Overview
5th in London for Media Studies - National Student Survey 2024
Our media and communications degrees provide you with a critical understanding of the media in today’s world. We have a particular focus on the social and cultural dimensions of media while providing you with industry-standard training in media production skills. With free access to the full Adobe Creative Cloud software suite, you will gain a foundation in areas such as photography, audio-visual production, and video editing in our dedicated edit suites. You’ll learn how this competitive industry works from a variety of perspectives while debating the latest challenges for media and society, from free speech to the disruptive or connective powers of social media and the metaverse.
Throughout your course, you’ll have access to mentoring and placement opportunities, while benefiting from our formal partnership with the British Film Institute, involving a series of careers masterclasses and media industry-ready training. We arrange partnerships with employers and ensure that you have access to a wide range of placement opportunities throughout your course; current partners include Creative UK and CallTime Foundations. On the three-year version of our degree you will have the option to undertake short-term work placements during your course or via the Brunel Summer Internship Programme, but if you would prefer a more substantial placement, you can apply for our four-year Media and Communications (with Placement) programmes instead.
The mix of practical media production skills and theory provides you with a wide range of career options when you graduate. Our alumni are working at prestigious international media organisations like Disney, ITV and Sky in roles such as TV production managers, digital marketing, and public relations. Three years after graduation, over 93% of our students are in employment or further study, compared to the sector median of 84.7%, and our media graduates earn on average £3,000 more per year than the sector mean (Discover Uni, 2023). Because of this, our Media and Communications degree is ranked 1st in the country for social mobility (Sutton Trust League Table 2023)
You can explore our campus and facilities for yourself by taking our virtual tour.
Course content
Throughout your degree you’ll be encouraged to link together theoretical and practical parts of the course as you engage in a broad-ranging study of contemporary media. From Year 2 you’ll have the opportunity to specialise in areas of particular interest to you. In your final year you can choose between a written dissertation or producing a multimedia project of your choice with a written element.
Compulsory
- Culture & Society
An introduction to the study of classical and contemporary approaches and methods in the study of culture and society via Cultural Studies. The module presents the historical development, key debates and methodological approaches in Cultural Studies. It will provide opportunity for critical reflection in these areas.
- Digital Media Landscapes
The module introduces students to a range of concepts and issues that underpin the ways in which everyday social life is shaped by the digital technologies. Students will examine the implications of digital media environments for societies and journalism. Focus is placed upon the relationship between states, societies and the media in the digital age.
- Key Ideas in Media
This module provides an introduction to the main theories, approaches and concepts in media studies. It will introduce you to the critical canon, as well as drawing on case studies to illustrate key topics in media and research. Key Ideas in Media will provide you with a firm conceptual and methodological foundation in communication and media studies focusing on themes of power, identity and culture.
- Multimedia Practice: Foundations
This module introduce leaners to the development, production and post-production of multimedia productions, and enables students to identify and analyse key concepts that underpin multimedia productions and to develop their own practical work.
- Power, Inequality and Society
This module unpacks the definition, origins, evolution and trajectory of inequality in society through multiple empirical and theoretical angles. It also examines different manifestations of inequality including gender, income, educational and intersectional dynamics. Finally, it explores social mobility and how the state, charities as well as labour groups work towards redistribution of opportunities and resources.
- Global London
Through focusing on the concept of ‘Global London’, this module shows you how the social sciences can enable you to better understand their lived social environment. It introduces you to the techniques used by a range of disciplines within social science for gaining and validating knowledge of the social world and equips you with an academic skill base appropriate for university study.
Compulsory
- Media Genres
This module will introduce you to the workings of various media genres and how these relate to themes of power, identify and culture and wider societal contexts.
- Researching Your World
This module provides an advanced understanding of research methodologies, with a particular focus on data analysis. Equipping students with an understanding and appreciation of the important theoretical paradigms that underpin qualitative and quantitative social and communications research traditions. Furnishing students with the tools and skills required to conduct and evaluate their own empirical social and communications research.
Optional
- Body, Media and Society
In this module we will examine many different aspects of embodiment and bodies in society, with a focus on the role of media in representing, stereotyping, and medicalising different kinds of bodies.
- Colonialism, Migration and Global Racism
This module explores the concept, meaning and practices of ‘race’, ethnicity, racialization, and global racisms. It identifies how ‘race’ and racism have evolved over time, and in different contexts - both nationally in the contemporary UK as well as in other parts of the world.
- Digital Culture
This module considers the shape of new media technologies such as iPhones – it explores how new developments in media technology have changed the basis of contemporary social life and culture. This module will examine some of the key transformations that are taking place through digital culture.
