BA Media Studies

Key details

BA MEDIA STUDIES

Start Year

2022

Attendance

Full Time

Award

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

UCAS course code

P300

Entry Requirements

BBB or ABC

Duration (years)

Our everyday lives are mediated. Connecting with friends, travelling, shopping, and consuming entertainment are increasingly done through media technologies. By studying who owns these technologies, and what it is like to work in the media industries, you can better understand your place in this increasingly digitized world. On this course you will be equipped with cultural theories associated with people and their relationships to media and power. This course has flexibility, so that you also get the chance to use media creatively and for your own empowerment.

This degree programme offers a great deal of choice in what you study. In the core modules you’ll explore media representation, broadcasting, the history of media, the media industries, and concepts to help you theorise media and culture, including the digital. You’ll also develop social research skills and learn how to analyse TV and online media. As you progress, you’ll build on that core foundation of skills and knowledge with optional modules. You’ll choose from topics such as gender and promotional culture, animation, journalism, American music, public opinion, digital politics, magazines, Asian cinema, and much more besides. You could even choose to study a foreign language or apply to spend a semester studying abroad.

About

In this degree you’ll work with leading scholars and creative practitioners to explore a global range of media industries and texts. You’ll master the current debates in the discipline, whilst developing the skills to produce your own media content.

You’ll explore histories and theories of media, covering a diverse range of audio-visual, print and digital communications, and examining their social and aesthetic significance. Meanwhile, in your creative practice work you’ll have the opportunity to gain skills in filmmaking, magazine publishing, radio and podcast production, creating promotional materials and digital media production. You’ll also have the chance to gain real-world experience and build industry contacts with an internship. Past students have undertaken placements at local radio stations, television production companies, and the East Anglian Film Archive.

In your first year you’ll become familiar with the key approaches and debates in media studies. In your second and third years you’ll take more specialist modules, focusing on creative media and industries, and adaptation. You’ll also have the opportunity to undertake creative practice work and take optional modules in topics such as media adaptation, popular music, the magazine industry, promotional culture, celebrity, or audiences. There are opportunities to engage with video, radio, sound-based media, television studio work, and digital media.

By the end of the degree you will have the intellectual and practical skills to either enter a job in the media or go on to postgraduate study.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the courses listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the regular review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. Changes may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will inform students.

Assessment for Year 1

You’ll be assessed in individual and group assessment modes from essays and exams to presentations and discussions. Your progress in some theoretical modules will be assessed through creative practice. For example, you might be required to produce an advertising campaign to explore how different groups of people are represented in the media. All of these assessments help strengthen your critical thinking and give you skills that are attractive to future employers.

Structure

In the first year you’ll be introduced to the major debates in media studies. You’ll also develop the key skills needed to analyse a range of media forms using contemporary and historical examples.

Teaching and Learning

Our world-leading academics employ a range of teaching styles. Alongside the more traditional lectures and seminars, you’ll learn through film and television screenings. You’ll also have access to UEA’s Television Studio and Media Suite. Both contain a wide variety of cutting-edge media technologies (editing suites, cameras and sound equipment, sound studio and digitisation suite). You’ll have the opportunity to be fully trained to use all of these. You’ll acquire practical skills while deepening your understanding of how the film and television content you’re studying is produced.

You’ll acquire vital skills needed for independent learning throughout your course and will have access to dedicated sessions designed to help you make the most of UEA’s state-of-the-art library facilities. Through these sessions and your academic modules, you’ll gain the vital research skills of uncovering resources and critically assessing sources. As you progress through your degree you’ll develop as a self-motivated researcher and independent creative thinker.

In addition to timetabled lecture and seminar slots, each member of staff at UEA holds dedicated office hours where students can come and seek additional advice and guidance on a one-to-one basis. You’ll also be assigned an adviser who can support you through your studies by providing academic and career guidance.

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Assessment for Year 2

Beginners' Language Modules

You can select from a wide range of language modules. For more information, and for a full list of available module options, please visit our Language Options page.

Structure

In the second year you’ll deepen your knowledge with modules covering topics such as contemporary mediascapes, exploring the most recent scholarly debates in the study of the rapidly evolving media industries. You will also begin to specialise in areas that excite you.

You’ll be introduced to creative/critical practice through a range of optional modules. For example, you may explore promotional cultures where you’ll be introduced to the media studies debates in this area and might also work with local companies to produce an advertising campaign.

You’ll also have the opportunity to complete an internship. Previous students have undertaken placements with local radio stations, television production companies and the East Anglian Film Archive among others.

Teaching and Learning

Admissions Live Chat

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Assessment for Year 3

Structure

This year allows you to specialise and develop your research skills in our dissertation module, where you will carry out a period of independent study under supervision. You may wish to undertake a media practice project, which allows you to undertake creative work (film, TV, audio, magazines, advertising campaign, digital) in response to an academic problem.

In addition, our world-leading academics and practitioners offer optional classes that cover topics such as the magazine industry (including practice work), the critical exploration of comics and graphic novels, and the study of creative media industries.

Teaching and Learning

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Open Days

Assessment for Year 1

Compulsory Modules

MEDIA INDUSTRIES

Code AMAM4028A

Credits 20

As knowledgeable as you may be about certain media products – like your favourite TV programmes, films, songs, video games or websites – how much do you know about the functioning of the industrial contexts from which these typically emerge? It is easy to forget that standing between us and our favourite media products is a complex structure of interpenetrating cultural sectors and organisations. This module will introduce you to some of the core characteristics of the media industries, providing you with a better understanding of how and why they operate in the ways they do. Throughout the module you will come to appreciate the distinctiveness of the media industries and their products, the implications this has for producers and the broader effects implied for the overall structure of these industries. In addition, you’ll learn about the economic and political organisation of the media industries, the policies and regulations to which they are subject, as well as the divisions of labour determined by their modes of organisation. You’ll begin with a consideration of the particular characteristics of media goods and the challenges involved in commodifying and deriving revenues from them. Following this, you will explore issues of ownership, integration and concentration, before we consider such matters as policy and regulation, creative work, digitalisation, convergence and media systems. Having considered examples of specific media organisations, franchises, texts and sectors, you’ll put your new knowledge into practice by developing your own case study project, aimed at explaining the functioning of one aspect of the media landscape. Across the module you will also gain experience in communicating your ideas in seminars as well as through workshop tasks and written work.

MEDIA HISTORY

Code AMAM4029A

Credits 20

You’ll explore media history from the perspective of departmental interests in critical media studies, cultural consumption and historiography. It will highlight the material, social and institutional contexts in which media forms have been produced, mediated and consumed and the ongoing power struggles therein. By working through different interpretations of how the media has intersected with long-term changes in society, the module will allow you to contrast ‘top down’ histories of industrial organisation, technological evolution and regulatory intervention with ‘bottom up’ histories of media as social activity.

MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Code AMAM4034A

Credits 20

How do the media represent social groups and why does this matter? These two questions are central to Media Studies. On this module, we will give you an introduction to research across a range of topics, such as the representation of women, migrants and older people. You will learn how the media have represented these groups in the past and discuss whether and why representations have changed today. You will be introduced to theories that are central to Media Studies and which you will be able to explore in depth in more specialist modules in your second and third year, for example feminist theories, post-colonialism, critical race studies, queer theory, and disability studies. The assessment on this module is a small piece of independent research. You will write a literature review, a discussion of your research methodology and you will present and analyse the findings of a small piece of media analysis. This module will teach you the necessary skills of academic writing.

DIGITAL MEDIA: CONCEPTS, TECHNOLOGIES & CULTURES

Code AMAM4031B

Credits 20

This module introduces students to the study of digital media, focusing on both the technologies and platforms that drive the 'digital age' and the cultures they have produced. We will examine how scholars have theorised digital media since the early 1990s, mapping how the production, circulation, and, consumption of new media has changed over the past twenty years. Weekly case studies will allow students to apply theories to contemporary cultural events and phenomena, which may include #blacklivesmatter, selfie culture, the Arab Spring, and SciHub.

BROADCASTING

Code AMAM4032B

Credits 20

You will explore a range of audio-visual and audio formats, including television, radio and more recent audio formats, such as Internet streaming, and podcasts. Throughout the module you will be introduced to key theoretical approaches to the analysis of broadcasting content, programming, policy and regulation and reception. Areas of interest will include topics such as narrative and soundtrack, flow, seriality, liveness, innovation and funding, and domesticity.

THEORISING MEDIA AND CULTURE

Code AMAM4033B

Credits 20

This module introduces you to a range of influential thinkers whose work has shaped Media Studies. It will provide you with the foundational knowledge you need to progress with confidence onto more specialist modules in your second and third year. You will compare and contrast how different scholars have tried to explain the role of the media in creating communities, in reproducing social inequalities, but also in driving social change. You will discuss whether we need to study media audiences, media content or media industries in order to understand media power. The module will help you develop your own voice as a researcher and writer. You will learn how to effectively compare and contrast complex theoretical arguments and how to place your own argument within the context of academic debate. You will have opportunity to apply your knowledge of media theories to a small piece of media research and to express your research ideas not only through writing, but also through a creative media project.

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Open Days

Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring and review of modules. Where this activity leads to significant change to a programme and modules, the University will endeavour to consult with affected students. The University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. Availability of optional modules may be restricted owing to timetabling, lack of demand, or limited places. Where this is the case, you will be asked to make alternative module choices and you will be supported during this process.

Students will take 120 credits (6 modules) across year 2. 60 credits in semester 1 and 60 credits in semester 2. Students wishing to enrol on the 60-credit Film and Television Studies semester abroad module AMAM5037B in the spring must first seek approval from the Study Abroad Office and Internationalisation Director.

Assessment for Year 2

Beginners' Language Modules

You can select from a wide range of language modules. For more information, and for a full list of available module options, please visit our Language Options page.

Compulsory Modules

RESEARCHING MEDIA

Code AMAM5025B

Credits 20

The module provides you with the key concepts and methods necessary to devise and execute an independent research project, whether using traditional academic methods or practice based research. As a result, you will cover the key processes involved in devising and focusing a research project, reflexively undertaking the research yourself and writing up your results. In the process, you will be shown how to position your work in relation to an intellectual context; devise the research questions that are practical and realistic; and develop research methods through which to address these questions.

DIGITAL MEDIASCAPES

Code AMAM5063A

Credits 20

You'll be provided with an understanding of media access, production, participation and use/consumption. Module content is organised around notions of space and place, thereby enabling engagement with issues including: globalisation/the global; national media and media systems; regional and local media; community and ‘grassroots’ media, domestic and ‘personal’ media. Over the course of the module, you'll develop an understanding of the range and reach of media and the multiplicity of factors determining how, when and where populations are enabled to access and participate in media activities. Parallel to the above will be an exploration, through selected case study examples, of media and cultural policy issues, spaces/places of media production as well as a critical engagement with questions of power in relation to these. The module also adopts a contemporary focus by incorporating debates about the role and potential of digital media and communications technologies in enabling new forms of media production, distribution and participation.

Optional A Modules

(40-80 credits)

THEORISING TELEVISION

Code AMAM5047A

Credits 20

This module explores some of the key ways in which television has been theorised, conceptualised and debated. You are offered insight into how the discipline of Television Studies has developed, as well as how television itself has developed - in terms of social roles, political functions and aesthetic form. The medium will be explored as a textual entity, a social activity (i.e. the focus on audiences and viewing), and a political agent (ideology and power). Part of our intention is to focus on how the specificities of television have been understood.

DIGITAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY

Code PPLM5053A

Credits 20

For better or worse, digital technologies are hyped at having revolutionised society. This module will provide you with an introduction to the ways in which the internet and other digital technologies are (and are not) affecting society from theoretical and empirical perspectives, and how society shapes technology. Topics covered include: the evolution of the internet; the network society ; regulating new media; the radical internet and terrorism; social networking, blogs and interactivity; culture and identity in the digital age; and how the internet affects politics and the media.

DOCUMENTARY

Code AMAP5045A

Credits 20

This module will introduce you to key issues in documentary history, theory and practice. You will engage with definitional and generic debates; historical forms and founders; different modes of documentary; ethical issues; and social and political uses. We will draw upon a range of national and media contexts and give you the opportunity to engage with a range of theories, archival materials, documentary styles and ethical debates within your written and practical work. At the end of module you will produce a documentary shaped by the traditions and theories you have studied, employing a range of archive film and television footage sourced from the East Anglian Film Archive.

CHILDREN'S FILM AND TV CULTURES

Code AMAM5061B

Credits 20

Children’s television is dynamic, diverse and often controversial. In this module, we examine how television has constructed childhood and how children have, in their turn, shaped television. One of the particular challenges with children’s television is that it is usually made by adults for children. As society has shifted over time, therefore, children’s television programming becomes caught up in debates about who and what children are; about how (much) they should watch; and, about what they should (not) be allowed to see. Because childhood is a highly debated cultural and social category, there is a large and growing body of scholarship on the topic of children’s television. We use these theoretical and methodological maps to investigate the past and present of children’s television, including things like: cultural studies, media ethnography, genre studies, gender studies and production studies. We look at a range of topics that may include: Saturday Morning Television, children’s variety shows, animation, children’s broadcasting, children’s satellite channels, censorship, consumerism, pressure groups and gender.

RACE AND VISUAL CULTURE

Code AMAS5055B

Credits 20

This course examines the visual construction of race, including how indigenous groups have been racialized through visual means and how the category of “black” has been established as the hyper-visual opposite of the comparatively low-profile (some might say invisible) “white.” We will consider and critically contextualize examples of visual representation of racialized bodies from throughout modern history, in an examination of the racist visual rhetoric that props up white supremacy in the West. Visual culture is part of social and political life, and in studying images we will think about the context of their production, the public for whom they were intended, and the ideologies that inform ways of seeing it. Our in-class examples will be drawn from all aspects of visual culture, including film, television, painting, comics, magazines, advertising, postcards, sculpture, anthropological illustrations, museum exhibits, digital media, and more, and our secondary readings will come from both historical considerations and contemporary critical race theory.

