MA Global Media and Communications
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2024
TUITION FEES
GBP 25,320 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 12,220 per year
Introduction
Drawing on the grounded expertise of staff, it offers a specialised study of the global media environment in relation to Asian, African and Middle Eastern societies and cultures, together with rigorous training in and questioning of contemporary media and communication theory.
We ask what concerns and hopes the people of the regions we study have; how should we address comparatively the global role of mass and digital media in contemporary politics and conflict, as well as processes of exclusion, inequalities, development, participation and empowerment.
By considering how, where and by whom media is produced, consumed and used, you will develop advanced knowledge and understanding of the theoretical, methodological and empirical issues involved in the analysis of non-Western media and communications within historical and contemporary contexts.
You will address alternative ways to situate mediated articulations of agency and subjectivity in non-Western contexts through engaging with various texts challenging the hegemonic claims of mainstream Western media theory that insist the rest of the world subscribe to a narrow exclusive vision of the world.
Why study at SOAS?
- SOAS' research in film and media has been ranked in the top 20 in the UK in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
- We are ranked 6th in the UK for employability (QS World University Rankings 2023)
- More than a third of our research publications assessed as 4* (world-leading)
Gallery
Admissions
Curriculum
Students must take 180 credits comprised of 120 taught credits (including core, compulsory and option modules) and a 60-credit, 10,000-word dissertation. All students must take the core modules in addition to Qualitative Research Methods in Media and Communication.
Further options include a wide range of media and media-related courses from a comprehensive list offered by the Centre for Global Media and Communication and other constituent units in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. All courses are assessed via written assignments.
Core
- Dissertation in Media Studies
Compulsory
- Qualitative Research Methods
- Theoretical and Contemporary Issues in Global Media and Digital Communication
- Topics in Global Media and Digital Communication
Guided Options (Choose 3 from List 1)
- Mediated Culture in the Middle East: Politics and Communications
- Transnational Communities and Diasporic Media: Networking, Connectivity, Identity
- International Journalisms in the Digital Context: Theory and Practice
- International Political Communication
- Podcasting
- Prejudice, Conspiracy and Misinformation: Understanding the Debate around '(Post)-Truth'
- Theoretical and Contemporary Issues in Media, Information Communication Technologies and Development
- Topics in Media, Information Communication Technologies and Development
Program Outcome
Knowledge
- Ability to address the role of global media in Asia, Africa and the Middle East without pre-assuming media are all-powerful
- Understand the theoretical underpinnings and debates on the role of media and communication in politics, social lives, cultures and transformations
- Address the dynamics of the global, the regional and the local in a continuously changing media environment.
- Be able to analytically disaggregate economic, political, social and cultural strands of global media and communication in a neo-liberal environment
- Address the role of the media in identity formations, representations and cultures.
Intellectual (Thinking) skills
- To be critical and precise in their assessment of evidence, and to understand through practice what documents and electronic sources can and cannot tell us. Such skills should improve and be refined throughout the programme
- Question theories and interpretations, however authoritative, and critically reassess evidence for themselves. Students will learn how to question and challenge the Euro-centric dominant global media and communication approaches and provide evidence-based critique that takes into account different histories, including colonial and post-colonial histories, of media and communication in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These skills should improve and be refined throughout the programme
- Critically interrogate situated empirical examples of specific media and communication practices in Asia, Africa, the Middle East
Subject-Based Practical Skills
- Communicate effectively in writing
- Retrieve, sift and select information from a variety of conventional and electronic sources
- Communicate orally to a group. Listen and discuss ideas introduced during seminars and classes.
- Practise research techniques in a variety of specialized research libraries and institutes.
- Have developed some new competencies in digital media production and dissemination
Transferable Skills
- Write good essays and dissertations
- Structure and communicate ideas effectively both orally and in writing
- Understand unconventional ideas
- Summarize your arguments in a coherent and critical way.
- Study a variety of written and digital materials, in libraries, online and research libraries of a kind they will not have used as undergraduates.
- Present material orally to a group.
- Have developed a range of online competencies
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Graduates from the Centre for Global Media and Communications gain expertise in media, communications and film production within a global framework. Graduates develop a portfolio of transferable skills including communication skills, interpersonal skills and team work, which are highly respected by employers.
Recent graduates have been hired by:
- Africa Mediaworks Ltd.
- Al Jazeera
- Associated Press
- BBC
- Breakthrough Breast Cancer
- British Film Institute
- Channel 5
- Comic Relief
- Cordoba African Film Festival
- Discovery Communications
- Equality Now
- Hackney Film Festival
- International Channel Shanghai
- Internews Europe
- Merlin
- Novus
- Office for National Statistics
- Royal College of Art
- The Institute of Ismaili Studies
- Unilever
- United Nations
- Westminster City Council