Media and Film & TV BA (Hons)
- Level(s) of Study: Undergraduate
- UCAS Code(s): P391
- Start Date(s): September 2023
- Duration: Three years full-time, four-seven years part-time
- Study Mode(s): Full-time
- Campus: Clifton Campus
-
Entry Requirements:
More information
Introduction:
-
100% of NTU's research submitted to the 'Communication, Cultural & Media Studies, Library & Information Management' Unit of Assessment was rated world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of research impact - REF 2021. -
Choose between writing a dissertation and the Humanities Research Project. -
A flexible Joint Honours course, means you can create a learning path as unique as you are -
Complete a work experience placement, meaning you’ll graduate with valuable industry experience.
Develop an in-depth knowledge of the media industry, from a theoretical understanding of media and culture to its practical application across multiple platforms online, on screen and in print.
This popular and exciting degree will allow you to learn from industry professionals and academics who are creating the latest innovative research within the field.
You’ll examine a range of texts and aspects of media including lifestyle magazines, social networking sites, advertising, public relations, gaming, and journalism. From this you’ll develop advanced critical analysis skills of media texts, audiences, and institutions.
Film & TV complements media by helping you to progress with your learning and understanding of both industries and how they are connected. This subject will help to build your understanding of how film and TV programmes are constructed, work, and create meaning for audiences. You’ll learn about the role of the audience in global organisations and through digital media. NTU stands out with this course as you have the opportunity to study international cinema in depth.
You’ll be encouraged to undertake work experience with influential organisations to build your CV and enhance your connections within the industry.
93% of students on BA (Hons) Media and Film & TV are satisfied with their course (National Student Survey 2022)
What you’ll study
There is a lot of flexibility in the structure of a Joint Honours degree, allowing you to tailor a package to your developing academic interests.
During your first year, you’ll study four core modules which provide a clear and exciting framework for your development at later stages.
In the second year you’ll study three core modules. You’ll also be able to select a number of optional modules based on your individual interests or spend the second half of the year on international exchange at one of our partner universities.
In the final year, you’ll undertake a dissertation on a topic of your choice and select four optional modules. You must select at least one module from each subject.
Core modules
Reading the Screen: Approaches to Film and Television studies
Reading the Screen provides the vital foundations for further study of film and television. It stresses the importance of film and television as cultural forms and explores ways through which we can make sense of them, investigating them as objects of study and account for their similarities and their differences.
International Cinemas I
Complementing Reading the Screen, this module provides you with an introduction to a range of non-Hollywood cinemas to give you a growing awareness of the diversity of international cinema in terms of its stylistic choices and the contexts to which it responds. Cinemas which are typically covered will include European, Asian and African ones but may also embrace other world cinemas.
Understanding Media
This module explores representation and identity; media production and regulation; the way media forms are consumed; and what it's like to work in the media. Throughout this module, you'll investigate the place of media within culture and society more generally and be introduced to principle theories, concepts and approaches.
Screen and Sound Media: Culture and Practice
This module introduces you to a range of key academic texts that examine and theorise screen media (film, television, the computer etc.) and sound media (popular music etc.). You'll also produce a group project based on media culture or media practice.
- OR -
Introduction to Media Practice and Production
This module provides a foundation in the skills required for effective media project work. It explores the principal elements of creating media content through understanding narrative, still and moving image and sound, and the practical and theoretical relationship between those elements.
Some optional modules may be studied on the City campus.
Core modules
Media, Theory and Society
Develop your knowledge of theoretical approaches to understanding the media and culture. This module will help you to understand some of the key theoretical approaches that are used in the study of media, communication and culture. You'll develop a familiarity of important theoretical approaches used in contemporary media and for the use of cultural analysis.
Theorising the Screen
This module explores some of the key theories that have shaped our understanding of the screen. It draws upon classic works of film theory and television studies as well as theories that have adhered to more marginal and alternative screens, audiences, and industries.
Humanities in the workplace
This module will give you a taste of live industry experience. You will complete a placement, write a report around your experience and follow clear work-based learning objectives.
Media optional modules
Analysing Popular Music
Analysing Popular Music has two major concerns: firstly, to develop a social understanding of transatlantic popular music and secondly, to develop a cultural-historical perspective on its development over the past 100 years and more. This module introduces you to theoretical approaches to the study of popular music, allowing you to engage in independent critical analysis of popular music and popular musical cultures.
