensions: participation, pleasure, performance, and power. Students will explore the complex and often contradictory dynamics between individual fans, fan communities, audience participation, media texts, and media industries. The module encourages analysis through interdisciplinary approaches including cultural studies, feminist theory, queer theory, and postcolonial studies.

Key themes and areas of investigation in the module might include:

• Audience agency vs. passivity
• Practices of audiencing, and how audiences are changing
• Fan creativity and use of technology
• The moral economy of fan labour
• Racial and class tensions within fan and audience communities
• Fan activism, civic engagement, and grassroots organising
• Transcultural fandom and audiences
• Methods and reflexivity in researching audiences

Assessment Proportions

Key theories, concepts, debates and case-studies will be introduced and explored during teaching sessions. These sessions are designed to support students’ understanding of core materials and facilitate collaborative learning. One dedicated session will be focused on assessment requirements, and detailed written guidelines will be provided. Formative feedback will also be offered to help students prepare for their assignments.

• Assessment 1: Group fan project (total 40%) - Working in small group students will produce a piece of publicly accessible critical fanart/fanwork (for example, but not limited to, fanfiction, fan video uploaded to YouTube, Tumblr posts, blog posts, or podcasts) (20%). This will be accompanied by a group synopsis of the work (maximum 800-1000 words) (20%). Students will receive a group mark for this assessment.
• Assessment 2: individual essay (60%) - Students will write a research or reflexive paper of 1800-2000 words. This is an individual research paper that requires students to undertake original and empirical research on fandom on a topic/area of their choice. Students are encouraged to draw from diverse and transmedia sources and undertake a critical evaluation of media texts. Alternatively, student can write a critical reflexive autobiographic account of their involvement in fandom/audience communities with reference to concepts and theories covered in the module. Students will receive an individual mark for this essay. Students will be required to seek appropriate ethical approval prior to undertaking the research, where relevant.

MECU6006: Mediating the Body

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer term
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to offer an advanced exploration of how bodies are mediated. The module will prompt students to consider what kinds of bodies fit social and cultural norms versus which are seen as abject or deviant; how these norms are circulated in the public imaginary; how bodies are variously quantified, measured, monitored, tracked, and disciplined, particularly in relation to digital technologies; and how bodies could be re-imagined as sites of mediated resistance. It will pay particular attention to the mediated construction of the body in terms of class, gender, sexuality, race, disability, and how these intersections inform what bodies are considered ‘ideal’. This module contributes to the overall programme(s) by speaking to an increasing demand from students to critically understand how bodies are mediated and circulated, a topic which is often prevalent in their dissertation projects. It builds student’s confidence in talking about bodies as forms of culture (in media, art, space, for example), and with critical literature that allows them to interrogate these relations.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically evaluate and apply key theories and concepts relating to body politics.
2. Investigate the body as a site of culture, power and agency, paying particular attention to intersectional dimensions.
3. Critically reflect on the mediated body through creative practice, cognisant of the diversity of identities, experiences, viewpoints and representations associated with the body.

Outline Syllabus

‘The body’ is a key site of both control and resistance in media culture. This module explores how media representations, cultural norms, and societal structures shape perceptions of the body, identity, and agency. Thinking about body politics through an intersectional lens, you’ll critically examine issues like gender, sexuality, race, disability, class, and body type, unravelling the intricate connections between media and the lived experience of the body. We’ll think about what kinds of bodies fit social and cultural norms, how these norms are circulated and embedded in public imaginaries, and whether bodies can be re-imagined as sites of resistance.

Topics and themes addressed in this module may include:

• Mediated bodies in art and media.
• The objectified body in the media.
• The body and gender, race, social class, sexuality, disability.
• Media consumption, body dissatisfaction, and associated consequences.
• The relations between cities, space and the body.
• The medicalisation of the body.
• The body and consumption, e.g. food practices.
• The quantification and disciplining of the body, including through emerging digital technologies.
• Labour practices associated with the body, including bodily maintenance, aesthetic practices, the body and intimacies.