FILM THEORY

Code AMAM5030A

Credits 20

This module explores aspects of film theory as it has developed over the last hundred years or so. It encompasses topics including responses to cinema by filmmaker theorists such as Sergei Eisenstein and influential formulations of and debates about realism and film aesthetics associated with writers and critics such as André Bazin, Siegfried Kracauer, Rudolf Arnheim and Bela Bálázs. You’ll study the impact of structuralism, theories of genre, narrative and models of film language; feminist film theory and its emphasis on psychoanalysis; theories of race and representation; cognitive theory; emerging eco-critical approaches; post-structuralist and post-modern film theory. You’ll be taught by lecture, screening and seminar. You’ll work with primary texts - both films and theoretical writings - and have the opportunity to explore in their written work the ways in which film theories can be applied to film texts.

FILM GENRES

Code AMAM5033B

Credits 20

Film Genres introduces students to the range of theories and methods used to account for the prevalence of genres within filmmaking. We investigate historical changes in how film genres have been approached in order to consider how genres have been made use of by industry, critics and film audiences. Genre theories are explored through a range of case studies drawn from a broad range of popular film genres. In exploring concepts and case studies relating to film genres the module aims to demonstrate the richness of film genre and its continuing relevance as a mode of analysis.

GUIDED STUDY

Code AMAM5041B

Credits 20

This module allows students to work on a specialist area in Film, TV or Media Studies under the guidance of a member of staff with relevant expertise. The module enables students to develop and extended their knowledge and understanding of the contexts, approaches, practices, theories and debates connected with a specific topic or field of study. The module also develops students to develop their critical and analytical skills. The module can allow staff and students to explore a particular area of interest in depth and can therefore permit opportunities for the interrelationship between teaching and research. In addition, the module has a key role in public-facing, outreach and widening participation work: it allows staff-led groups of students to gain accreditation for specific projects such as, for example, being involved in cultural activities such as festivals, academic projects such as symposia, schools outreach activities, practice projects such as radio station broadcasts, heritage or charity-sector initiatives and other commissioned projects. Assessment of the module reflects group and individual learning activity. It is a module that can effectively support interdisciplinary work. Despite the diversity of potential content, the module adheres to a uniform structure: 1. Contexts: The social, political, cultural and/or theoretical backdrop to the subject under investigation. 2. Approaches: Introduction and analysis of a range of methodologies and theoretical and/or creative applications to demonstrate the potential approaches that can be used in the subject. 3. Practice or Theory Project: The student's practical or theoretical work within the topic.

DIGITAL MEDIA THEORY & PRACTICE

Code AMAP5128B

Credits 20

This module provides an introduction to the practical and theoretical study of digital media. By exploring the historical and contemporary aspects of various media, including audio-visual and social media you will consider how the digital turn has affected media production and consumption. You will also gain awareness of the technologies which underpin digital media, the interfaces for delivering media online, and the cultural and social aspects of digital society. By the end of the module, you will be able to evaluate digital media in their contemporary and historical contexts, and understand the principles which influence the digital remediation of media forms. You will gain hands-on experience of a variety of digital media, drawing on sessions based in UEA’s Media Suite, and use these creations to explore cutting edge digital approaches to media texts. These practical sessions will introduce students to: digitisation of text and images; creation of 3D models and image processing; creation of audio-visual media; editing of Wikipedia/Wikimedia. Each of these sessions will serve to illuminate particular theoretical issues, including social media, reproduction and restoration, and the problems associated with ephemerality and preservation in the digital age.

MAKING IT PUBLIC: PUBLISHING, AUDIENCE, AND CREATIVE ENTERPRISE

Code AMAS5056A

Credits 20

This module will provide you an introduction to the world of publishing. What does it mean to publish, which, from the Middle French publier, means ‘to make public, to make known, to make famous’? And how do you do it? On this module, with practical support from the Media Suite, you will acquire the basic skills for designing and publishing your own short publication, whether it be a book, a magazine, a fanzine, audiobook, or podcast. In seminars you will learn what it takes to be a successful editor, and, by considering issues of readership, marketing, promotion, finance, scheduling, and copyright law, you will know how to successfully plan and manage your project. You will also be introduced different kinds of publishing—commercial, independent, DIY, and digital publishing—and gain an understanding of editorial roles and processes, the ins-and-outs of pre-production, and the best way to market and publicize your creative product. Students will also have the opportunity to attend the annual London Book Fair.

VIDEOGAMES: THEORY, PRACTICE, AND RECEPTION

Code HUM-5008B

Credits 20

This module offers students the opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural, political, and economic contexts of the videogames industry, and the techniques and principles used in game design. The module will give an overview of the key academic debates from video game history from production to reception, considering the current state of the industry, issues of representation in games, and study of games culture within a broader context. The module will provide students with the opportunity to play and critique a variety of games hardware and software. In addition, the module provides an understanding of hardware platforms and software tools used in the creation of videogames, making use of UEA's Media Suite to offer a practice-based component to aid in the understanding of the principles behind games development. Students will be able to learn entry level games design practices. No previous experience of coding or games development is required to undertake the module, just an interest in the subject.

MEDIA, GLOBALISATION AND CULTURE

Code PPLM5003B

Credits 20

What role do media and communication play in processes of globalisation? How is an ever more global media creating cultural change? In this module you will explore the cultural implications of global media and culture by investigating audience practices and media representations. It begins by introducing the main theoretical approaches to mediated globalisation, before examining how these work in practice. Indicative topics include the power of global branding, global celebrity culture, global publics and local audiences, transnational cultures, and representations of migration.

THE MEDIA AND IDENTITY

Code PPLM5042B

Credits 20

How do the media shape how we see ourselves? Or indeed how others see us? In a world of social media, self-branding and the increasing importance of mediated forms of identity, on this module you will explore critical ways of thinking about the relationship between culture, media and the self. Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches in the field of media and cultural studies, this module asks you to use research methods from autoethnography to content analysis to explore both their own identities and the way in which identities more broadly are formulated through contemporary media culture. Through discussing the representation of identity in media content, as well as issues of media production, regulation and consumption, you will critically reflect upon the relationship between media culture and social power and consider how social and technological changes impact on the ways in which identity is experienced in everyday life. On successful completion of this module, you should be able, at threshold level, to critically reflect upon the ways in which media texts construct social identity and should be able to discuss the relationship between media and identity with awareness for social, institutional and technological factors that shape both media production and consumption. Assessment is by group presentation and independent research project.