Creative Documentary
This module will encourage you to examine the key critical issues of documentary production such as authenticity and ethics. To prepare you for your dissertation in Year Three, you'll create a 5-10 minute documentary as a group (or individually) and be encouraged to creatively and critically engage with the given styles and genres of documentary.
Researching Media, Communication and Culture
This module introduces the key empirical methods and analytical approaches of Media and Cultural Studies. It enables you to produce original research, and to gain greater understanding of the methods you might use in your Media dissertation. It outlines a range of methods, and shows how these can be applied to particular media and cultural case studies.
Intermediate Media Practice and Production
During this module you'll undertake an in-depth media production project for and with a local external not-for profit, charitable or voluntary organisation. This module will focus on developing your skills in media production and you'll reflect on issues surrounding citizenship and media access.
Film & TV optional modules
British Cinema
This module examines British Cinema since the 1960s. It looks at a wide range of films to understand how British cinema represents issues such as nation, class, race and gender. It discusses key genres, movements and theoretical debates.
Analysing British Television
This module introduces you to key ways of understanding the development of British television. It examines the evolution of British television industries and institutions from their beginnings up to the present, looking at important factors and influences that have shaped the industry over time. It explores different accounts of ‘Britishness’ both in television shows or formats and in the relationship between television producers and audiences.
European Cinema and the City
This module starts from the dual observation that cinema is the art of the modern and that the city is the space of the modern. It builds on this to examine the interaction of cinema and the urban: how film has both represented and been shaped by the city.
Some optional modules may be studied on the City campus.
Core module
Dissertation
The final year dissertation module enables you to undertake a sustained, single piece of independently researched work on a topic of your choice, under expert supervision.
OR
Humanities Research Project
Explore your interests in a way that draws on both subject areas. Combine the knowledge and skills you have gained in each of your subjects to complete an interdisciplinary piece of research. You can deliver your project either as a written dissertation or through an alternative creative format such as a publication, film, podcast, website, or performance, supported by a shorter essay.
Media optional modules
Lifestyle and Consumer Culture
Explore key approaches to understanding lifestyle and the culture of consumption. You'll be introduced to many important theoretical approaches to understand lifestyle and consumer culture and you'll use many case studies such as travel and tourism to evaluate these.
Cultural Policy
Explore a range of debates within the developing field of policy study which relate to the development of media. You'll examine some of the key institutions within which policies relating to film, television, the visual arts, heritage and other creative industries are determined. You'll explore questions such as: what is cultural value and how important are the cultural and creative industries?
The Body and Popular Culture
How is the body represented in popular culture? Examine key ideas such as how we might understand the various meanings surrounding the body across a range of media and cultural forms. By studying a selection of case studies, you'll explore the way that the body is addressed and located within popular culture, for example, from music to sport.
Client-Led Media Practice and Production
During this module you'll be able to focus on the development of skills in media production by completing a media project that will be set to a 'real brief'. This is an opportunity for you to enhance your employability options by participating in live projects with a real purpose. This module will encourage you to make connections between theory and practice.
Film & TV optional modules
American Television since 1950
This module examines American television from the 1950s to the current moment. It moves from the emergence of the Classic Network Era through to the Post-Network era of digital television. It places American television in its historical, industrial and cultural context. It considers the formal and aesthetic properties of American television programmes and engages with the organisation and history of network television (for example NBC) and cable television (for example HBO).
American Cinema since 1949: Margins and Mainstreams
This very popular module explores American cinema from 1949 to the present day by looking at different but interrelated areas of production, typically including Hollywood, the independent sector, and the experimental-underground cinema.
International Cinemas II
This module considers a variety of subjects pertaining to the study of international cinemas. Issues and concepts such as slow cinema, New Wave cinema, Diasporic filmmaking and world cinema blockbusters will feature amongst case studies of European, South American and Asian cinemas. While it will pay due attention to film style and form and to the way films engage with socio-cultural and political contexts, it will also examine the policy and film industrial frameworks within which film is produced.
Don’t just take our word for it, hear from our students themselves
How you’re taught
92% of BA (Hons) Media and Film & TV students are satisfied with teaching on their course (National Student Survey 2022)
How will I learn?
Each year you’ll choose a range of core and optional modules from the lists above. The first year is normally divided equally between the two joint honours subjects but at the end of Year One, you’ll have the opportunity to select between an equally weighted joint honours course and a more specialised pathway, depending on your interests.