Assessment Proportions

This module builds on both the content and skills students will have developed throughout their programmes, including critical reflection and media literacy, to provide an advanced analysis that focuses on the specificities of how the body intersects with culture. The module teaching encourages students to engage with examples, including those from their own lives, to make the theoretical reflections applicable. The teaching sessions encourage students to actively engage with the conceptual material provided in lecture slides and lecture-style input through student groupwork activities. These activities are centred on students debating and analysing examples and case studies and linking that material to a weekly set reading.

One session of the module will be dedicated to assessment preparation, including an opportunity for students to ask questions and receive feedback from peers/lecturers.

Assessments:

• Group Zine + Short Presentation: For this assignment, students will be asked to develop and manage a zine project, in which they explore a current issue or theme (related to the module) in an engaging and in-depth manner. The zine could be physical or digital – students will be introduced to the properties of a zine in teaching sessions. Students will also be asked to give a 5-minute presentation in class on the process of creating the zine.
• Critical Reflective Essay: Students write a critical reflective essay on the same topic as the zine. This will reflect on the process of creating the zine, but also engage critically with the topic making use of academic theory and key conceptual frameworks from the module.

MECU7001: Global Media: Innovation and Inequalities

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

As the first core module on the MA in Global Media & Society, this module introduces approaches to various dimensions of global media and societies. It will engage with a wide range of theories, concepts and debates, and encourage students to employ critical analysis of media texts, technologies, practices and industries. The module introduces students to a wide range of academic and media texts, and encourages them to draw thematic connections and critically engage with these texts. It teaches students key critical analysis skills, and how to present their ideas and arguments in written format and verbally through class discussion. Through formative assessment where they submit a draft chapter plan for written feedback prior to submission, it develops students’ confidence to apply academic conventions and write at a scholarly level. It encourages students to think on a global scale to decolonise research and teaching.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate an advanced ability to deploy, evaluate and analyse a range of theories, concepts and debates relevant to the field of global media studies
2. Employ critical and analytical skills in the in-depth discussion and examination of media and cultural texts, technologies, practices and industries
3. Write an academic essay and conduct the necessary independent research to give shape to this essay.

Outline Syllabus

This module introduces students to the critical analysis of key forms of innovation and production in global media. It focuses on the analysis of power in relation to media, and expands this focus to include considerations of new and emerging forms of social and technological innovation. Centred on the relationships between power and innovation, this module asks students to explore the interplay between power structures (global and local inequalities) and modes of (dis)engagement in global media.

Topics may include the political economy of innovation in global media and technology sectors, temporalities and ideologies of innovation, globalisation and inequalities, politics and cultures of design, consumer cultures of creativity and participatory modes of innovation, decolonial approaches to innovation, as well as the ecological stakes of innovation. Students will read and discuss recent and formative writings in global media studies, and develop an understanding of key concepts and how they help us to make sense of media cultures, industries, and practices. This module helps to support students to become media leaders through honing critical thinking skills.

Assessment Proportions

The essay allows students to explore a key debate(s) in depth, using styles of analysis and writing typical of the field of global media. Students are asked to complete a case study analysis, choosing their own case study and applying key concepts from the module to critically analyse it. They will be encouraged to analyse their case study using a decolonial lens.

MECU7002: Critical Methods in Media

• Terms Taught: Lent
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module is designed to introduce students to current methodological issues, main approaches, practical techniques and exemplary cases relating to the study of media. It will encourage students to critically engage with research methods by looking at other studies, and considering good practice.

By the end of the module, students will have a practical grounding in a variety of textual, discourse, and visual analysis techniques as well as exposure to ethnography, digital ethnography and participatory approaches. The module trains students in the research skills necessary to complete the final project, and hones students’ skills as independent learners.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate familiarity with, and be able to employ and select, appropriate critical and analytical approaches for the examination of media forms and formats, texts, technologies, practices and industries
2. Demonstrate an understanding of research methodologies and appropriately link theories, methods and research questions
3. Communicate findings and arguments confidently in a variety of formats such as using social media technology, and in an oral presentation

Outline Syllabus

This module explores how to do research in global media studies. Compared to many other social science and humanities fields, method in media studies is more plural. It includes textual analysis, visual analysis, ethnography and participatory approaches. Particularly in media theory, it is often unclear what the methodological approach of a given study is, or what the relationship is between theory, methodology and research method.

