Placement at EA Guildford
Tom found his way into EA Games Guildford and had a fantastic time there. Read on to hear all about how he found it, and how Coventry helped him along the way.
Condensed study option
Our condensed first year study option allows you to start your course full-time in January 2022 and continue your second year in September 2022.
Explore your study optionsOverview
Our Media and Communications course is designed to help you negotiate and operate in contemporary media landscapes, exploring a wide range of communication, culture and media theory which informs practice and reception alike.
Narrative content creation is the driving force of any emergent, new, and/or established media form. This course focuses on writing for media and furthers academic practice with a digital humanities toolkit to theoretically engage content, markets, and creative practice.
Core theoretical and conceptual materials delivered throughout the course will be interrogated through, and embedded in, realistic industry and research focused projects in areas such as: audiovisual media and moving image; podcasts; blogs, and other forms of digital publications, marketing, and publicity design. This will enable you to enter an increasingly active sector of employment in media industries, and media research.
Our international teaching staff bring a distinctive, broad range of experiences from HE institutions overseas, and curriculum design reflects international and transnational media content. You will be encouraged to discover and share your cultural experiences in a number of international projects and assignments embedded in the course, including field trips or digital equivalent, as well as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects.
The Media and Communications course is well placed to address many of the contemporary developments in media and cultural studies as well as those concerning the impact of new media technologies and environments within 21st-century cultures.
Why Coventry University?
An award-winning university, we are committed to providing our students with the best possible experience. We continue to invest in both our facilities and our innovative approach to education. Our students benefit from industry-relevant teaching, and resources and support designed to help them succeed. These range from our modern library and computing facilities to dedicated careers advice and our impressive Students’ Union activities.
COVID-19
The University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via emerging online technologies and methods across all courses. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are prepared for courses due to start in or after the 2020/2021 academic year to be delivered in a variety of forms. The form of delivery will be determined in accordance with Government and Public Health guidance. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.
Due to the ongoing restrictions relating to Covid-19, some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) and some non-academic offerings (particularly in relation to international experiences), may vary from those advertised and may have reduced availability or restrictions on their use.
Global ready
An international outlook, with global opportunitiesEmployability
Career-ready graduates, with the skills to succeedTeaching Excellence
Taught by lecturers who are experts in their fieldCourse essentials
A degree which offers you more, at no extra costRelated Links
Building Redevelopment
We are currently in the process of a major redevelopment of our Faculty of Arts and Humanities buildings. The building will be open to the public as well as students, and will feature an expansive gallery space.
Creative Community Hub
We hope that you are all staying safe in these uncertain times. Creative activities can really help fill the days, while we are spending more time at home and we have some ideas to keep you busy.
Virtual experience
Visit our online degree show where we have brought together the work of over 500 students.
Alumni share their career highlights
Lesley Smart and Laura Mason-Byers both graduated from Coventry University in 2005 with a BA in Communication, Culture and Media. We caught up with them to find out what they have been up to since they graduated.
What our students say...
Studying Media and Communications has introduced me to a range of subjects of the industry, giving me an opportunity to gain professional experience alongside studying. Each module expands my learning and allows me to develop myself as a media expert and produce my own ideas. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Coventry University and I’m looking forward to completing my final year and fulfilling my potential.
Course information
Our Media and Communications course is extremely well placed to exploit the rapid shift to forms of employment within the cultural and media industries based around complex, convergent and new digital media developments.
You will be immersed in the driving forces of media exchange (theory) and the single trait that unites most, if not all, media content: storytelling (practice). As such, the course focuses on both the comprehension of contemporary developments in media and communication studies and the best-suited, most flexible creative practices to enter the creative industries.
Writing for media, and strong abilities in narrative practice, provide a broad range of entry points in the industries, focusing on medium-relevant differences and needs of consumers/viewers/customers. Event organization, allowing you to familiarize yourself with production and audience elements vital for much of media creation, adds an important real-life practice. The driving force of the course, informing the creative practice, is the study of media through relevant theory, history and cultural studies, employing classic academic means as well as learning to apply digital tools in media research.
You will use and develop your pre-existing creative skills, knowledge and competences within a strong theoretical framework, with practice and theory informing each other at every step of the way. You’ll explore media through research, live and immersive projects, academic essays, multi-media venues such as podcasts, blogs, social media platforms, video and audio-visual content, potential live events, and more.