POPULAR MUSIC

Code AMAM5046A

Credits 20

For many people, popular music provides the soundtrack to their lives. It is intimately bound up with their sense of themselves, their attitudes and values, their friendships and social lives, their dreams and fantasies. But what can we learn about the power and place of popular music by studying it from an academic perspective? Throughout this module you will discover the range of approaches brought to popular music’s sounds, images, meanings, audiences and production through the perspectives of media studies, cultural studies and sociology. In examining songs and videos, fans, industry and performance, you’ll be encouraged to communicate your ideas in seminars and written work, engaging with key concepts and theories which will give you the tools to carry out your own research on popular music. We’ll begin with a consideration of the ‘popular’ of pop, before critically engaging with historical perspectives on popular music, tracing this through to the development of a fully-fledged ‘popular music studies’. Along the way, you’ll uncover approaches to analysing popular music’s texts, their production and the ways in which audiences and fans relate to them in the formation and expression of identities. You’ll also be encouraged to reflect on popular music’s relationship with other media (such as television, music writing and the internet), its role in everyday life, questions of representation, politics and power, and the contemporary relevance of terms such as ‘scene’, ‘subculture’ and ‘genre’. Having considered the study of popular music in this way, you will put your knowledge into practice by developing and conducting your own research project into an aspect of popular music audiences and/or culture of your choice.

STUDYING AUDIENCES

Code AMAM5064A

Credits 20

This module seeks to provide you with an understanding of the ways in which audiences engage with media. It will introduce some of the key research on, and theoretical debates about the relationship that exists between audiences, texts and technologies of production, distribution and reception, covering work on encoding and decoding, through studies of the social activities of television consumption, to research on marketing, critical reception and beyond. It will also introduce some of the methodological issues involved in the actual practice of doing audience studies. In this way, the module will not only encourage students to learn about the study of film and television audiences, but also equip them with the tools necessary to undertake their own studies.

Optional B Modules

(0-40 credits)

THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM

Code AMAM5042B

Credits 20

Is there really 'no business like show business'? This module will develop your understanding of how silent-era, classical and post-classical Hollywood has developed as an industry, balancing the twin demands of creativity and commerce. Our aim is to encourage you to analyse how Hollywood works as an industry, the kind of films it produces, and the ways in which they are consumed by domestic and global audiences. You will engage with a variety of Hollywood films and be introduced to a range of theories and approaches for analysing how they are produced and consumed.

LATIN AMERICAN CINEMA

Code AMAM5053B

Credits 20

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the history and structure of the cinema industries, practices and people of Latin America. Combining film and cultural studies modes of inquiry this module will examine different approaches to film style and theme in this region, as well as looking at the social and cultural role of cinema and its importance as an area of economic and political activity. Covering a range of relevant theories and concepts, the module will provide students with a critical understanding of the key issues at stake in how films are made, circulated and received by audiences, both within relevant national borders and beyond. An indicative weekly outline is as follows: • History and socio-cultural context of Latin America (including legacies of colonialism and religion; what/where is ‘Latin America’ ) • National cinema theories and perspectives • Genres in Latin American cinema • ‘New’ Latin American cinema and ‘Third Cinema’ theory of the 1950s and ‘60s • Indigenous filmmaking and representations of indigeneity • Gender in Latin American cinema • Representations of economic deprivation in Latin American cinema • Censorship and government regulation • Role of co-productions, film festivals and awards (including issues to consider around the reception of sub-titled films) • Focus: Perú (Barrow) • Focus: México and/or Colombia (Aveyard) The proposed weekly structure for the module is as follows: • 2 hour film screening • 1 hour lecture • 1 hour seminar

FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5125B

Credits 20

Film is frequently described as a ‘director’s medium’, while simultaneously defined as a ‘collaborative effort’. How is that possible? How do the director, cinematographer, designer and editor work together to create the suspense, romance, or comedy that we expect from our favourite films? What does the film director actually do? What are the choices that see one director lauded as an ‘auteur’ and another derided as a ‘hack’? Why does a cinematographer choose the specific lighting, framing and camera style for a scene? How does the director work with a script and coax performances out of the actors? What prompts the editor to use one angle, rather than another? This module attempts to answer these questions, as it introduces you to the practical application of film and television grammar and explores the fundamental questions of cinematic and televisual storytelling. A series of filmmaking exercises give you the chance to experiment with elements of camera and blocking, the use of sound, and multiple editing options. Other exercises look at script as a dramatic text and introduce basic techniques of working with actors. The final project asks you to work with professional script material to produce a video scene study. The module encourages students to understand the choices and decision-making processes involved in filmmaking, and the pros and cons involved in any creative decision.

BREAKING NEWS! AMERICAN JOURNALISM: HISTORY AND PRACTICE

Code AMAS5049B

Credits 20

How do we know what is real and what is fake? Previous generations, we are told, could reliably turn to “the news”—but is that really true? From the very beginning, American news was always synonymous with low scandal, scurrilous rumour, and fakery. And yet, there is no doubt that there have been crucial moments when journalists and journalism have gone beyond merely reporting events, to shape the public imagination. “The news” has always manipulated as much as informed its audiences, and in this module you will learn about how this in turn has shaped American life. In learning about the history of journalism and its cultural impact in America in the wider global context, you will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of the art of journalism, both critically and in practice. You will engage with questions surrounding print, broadcast and digital media—looking back to the past, reflecting on the present, and looking forward into the future of journalism. You will consider the ways in which marginalised peoples have sought to assert their voices through news media, by seizing the means by which our public understanding of reality is produced. The work will involve critical readings, engagement with primary source materials, seminar discussions, presentations, and critical writing with creative practice. You will have the opportunity to refine your communication skills, and especially the art of writing in different modes for different audiences.

ARTS AND HUMANITIES PLACEMENT MODULE

Code HUM-5004B

Credits 20

This module will provide you with the opportunity work within a creative/cultural/charity/ heritage/media or other appropriate organisation in order to apply the skills you are developing through your degree to the working world and to develop your knowledge of employment sectors within which you may wish to work in the future. The module emphasises industry experience, sector awareness and personal development through a structured reflective learning experience. Having sourced and secured your own placement (with support from Careers Central), you work within your host organisation undertaking tasks that will help you to gain a better understanding of professional practices within your chosen sector. Taught sessions enable you to acquire knowledge of both the industries in which you are placed as well as focusing on personal and professional development germane to the sector. Your assessment tasks will provide you with an opportunity to critically reflect on the creative and cultural sector in which you have worked as well as providing opportunities to undertake presentations, gather evidence, and articulate your newly acquired skills and experiences.

LEVEL 4 BEGINNERS LANGUAGE MODULES

Code PPLB4

Credits 20

There are a broad range of Beginners Language Modules for you to choose from. To explore all our available modules, please follow the link at the top of this page to see a full list of Level 4 Options.