Teaching principally takes place through a combination of lectures, where tutors introduce the key ideas, and seminars, where smaller groups discuss those ideas.
Contact hours
If you’re struggling with a topic or require additional support or guidance, you can arrange to see your tutors in small groups or one-to-one, to discuss essay plans or to seek some specific academic guidance.
It is the nature of the subjects offered in the School of Arts and Humanities, however, that much of your time will be spent engaged in independent study. We recognise that this marks a change of culture from school or college, and we have in place a system of study support to help you adapt to this.
International exchange
You’ll also have the option to take part in an international exchange at a partner university. These options will enable you to gain impressive international experience, and broaden your perspective and career ambitions.
You’ll experience other cultures, travel the globe and open your eyes to a world of opportunities. Our exchange partnership with a number of international universities enables you to live and study in another country in your second year. Find out more.
Learn a new language
Alongside your study you also have the opportunity to learn another new language. The University Language Programme (ULP) is available to all students and gives you the option of learning a totally new language or improving the skills you already have. Learning a new language can enhance your communication skills, enrich your experience when travelling abroad and boost your career prospects. Find out more about the University Language Programme.
Contact hours
- Year 1 lectures/seminars/workshops (27%), independent study (73%)
- Year 2 lectures/seminars/workshops (23%), independent study (77%)
- Year 3 lectures/seminars/workshops (23%), independent study (77%)
All Arts and Humanities students will complete a minimum of 240 hours of work like experience over the three years of the course
How you’re assessed
- Year 1 coursework (75%) and written (25%)
- Year 2 coursework (100%)
- Year 3 coursework (60%) and written (40%)
Careers and employability
Your career development
Career development is seen as a major part of the curriculum. Key transferable skills are emphasised and there are opportunities to develop links with organisations and potential employers. As a result we have an outstanding record of graduate employment.
Joint honours courses develop a wide range of skills. These include written and oral communication skills; critical analysis; the ability to work independently and in groups; time management; self-motivation; and a variety of IT skills.
Graduates have gone on to forge successful careers both within large, well known organisations (such as Marks and Spencer, BBC etc.) and the small to medium sized companies that constitute much of the UK economy. Recent graduate roles have included law, publishing, marketing, PR, retail and finance.
Recent Media graduates have also gone on to work in graduate-level positions with the BBC, Sky, Brit Asia TV, Channel 5 and IBM.
Many graduates also choose to undertake further study on one of our Masters-level courses or MPhil and PhD research degrees.
What our students are doing now
Suzannah Page
Suzannah Page
Campus and facilities
Here are some of the free services, student discount and benefits you'll get studying at NTU
We've carefully considered what benefits and services you need for your studies, so when you join NTU you'll get free printing and materials credits, access to our free WiFi, a copy of Microsoft Office, and even borrow a laptop if yours is out of commission.
For life outside your lectures, you'll enjoy access to over 60 sports clubs and 130 student societies, discounted travel and bike hire, free language learning, award-winning student support and an entertainment programme which is second to none.
See all the benefits and free services you will enjoy as an NTU student.
Books and library resources
In our library you’ll have access to an extensive and diverse range of books including those on your reading list.
The library's online resources and NTU Online Workspace (NOW) also provides digital access to the core resources for your modules and a wide range of specialist collections, texts, and databases
Nottingham Trent University has its own Blackwell’s Bookshop which stocks relevant academic texts plus a wide range of bestselling novels.
IT Resources
Our IT resource rooms and PC clusters are distributed across the campus, with PCs providing access to: Microsoft Office, email, web browsing, networked file storage and high-speed online printing services (with a free printing allowance for each student). Resource rooms are available 24 hours a day.
Societies
Current students run societies in a range of Humanities and Arts subjects including History, Medieval, Film, Filmmaking, Philosophy, Politics and International Relations, and the Book society.
There are also a number of media channels which our students get involved in such as the NTU radio station FlyLive, our student magazine Platform, and TV station TrentTV.
Find out more about student societies at the Student Union website.
Entry requirements
- 104 - 112 UCAS tariff points from four A-levels or equivalent qualifications
- GCSE English and Maths grade C / 4.
To find out what qualifications have tariff points, please use our tariff calculator.
