BA (Hons) Mass Communications

What’s the course about?

You’ll learn how to create and publish content on a broad range of formats including print multimedia and within online platforms. You’ll gain a theoretical and critically reflective understanding of media whilst gaining practical skills as an author and designer of published material. Most of our courses are assessed by coursework.  

The delivery of teaching varies according to the characteristics of each module. Many are taught via weekly lectures and weekly seminars. Workshops are used for modules where the degree of practical skills taught is enhanced by the supervision of experts in their field. Assessments range from writing a film review to creating digital stories or traditional essays. 

In your first year, you’ll learn about how media is both global and local and the industries associated with it, you’ll have the option to try your hand at podcasting and video, to write like a journalist, become a film critic or learn about what it takes to be a writer or study linguistics. You will choose four out of six subjects from Journalism, Film, English Language, Media Studies, Digital Media and Creative Writing. 

In your second year, you’ll build on the first learning about media research and the publishing industry, writing and broadcasting journalism, learning how to design a magazine or create a video documentary and making your own film as well as studying US Cinema. In Creative Writing and English Language and Linguistics you will build on previous work by writing for the stage, for instance, or learning about Communication.  

Work placement/study abroad option: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about but will also give your CV a boost. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s absolutely fine too. You’ll decide in your second year with us, so there is still plenty of time to think about this. 

In your final year, you’ll have a great range of options as you can take all four subjects or reduce to three. In media, you’ll have the opportunity to create a project for a media client or design web pages like a professional, create a PR campaign or learn about what our interaction with celebrities says about globalised culture. In journalism you can report on international stories or take journalism related work experience or build a portfolio of pieces. In film, you can study television drama, reflect on diversity and sexuality in US film, or study European crime films. For Creative Writing, the short story and thinking about the nature of reality beckon and in English Language and Linguistics a chance to build on the skills of understanding the meaning of language and how it is used in different cultures and contexts. 

To see all your modules, see the ‘What will I study?’ section below.  

‘Media Matters’ Guest Lecture series 

Each year the School of Humanities hosts the Media Matters Guest Lecture Series featuring a range of industry professionals, giving talks on their experience in the industry. These lectures are recorded by our final year students and available on our Media Hub. Some of our previous speakers have included: 

• University of Hertfordshire Mass Communications Graduate, Tobi Akingbade, now Acting Showbiz Editor of Metro, 
• University of Hertfordshire, Journalism, Media and Sport graduate Steven Bourner, now Chief Media Officer and Strategic Comms Lead for the Department of Education, 
• Theresa Malone, Visuals and Social Media Editor of The Guardian, 
• Steve Swann, Producer and investigative Journalist, BBC 
• Andrea Thompson, Editor in Chief of Marie Claire.

Applying for this course is easy. Simply add us to your UCAS account by using the institution and course code mentioned in ‘Key information’. There is no interview for this course. We’re just interested to hear why you want to study this subject at degree level. 

Your main campus is de Havilland  

You’ll share this campus with students from business, law, sport, education, and humanities subjects. The student housing is close to our Sports Village which includes a gym, swimming pool and climbing wall. You can get breakfast, lunch, or dinner in our on-campus restaurant or bar (in the newly built Enterprise Hub) on days you don’t feel like cooking. You can also use the common room to play pool, video games or just to hang out with friends.  Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.