This course addresses patterns of media production and consumption prevalent in the contemporary workplace, helping you to develop a wide range of skills, transferable knowledge and practical competences so you can thrive in relevant and current fields of employment, and in international settings.
Whilst we would like to give you all the information about our placement/study abroad offering here, it is often tailored for each course every year and depending on the length of placement or study abroad opportunities that are secured. Therefore, the placement and study abroad arrangements vary per course and per student. Please contact talentteam@coventry.ac.uk for more information about going on a placement or study abroad year.
93%
of our students are satisfied by the quality of the course
NSS, 2016
Course specification
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Modules
We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.
15th
We are ranked as the 15th best University in the United Kingdom Guardian University Guide 2020
In more detail...
This degree is focused on preparing our graduates to be key players in the contemporary world of digital citizenship, ready to act as both professional producers of and critical consumers of media and cultural products. This course has a distinctive international scope, which will enable you to study, gain professional experience and take part in research projects abroad. You will gain a thorough understanding of contemporary issues facing a wide range of media, cultural and communication industries, exploring key historical developments and a broad range of theoretical approaches.
Responding to the shifting patterns of this fast-paced industry, in particular the widespread use of everyday digital media technologies and rapid growth of social media, you will be encouraged to focus on the emerging areas of screen, social, open and mobile media, alongside the rapidly transforming established media. You’ll also have access to our extensive specialist resources, including video and photography studios, industry-standard software suites, radio studios, specialist IT facilities and our dedicated ‘digital media lab’.
From the outset, we aim to foster your critical thinking, to develop your technical, creative, reflective and analytical abilities, with the aim of giving you a thorough grounding in research, providing basic skills in production and post-production, as well as guiding you through project management experiences, which are essential skills to succeed in this ever-expanding and changing sector.
You’ll be taught by passionate staff that makes the subject interesting by combining cutting-edge academic research and real life experience – according to 96% of students in the latest National Student Survey (NSS) 2016. With current faculty expertise spanning from Film Studies, Media histories and theories to Cross Cultural analysis, they have worked as Journalists, Digital Marketing and PR specialists, and Community Development for local and international organisations.
- Dedicated and flexible creative learning environments, media spaces and industry-focused studios, including The Tank, our purpose built, industry-standard TV studio.
- Opportunity to study abroad at one of our many international partners (subject to availability, application, meeting visa requirements and additional costs).
- Access to high-standard professional media equipment via our Media Loan Shop, including prosumer media equipment (i.e. 4K and HD video cameras, DSLR cameras, tripods, audio equipment, lighting – Canon, JVC, Sony).
- All of our students are issued a laptop to be used in line with the 24/7 mobile learning scheme, and pre-loaded with the last suite of industry-standard software Adobe Creative Cloud, Office 365 along with 1TB of cloud storage (terms and conditions apply).
- Significant links with a wide variety of employers and media practitioners, such as Phoenix Cinema, Electric Arts and EA Games, many of whom offer professional experience opportunities in the forms of placements (subject to availability, successful application and additional costs may apply).
International partners, include Zhejiang University of Media and Communications (ZUMC) in China, Jean Moulin University, Lyon, France, and UCSC Milan in Italy.
Our main study themes are:
- Media and communication:Introduces you to the importance and use of a number of fundamental concepts within the broad fields of media analysis and production to help the understanding of how meaning within media objects has been produced, consumed and interpreted. These may include: institution, identity, contexts of production, audience, narrative and genre, critical refection. The meaning and significance of these concepts will be explored through a range of methods, including case studies, seminar discussions and individual exercises illustrating their development, conventional use and potential limitations.
- Contemporary theories in media and communications: You will be encouraged to explore the key theoretical paradigms that have shaped and informed the character of contemporary themes, issues and debate within the field of study of culture and media. We look at how particular approaches to the analysis of culture, media and communication, such as Feminism and gender, race and class have emerged and attained saliency historically.
- Critical media methods: You will be taught a range of research skills, including source acquisition, archival searching, close-reading of texts, critical review of published sources, media form interpretation, data/evidence analysis, discussion and argumentation.