This module explores a range of key methods and methodological approaches used to critically explore contemporary as well as historical media forms and formats, text, technologies, practices and industries. It provides necessary training in research design, methodology, and ethics and builds diverse skills to support your final year project as well as future work trajectories.

The module traces selected methodological strategies, and might include:

• discourse analysis;
• institutions and culture industries;
• cultural practices and everyday life;
• ‘close readings’ and textual analysis;
• (online) ethnographic-type methods;
• visual analysis;
• semiotics;
• algorithmic ethnography;
• cross platform studies.

Assessment Proportions

Individual recorded presentation

Students select, present and critically analyse one of the methods discussed in the module. They could explain, for example, how it would be used; potential case studies/example to analyse; good practice; poor practice; potential pitfalls; limitations; similar methods; methods to use in conjunction; appropriate research questions, etc (not exhaustive).

Group social media project

Students will be asked to work in groups to produce social media content that summarises key information, questions, and dilemmas in relation to one of the methods discussed on the module (must be different to the method chosen for the individual presentation). This could take the form of a short video (2 minute max), images (max. 10), a series of written posts (max. 20), or a mix of them all but to the total equivalence of a 2-minute video.

Students can choose which social media platform they use, assuming it is available in the UK so can be accessed to mark.

Students will also write a 1000-1200 word positioning statement, describing their project and why they made the choices they did. A group mark is awarded.

MECU7003: Media and Creative Industries in a Global World

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

The module encourages students to think critically about the development and function of the global media and creative industries, both historically and in the present day. It complements the other core theory module on the programme (MECU7001), which focuses more on texts and platforms, to consider the forms, practices, and labour politics of the media industries.

The module aims to enhance student employability by engaging them in critical analysis of industry work. As such, it aims to draw on external industry speakers where possible, to provide hands-on experience for students as well as vital networking opportunities. It prepares students to be media leaders by enhancing their knowledge and engagement with various aspects of the global media industries. The module introduces students to reading and evaluating policy, and to communicating critical analysis in the form of a report. It enhances students’ ability to present ideas, interpretations, principles and theories with confidence, using a variety of different forms.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate an advanced ability to deploy, evaluate and analyse a range of theories in relation to the key developments (technological, cultural and political) in the growth of the global creative industries sector.
2. Understand and critically evaluate working practices in the creative industries and be able to apply analyses of inequalities to the media and creative industries sector.
3. Demonstrate proficiency in intellectual skills of synthesis, development and critical evaluation of evidence and arguments, across a variety of oral and/or written formats.

Outline Syllabus

This module examines the central historical and theoretical legacies that inform a critical approach to the global media and creative industries, as well as providing insights into comparative analyses of their development. It develops students’ understanding of key developments in media production, regulation and policy. It addresses an array of critical topics in the media and creative industries, which may include the experience economy, transmedia storytelling, AI applicability, gamification, the vintage industry, platform economy, and media under algorithmic cultures. It thinks critically about labour politics in the industries, and who makes our media. This module highlights a holistic understanding of the media and creative industries ecology, and encourages students to engage in critical analysis of the industries.

Assessment Proportions

Individual recorded presentation

Students will be asked to apply key critical theory to a chosen case study from the global media and creative industries, for example analysing race or class inequalities in the industries, mapping global inequalities in the labour force.

Industry report

Students are asked to write a report on a key issue of their choice in the global media and creative industries (e.g. inequalities in labour, use of AI, etc – must be different to the first assessment).

MECU7005: Feminist Media and Cultural Studies

• Terms Taught: Lent
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module aims to introduce students to key concepts, theories and debate in the field of feminist media and cultural studies. Exploring gender and its intersections is an important foci for media studies, and feminist scholars analyse media representation, production processes, and audience interpretations to understand how media can perpetuate or resist gender inequalities.

This module seeks to uncover the power dynamics that influence media production and consumption on a global scale, and explore more equitable representations and practices that could feed into our global media industries, contributing to the overall programme learning outcomes.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically interrogate feminist interventions in media and its relation to gender, class, race, sexuality, body type, nationality, age, mental health and/or disability.
2. Demonstrate an advanced ability to apply key feminist and/or queer theories to media case studies, including selecting appropriate examples
3. Demonstrate skills in critical scholarly reading, critical analysis, evaluation and interpretation.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the intersections of feminism, media, and culture, critically examining how gender identities and inequalities are constructed and represented in various media forms. Taking an intersectional approach, the module addresses issues such as race, class, sexuality, and disability, and encourages you to think about media as a global practice.

