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What makes Media & Film Studies BA (Hons) at Worcester Special?

Here at Worcester we are passionate about media futures: exactly how have media and film industries and applications been affected by new and emerging technologies? How does culture affect peoples’ understanding and engagement with the media or film? What will the media or film industry look like in the next 5-10 years?

You will investigate the very latest industry advances, questioning their function and impact, informed by our research-inspired lectures, seminars and workshops. You will explore representation and ideology through a variety of media forms and film genres, including streaming platforms, mixed reality, queer and horror. You will learn to articulate how and why these forms and genres affect their users and audiences through the analysis of case study examples which you can choose. Do you see yourself represented in the media or film industry?

Media and film technologies have the potential to shape the world and you will develop an appreciation of the role you can play in that change. At Worcester we introduce you to a variety of well-established and emerging fields and industries, including social media politics and marketing, and immersive media applications so that you can begin to plan your future.

*Subject to approval

Overview

Overview

Key features

  • Dynamic curriculum informed by the very latest research innovations on the media and film industries and associated contemporary cultural issues. Our lecturing team frequently publish their research and your learning is informed by this expertise
  • Interactive, investigative learning environments where critical understanding is developed through debate, creative problem solving and evaluating your own opinions, experiences and identity
  • We create a safe space for students to share and analyse their own diverse cultural experiences and backgrounds; our course community is very important to us
  • You will be introduced to leading innovators in the media, technology and creative industries. Our regional and national professional contacts include: digital marketing agencies, public relations agencies; immersive media agencies; A & R music representatives working with NFTs; local political party offices; award-winning content creatives; galleries and museums; festival and event organisers; charities and youth work
  • We extend learning beyond the classroom and provide opportunities to learn whilst at a 4DX cinema screening, a festival or at a mixed reality gaming arcade, for example. We also host events with guest speakers and develop our course culture through our trips and socials
  • We have relationships with international academics in the field from America, Poland and Sweden. We work collaboratively with these academics on research, curriculum innovations and student experiences
Entry requirements

Entry requirements

104
UCAS tariff points

Entry requirements

104 UCAS tariff points (for example, BCC at A Level)

For international entry, please contact our Admissions team at admissions@worc.ac.uk.

Other information

If your qualifications are not listed, please contact the Admissions Office for advice on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Further information about the UCAS Tariff can be obtained from the UCAS website.

Course content

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

Transferable skills, employability and work-based learning are integrated into every year of our three-year degree programme. In the first year you will establish your professional profile and portfolio. In the second year you have the opportunity to complete a work placement and/or design your own festival, podcast or social media campaign. In the third year you could write reviews, pitch an innovative media application and/or develop a strategic plan to enhance local media or film practices and cultures.

Our students are active researchers, choosing their own case study examples to examine for their assignments and through creative tasks, such as blogs or podcasts where knowledge is applied and embedded. This culminates in the completion of an independent research project in the third year.

Year 1

Mandatory

  • Studying Media & Film
  • Global Cultures
  • Identity, Representation & Diversity
  • New Waves & Popular Cinemas
  • American Cinema
  • Politics & Subculture

Optional

Year 2

Mandatory

  • Researching Media & Film: Theories & Methods
  • Screen Cultures

Optional

Year 3

Mandatory

  • Dissertation

Optional

  • Local Cultures
  • Reviewing
  • War, Democracy & the Media
  • Immersive Media
  • Film & Folk Literature
  • Making Monsters
  • Pornography & Modern Cultures
  • Literature and Culture
Teaching and assessment

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

You will be taught through a combination of interactive lectures, seminars and workshops. You will also have the opportunity to develop your understanding by taking part in class trips such as being able to experience immersion for yourself at a virtual reality gaming arcade and going behind the scenes at a local festival. You will also be invited to our course events which include exclusive film screenings and guest speakers.

You will be expected to share your opinions and experiences in our seminars. You will develop your understanding of key concepts and theoretical ideas through discussion and debate with our lecturers and your peers. We do not shy away from controversial topics, especially as they are often (mis)represented in the media and films, but we pride ourselves on creating a safe, inclusive and respectful space where our students feel supported and confident to share their thoughts.

Some modules will be delivered through workshops which are designed to help you develop transferable skills, digital literacy and strategic career plans. This might include working on professional social networking through LinkedIn, industry-standard blogging platforms such as WordPress or creating content for TikTok.

You will always be expected to engage in critical analysis: of the media, of films and the industry and yourself. On our course we seek to understand how and why the media functions as it does and what effects this has on its users and audiences. We also want you to think critically and reflectively about your own culture and experiences, as this will affect how you respond. We will teach you critical concepts and ideas from a variety of theoretical frameworks including black histories, intersectional feminisms and queer approaches, which will enable you to decode the media. We will utilise the research methods of the field including semiotic and discourse analysis.

All of our modules will examine at least one of the following:

  • Texts and representations (e.g. critical analysis of specific media or film examples such as Roblox, YouTube content, I May Destroy You or Hereditary; asking who is represented and who is not?)
  • Audiences and consumption (e.g. asking who the intended user or audience is and, examining their engagement or reactions.)
  • Production and institutions (e.g. asking who owns and controls our data on social media platforms? Or, how has the film industry changed since the development of streaming platforms and online subscriptions?)

Skills

You will explore how types, forms and applications of the media and the film industry operates and, its impact on culture, society and our identities. You will develop the following academic skills:

  • critical analysis
  • research
  • creative problem solving (e.g. devising a mixed reality app to help with mental health)
  • synthesis
  • essay writing
  • presentation communication
  • creative application (e.g. devising a social media marketing campaign)

Contact time

In a typical week you will have around 12 contact hours of teaching. The precise contact hours will depend on the optional modules selected and in the final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study. You can also have contact time with staff outside of formal teaching as arranged with staff members.

