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Why choose the School of Arts and Creative Industries
Experienced, research-active team including specialists with industry backgrounds in journalism, political communications and broadcast media, to name a few.
Opportunities to meet visiting, industry-active professionals and academics, including those involved in media production and international development.
This Master’s opens up career options in the media and communication industries including online media, broadcasting, journalism, regulation and media research.
About the course
This course examines the key issues affecting media and communication in a culturally diverse, modern society. It explores issues related to social media, print and broadcasting, building your understanding of how interconnected the industry is as elements of mass media continue to converge. You explore the theories that underpin the practice of media and communication – including policy and ethical issues - while placing theory in real-life scenarios and developing your skills in critical analysis, research and communication.
For further course information, contact Lawrie Hallett at lawrie.hallett@beds.ac.uk
Facilities and specialist equipment
- Broadcast TV studio and newsroom with radio news booth and transmission gallery
- RadioLaB, our own local, online and FM community radio station, offering extra-curricular opportunities to get involved in broadcasting or producing shows
- Access to our Postgraduate and CPD Centre featuring state-of-the-art IT and AV equipment; informal learning spaces; and quiet study areas
Student experience
Explore the central issues and concepts of mass communications in a culturally diverse and modern society, looking at media practices, effective content delivery and media regulation.
Develop a global perspective via a core unit on the media’s role in international development.
Tailor elements of the course to your own interests (subject to staff supervisory expertise) in your final independent dissertation, based on a specific research project.
Learn from an experienced, research-active team that includes specialists with professional industry backgrounds in audience studies, journalism, political communications, broadcast media, technologies and regulation.
Take up opportunities to network with visiting industry and academic experts through University events and conferences including guest speaker events as well as seminars organised by our Research Institute for Media, Arts and Performance (RIMAP).
Benefit from one-on-one and group tutorials with your personal tutor as well as wider professional and academic support, including academic writing skills for those who have English as a second language.
Course Leader - Dr Lawrie Hallett
I've been lucky enough to work in broadcasting all my adult life. From working as a producer and presenter on stations in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, I went on to run a broadcast engineering and design company, before becoming a broadcast consultant specialising in technology and community-based broadcasting.
What will you study?
Studying our Mass Communications MA course will provide you with knowledge and skills in the world of media and communication. To build on the foundations of your study, you will explore the political economy of the media in our Media Institutions, Structures and Policies unit. Here, you will examine concepts from press freedom and de-regulation to public sector broadcasting and the adaptation of media institutions. You will explore various factors and relationships that involve the state and the media, the media and its audiences, media economics and technological changes in the media industry.
Furthermore, you will develop a firm understanding of the major issues of media theory in our Current Research in Mass Communications unit while also discovering advanced levels of media theory. You will also consider the main issues in Media and International Development including democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and media structures.
To demonstrate the knowledge and skills gained from this course, our Final Project in Mass Communications will give you the opportunity to produce a dissertation on a specialist media topic of your interest. To help you in this investigation, you will be introduced to Research Methods used to study the media in relation to government, enterprise and scholarship. More importantly, this will help you develop the skills to produce a research proposal with the appropriate methods and ethical considerations in place.
How will you be assessed?
The course is fully compliant with University regulations for assessment mitigation appeals and complaints. The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills that are required in a professional environment. Assessments take a variety of forms including written work (essay report research proposal dissertation) oral presentations and practical work (empirical research). For some assessments there will be opportunity for formative feedback on assessments-in-progress before the assessment deadline and you are encouraged to integrate formative and summative feedback into your work in order to develop as mass media experts and academic researchers.
Careers
The knowledge and understanding you gain on this course will be invaluable when seeking employment in the media. In addition the project work on the course helps you make professional and industry contacts while developing specialist knowledge of a specific area of personal interest helping you develop your career in that direction if you choose.
Typical areas for Mass Communications graduates to find employment include broadcasting; journalism; media development; arts administration; photography; theatre; media research; PR and advertising; design; and copywriting. It can also open the way to work in areas such as education and human resource management.
As an MA graduate you also have the opportunity to study at Doctoral level with an MPhil or PhD.
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £10,000 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees and living costs. Visit www.gov.uk/postgraduate-loan
Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk
International 2024/25
The full-time standard fee for a taught Master's degree for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £16,900
If you have any questions around fees and funding, please email international@beds.ac.uk
