BA Communication and Media

Year 3

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:
- Draw on systematic and advanced knowledge of media and communication concepts and theories to make informed contributions to debates and/or policy discussions in media and communication
- Demonstrate expertise in one or more designated areas of the field including an understanding of contemporary research
- Demonstrate independence and self-awareness as learners. Students are able to engage critically with a range of academic and non-academic sources, and reflect critically on their own learning
- Demonstrate advanced communication skills including the ability to express complex ideas in a range of contexts
- Critically analyse and explain media texts at an advanced level, drawing on a range of concepts and theories
- Students can confidently discuss the complex relationships between media, culture and society
- Demonstrate independence in research including the ability to devise and execute a research project, select appropriate research methodologies and resources, critique research findings and adhere to the principles of research ethics
Demonstrate a breadth of engagement across the programme by satisfactorily passing the full complement of modules as well as a dissertation.

Transferable (key) skills

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
- the transferable/key/generic skills necessary for employment related to the area(s) studied;
- the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility;
- the deployment of decision making skills in complex and unpredictable situations;
- the communication of information, ideas, problems and solutions in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences;
- the ability to undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature;
- an ability to think critically;
- a capacity to think historically and to recognise the historical context of media institutions and texts;
- a capacity to develop political analyses and critiques of media institutions and texts;
- an ability to understand and utilise research methods appropriate to the study of media institutions and texts;
- a familiarity with the use of media technologies;
- a capacity to organise knowledge and viewpoints in a systematic and confident fashion

Assessment

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:
- demonstrating the ability top apply a broad range of aspects of the discipline;
- work that draws on a wide variety of material;
- the ability to evaluate and criticise received opinion;
- evidence of an ability to conduct independent, in depth enquiry within the discipline;
- work that is typically both evaluative and creative;