Typically, class contact time will be structured around:

  • A 1-hour interactive lecture that will outline the topic for discussion (e.g. queer cinema, the social media campaign linked to the Black Lives Matter movement, working class social realism on British TV, gender in sport, fake news or the Metaverse). You can expect there to be at least 20 students in the lecture
  • A 2-hour seminar that will involve discussion and debate, analysis of case studies, questions about an academic source. Seminar tasks are usually structured around small group activities of about 4-5 students
  • A 3-hour workshop which involves advice and guidance relating to a creative task such as using LinkedIn or WordPress. The workshop will include time to complete the task, ask questions and troubleshooting

Independent study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 36 hours of personal self study per week (9 hours per module). Typically, this will involve reading journal articles and book chapters, working on individual or group projects, undertaking your own research in the library and online, watching or listening to a specific media text for analysis and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, virtual learning environments, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Duration

  • 3 years full-time
  • 4-6 years part-time

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments. Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assignments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include essays, presentations, portfolios, textual analysis, literature reviews, reports, commentaries, reflections, research projects, annotated bibliographies and creative outputs such as blogs or social media content.

There are no exams on our course.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules take, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1:
  • 3 research essays
  • 1 group presentation
  • 1 portfolio
  • 3 creative tasks (e.g. blog post, podcast or TikTok video)
Year 2:
  • 1 project report
  • 1 reflective commentary
  • 1 individual presentation
  • 3 research essays
  • 3 creative tasks (e.g. a film festival, social media marketing campaign or podcast)
Year 3:
  • 1 major independent research project of 6000-8000 words
  • 1 portfolio
  • 1 individual presentation
  • 3 research essays
  • 3 creative tasks (e.g. a pitch for an immersive application, a marketing strategy for a culture festival or a theatre review)

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. Our team are active researchers in the fields of media and film studies and their teaching is inspired and informed by this research. The team includes professors, senior academics and academics who also have past industry experience. Our lecturers are also Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.

Our team includes:

Katy Wareham Morris smiling at camera

Katy Wareham Morris

Katy leads the BA Hons in Media & Culture, a dynamic course which responds to innovations in media forms and applications as well as contemporary cultural issues. Katy is particularly interested in how digital technologies have changed media industries and the way audiences respond to them; and, media futures including immersive media. Katy interrogates media representations created by and representing identities and cultures which have been historically marginalised and challenge the white, middle class, patriarchal tradition. Katy is a proud working class, disabled, female academic and, a published poet.

Dr Mikel Koven

The Film Studies course is led by Dr Mikel J Koven. His teaching areas include World cinema; genre; Hollywood cinema; horror cinema; film & folklore; and cult & exploitation cinema.

His research areas include Film & Folklore (fairy tales, myths, and legends); Exploitation cinema (with a focus on Italian horror film); Jewish cinema (representations, stereotypes, and the Holocaust); and “Cult” TV.  

Barbara Mitra

Dr Barbara Mitra

Dr Barbara Mitra is joint Head of Department (English, Media & Film Studies) and is a Principal Lecturer in Media & Film Studies. She has varied teaching and research interests and has published on issues relating to television, gender, advertising and children, and has become interested in social media, body image and eating disorders. 

Barbara's teaching includes specialist modules on gender and commercial issues of social media and she is also interested in the use of technology in relation to learning and teaching. She has spoken on local radio and schools on issues related to gender and body image, Facebook and television advertising and children. She has also made a number of films on various academic topics.

Barbara welcomes PhD and MRes topics in relation to the broad areas of gender, social media, body images and digital cultures. 

Holly Barnes-Bennetts

Holly Barnes-Bennetts

Holly completed a her BA Hons Media with Cultural Studies at Southampton Solent University in 2006.  After finishing her degree she gained employment ranging from running music and arts festivals, working in PR and charity fundraising. She then returned to teaching, securing a Diploma to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (University of Warwick) and completing a Masters by Research from Bournemouth University. Currently, Holly is working towards her PhD at the University of Worcester titled: A Digital Interactionist, Praxis Study of Perception and Communication of Positive Sexual Consent.

Careers

Careers

Media & Film Studies graduates work in a wide range of media and film related industries and associated field such as technology, arts and culture, charities and the creative industries. Our course also provides an excellent foundation for postgraduate students. 

Throughout the three years, you will have the opportunity to develop your career plans and employability. Our students work alongside our professional contacts in the following fields:

  • Digital marketing
  • Public relations
  • Local politics
  • Award-winning web-based magazine
  • Award-winning content creators
  • Galleries and museums
  • Festival and events
  • Charities and youth work
  • Radio presenting, both local and national
  • Media research
  • Journalism
  • Events management
  • Media strategising
  • Television
  • Social media
  • Marketing and communications
  • Copywriting
  • Teaching

You may choose to complete a work project in the second year. In addition to gaining work experience and developing transferable skills, we regularly organise networking events and talks with our professional contacts.

Costs

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2024/25 academic year is £16,200 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Course-related costs not included in the fees

Every course has day-today costs for basic books (please note any books we list as essential reading are available in the library and/or as Ebooks), stationary, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses. If you choose to take the work project module in the second year and wish to complete a placement in an educational setting, you will need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. This can be arranged through First Point.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £131 per week to 'En-suite Premium' at £221 per week (2024/25 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.

Sources of financial support

Most financial support is available from Student Finance England. The University’s Money Advice Service can provide information about student money; this can be accessed through Firstpoint.

How to apply