- Gender, Sexuality and Feminism
This module will introduce students to core ideas in feminism via the key concepts of gender and sexuality. It will develop students’ understandings of social structures, human cultures, and economic inequalities and political relationships. The course will offer theoretical tools and historical insights into gendered, feminised, and sexualised socio-cultural worlds.
- Global Communication
Examine the ways in which the globalisation of communication has transformed social, political, and economic relations. The following themes will be addressed in this module: the state, economy, power, globalisation, nationalism, identity, digitisation, culture and consumerism, media markets, public relations and politics, and political economy of communication.
- Popular Culture and Creative Industries
This module explores how meanings are developed through contemporary cultural representations, practices and processes, with a focus on creativity and the creative industries sector. It examines popular culture and the rise of the creative and cultural sector in late modernity drawing on relevant sociological, media and cultural studies debates and theories.
- Media Law, Ethics and Regulation
This module will help you develop an insightful working knowledge and critical appreciation of law and regulation in the practice of professional journalism. You will learn how to craft news reports within appropriate legal and ethical frameworks and navigate the potential conflicts and pressures journalists can be subjected to in their working lives.
Compulsory
- Advanced Research Skills for Sociology and Communication
- Media and Communications Dissertation OR Major Project
Optional
- Cities, Power and Social Change
An introduction to urban sociology and will develop the students understanding of urban development, cultures, and representation. The course will offer theoretical tools and provide practical applications for the relationship between space, culture, and social life in contemporary cities.
- Comedy, the Media & Society
This module provides a serious critical consideration of the role of comedy in contemporary media and society. This role is explored in relation to comedy’s institutional, historical, social and textual conventions. The module also explores comedy as it exists in a broad range of texts and examines the role of comedy in the construction and transmission of social difference and issues of identity.
- Digital Audiences and Identities
This module provides students with a critical overview of key debates about media audiences and identities. Students will engage with key contemporary debates about media influence and be able to apply theoretical concepts to a range of contemporary sites.
- Digital Media Career Development
This module will provide students with the opportunity to gain a critical overview of working in the media and cultural industries from direct encounters with creative industry professionals, companies or institutions. It will support students’ understanding of, competence and confidence in working independently in a professional manner appropriate to the media and cultural industries.
- Fake News, Images and Websites
The module aims to provide postgraduate students with a critical knowledge and understanding of how different disciplines have sought to make sense of political hoaxes, fake news or images and disinformation in as well as the contexts in which they flourish and are challenged.
- Making the Social
An introduction to core concepts in social theory. The emphasis is on concepts through which students can relate to the worlds they inhabit and the lives they live, connecting these to a broad canvas: the diversity of social existence and the sweep of human history. The focus is on basic building blocks of social existence.
- Media Empires
The module explores the role played by the media in the development and maintenance of ‘empires’, and examines how we can understand media ‘empires’ via key concepts such as ‘media/cultural imperialism’, ‘public diplomacy’ and ‘intellectual property rights’.
- Media, Politics & Power in America
This module seeks to familiarise students with the contemporary issues agenda in American politics. It seeks to demonstrate the ways in which politicians and institutions adapt policy stances and organisational strategies to accommodate changes in the nature, content and direction of political debate.
- Media, Social Movements and Change
The module provides students with an understanding of how social movements occur, succeed, or fail in bringing social and/or political change. By focusing on empirical cases, students will study the use of old and new media tools, the role of leaders and collective identity formation during the social movements, as well as governmental and international responses to these developments.
- Social Media and Society
This module will enable students to critically engage and analyse the historical and current impact of social media on social relations and contemporary culture. It will allow students to develop a critical understanding of social media in the context of broader changes in the media landscape, and how it impacts identity, power and everyday life.
This course can be studied undefined undefined, starting in undefined.
This course has a placement option. Find out more about work placements available.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Read more about the structure of undergraduate degrees at Brunel.
Careers and your future
Many of our students choose to pursue a career in marketing, events, production co-ordination, research and buying in the media industries, or PR and journalism. There are several opportunities throughout the course to develop contacts with media industry professionals and to undertake work placements in your chosen field, along with building the modern transferable skills that are attractive to a range of employers. Three years after graduation, over 93% of our students are in employment or further study, compared to the sector median of 84.7%, and our media graduates earn on average £3,000 more per year than the sector mean (Discover Uni, 2023).
UK entry requirements
2024/25 entry
- GCE A-level ABB-BBC.
- BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma DMM.
- BTEC Level 3 Diploma DM with an A-Level at grade C.
