This course requires 104–120 UCAS tariff points including a minimum of 2 A-levels or equivalent. We are happy to consider a combination of qualifications and grades to meet the overall tariff, for example A-levels A*CC, ABC, BBB or BCC, BTECs DDM or DMM. You can use the UCAS calculator to see how your qualifications equate to UCAS tariff points.
If you do not meet these requirements, you may want to consider our foundation year, a one-year course that will prepare you for degree-level study.
If English is not your first language, you will need IELTS (Academic) 6.0 with minimum 5.5 in each component or equivalent.
Develop a critical understanding of the role the media plays in culture and society, ranging from the rise of the 'influencer' to the promotion of social issues
Explore communication theories that can be applied across any media platform including narrative structures and audience theories
Work on live briefs with local charities such as Volunteer Centre Dorset, The Pantry Partnership, GECCO – Early Years Childcare Environment and Dorset Road Safety
Work at prestigious companies across a range of industries as placement students and graduates – including Nintendo, Adobe, Mercedes, and Walt Disney
Publish news and features across our student platforms: Fresher Publishing and Nerve Media.
For September 2022 entry: in order to take advantage of new approaches to learning and teaching, as well as developments in industry to benefit our students we regularly review all of our courses. This course is currently going through this process and we will update this page to give you full information about what we will be offering once the review process has concluded.
Foundation Year: We have a Foundation Year option for UK students who do not meet the entry requirements for the degree course. This additional year of study will give you a grounding in the media and communication skills required for this course, building your confidence, knowledge and skills for further study. After successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will progress to the full degree.
UCAS Code: P900
With foundation year: P901
More info: Click here
Foundation Year
Core units
Academic & Professional Practice: You will build your confidence in both academic and professional skills. This unit will cover the academic skills which will be required at degree level study and you’ll practice them throughout the unit with support from key university services including the library and study skills team. There will also be the opportunity for you to reflect on and develop your own professional skills through interactions with employers, careers services and online resources.
Collaborative Communication Project: The unit focuses on the centrality of communicaiton, both as a process and as a project. Through the collaborative development of a communication solution to a specific communication problem, the unit aims to promote the principles and practices of team-based iterative project work.
Media & Current Debates: You will be introduced to a) the important role and responsibilities of the news media within democratic societies and b) the varied nature of reporting of key events, issues and debates within the contemporary 24/7 news cycle. You will gain an essential level of understanding of what constitues news and what the work of journalists entails. You will also develop an awareness and appreciation of differing coverage of particular stories by a range of news organisations.
Media Work: You will become familiar with a range of profiles and career paths in the communication and media industries and be inspired to reflect on and develop your own professional identity. Through case studies of seminal campaigns, programmes and artefacts, profiles of ground-breaking personalities, masterclasses from industry professionals, and guest talks from BU staff who have worled or currently work in marketing, PR, media production, journalism and communications, you will encounter and interact with diverse role models, career trajectories, and types of profressional practice.
Year 1
Core units
Communication & Marketing: You'll discover marketing and branding theory, contextualising the marketing mix and the techniques of persuasion and research within the media and communications industries.
Media & Society: This unit analyses the role of the media in society by examining the nature, history, structure, social and cultural roles of print, broadcast and digital media.
Introduction to Communication Theory: You will explore and critically examine major theories of communication processes from different perspectives, and engage with relevant contemporary issues related to the study of communication.
Adaptation: You'll discover the study of adaptation, focusing on key theoretical perspectives and debates, for example about fidelity and medium-specificity.
Academic & Writing Skills: This unit supports students in their transition to undergraduate study by focusing on core academic and writing skills.
Language Matters: You will examine the complexities and possibilities of language use in both oral and written communication, and across a wide range of media. You will be introduced to key theoretical and analytical tools to equip you to undertake textual analysis of a variety of discourses.
Year 2
Core units
Media & Marketing Research: You will be introduced to the aims, principles and techniques of social, media and marketing research and will be equipped with the skills needed to conduct primary research.
Media: Messages & Meanings: This unit examines how messages are constructed, conveyed and received over a range of media and by different audiences.
Web & Mobile Communication: This unit aims to give you a strategic overview and knowledge of the role played by web and mobile communication in contemporary society.