- Living in a digital world: You will gain practical experience working with a variety of contemporary digital media and cultural forms, ranging from moving image production, photography, sound and music production to text-based online publications. We will consider how the new forms of ‘prosumption’ involved in the creation and uses of these artefacts affect conventional conceptions of such things as ‘audience’, ‘institutional context’, the political economy of media and concepts such as ideology, meaning and pleasure in a new digital world, ‘playbour’ and ‘prize economics’.
The course normally last three years when studied full-time and four to six years part-time. You can start in September or January.
At all Levels, contact hours are combined with self-guided study. Whilst the former includes lectures, seminars, workshops, and personal and group tutorials, the latter is focussed on your personal organisation, giving you the opportunity to develop time management skills and to fully utilise the course resource pack.
Students successfully completing the first two years of the course can opt to spend a year out between the second and third years on placement or study abroad. Past students have spent a year studying in places as diverse as Turku University (Finland), Universidad de Madrid (Spain), Hochschule der Medien (Germany), Stenden University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), and California State University (USA). Placement and study abroad opportunities are subject to availability, application, meeting visa requirements and additional costs.
Your personal tutor will regularly review and discuss your progress on the course. Your development will be through academic writing and discussion as well as activity-led learning, live projects, real-world working simulations, experimentation and play. The Media and Communications mobility technology pack allows you to develop your own learning and working pattern in a flexible way, so your experience is adaptable and yet part of a strategic course vision.
The core aim of the course teaching and learning strategy is that, upon graduation, you are able to function as an agile creative professional within the media and cultural industries, understand the strategic and emerging trends in media and communications, and respond to and/or generate innovation.
The University may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via emerging online technologies and methods across all courses. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prepared for courses due to start in or after the 2020/2021 academic year to be delivered in a variety of forms. The form of delivery will be determined in accordance with Government and Public Health guidance. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.
Due to the ongoing restrictions relating to COVID-19, some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) and some non-academic offerings (particularly in relation to international experiences), may vary from those advertised and may have reduced availability or restrictions on their use.
Teaching methods include: lectures, with associated seminars, workshops and practical classes.
Assessment within the BA (Hons) Media and Communications course is integrative and aligned with the development of informed, motivated and critically reflective students and professionals of media and communication.
Given the complexity of the field of media and communications, you will be encouraged and supported to produce various forms of research and creative outcomes, including pieces of academic writing, media artefacts, portfolios, presentations, reflection and creative works. You will acquire regular feedback on your development from tutors, peers, and instructors.
The intensive workshop modules that engage various forms of media-related practice are paired with regular in-class colloquia, meetings with tutors, and self-reflection. The mixture of critical, analytical, and creative writing and group-project work will enable you to complete increasingly sophisticated assignments, cultivating skills in group work and collaboration, self-guidance, time-management, and work ethics. Summative assessment tasks – written assessments, reflective assignments, creative projects, and project management – set professional-level standards that will prepare you for the modes of research skills and media content writing skills required by media industries.
The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.
On successful completion, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical thinking around the history and development of media and communication forms in local, national, and global contexts.
- Critically analyse the convergence of theory and practice across diverse modes of media and communication landscapes.
- Engage in creative production practices utilising the most appropriate media and communications tools to further modes of media storytelling.
- Understand the role of changing technology, including emergent digital technologies in media and communications, content manipulation, distribution, access and participation and how to adapt core skills in line with industry requirements.
- Demonstrate how media and communication genres inform, disrupt and impact on central areas of content creation, public cultures and socially diverse communities.
- Be adaptable, creative and self-reflexive in producing research and content in event organization and participation for a variety of audiences and in a variety of media and communication contexts.
- Comprehend the media field as a broad and multifaceted area and deploy interdisciplinary skills in order to navigate the fluid, flexible and changing nature of media production and reception.
- Consider the role of media and communications industries from an ethical and professional stance, demonstrating knowledge and insight in order to see their value for a variety of organisations and contexts, from local community groups to global corporations.
In a typical teaching week, you will have around 15 ‘contact’ hours of teaching.
This generally breaks down as:
- Personal tutorial/small group teaching
- Medium group teaching
- Large group teaching
The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials.