This module will focus on crucial feminist interventions in cultural production and cultural studies. It will examine contemporary debates in feminist theory and specific forms of activism, engagement and resistance that have identified and targeted hierarchical mechanisms that produce gendered, sexual, ethnic and racial identities and oppression. The module will be taught through the examination of a range of sources drawn from popular culture, media, art, public culture and policy, enabling us to bring feminist cultural theory into dialogue with a range of media and other cultural productions and practices.

Indicative topics include:

• Queer and trans visibility and invisibility
• Media representation and coloniality
• Popular feminism
• Black feminism
• Celebrity
• Body politics and intersectionality
• Music cultures
• Digital representation, marginality, and activism

Assessment Proportions

Essay

Students are given a choice of essay questions to choose from, or they can design their own question which must be agreed with the module convenor. Students should write a critical essay which makes use of theory from the module and appropriate resources.

Media analysis

Students are asked to write a media analysis, focusing on a media figure and using a theory from the module. Students can write this in the style of media commentary journalism, or could choose to present their analysis orally in the style of a recorded vlog.

MECU7006: Audiences, Fandom and Celebrity Culture

• Terms Taught: Lent
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module examines the development and key debates related to participatory culture and fandom in the contemporary global media landscape. It develops students’ understanding of the historical development and theoretical legacies of fandom studies, from the Birmingham School’s early investigations of subcultures and resistance, to the formation of the interdisciplinary field of fandom studies, and the recent developments related to digital platforms and fan management in the media industry. This provides specialist knowledge in audience engagement, complementing the knowledge in some of the broader core modules and providing key frameworks which students can use in their dissertation projects.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate the ability to distinguish, describe, and apply analytical and methodological approaches to audience cultures
2. Situate audiences, fan communities and practices in broader historical, sociocultural, economic, and political contexts at the local, global and transnational levels
3. Understand and critically evaluate the relations between audiences, fan communities, media industries, and technologies

Outline Syllabus

This module explores media participation in the globalised and digital era. Prior to the development of cultural studies, audiences were understood as passive dupes who were uncritically ‘influenced’ by media texts. Today, audiences make their own media in digital spaces.

This module traces the development of audiences and fans, and the development of media studies’ theorisation about audiences and fans. It looks at different types of media audiences, ranging from television viewers to fan fiction writers, to think about different forms of participatory cultures. It thinks about issues such as the mainstreaming of fan culture in the age of transmediality and media convergence, the various forms of fan labour, narratives of fan management, and the multi-directional media flows and implications on transnational fandom. Examples could include:

• Gender and sexualities in fandom
• Racial inequalities in fandom
• Mediated authenticity and intimacy
• Fan economy, consumption, and fan management
• Fan tourism and fan tourists

Assessment Proportions

Individual Recorded Video Presentation

Students will produce an individual recorded video presentation that investigates a case study of their choice related to audiences, fans and participatory cultures.

Essay

Students will produce a research essay that investigates a topic of their choice, and all essays should consider relevant critical and theoretical approaches to participatory culture and fandom. Students’ essay topics must be agreed upon with the module convenor.

MECU7007: Digital Media and Society

• Terms Taught: Lent
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module aims to develop critical perspectives on the political and ethical implications of digital technologies, and gives students the tools to intervene in and participate in technological developments and related debates. It provides specialist knowledge in digital technologies and questions of data and quantification, which complements the broader theoretical perspectives explored in the core modules. This allows students to develop research skills to study digital technologies, which will inform some of their dissertation projects.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Demonstrate advanced understanding of the conceptual frameworks introduced by media and cultural studies as well as science and technology studies (STS) and/or feminist techno-science.
2. Apply conceptual frameworks to study concrete phenomena by attending to the materiality and situatedness of digital technologies
3. Locate concrete possibilities for intervention in developments and debates concerning the intersections of digital technology, power, and ethics that carry public relevance.