LEVEL 5 BEGINNERS LANGUAGE MODULES

Code PPLB5

Credits 20

WRITING THE AMERICAN SCRIPT

Code AMAP5052B

Credits 20

Writing the American Screenplay: Hollywood and Beyond For much of the twentieth century, the screenplay was synonymous with Hollywood, the Studio System, and “The Movies”; films as brash and bold as booming American power, written by screenwriting giants, such as Preston Sturges, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, Anita Loos and Paddy Chayfsky. But much of what we love about more recent American film-making has been the work of writers outside the mainstream: John Cassavetes, Joan Micklin Silver, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, Quentin Tarantino, and the like. Throughout, American screenwriting has produced work as dynamic and expansive as the nation itself. In this module you will move through the high points of American scriptwriting, using scripts, texts, and creative pastiche to develop an understanding of the form. Your work may be assessed through a mix of creative and critical work, writing exercises and a complete short script. In broadly the first half of the semester you will use pastiche and other techniques to develop basic screenwriting skills. The remainder of the term will be devoted to developing and workshopping an original script. You will be introduced to the basic dramaturgy of cinematic storytelling, screenwriting form and format, and skills in pitching and story development. This module will therefore help you develop your creative capacity, your communication skills, and will help broaden your commercial awareness. Students who achieve a mark of 68%+ either in this module or Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling are eligible to enrol on Creative Writing: Scriptwriting in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at Level 6.

LIVE TELEVISION STUDIO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5127B

Credits 20

This module introduces you to television studio production, using the resources of the campus television studio. You will learn basic skills of both live and recorded studio production (including directing, vision and sound mixing, camera-work, lighting, floor management and editing), using practice-based training. You will produce a short television programme, researching the appropriate genre characteristics, style and narrative to create the final work. The live broadcast will be accompanied by written reports analysing and evaluating the production process and the finished product. PLEASE NOTE - This module needs a minimum of 12 students enrolled to run; if that enrolment is not met, the module may be withdrawn.

THE BUSINESS OF FILM AND TV DRAMA IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Code AMAP5026A

Credits 20

The module provides an intensive introduction to the business of film and television; including the development, financing, production, distribution and exploitation of films and television drama programmes. It is based around a detailed understanding of the film and television value chain, showing how different businesses and creative people work together to create and exploit programmes. It will also cover the process by which scripts or TV programme ideas are written and developed. Emphasis will be placed on UK, European and American Independent film models; and the difference between the independent model and the US studio model. It will examine the effect of Netflix and the rise of digital streaming. It includes a wide range of recent case studies and real-life examples, with companies from Pixar to Working Title. Issues raised will include the impact of new technologies; changing business models; the conflict between commerce and art; entrepreneurship and managing creative people; and the complex and difficult relationships between writers, directors, producers, executives, financiers, and distributors. It is a practical forward-looking course about current and future business practise, which will be a valuable foundation for anyone interested in working in the media, film or television sectors. It will also be valuable to anyone studying film and television programmes and culture, so that they can fully understand the financial and business context in which programmes are created. By the end of the module you will know how films and TV programmes get dreamt up, how they get developed, and how they get financed and distributed. You will learn how the industry actually works.

WRITING THE AMERICAN SCRIPT

Code AMAP5051A

Credits 20

For much of the twentieth century, the screenplay was synonymous with Hollywood, the Studio System, and “The Movies”: films as brash and bold as booming American power, written by screenwriting giants, such as Preston Sturges, Herman J. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, Anita Loos and Paddy Chayfsky. But much of what we love about more recent American film-making has been the work of writers outside the mainstream: John Cassavetes, Joan Micklin Silver, Charlie Kaufman, Spike Lee, Nora Ephron, Quentin Tarantino, and the like. Throughout, American screenwriting has produced work as dynamic and expansive as the nation itself. In this module you will move through the high points of American scriptwriting, using scripts, texts, and creative pastiche to develop an understanding of the form. Your work may be assessed through a mix of creative and critical work, writing exercises and a complete short script. In broadly the first half of the semester you will use pastiche and other techniques to develop basic screenwriting skills. The remainder of the term will be devoted to developing and workshopping an original script. You will be introduced to the basic dramaturgy of cinematic storytelling, screenwriting form and format, and skills in pitching and story development. This module will therefore help you develop your creative capacity, your communication skills, and will help broaden your commercial awareness.

FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION

Code AMAP5123A

Credits 20

THE POLITICS OF STORYTELLING

Code AMAS5054A

Credits 20

We all tell stories. Some stories are based in fact. Others are fictional and deliberately play with and distort realities. But how do we decide on which stories get told and which stories don’t? What does this tell us about the political structures that shape our society? Or indeed the relationship between history and power? Can the stories we tell play a role in our political present? Relevant to all students studying the arts and humanities, this module explores the politics of storytelling. It interrogates the relationship between fact and fiction, while encouraging students to think through the societal forces that shape their subject and their own work. Drawing on the expertise from a range of disciplines - from film studies, history, literature, politics and creative writing - it shows how stories can remake our reality and have the potential to profoundly shape our present moment.

AMERICAN MUSIC

Code AMAS5023A

Credits 20

The first book published in the New World was a hymn book. Music, sacred and profane, has been at the centre of American lives ever since. Distinctive American musical styles still dominate the globe, as they have done for decades. But how did American music develop into the genres that we recognise today? How did uniquely American sounds catch the ear of listeners all over the world? You will gain a thorough understanding of the development of American music. You will focus on a number of distinctive musical traditions - from minstrelsy to blues, jazz, and country; from rock and roll to hip hop - and consider the way that they have shaped popular music today. Throughout the course, you will encounter a rich variety of music and an extraordinary range of characters, from the most famous entertainers in modern culture, to the obscure, the forgotten and the neglected. Whilst exploring the development of American music, you will also examine the ways in which its growth tells a larger story about the history of America and its people. In particular, it will give you a different perspective on the issue of race in American life. Through seminar discussion, written coursework, and group presentations, you will develop your analytical and critical abilities - whether that means your ability to think about the significance of a song and its meaning for a particular historical moment, or the way that the shifting meaning of a genre of music can tell us many things about its wider social and cultural context.

LGBT AND BEYOND: SEXUAL CULTURES, QUEER IDENTITIES, AND THE POLITICS OF DESIRE

Code HUM-5007A

Credits 20

How do notions of gender and sexuality shape culture, and how are in turn our understanding and experiences of gender and sexuality shaped by cultural production? How important are other times, places and identifications – associated with class, race, ethnicity – to these understandings and experiences? And to what extent can a film, an image, a testimony, or a place capture such complexity? Addressing these questions from an interdisciplinary approach, the aim of the module is to explore the ways in which gender and sexuality are constituted through a broad array of experiences, practices, and cultural products. The module focuses on issues raised in classical and contemporary research in history, politics, media, cultural studies and visual cultures such as: representation and cultural production; subjectivity; identity; identification; bodies and embodiment; performance and performativity; among others. Overall, by exploring theory in conjunction with queer cultural production that explores questions of power, identity, and desire across different racial, national, and cultural landscapes, the module aims to problematise how gender and sexuality are not stable identities or classifications but are instead processes involving normalisations, hierarchies and relations of domination that can be challenged, troubled and/or queered.