Our course is designed to reflect the increasingly international context of media and culture; this is reflected strongly in the course curriculum. Modules such as ‘Transcultural Film’ and ‘Living in the Digital World 3’ heavily embed a specific attention to global issues both in terms of approached topics, international seminars and field activities.
Modules such as Placing Popular Culture in your first year and the post-digital set of modules throughout embed a specific attention to global issues in terms of approached topics, international engagement and even student led field activities.
The latter is most visible in our annual field trips. We aim to provide a trip in year one which will be in the UK (subject to availability costs of trip are included within course fees) and an international field trip in either year 2 or 3. (Subject to availability, meeting visa requirements and additional costs) both of which are reviewed annually to ensure the choices are both timely and in response to previous student experiences. Recent fieldtrips have included: Reykjavik, Oslo, Berlin, Aarhus, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Prague, Geneva and more. Our course field trip projects involve researching real life case studies touching upon a wide range of creative industries, screen and digital media related issues, documenting and reflecting on the research and finally creating both a presentation event as well as a crafting a media artefact.
Field tips are subject to availability, meeting visa requirements and additional costs.
Global ready
Did you know we help more students travel internationally than any other UK university according to data from the experts in higher education data and analysis, HESA?
In 2018/19, we provided a total of 5,469 experiences abroad that lasted at least five days.
Explore our international experiences1st for
international experiences
Sending more students overseas than any other UK uni 2016/17
5,469
Student experiences
The number of student trips abroad for at least 5 days in 2018/19
12,000
and counting
The number of students we’ve helped travel internationally since 2016
12
global programmes
As well as trips, we offer other opportunities like language courses
What our students say
Studying Media and Communications has introduced me to a range of subjects of the industry, giving me an opportunity to gain professional experience alongside studying. Each module expands my learning and allows me to develop myself as a media expert and produce my own ideas. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Coventry University and I’m looking forward to completing my final year and fulfilling my potential.
Entry Requirements
What our students say...
Studying Media and Communications has introduced me to a range of subjects of the industry, giving me an opportunity to gain professional experience alongside studying. Each module expands my learning and allows me to develop myself as a media expert and produce my own ideas. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Coventry University and I’m looking forward to completing my final year and fulfilling my potential.
Tuition Fees
We pride ourselves on offering competitive tuition fees which we review on an annual basis and offer a wide range of scholarships to support students with their studies. Course fees are calculated on the basis of what it costs to teach each course and we aim for total financial transparency.
For more information, please visit our Finance pages.
Course essentials at no extra cost
We're committed to communicating study costs clearly to make sure you're not faced with having to make any unexpected payments.
This is why our ‘Flying Start’ package provides you with a few course essentials. Your full-time fee for an undergraduate degree will cover the following:
UK field trips
Any mandatory site visits and trips within the United Kingdom.Key material
This can include core textbooks, software and equipment.Laser prints
1,000 A4 sides of black and white laser printing credits per year.Optional year
Pay no tuition fees for optional work placements or study abroad trips.As well as covering UK field trips, key materials and laser print, the fees for this course also include: A mobile technology pack,(www.coventry.ac.uk/media-tech-pack) which enables you to benefit from mobile working and learning with 24/7 access (terms and conditions apply)
The following are additional costs not included in the fees:
- Any optional overseas field trips or visits
- Any additional printing
- Any optional site visits and trips
- Media consumables
EU student fees
EU nationals starting in the 2020/21 academic year remain eligible for the same fees as home students and the same financial support. Financial support comes from Student Finance England, and covers undergraduate and postgraduate study for the duration of their course, providing they meet the residency requirement.
For tuition fee loans
EU nationals starting in the 2020/21 academic year must have resided in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland for the three years prior to the start of their course. The purpose of that three year residency should not have been mainly for the purpose of receiving full time education.
For maintenance loans
EU nationals starting in the 2020/21 academic year must have resided in the UK and Islands for the five years prior to the start of their course. The purpose of that five year residency should not have been mainly for the purpose of receiving full time education.
Reduced course fees for EU students
The UK Government has confirmed that EU students who are starting their course in September 2021 and onwards will be classified as an international student. To support our EU community who are affected by this change, Coventry University are providing an EU Member State Transition Bursary.