Outline Syllabus

This module investigates the cultures and forms of social power and control that underpin contemporary developments in AI, digital platforms, data, and quantification. We ask the following questions: How can we analyze AI and digital platforms as cultural phenomena with implications that are social, political and ecological? What critical and ethical perspectives that are typically overlooked by engineers and tech corporations can we mobilize to frame a response to the onset of AI and “smart” digital platforms in all aspects of society? How can students in media and cultural studies (and adjacent fields in the arts, humanities and social sciences) intervene in technological developments and debates? This module introduces students to the critical data and AI studies, the material turn in media studies as well as science and technology studies (STS), primarily feminist techno-science.

The digital seems to promise us deeper levels of global integration and control. Yet decades of technological progression have only made the relationship between the digital and non-digital more complex. This module considers data and algorithmic power, as they have become central components in a digital world. But we also pay attention to difference, accidents, and unforeseen ramifications that challenge a simplistic, instrumentalist view of technology. Juggling these various lenses, we study "smart" infrastructures underpinning phenomena such as networked affect and smart cities or even smart farms. Rather than assuming that we now live in a homogeneous global society of control, we consider the unexpected: the messiness of datafication and algorithmic culture tied up with affective contagion, unpredictable ecosystems, and electronic waste straddling the planet in ways that remain unaccounted for.

Assessment Proportions

Group presentation

Students will present in class between weeks 9-11. These presentations involve role play, where students identify a case study involving data and algorithmic technology as well as relevant stakeholders (e.g., corporate organisations, governmental institutions, civil society, user groups or other interest groups). Taking up the role of the advocate or consultant, students point out a problem and argue how and why the situation needs to be transformed.

Essay

The essay uses concepts and theories from the module to produce an insight about a certain innovation or phenomenon involving digital technology. The essay should make clear how the argument intervenes in public debates and common perceptions.

MECU7008: Screens and Global Identities

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: Student must have completed an undergraduate degree in a relevant field.

Course Description

This module develops students’ advanced knowledge of key debates, theories, and concepts in global media studies of identity, subjectivity, and the body. It provides theoretical frameworks that students can apply across other modules and their dissertation projects. The module builds confidence in analysing, evaluating, and creating screen media using a range of critical perspectives. Students gain an advanced understanding of how film, television, and digital media shape bodies, relationships, and subjectivities in a global media landscape.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically evaluate and deploy key debates, theories and concepts in global media studies, cognisant of intersectional, transnational, and interdisciplinary thought.
2. Appraise the importance of intersectionality as an analytical framework, and successfully integrate this into discussion and debate.
3. Successfully realise a coherent and critically engaged essay, making effective use of academic conventions befitting a postgraduate programme.

Outline Syllabus

This module examines how screen media shape understandings of identity, selfhood, and social life in global contexts. It considers the production, circulation, and reception of media across diverse cultures, with attention to how representations of gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, and other identities intersect and influence one another. The module adopts an intersectional, transnational, and interdisciplinary approach, encouraging students to think critically about the ways media reflect, challenge, and produce social norms, inequalities, and cultural values.

Students will engage with a wide range of screen media, including film, television, streaming platforms, and online content. The module explores contemporary debates around identity and media, drawing on feminist, queer, postcolonial, and critical media studies to understand how individuals and communities negotiate belonging, visibility, and power in mediated environments.

Through seminar discussion, close analysis, and independent research, students will examine screen media as sites of cultural production, activism, and resistance. Topics include the representation of marginalised groups, the role of media in shaping social and political narratives, and the complex relationships between audience, text, and context. Students will also consider historical and contemporary practices of identity-based media activism and the global circulation of ideas about selfhood and society.

By the end of the module, students will be able to critically analyse screen media across cultural and political contexts, situate media texts within intersectional and transnational frameworks, and engage thoughtfully with debates about identity, ethics, and representation. The module foregrounds critical thinking and encourages reflection on the student’s own position within mediated spaces, considering both the opportunities and limitations of media in shaping contemporary life.

Assessment Proportions

Essay (3000 – 3500 words)

This essay allows students to explore a key debate(s) in depth, using styles of analysis and writing typical of the field of intersectional global media studies. They will be given a list of essay questions to choose from, or may design their own question related to the module, with the agreement of the module convenor.