GENDER AND POWER

Code PPLM5002A

Credits 20

Providing a conceptual overview of feminist research approaches, this module examines contemporary gender and power relations. You will examine both the formal and informal power structures that shape the experience of gender. Bringing together the fields of media and sociology, politics and cultural studies, you will explore the relationship between feminist theory and activism.

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Important Information

Students will take 120 credits (4 modules) across year 3. 60 credits in semester 1 and 60 credits in semester 2. Students to take ONE dissertation module.

Assessment for Year 3

Compulsory Modules

FILM, TELEVISION AND MEDIA STUDIES: DISSERTATION (AUTUMN)

Code AMAM6079A

Credits 30

This module provides the opportunity to work on an independently-researched dissertation on an aspect of Film, Television and/or Media Studies; you will choose and negotiate the topic of your choice to gain approval. You are able to choose whether you do the dissertation module in the Autumn or the Spring Semester of your final year, whichever fits in better with your schedule of modules. You need not relate directly to material taught in previous modules, although it is expected that dissertations will draw on and reflect upon perspectives and methodologies introduced earlier in the degree course.

FILM, TELEVISION AND MEDIA STUDIES DISSERTATION (SPRING)

Code AMAM6080B

Credits 30

Optional A Modules

(60-90 credits)

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT ON SCREEN

Code AMAM6002A

Credits 30

Module Description (This module is about) This module explores the ways in which cinema and television have engaged with discourses of crime and punishment across the history of the two mediums. It will look at the ways in which screen cultures have circulated and contested historical understandings of crime, criminality and justice, but also ongoing debates regarding cinema and television’s influence on the propagation and perception of criminal behaviour. The module will explore a range of film and television genres that focus on crime, investigation and the penal system, and that have incorporated scientific and technological innovations with regard to surveillance and detection, including: gangster films, police procedurals, delinquency films, true crime, prison dramas, crime appeal programmes, superhero movies, and forensic crime dramas. We also map the ways in which these genres have responded to different historical, national and social contexts, and explore the ways in which a range of converging identities (gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, generational identity) have influenced these contradictory depictions and discourses. This interdisciplinary module will explore the relationship between media history, theory and representation, drawing upon theories from fields including film studies, television studies, cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, criminology, psychology, and science and technology studies.

CONTEMPORARY SCREEN DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION

Code AMAM6025A

Credits 30

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of the structure and workings of the independent and local screen sector in the UK. The module will look at different approaches to distribution and public exhibition of screen content and audience development, including commercial exhibition, community cinema and film festivals. Covering a range of relevant theories and concepts, the module will provide students with a critical understanding of the key issues at stake in how screen content is circulated and accessed by audiences. Key themes will include the influence of industry regulation (by government and industry), impacts of public funding, professional work practices, content diversity and social inclusion. The module will incorporate significant contributions from industry professionals that I have been working with as part of the Rural Cinema Impact Project. A number of these partners have confirmed their willingness to be part of the teaching programme in 2019/20 including Sarah-Jane Meredith, Audience Fund Manager British Film Institute; Robert Livingston, Director Regional Screen Scotland; Christoph Warrack, CEO and Founder, Open Cinema (a national network of film clubs for excluded or marginalised people); Michael Pierce, CEO and Founder Scalarama (national film festival for independent and cult cinema); and Duncan Carson, Marketing and Communication Manager Independent Cinema Office (national body for promoting independent cinema in the UK). It is proposed to involve the students in this module in the organisation and hosting of a short film festival in Norfolk. Access to venues and audiences will be provided through Creative Arts East (CAE), a long term partner in the Rural Cinema Impact Project. CAE has over 50 screening venues across Norfolk, many which are relatively close to Norwich and the UEA campus.

GENDER AND TELEVISION

Code AMAM6045A

Credits 30

This final year module will pick up on the theoretical frameworks that you gained during your first two years of study and use them to focus on discussions about the ways in which gender, as well as class, race and sexuality are represented across various television genres. We use the concept of postfeminism as one which frames the ways discourses of gender in popular culture as a theoretical basis from which to proceed. We explore the medium of television as a textual entity, a social activity (i.e. the focus on audiences and viewing), and a political agent (ideology and power) and focus specifically on the ways in which these intersect with and inform the representational politics of the texts under discussion. The predominant texts under discussion in this module will be drawn from British and American Television enabling us to examine the specificities and similarities of these two cultural contexts

SCIENCE FICTION

Code AMAM6121A

Credits 30

Science Fiction films and television series have provided a significant focus for addressing social, cultural and political issues. You will look at the historical development of the genre, with an emphasis on situating examples of films and television programs within their historical and cultural context. The module also concentrates on issues surrounding human identity, as played out in this genre. A range of films and series episodes from both the US and UK will be screened and various clips will also be discussed in seminar.

DIGITAL POLITICS

Code PPLM6077A

Credits 30

Today's political world is more than ever influenced by digital technologies, from innovative social movements to 'fake news' and digital election campaigns. We will explore how the technologies influence political processes and how political processes in turn influence technology. We will examine the impact of digital media on electoral politics, examining key election campaigns (including recent UK and US elections) and the impact of social media, big data, and targeted advertising on their results. We will investigate how social movements (from Black Lives Matter to the Alt-Right) have been transformed through their use of digital networks. We will navigate the world of online politics, with a particular focus on the new culture wars being fought out in online environments. Finally we will explore the politics of the everyday, and the political effects of the technology platforms on which we live our online lives.

CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Code AMAM6124A

Credits 30

How have new technology and media start-ups changed the world? What is the effect of leadership on creativity and innovation in media business today? Managing creativity and innovation are increasingly important for all companies in the current fast-changing business landscape. Digital disruption and new business models have made a huge impact on many businesses, including the media. The aims of this module are to introduce a theoretical and practical understanding of the nature of entrepreneurship and start-up culture; managing and motivating creative people; and the leadership strategies used by organisations to encourage different types of innovation, with a focus on media companies.

INVESTIGATING AUDIENCES AND RECEPTION

Code AMAM6144B

Credits 30

In this module you will investigate a range of changing audience practices and cultures in the twenty-first century. You will be introduced to some of the key research on, and theoretical debates around, audience practices in relation to changes in distribution, technology and evolving forms of engagement. You will also study social practices and fan cultures surrounding new technologies, transmedia storytelling, branding, steamed media, event cinema, theme park attractions and other participatory cultures. Investigating Audiences will enable you to expand your critical and analytical skills, and also to develop your abilities as an audience researcher. You will evaluate and assess published academic writing on audience research methodologies, which will then enable you to exercise critical judgement in the design of your own empirical research project.