Students ordinarily domiciled in an EU Member State who prior to the 2021/22 academic intake qualified for UK fees (home fee status), are eligible for the EU Member State Transition Bursary. This will bring fee levels for those students across the Group into line with those of UK students for courses starting in the 2021/22 academic year.
Review more details on our EU Member State Transition Award/Bursary page.
What our students say...
Studying Media and Communications has introduced me to a range of subjects of the industry, giving me an opportunity to gain professional experience alongside studying. Each module expands my learning and allows me to develop myself as a media expert and produce my own ideas. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Coventry University and I’m looking forward to completing my final year and fulfilling my potential.
Career prospects
Graduate Immigration Route visa
Based on current information from the UK Government, international students whose study extends beyond summer 2021 may be eligible for a visa under the UK Government’s Graduate Immigration Route, which will enable students to stay and work, or look for work, in the UK at any skill level for up to two (2) years. Check the most up to date guidance available to check your eligibility and any updates from the UK Government before making an application or enrolment decision.
The creative media industries account for some of the most exciting and diverse careers available – you could go on to become a producer, technician, presenter, reporter, PR specialist, writer, editor or critic.
We take great pride in our outstanding track record of graduate success – with 97% of graduates in work or continuing their studies after six months, DHLE 2016/17, (published 2018). Our course places your future career at its core, aiming to prepare you professionally and providing opportunities to gain substantial practical experience so you’re ready to launch a successful career in the media and cultural industries. It is designed to enable you to work for a range of media organisations, which may include the BBC, independent companies, global media organisations, or as a freelance/independent media manager, producer or researcher.
During your second year, the ‘Professional Experience’ module requires you to source and undertake four weeks of work experience. Past students have worked in PR offices, TV broadcasting and creative production, radio stations and more. The School of Media and Performing Arts has a very long and impressive history of graduates who establish themselves in extremely high profile media and cultural employment, examples of which include: executive producer for many highly prestigious Hollywood films, executive producer for SYCO, director for BBC documentaries, DJs for national radio stations such as BBC Radio 6 and Virgin Radio, planners and creatives for a number prestigious London-based advertising agencies.
The university's Talent Team is on hand to offer tailored career and enterprise support if you wish to gain employment or take advantage of professional practice opportunities within course specific industries. Our dedicated enterprise officers also offer valuable assistance on how to begin as a freelancer/entrepreneur.
Coventry University is committed to preparing you for your future career and aims to give you a competitive edge in the graduate job market. The university's Talent Team provide a wide range of support services to help you plan and prepare for your career.
Where our graduates work
Recent graduates of the course have gone on to work within the film industry, advertising, television, radio, communication management and PR, publishing, the arts and creative media and media education for companies including, Apple, Nielsen, Spark 44, WPP, Virgin, EA Sports, Jaguar Land Rover, Linney Group, IKEA Group, KPMG, Selfridges, Reprezent Radio, Citroen and the BBC. Many also go on to pursue Master’s level study.
What our students say
Studying Media and Communications has introduced me to a range of subjects of the industry, giving me an opportunity to gain professional experience alongside studying. Each module expands my learning and allows me to develop myself as a media expert and produce my own ideas. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Coventry University and I’m looking forward to completing my final year and fulfilling my potential.
Disclaimer
By accepting your offer of a place and enrolling with us, a Student Contract will be formed between you and the university. A copy of the 2021/22 Contract can be found here. The Contract details your rights and the obligations you will be bound by during your time as a student and contains the obligations that the university will owe to you. You should read the Contract before you accept an offer of a place and before you enrol at the university.
The tuition fee for the course that is stated on the course webpage and in the prospectus for the first year of study will apply. We will review our tuition fees each year. For UK and EU students, if Parliament permit an increase in tuition fees, we may increase fees for each subsequent year of study in line with any such changes. Note that any increase is expected to be in line with inflation. Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, EU students should be aware that there may be a change to UK laws following the UK’s exit, this may change their student status, their eligibility to study part time, and/or their eligibility for student finance. We will act in accordance with the UK’s laws in force in relation to student tuition fees and finance from time to time.
For International students the tuition fee that is stated on the course webpage and in the prospectus for the first year of study will apply. We will review our tuition fees each year. For international students, we may increase fees for each subsequent year of study but such increases will be no more than 5% above inflation.