Narrative Structures: Contemporary narrative texts will be analysed and evaluated, providing a theoretical overview of a variety of contemporary narrative texts from film, television, journalism, magazines, the internet and prose fiction.
Writing for the Media: The unit aims to strengthen your professional journalistic skills and your creative writing skills. You'll also learn how to use industry-standard software and will lay out your writings in magazine format.
Option units (choose one)
Popular Texts & Intertexts: Studying a variety of popular texts across the media including literary, cinematic, televisual and graphic, you'll encounter genres including detective, romance, horror, fantasy, children’s literature, chick lit/lad lit, fan fiction and online communities.
Global Current Affairs: You will engage with current debates in international and multimedia journalism, while being introduced to major global developments and their impact on news reporting.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
Optional placement year
Every undergraduate course includes the opportunity to complete a placement – enabling you to gain experience, put your learning to use in a professional setting, and make contacts for the future. We believe this gives you the best chance of securing a great job to start your career.
You’ll also return to your studies with a clearer understanding of the industry you are looking to enter, and will be able to direct your learning to become the kind of professional you want to be in a much more informed way.
You can choose either a four-week placement on a three-year course, or an optional 30-week (minimum) placement on a four-year sandwich course.
Final year
Whether you choose the three- or four-year option, you will complete the following units in your final year:
Core unit
Dissertation: You'll undertake original and independent research to produce a dissertation on a topic or problem of your choice, using a communication, humanities or social science approach.
Option units (choose four)
Celebrity Culture: This unit will introduce you to celebrity as a site of cultural and political power, and equips you with the skills to evaluate the risks and opportunities that celebrity culture poses for contemporary media as a site for democratic debate
Advertising: You'll discover how advertising can be used as a strategic marketing communications tool and will gain strategic and tactical skills in developing advertising campaigns and the evaluation techniques and measurements used to assess advertising success.
Public Relations: This unit introduces the theory and practice of public relations.
Media, Crisis & Conflict: Periods of crisis, such as war, conflict, civil unrest, epidemics, famines, and natural disasters, can alter the complex relationships between media, audiences and governments. This unit will analyse these relationships through four interrelating themes.
Media & Trauma: This unit aims to explore critical and cultural responses to traumatic experience and death across a range of media or texts from print and broadcast journalism to filmic and literary representation. The unit will focus on how trauma is interpreted, recorded, represented, constructed and produced across a range of media and in a variety of social, professional and medical contexts.
News & Journalism: This unit seeks to provide you with a critical perspective on journalistic outputs and the ability to report and produce news and other forms of journalism in a digital world.
Writing, Editing & Publishing: A practical unit which combines study of publishing processes and practices with creative writing.
Fact & Fiction: This unit explores the diverse panorama of non-fiction works produced in the realm of literary, or narrative, journalism. It will analyse ethical issues such as objectivity, accuracy, and the social and historical context of the genre over the centuries.
New Media Narrative: You'll examine the evolution of narrative forms in relation to the development of new (digital) media, especially exploring non-linear and interactive narratives and make critical evaluations of theoretical, critical and creative texts.
Community & Digital Engagement: This unit will help you develop a critical and practical understanding of community and digital engagement with a view to acquiring advocacy techniques that can engage citizens in local problem-solving.
Space, Place & Environment: This unit focuses on critical representations of space, place and environment in literature and culture from industrialisation to the present. You will explore the significance of space and the environment in relation to diverse yet connected topics such as globalisation, personal, social and national identity, politics and policy, global transmission of literatures, literary tourism, conservation, biophilia and urban regeneration.
Race, Media & Inequality: This unit will help you develop a critical understanding of historical and contemporary issues and debates on the dynamics of race, ethnicity and culture in media and communication practice and political discourse. You will explore the cultural competencies required to articulate the key issues and advance solutions for a specific industry.
Social Media Management: This unit will teach you how to critically engage with the principles, frameworks and theories of relevance to social media management. You will formulate a range of different strategic options appropriate to the organisation and marketing environment whilst developing approaches to implementing and managing social media programmes across markets, regions and cultures at strategic and operational levels.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
This course is multidisciplinary, which means you'll be able to enter a wide variety of careers after you finish university thanks to the diverse skills you'll develop.
OSHC: 624 ($) GBP per year