ARTISTS' FILM AND VIDEO

Code AMAA6016B

Credits 30

Since the 1960s the proliferation of artists working with film and video has resulted in screen-based installations becoming a common feature of most contemporary art exhibitions. Surveying the activity of a diverse range of film and video makers this module will explore how artists have sought to develop a critical mode of practice that distinguishes their work from commercial forms of cinema and television. With a particular focus on European and American film and video artists, this module will examine in detail how their work relates to established histories of avant-garde cinema and experimental film making. Through direct engagement with film and video artworks this module will investigate how artists have sought to challenge and subvert our viewing habits and in turn question our psychological and social relationship to the moving image. Artists discussed include: Andy Warhol, Maya Deren, Barbara Rubin, Carolee Schneemann, Stan Brakhage, Nam June Paik, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Bill Viola, Tacita Dean, John Akomfrah and Steve McQueen.

CREATIVE WORK IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRIES

Code AMAM6086B

Credits 30

What is it like working in the media industries? What are the key opportunities and challenges which face aspiring and established media professionals? In engaging with such questions, this module offers you the opportunity to gain an understanding of the industries in which you may well wish to work. Throughout the module you will engage with academic research and other writing, both historical and contemporary in nature, to provide you with an understanding of the potential to find pleasure, fulfilment (and a steady income), as well as pressure, frustration and precariousness in media work. As well as developing skills in communicating ideas, principles and theories, you will conduct your own research into the nature and conditions of media work. To help you understand media work, we reflect on changes in the nature of work itself in modern societies, considering historical and recent developments in working cultures and questions of work-life balance. Following this, you will gain insights into work in the media and creative industries through an engagement with academic research, policy developments and the accounts of media workers themselves (across sectors such as film, television, music, magazines, advertising and digital media). We also look at questions about the extent to which it is feasible to do ‘good work’ and produce challenging, innovative, ground breaking, thoughtful or just genuinely entertaining media products in a seemingly ever competitive and commercial media landscape. Having developed a grasp of some of the key dynamics at play in creative labouring, you’ll put this knowledge into practice by carrying out and reflecting upon your own research into the challenges and opportunities bound up with media work. The module will not only provide you with a range of valuable insights into the realities of media work but will also help you develop skills in conducting research, organising and communicating your ideas and weighing your own arguments against those of others.

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

Code AMAM6133B

Credits 30

This module looks at a range of print, broadcast and online alternative media in the USA and Britain from largely the 1960s counterculture onwards. This includes pirate radio, underground press, guerrilla television, fanzines, subvertising, video activism, Indymedia, community media. It maps the history and development of alternative media, explores connections and tensions with technological innovations, the cultural politics of alternative media, the relationship with and impact on mainstream media forms, and assesses the significance of alternative media for social change. There is an emphasis on historical and cultural material theorised through aspects of media, subculture and social movements.

COMICS GET REAL: GRAPHIC NARRATIVES OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TRAUMA, AND WAR

Code AMAS6059B

Credits 30

Why do people draw their life stories in comics form? How can trauma be represented in words and pictures? What does it mean to bear witness to horrific events graphically? Throughout this module, you’ll study the recent phenomenon of reality-based American comics, which stand in sharp contrast to the form’s common association with superheroes and the fantastic. In addition to discovering comics’ powerful potential for representing real-life events in engaging and disturbing ways, you’ll learn to analyse both form and content, and will develop a critical vocabulary for reading, thinking, and writing about comics. You’ll read comics that tell a wide variety of stories anchored in real life, and from many different genres, such as autobiography, memoir, investigative journalism, and war reportage. Throughout, you’ll learn to pay special attention to issues of representation, spectatorship, and the position of the artist in relation to the events depicted. You’ll also study a variety of critical and theoretical material that puts these comics-specific issues in conversation with more general concerns about the ethics of representing the real world in diverse written or visual forms. You’ll learn through seminars and independent study, and will be assessed through coursework including a final essay. At the end of the module, you’ll be able to read reality-based as well as other comics in a transformative way, and will have gained a deep understanding of how this vibrant and upcoming cultural form creates new opportunities for representing the increasingly complex personal and geopolitical realities of the world in the twenty-first century.

Optional B Modules

(0-30 credits)

BRITISH FILM SINCE THE 1960s

Code AMAM6012B

Credits 30

How has British cinema developed through the 21st century? What has it learned from the successes and failures of its own past? By focusing on British film and British film culture from the 1960s to the present day, this module will give you new and different perspectives on the modern British film industry, and the films it produces. You'll get a grounding in the important movements, directors, genre, cycles and stars within the last 6 decades of British film. You'll learn how to examine and analyse those people, films, and movements within a cultural and industrial context, considering the social, technological, artistic and ideological motivations underpinning the creation of 'British' film. Central to this will be your exploration of how 21st century British cinema understands and exploits its own history, from Ealing Studios and Hammer Horror to claims of the 'boom and bust' economic cycle of British production.

GENDER AND GENRE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CINEMA

Code AMAM6062B

Credits 30

This module offers an overview of critical and theoretical approaches to gender and genre in film and television, focusing particularly on North American media, over the last decade. The module is taught by seminar, tutorial and screening and the topics explored may include: the articulation and development of postfeminism in film and television; popular and independent film; feminism and authorship; media responses to the political and cultural contexts of postfeminism; responses to the recession; race and the limits of feminist representation; motherhood and fatherhood; representations of queerness.

MEDIA PRACTICE PROJECT (SPRING)

Code AMAP6098B

Credits 30

You’ll be able to make use of your practical skills to produce a significant practice-based project investigating some aspect of Media, Film and/or Television studies. You’ll produce a significant practical work that refers to, and makes use of, relevant theoretical debates and issues, and will also write a critical evaluation of your work. Projects are individually negotiated with supervisors, and will build upon an area of practice that you have previously covered (film-making, screenwriting, digital media, magazine or sound media). Before taking this module students must have completed one of the following modules: AMAP5119B – Television Studio Production; AMAP5123A – Film & Video Production; AMAP5124B – Digital Media Theory and Practice; AMAM6032A – Adaptation and Screenwriting; AMAM5038B – Adaptation and Transmedia Storytelling; AMAM5049B – Writing The American Script: Hollywood and Beyond; LDCC5002A or LDCC5008B – Creative Writing: Scriptwriting

MULTICULTURALISM

Code PPLX6072B

Credits 30

This module looks at the political implications of the rise of multicultural societies in Europe and North America since the end of World War II. (Canada is given consideration because of its importance to these debates both as a practical model as well as a source of influential theorists.) The aim is to introduce students to a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives on multiculturalism and facilitate critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of such approaches in the face of competing political discourses such as nationalism and alternative forms of liberalism. Theorists under examination may include; Parekh, Kymlicka, Levy, Taylor and Modood as well as major liberal alternative views; Barry, Rawls and Raz. Among the module themes the following will be addressed; group differentiated rights; institutional racism, Islamophobia, recognition vs toleration and cultural offence. The module will also look at divergent policies adopted within European states (eg: France and Germany) and give attention to the attempts to operationalize multiculturalism in the UK in particular via the Parekh Report.

