Media and Globalisation, MA, PGCert, PGDip

This innovative course enables you to gain an improved understanding of the many facets of today’s communications media, including broadcasting and information communication technology, and the role they have to play in globalisation processes. Loading the player ...

What will I study?
You will join a team of established experts who offer a unique course that combines both theoretical and practical approaches. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the main theoretical frameworks related to media and globalisation.

You will critically analyse the role and impact of the media industry in a global society to become critically aware of the implications of these debates for research strategies, theorising and practicing. Alongside the theoretical content you will engage with the theory and practice of alternative audiovisual narratives and the key media production processes and professional practices relevant to media, cultural and communicative industries. You will engage with practical issues that are presently affecting media industries, this is directly relevant to those wishing to work within the media field in the future.

Special features
Based within the Institute for Cultural Analysis, Nottingham (ICAn) our team of world leading media academics will inspire you. Many combine not only outstanding research records but also successful media careers. This allows you to benefit from a broad range of experience and expertise from across the media fields. The media team pride themselves on their accessible, student-centred approach to teaching and are available for one-to-one tutorial support and guidance.

There is a schedule of external speakers throughout the course, all of them practitioners of various kinds of media work. This allows you to develop an understanding of various communicative practices and the ongoing transformations within the media industries. Speakers have ranged from PR Managers, Television Producers and Internet Entrepreneurs.

Any questions?

General course enquiries
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Admissions enquiries
Telephone: +44(0)115 848 4200

Study routes

• MA full-time: 12 months
• MA part-time: 24 months
• PgDip full-time: 12 months
• PgDip part-time: 24 months
• PgCert full-time: 9 months

Course content

Approaching Research (40 credits) - including a focus on issues such as social inquiry interpretation, ethnography, ethics, positionality, research questions and design, literature reviews and presenting research.

Media and Globalisation. Theoretical, Practical and Contemporary issues (80 credits)
Following an introduction, the module is organised in four blocks of study: Globalisation, Media Industries, Media Analysis, Experimental audio-visual practice.

A course outline may include the following elements:

• General introduction to the debates on media and globalisation;
• Globalisation as a set of economic, political and cultural processes that facilitate transnational interconnectivity and a powerful discourse mobilized for particular political effects;
• Discussion of a range of theories of global media: critical political economy, cultural studies, institutionalism, media corporations and public policy, and cultural & economic geography;
• Discussion of leading edge thinking in the area of media studies and social theory to explore issues on transnational media spaces, cultures and practices particularly the nexus of the global to the local in the mediascape – media context and organisations, media text, and media consumption;
• A critical look at the dynamics of various contemporary British Media industries in the wider context of globalisation, with a particular emphasis on the changing nature of production and distribution;
• Experimentation with form and content in the development, production, and exhibition of an audio-visual text.

Dissertation (60 credits) - you will complete a 15,000 word dissertation. Recent dissertation titles have included:

• a case study of Soap Opera in Catalan Public Television
• the impact of Global Technology on Taiwanese Culture.

Assessment

Assessment on the course involves course work, report writing, presentations and group work. The core of the course is structured with no formal examinations.

All candidates for the MA write a dissertation, and prepare work on research methods including an assessed dissertation proposal as part of the research training element of the degree. This varied pattern of assessment reflects the main aim of the course in preparing students for work either in academic, research, analysis or practical policy management fields.

Students who do not wish to write a dissertation for whatever reason are welcome to apply for the postgraduate diploma course. It is straightforward to transfer from the diploma to the full MA course at a later stage if a student decides to progress with a dissertation.

Resources and facilities

In addition the University library and computer labs, the Institute for Cultural Analysis, Nottingham (ICAn) provides specific facilities for students including hot desks and other resources.