- BTEC Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma D with A-Levels grade BC.
- International Baccalaureate Diploma 29 points. GCSE English equivalent SL 5 or HL 4 and Mathematics SL 4 or HL 4.
- Obtain a minimum of 112 UCAS tariff points in the Access to HE Diploma with 45 credits at Level.
- T levels : Merit overall
A minimum of five GCSEs are required, including GCSE Mathematics grade C or grade 4 and GCSE English Language grade C or grade 4 or GCSE English Literature grade B or grade 5.
Brunel University London is committed to raising the aspirations of our applicants and students. We will fully review your UCAS application and, where we’re able to offer a place, this will be personalised to you based on your application and education journey.
Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants as well as our full GCSE requirements and accepted equivalencies in place of GCSEs.
EU and International entry requirements
If you require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, you must prove knowledge of the English language so that we can issue you a Certificate of Acceptance for Study (CAS). To do this, you will need an IELTS for UKVI or Trinity SELT test pass gained from a test centre approved by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and on the Secure English Language Testing (SELT) list. This must have been taken and passed within two years from the date the CAS is made.
English language requirements
- IELTS: 6.5 (min 5.5 in all areas)
- Pearson: 59 (59 in all subscores)
- BrunELT: 63% (min 55% in all areas)
- TOEFL: 90 (min R18, L17, S20, W17)
You can find out more about the qualifications we accept on our English Language Requirements page.
Should you wish to take a pre-sessional English course to improve your English prior to starting your degree course, you must sit the test at an approved SELT provider for the same reason. We offer our own BrunELT English test and have pre-sessional English language courses for students who do not meet requirements or who wish to improve their English. You can find out more information on English courses and test options through our Brunel Language Centre.
Please check our Admissions pages for more information on other factors we use to assess applicants. This information is for guidance only and each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis. Entry requirements are subject to review, and may change.
Fees and funding
2024/25 entry
UK
£9,250 full-time
£1,385 placement year
International
£21,260 full-time
£1,385 placement year
Fees quoted are per year and may be subject to an annual increase. Home undergraduate student fees are regulated and are currently capped at £9,250 per year; any changes will be subject to changes in government policy. International fees will increase annually, by no more than 5% or RPI (Retail Price Index), whichever is the greater.
More information on any additional course-related costs.
See our fees and funding page for full details of undergraduate scholarships available to Brunel applicants.
Please refer to the scholarships pages to view discounts available to eligible EU undergraduate applicants.
Teaching and learning
You'll be taught by world leading experts in your field of study, and have the opportunity to interact with fellow students on London’s leading campus University.
Your programme will consist of a variety of learning and studying activities, including lectures, seminars and discussions. On each taught module students will have in person lectures, seminars or workshops for two-to-three hours per week on average during the teaching terms. There'll also be supervision sessions for the dissertation, as well as regular opportunities to seek guidance during module lecturers’ feedback and consultation hours. Additionally, students will be able to seek support in individual meetings with their personal tutors, both on campus and online. There'll also be regular cohort meetings and student society events, at both programme and departmental level. Field trips and excursions to support students’ learning will be organised throughout the year.
All lectures, seminars, cohort meetings and other social activities will occur in person on the Brunel campus. It is expected that students will regularly attend these events, as sustained engagement with a learning community is a central dimension of the Brunel experience. Online provision of some activities will be made available when it is appropriate to the learning outcomes of your programme.
Access to a laptop or desktop PC is required for joining online activities, completing coursework and digital exams, and a minimum specification can be found here.
We have computers available across campus for your use and laptop loan schemes to support you through your studies. You can find out more here.
You’ll benefit from group seminars and personal tutorials allowing you to learn in smaller groups and in one-to-one discussion. All ideas are freely expressed leading to lively class debates.
You’ll be taught by academic specialists who draw on their cutting-edge research, publish in the best journals and are often reporting in the news. This means that you’ll have the latest and most up-to-date content and you’ll benefit from plenty of hands-on experience.
Should you need any non-academic support during your time at Brunel, the Student Support and Welfare Team are here to help.
Assessment and feedback
Level 1 does not count towards your final degree mark but you must pass this level to continue with your course. Level 2 is worth a third and Level 3 is worth the rest. The final year dissertation is worth a third of Level 3 marks.
Methods of assessment vary and depend on which modules you select. Some courses are assessed on coursework only, some by (seen or unseen) examination only, and some by a combination of the two.
A selection of some of the work our students have produced on the course can be viewed here.
Read our guide on how to avoid plagiarism in your assessments at Brunel.