Media, Ethics and Social Change MA

Program Overview

This 100% online MA program equips students with the skills to leverage digital media for social change. Blending critical media analysis, journalism principles, and creative media practices, the program prepares graduates for careers in digital marketing, journalism, activism, and more. Driven by expert faculty, the program fosters interdisciplinary understanding, ethical practices, and the ability to address societal issues through digital media.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This MA program, delivered 100% online, offers flexibility for students to study from anywhere in the world. It is designed for professionals seeking career advancement and a real impact, equipping them with the confidence to lead change and challenge the status quo. The program focuses on the transformative power of digital media, exploring how it shapes the world and serves as a medium for positive change. It teaches students how to utilize digital media meaningfully to address social justice issues across various sectors. The course delves into the intersection of three key phenomena in modern societies:

• The desire for social change
• The role of digital media in facilitating or hindering change
• The ethical principles guiding interactions with individuals, the world, and digital technologies
Through a blend of theoretical analysis and practical application, students develop the skills to address diverse social issues faced by societies globally.

Outline:

The program is structured around three key areas:

• Critical media studies: This area examines the theoretical frameworks and critical perspectives surrounding media, including its impact on society and culture.
• Journalism studies and practices: This area focuses on the principles, practices, and ethics of journalism, particularly in the digital age.
• Creative media practice: This area explores the use of media for creative expression, activism, and participatory engagement, including the development of activist media practices and participatory media strategies.
The program is delivered through a state-of-the-art online learning platform called Canvas, accessible via computer, tablet, or smartphone. Students can manage their schedule by fitting the recommended 20 hours of study time per week around their existing commitments and lifestyle. The program consists of the following modules:
• Activist Media Practice: This module explores various forms of cultural resistance, strategies, and histories to evaluate and plan effective activist media interventions.
Students engage in critical thinking about tactics and produce their own academic/activist poster.
• Digital Media Ethics: This module examines ethical debates and practices within digital media industries, covering issues such as data abuse, disinformation, fake news, copyright, and fair use.
Students develop the ability to critically synthesize issues and practices in digital media ethics.
• New Developments in Digital Media: This module provides a systemic understanding of new media, innovation dynamics, and the role of key technologies driving change.
Students create a small creative digital project to apply conceptual frameworks, demonstrate critical analysis, and develop practical skills.
• Media Theory: This module investigates key theories, debates, and methods relevant to the study of media industries.
It introduces key thinkers, traditions, and scholarship in Media and Cultural Studies and contributing disciplines.
• Public Relations: This module explores theoretical and critical debates surrounding public relations (PR) and surveys PR practice as a strategic communication function.
Students apply knowledge, methods, and techniques to initiate, plan, or assess a PR campaign, gaining an understanding of how to build their own PR project.
• Gender, Sexuality and Digital Media: This module explores digital culture through the lenses of gender and sexuality, drawing upon Feminist and Queer theory and Cultural Studies.
It examines themes of identity, representation, politics, activism, labor, and economics in contemporary digital culture. Students critically reflect on their own digital lives and explore different visions and practices of digital life.
• Digital Media: Theory and Critique: This module explores techno-cultural transformation through a practical prism and key multidisciplinary critical debates.
It introduces software authoring tools widely used in media and requires students to demonstrate reflexive application and development of digital media practice for social change.
• Race, Culture and Media: This module examines the intersection of race, culture, and digital media, exploring the origins and transformations of debates around the topic.
Key theoretical lenses are applied to discussions about whiteness, class, gender, and post-colonialism within the context of contemporary global issues. Students produce self-directed, original analysis drawing on scholarly sources and applying conceptual frameworks.
• Producing Media for Social Change: This module introduces practical skills in various media (podcasting, social media, journalism, PR).
Students gain insight into independent and locally produced media initiatives that facilitate citizen participation and foster social development. They critically reflect on initiating, planning, and executing media projects in the context of social change, demonstrating ethical awareness.
• Media, Film and Climate Crisis: This module focuses on the representation of the climate crisis and its intersection with social issues, including uneven effects on race, gender, migration, resource scarcity, and more.
It examines questions about genre, impact, care, and ethics. The module explores the role of film and media cultures in exacerbating and combating crisis, examining histories, approaches, and strategies. Students examine the role of film and creative practice in making change related to the climate crisis. Students assess how computational knowledge and trends are produced and framed by scientists, the press, and the wider public.
• Participatory Media: This module introduces practical ways of working with activists, communities, and NGOs, demonstrating how to incorporate diverse voices into the journalism process.
Students produce/co-produce participatory journalism for digital outputs, deploying creativity and ethical best practice in autonomous planning and production under tight deadlines.

Assessment:

The program utilizes multiple assessment methods to evaluate students' knowledge, competence development, and engagement through individual and groupwork exercises. These methods include:

• Written reports
• Simulations
• Essays
• Project reports
• Multiple-choice questions (MCQs)
• Portfolios
Each module has specific assessment requirements, with a likely indication provided, though this may be subject to change.

Teaching:

The program is delivered 100% online through Canvas, a state-of-the-art online learning platform. Students can access course materials and engage with their peers and instructors through various digital tools. The program is taught by leading academics from the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, who are experts in digital media, social activism and justice, journalism, digital culture, and technology. Their research-led teaching ensures that students benefit from the latest research insights.

Careers:

The program is designed to equip students with the skills employers seek in the digital media landscape. Graduates are well-positioned for careers in:

• Digital marketing
• Journalism
• Activism
• Creative and cultural industries
• Non-profit organizations
• Charities
• Commercial organizations
The program provides career-related content on the VLE and relevant web pages, as well as tailored one-to-one career consultations and workshops delivered digitally.

Other:

The program emphasizes interdisciplinarity, drawing on perspectives from media theory, sociology, journalism studies, and ethics. This approach equips students with the tools to understand the impact of media content in various contexts. The program encourages students to produce media content driven by a constructive and ethical approach to challenging social issues faced by societies around the world.

Course fee: £12,660 Cost per module: £1,055 You are required to pay the first module fee of £1,055 to secure your place on the course. You may also consider corporate sponsorship and employer funding. Course fees will remain fixed for 24 months from your initial course start date. Thereafter, the course fee will rise at a rate of 2.5% per calendar year (subject to rounding for administration purposes). 20% alumni discount

• T&Cs apply.
PG Cert cost: £4,220 PG Cert module cost: £1,055