Cultural Studies and Media and Journalism - BA (Hons)

Course structure

Duration: 3 years full-time, 6 years part-time

Modules

The following modules are indicative of those offered on this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation.  

On most programmes, you study a combination of compulsory and optional modules. You may also be able to take ‘elective’ modules from other programmes so you can customise your programme and explore other subjects that interest you.

Teaching and assessment

We use a variety of teaching methods, including lectures; case study analysis; group projects and presentations; newsroom workshops; individual and group tutorials. Many module convenors also offer additional ‘clinic’ hours to help with the preparation of coursework and for exams.

Assessment is through a combination of unseen written examinations, assessed coursework, timed newsroom exercises, assessed presentation and individual portfolios.

As a joint honours student, you will study in depth two disciplines and will experience different teaching and assessment styles appropriate to each discipline.

Contact time is not arranged by campus and will depend on which modules you choose. For this reason you may be required to visit both campus sites in one day.

Contact hours

For a student studying full time, each academic year of the programme will comprise 1200 learning hours which include both direct contact hours and private study hours.  The precise breakdown of hours will be subject dependent and will vary according to modules.  Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.

Methods of assessment will vary according to subject specialism and individual modules.  Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.

Programme aims

The programme aims to:

• Develop students’ capacities to learn and undertake critical analysis from a variety of primary and secondary sources.
• Provide teaching which is informed by current research and scholarship in the fields of Cultural and Media Studies and Journalism.
• Provide a flexible and progressive curriculum which includes options from a wide range of disciplinary areas with an intellectual investment in the study of culture and media.
• Develop substantive and detailed knowledge and appreciation of print, broadcast and digital journalism.
• Carry our independent research and inquiry.
• Promote an understanding of cultural identities, differences and transitions and the historical, political and economic contexts of their emergence and change.
• Provide a broad knowledge of relevant concepts, debates and theoretical approaches in the study of culture and media.
• Meet the needs of the local and national community for a critical understanding of culture and media and their role in society.
• Facilitate the personal development of students as independent, life-long learners capable of collating and analysing information and producing new knowledge.
• Provide opportunities for the development of personal, communication, research and other key skills appropriate to graduate employment in a range of cultural, media and education related spheres and for further research.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

You gain a knowledge and understanding of:

• The complexity of culture and media as contested objects of inquiry.
• The significance of journalism to political democracy, its powers, duties and responsibilities.
• Professional issues, debates and conventions in journalism.
• The role that media and cultural institutions play in society.
•  The role and function of cultural and media forms as sources of popular knowledge and ideas.
• Ways in which people engage with cultural and media texts and practices and make meaning from them.
• The relation between cultural texts (e.g. artistic, literary, media, social, political, scientific) and the historical contexts of their production and reception.
• Different modes of modern global, international, national and local cultural experience.
• How culture is both product and process and gives rise to social and political ‘forms of life’. 
• How the modes of production/consumption of cultural and media texts and products shape contemporary life.
• The nature of the cultural impact of new technologies.
•  A wide range of disciplinary approaches to culture, media and journalism and the distinctive character of cross-disciplinarity.

Intellectual skills

You gain the following intellectual skills:

• Ability to analyse a wide range of cultural and media forms.
• Critical evaluation of scholarship and ideas, both classical and contemporary.
• Representation in language of the views and ideas of others.
• Application of cultural and media theory to both familiar and unfamiliar cultural material, phenomena and contexts.
• Expression of own ideas in oral and written communication.
• Ability to identify, evaluate and to construct arguments.

Subject-specific skills

You gain the following subject-specific skills:

• Conception and application of cross-disciplinary strategies of investigation of cultural and media issues, themes, topics.
• The ability to identify and analyse ethical and political subject matters represented in media culture of all kinds.
• The ability to account for and criticise the interrelation of aesthetic cultural practices and forms and the social and political contexts of their emergence and affect.
• The ability to evaluate theoretical models and paradigms of cultural and media production, consumption and reception.
• The ability to integrate diverse sources of cultural information and produce new knowledge.

Transferable skills

You gain the following transferable skills:

• Gathering and collating, retrieving and synthesising information drawn from a variety of sources (Library, IT, CD-ROM, Press, etc.) – textual, visual, popular and academic, in traditional formats as well as electronic.
• Working independently on the design and execution of research projects.
• Ability to reflect on and understand the accumulation of knowledge about cultural practices diversely understood.
• Be adaptable, creative and self-reflexive in producing output for a variety of audiences.
• Skilled at self-directed project planning, development and execution of work to deadlines.
• Skills of expression in written and oral forms; be adept at representing both the ideas of others as well as their own and will be able to argue for and justify their views.
• Use a range of appropriate technology to perform tasks and reach defined audiences.

Careers

Graduate Destinations

Our graduates have gone on to work in:

• media, journalism, broadcasting
• publishing
• public relations
• the cultural and creative industries
• national and local government
• social and cultural policy
• international institutions and NGOs
• arts administration
• advertising and design
• tourism and heritage
• the organisation of social and community projects.

Help finding a job

The University has a friendly Careers and Employability Service, which can give you advice on how to:

• apply for jobs
• write a good CV
• perform well in interviews.

Career-enhancing skills

Our graduates develop substantial transferable skills that are valued in a range of professions.

These skills include:

• communication
• organisational and research skills
• analysing complex information and make it accessible to non-specialist readers
• writing reports
• using data analysis computer programs
• working effectively and considerately in teams.

You can also gain extra skills by signing up for our Kent Extra activities, such as learning a language or volunteering.

Professional network

The Centre for Journalism has long-standing relations with the journalism organisation, The Kent Messenger Group, and other media institutions like Sky News, BBC News and Associated Newspaper. 

The Centre may be able to facilitate work experience placements for students.