ADAPTATION AND SCRIPTWRITING

Code AMAM6115A

Credits 30

Today more films are made from adaptations than wholly original screenplays. All scriptwriters preparing for work in the business today should therefore be aware of the process and nature of script adaptation. You will explore the practice of scriptwriting, dramaturgy and story structure; and explore key theories of adaptation, from the earliest ideas of ‘fidelity’ to the source, to later approaches emphasising intertextuality, and the movement of narratives across media. You will examine a series of different examples of narrative adaptation across literary and media contexts.

ADAPTATION AND SCRIPTWRITING

Code AMAM6116B

Credits 30

Today more films are made from adaptations than wholly original screenplays. All scriptwriters preparing for work in the business today should therefore be aware of the process and nature of script adaptation. You will explore the practice of scriptwriting, dramaturgy and story structure; and explore key theories of adaptation, from the earliest ideas of ‘fidelity’ to the source, to later approaches emphasising intertextuality, and the movement of narratives across media. You can examine a series of different examples of narrative adaptation across literary and media contexts.

MEDIA PRACTICE PROJECT (AUTUMN)

Code AMAP6097A

Credits 30

You’ll be able to make use of your practical skills to produce a significant practice-based project investigating some aspect of Media, Film and/or Television studies. You’ll produce a significant practical work that refers to, and makes use of, relevant theoretical debates and issues, and will also write a critical evaluation of your work. Projects are individually negotiated with supervisors, and will build upon an area of practice that you have previously covered (film-making, screenwriting, digital media, magazine or sound media). Before taking this module students MUST have completed one of the following modules: AMAP5119B – Television Studio Production; AMAP5123A – Film & Video Production; AMAP5124B – Digital Media Theory and Practice; AMAM5052B - Writing the American Script; AMAM5051A/AMAM5052B – Writing The American Script: Hollywood and Beyond; LDCC5002A or LDCC5008B – Creative Writing: Scriptwriting.

WERE HERE, WERE QUEER: GLOBAL SEXUALITIES AND CONTEMPORARY QUEER CULTURES

Code HUM-6005A

Credits 30

The transnational movement of bodies, images, and capital has transformed modern conceptualisations of gender and sexuality. Sexual practices, identities, and subcultural formations have been altered through processes of migration and globalisation, as well as by the advent of new media technologies and the wide-reaching circulation of categories such as gay, lesbian, and transgender. In this context, this module aims to situate categories of gender and sexual difference within specific cultural and political contexts, and investigate non-normative gender and sexual formations in relation to emerging discourses on race and class and to anti-colonial theories of modernity and global capitalism. At the centre of the module sit questions such as: How have queer subjects been incorporated into nationalist projects and consumer culture? How has the liberal framework of human rights reshaped the struggles of queer movements outside the West? In what ways have transnational discourses on multiculturalism reshaped notions of queer community and belonging in global cities and in postcolonial metropolitan spaces? What role have media technologies and various forms of visual culture played in the reconstitution of gender and sexual identities and of representations of queer desire, affect, and kinship? Addressing these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective, and drawing on case studies from different geographical regions and from different disciplinary fields, the overall aim of the module is to explore the varied ways local histories and geographies interact with the forces of political, economic, and cultural globalisation, focusing especially on the experiences of sexual minorities in the Global South and of queer diasporas in the Global North.

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Entry Requirements

A Levels

BBB or ABC or BBC with an A in the Extended Project

T Levels

No acceptable pathways for 2022 entry

BTEC

DDM excluding BTEC Public Services, BTEC Uniformed Services and BTEC Business Administration

Scottish highers

AABBB

Scottish highers advanced

CCC

Irish leaving certificate

2 subjects at H2, 4 subjects at H3

Access course

Access to Humanities & Social Sciences pathway. Pass the Access to HE Diploma with Merit in 45 credits at Level 3

European Baccalaureate

70%

International Baccalaureate

31 Points

GCSE offer

You are required to have Mathematics and English Language at a minimum of Grade C or Grade 4 or above at GCSE.

Additional entry requirements

If you do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry, you may be interested in one of our Foundation Year programmes.

INTO UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

If you do not meet the academic and/or English requirements for direct entry our partner, INTO University of East Anglia offers guaranteed progression on to this undergraduate degree upon successful completion of a preparation programme. Depending on your interests, and your qualifications you can take a variety of routes to this degree:

Alternative Entry Requirements

UEA recognises that some students take a mixture of International Baccalaureate IB or International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme IBCP study rather than the full diploma, taking Higher levels in addition to A levels and/or BTEC qualifications. At UEA we do consider a combination of qualifications for entry, provided a minimum of three qualifications are taken at a higher Level. In addition some degree programmes require specific subjects at a higher level.

Important note

Once enrolled onto your course at UEA, your progression and continuation (which may include your eligibility for study abroad, overseas experience, placement or year in industry opportunities) is contingent on meeting the assessment requirements which are relevant to the course on which you are enrolled.

Students for whom english is a foreign language

Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):

IELTS: 6.0 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components)
IELTS: 6.5 overall (minimum 6.0 in all components) for year 2 entry

We also accept a number of other English language tests. Please click here to see our full list.

INTO University of East Anglia

If you do not yet meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study:

Interviews

Most applicants will not be called for an interview and a decision will be made via UCAS Track. However, for some applicants an interview will be requested. Where an interview is required the Admissions Service will contact you directly to arrange a time.

Gap year

We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year.  We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.

Intakes

This course is open to UK and International applicants. The annual intake is in September each year.

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The Rise of Rural Cinema

Cinema-going has retained its popularity in the 21st Century as a space in which to socialise watching films. But where do rural cinemas fit into the cinematic experience?

Black Mirror

How Black Mirror combines a disturbing future with a familiar past.

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Course Reference Number: 4479614

BA MEDIA STUDIES

BA MEDIA STUDIES

About

The Rise of Rural Cinema

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Placement Year and Study Abroad

The Rise of Rural Cinema

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After the Course

Career destinations

The Rise of Rural Cinema

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Assessment for Year 1

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 2

Beginners' Language Modules

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 3

Structure

Teaching and Learning

Assessment for Year 1

Compulsory Modules

Important Information

Assessment for Year 2

Beginners' Language Modules

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

Optional B Modules

Important Information

Assessment for Year 3

Compulsory Modules

Optional A Modules

Optional B Modules

Important Information

Entry Requirements

A Levels

T Levels

BTEC

Scottish highers

Scottish highers advanced

Irish leaving certificate

Access course

European Baccalaureate

International Baccalaureate

GCSE offer

Additional entry requirements

Students for whom english is a foreign language

Interviews

Gap year

Intakes

The Rise of Rural Cinema

Black Mirror

UEA Award

Ask a Student

Fees and Funding

Course related costs

The Rise of Rural Cinema

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How to Apply

The Rise of Rural Cinema

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The Rise of Rural Cinema

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Related Courses

BA Film Studies and English Literature