About this Programme

This MA in Mass Communications offers a progressive and challenging curriculum that explores mass communications across a range of media forms, including entertainment media, broadcast and digital, public relations, advertising, and journalism. The programme addresses crucial issues of policy, governance, professional practice, international communication flows, digitalization, political economy, cultural practice, and research methods. Informed by contemporary research and responsive to the changing nature of the communication industries, it specifically aims to enable students to critique key theories and concepts in mass communications, evaluate scholarship and professional practice, and critically debate political, legal, and ethical aspects of media. It also helps students recognize and anticipate developments in media's role in economic and political organization globally, undertake original research, and meet global employment challenges through enhanced intellectual, analytical, and research skills.

What You'll Learn

• Critically evaluate how mass communications are organised, operated, and managed.

• Display a critical awareness of the roles that mass communications play in a range of cultural and social formations.

• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the varied contextual factors influencing mass communications industries and the role of these industries in contemporary political and social life.

• Critically evaluate the limitations of research methodologies and, using this judgment, propose their own research design.

• Demonstrate a critical awareness of current debates and research in mass communications.

• Draw upon knowledge of the ways in which theories and concepts have developed in particular contexts in their assessment of contemporary issues and debates.

• Appraise legal, ethical, and regulatory frameworks which structure mass communication processes and practices.

• Critically reflect upon their research and professional practice.

• Engage critically with theories and concepts in mass communications and put them to productive use.

• Develop substantive and detailed knowledge and understanding in one or more designated areas of the field.

• Consider and critically evaluate their own work in a reflexive manner with reference to academic and/or professional issues, debates, and conventions.

• Critically appraise mass communication with appropriate reference to social context and diversity of media use and engagement.

• Communicate key theories, methods, and concepts for the purpose of mass communications analysis.

• Design, carry out, and present various forms of research involving sustained independent enquiry at an advanced level.

• Propose, design, and conduct research that will demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of concepts, information, and techniques at the forefront of the discipline.

• Understand the limits of the major research methods associated with mass communications, and be able to apply this knowledge critically to their own work.

• Apply critical debates in mass communications, including those concerned with ethics, policy, and professionalism, to practical work.

• Appreciate how diverse audiences and communities engage with mass communications at local, regional, national, international, and global levels.

• Work in a flexible and independent way, showing self-discipline and reflexivity.

• Plan and implement tasks in a professional manner.

• Communicate their findings clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

• Initiate, develop, and realize distinctive and creative work within various forms of digital writing.

• Retrieve and generate information, and critically evaluate sources, in carrying out independent research.

• Communicate ideas at an advanced level, deliver work to a given length, format, brief, and deadline, properly referencing sources and ideas, and adapting a problem-solving approach demonstrating professionalism.

• Put to use a range of IT skills from basic competences such as data analysis and word processing to more complex skills using web-based technology or multi-media, and develop as appropriate, specific proficiencies in utilizing a range of media technologies.

Indicative Modules

• Induction Module

• Theories Concepts & Debates in Mass Communications

• Digital Cultures

• New Media: Policy and Practice

• Perspectives on Mass Communication Research Methods

• Mass Communications Dissertation Project

Career Opportunities

Graduates of this MA in Mass Communications program are exceptionally well-prepared for diverse and evolving roles across the global communication industries. The programme's critical engagement with media forms, policy, digital transformation, and research methods equips them for careers in journalism, public relations, advertising, digital media management, content creation, social media strategy, media research, and communication consulting. They can pursue opportunities in broadcast media, digital agencies, corporate communications, non-profit organizations, and governmental bodies, leveraging their advanced analytical, ethical, and practical skills to navigate the complexities of contemporary mass communication and meet global employment demands.