Contextual offers
A lower offer may be made based on a range of factors, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (you may have been in care, for example). This is called a contextual offer and we get data from UCAS to make these decisions. NTU offers a student experience like no other and this approach helps us to find students who have the potential to succeed here but who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university. Find out how we assess your application.
Other qualifications and experience
We may also consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning. This may be for year one entry, or beyond the beginning of a course where applicable, for example, into year 2. Our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy outlines the process and options available for this route.
Getting in touch
If you need more help or information, get in touch through our enquiry form
You will need the equivalent to:
- 112 UCAS tariff points from four A-levels or equivalent qualifications
- GCSE English and Maths grade C / 4.
International qualifications
We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:
Undergraduate preparation courses (Foundation)
If you don’t yet meet our entry requirements, we offer Foundation courses through our partner Nottingham Trent International College (NTIC), based on our City Campus:
English language entry requirements
You can meet our language requirements by successfully completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time, or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:
Advanced standing (starting your undergraduate degree in year 2 or 3)
You may be able to start your undergraduate course in year 2 or 3 based on what you have studied before. This decision would be made in accordance with our Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy.
Would you like some advice on your study plans?
Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.
- Complete this simple form to keep in touch with the International Office.
Fees and funding
Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.
Getting in touch
For more advice and guidance, you can contact our Student Financial Support Service on +44 (0)115 848 2494.
Additional Costs
Your course fees cover the cost of studies, and include loads of great benefits, such as the use of our library, support from our expert Employability team, and free use of the IT equipment across our campuses.
Library books
Most study modules will recommend one or more core text books, which most students choose to purchase. Book costs vary and further information is available in the University’s bookshop. Our libraries provide a good supply of essential text books, journals and materials (many of which you can access online) – meaning you may not need to purchase as many books as you might think! There may also be a supply of second-hand books available for purchase from previous year students.
Field trips
All essential field trip costs will be included in your course fees. There may be the opportunity to take part in optional field trips, which do incur additional costs.
Placements
If you're undertaking a placement year, you'll need to budget for accommodation and any travel costs you may incur whilst on placement. Many of our placement students do earn a salary whilst on placement which can help to cover these living costs.
Print and copy costs
The University allocates an annual printing and copying allowance of £20 depending on the course you are studying. For more details about costs for additional print and copying required over and above the annual allowance please see the Printing, photocopying and scanning information on the Library website.
Please see our fees page for more information.
Tuition fees are payable for each year that you are at the University. The level of tuition fees for the second and subsequent years of your undergraduate course may increase in line with inflation and as specified by the UK government.
Scholarships
We offer scholarships of up to 50% of your tuition fee. You can apply for your scholarship when you have an offer to study at NTU.
Living costs
Get advice on the cost of living as an international student in Nottingham and how to budget:
Paying fees
Find out about advanced payments, instalment plan options and how to make payments securely to the University:
Would you like some advice on your study plans?
Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.
- Complete this simple form to keep in touch with the International Office.
How to apply
Ready to join us? Then apply as soon as you can.
For the full-time route just click the Apply button at the top of the page and follow our step-by-step guide.
If you're applying for the part-time route please apply online using the NTU Applicant Portal.
Make sure you check the entry requirements above carefully before you do.
Writing your application and personal statement
Be honest, thorough and persuasive in your application. Remember, we can only make a decision based on what you tell us. So include all of your qualifications and grades, including resits or predicted grades.
Your personal statement is a really important part of your application. It’s your chance to convince us why we should offer you a place! You've got 4,000 characters to impress us. Make sure you use them to show how your skills and qualities are relevant to the course(s) you’re applying for. For more hints and tips, take a look at our page on how to write a good personal statement.
Keeping up-to-date
After you've applied, we’ll be sending you important emails throughout the application process so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.
You can get more information and advice about applying to NTU on our Your Application page. Good luck with your application!
Need help with your application?
For admissions related enquiries please contact us:
Tel: +44 (0)115 848 4200
You can apply for this course through UCAS. If you are not applying to any other UK universities, you can apply directly to us on our NTU applicant portal.
Application advice
Apply early so that you have enough time to prepare – processing times for Student visas can vary, for example. After you've applied, we'll be sending you important emails throughout the application process – so check your emails regularly, including your junk mail folder.
Writing your personal statement
Be honest, thorough, and persuasive – we can only make a decision about your application based on what you tell us:
Would you like some advice on your study plans?
Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.
- Complete this simple form to keep in touch with the International Office.