Data Science and Communication MSc

Program Overview

The MSc in Data Science and Communication is designed for students interested in the impact of data and data processing on communication practices in an increasingly digitized society. The program provides a blend of empirical, technical, and theoretical training, equipping students with the skills to navigate the Networked Society and tackle novel problems in communication and data-driven fields. Graduates are well-prepared for careers in a wide range of sectors dealing with Big Data and Society, including computational social science, digital communication management, and product management for AI/digital products.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The MSc in Data Science and Communication is designed for students interested in the impact of data and data processing on communication practices in an increasingly digitized society. The program offers a blend of empirical, technical, and theoretical training.

Outline:

The program is structured as follows:

• Semester One:
• Compulsory Modules:
• Introduction to Data Science A (COMM741): This module introduces key data science techniques and their role in communication, covering the data lifecycle with a focus on collection, processing, analysis, and visualization.
Students develop coding skills and apply them within data science, while also considering the broader context of data generation and use in communication and media. Assessment includes coursework and an in-class test.
• Introduction to computational social science methods (COMM742): This module equips students with skills to understand and apply computational social science methods.
Students learn cutting-edge techniques for designing, developing, and interpreting quantitative surveys, as well as methods for collecting and analyzing large datasets from digital sources. The module emphasizes active learning methodologies, including empirical activities and group discussions.
• Optional Modules:
• Big data and society B: foundations, politics, and policy (COMM752): This module focuses on big data collection and use in modern society, exploring the politics and policy surrounding social media and the interactions between media, platforms, and citizens.
• Fundamentals of Strategic Communication B (COMM517): This module introduces students to strategic communication, discussing its fundamental theories and concepts.
Case studies are presented and analyzed, focusing on crisis communication, issue and reputation management. The module draws on theories and models from various disciplines, including management, discourse studies, public relations, corporate communication, marketing, and advertising.
• Media and Politics: Theories and Cases B (COMM765): This module examines the relationship between politics and media, offering a critical overview of how media has been studied and discussed in relation to political processes.
It explores key aspects of contemporary theory and research in politics and media, examining theories and debates about the politics and media relationship, media power, and media audiences. The module also focuses on specific cases and controversies in media-politics relations, exploring changing relationships, representational forms, power dynamics, and impacts of media performance in contemporary conflicts.
• Screen Cultures B (COMM744): This module introduces students to the diversity of cultural contexts and histories that have shaped the meanings of cinema.
It examines both dominant/institutional and marginal/alternative screen cultures in relation to the formation of screen industries, histories, movements, and cultural identities. The module explores how screen cultures emerge and function, the formal and stylistic aspects that shape them, and the overlap between industries and audiences in the production of specific screen cultures.
• Understanding Media Change B (COMM757): This module explores past media to understand how change is produced, experienced, and negotiated.
It considers processes of 'remediation', 'transmediality', 'intermediality', and the recurrence of past ideas, forms, and sensibilities in the present. The module introduces key theoretical and historiographic approaches, including German media theory, 'media archaeology', Benjaminian, phenomenological, and everyday life approaches.
• Semester Two:
• Compulsory Modules:
• Artificial Intelligence and Communication A (COMM766): This module provides students with skills to understand, analyze, and master the role of Artificial Intelligence in Communication.
It introduces core notions to identify how AI affects communication practices, how communication processes are reshaped through different technologies, and how to assess their evolution while being aware of potential risks and opportunities. The module emphasizes active learning methodologies.
• Optional Modules:
• Influencing Strategies in Digital Media (COMM520): This module focuses on persuasive argumentation in strategic communication contexts, particularly in relation to digital media.
Students learn analytical and methodological instruments from argumentation theory and rhetoric to critically examine business, public, and media discourses and understand issues of persuasion and trust in digital strategic communication.
• Big data and society D: algorithms and platforms (COMM754): This module explores the algorithms that influence the development of online social systems and critically addresses the political and economic consequences of online platforms.
It emphasizes a hands-on approach to studying algorithms in practice, developing students' programming skills.
• Branding Strategy and Communication (COMM521): This module examines branding as a set of socio-cultural communicative practices and processes, considering the complex process of brand management from definition and strategy to narrative elaboration.
It explores how identity, public opinion, reputation, and branding are negotiated in the digitalized media landscape. The module draws on insights from business studies, social psychology, anthropology, and cultural studies, introducing students to branding from a critical strategic communication perspective. Methods covered include multidimensional plots, geospatial maps, animations, and interactivity. The focus is on using data relevant to communication and media, but the module also considers critiquing and applying visualization methods more generally. Assessment includes coursework.
• Digital Media Audiences (COMM739): This module examines digital media from the audience's perspective, considering contemporary debates on changing audience practices and the attention economy.
Students learn about the audience as a user and producer of media in the digital age, focusing on digital news audiences and entertainment platforms. Different audience research methods are discussed.
• Global Journalism and Politics (COMM748): This module offers a cross-national comparative perspective on journalism around the world, exploring journalists' perceptions of their role in society and the contextual factors that influence journalistic roles and performance.
It examines the extent to which news media can act as the fourth estate, considering the nature of the political system, media systems, and cultural and societal differences.
• Media Practices and Everyday Life B (COMM759): This module focuses on media as forms of social and cultural practice, examining how media forms and technologies shape everyday experiences of the world.
It draws on recent debates in 'non-media-centric media studies' and related perspectives from anthropology, cultural studies, and cultural geography.
• Redefining Television (COMM750): This module focuses on the changes that have occurred in television, examining its nature, role, and function in the 21st century.
It explores the changing nature of television studies, its role from home to mobile entertainment, the impact of VOD and on-demand services, and the changing forms and consumption of television.
• Screen Industries B (COMM746): This module examines the industrial logic of particular media industries that produce entertainment reaching audiences through screens, focusing primarily on the film and television industries with references to the video game industry.
It investigates the relationships between technologies, economics, policies, politics, and the social and cultural contexts that shape these media industries.
• Media and Politics: Economy and Society B (COMM763): This module explores the relationships between politics, economics, and mainstream media, examining the collapse of traditional business models and the rise of social media platforms and search engines as new gatekeepers.
It analyzes how media content is shaped by economic considerations and neoliberal ideology.
• Final Project:
• Compulsory Modules:
• Dissertation (COMM716): This module involves the completion of a self-contained piece of individual and original research, allowing students to study a topic of interest in depth.
Students are guided by a supervisor and develop independent research skills. The dissertation can be tailored to be relevant to a future career.

Assessment:

Assessment methods include:

• Coursework: This includes research proposals, annotated computer code, portfolios of visualizations, and other forms of assessment depending on the module.
• In-class tests: These are used in certain modules.

Teaching:

Teaching is delivered through weekly workshops held on campus, typically lasting 2-3 hours per module per week. Depending on module options, lectures and separate seminar sessions may be scheduled. Class sizes for master's programs in the Department of Communication and Media tend to be small, typically between 10-20 students.

Careers:

The program equips students with skills in high demand in both the private and third sectors. Graduates are well-prepared for careers in a wide range of sectors dealing with Big Data and Society, including:

• Computational social scientists
• Digital communication managers
• Product/project managers for AI/digital products
• Counselors for digital strategies
These roles are sought after by various stakeholders, including AI companies, news media agencies, public health institutions, and cyber security institutions. The program's focus on data analysis methodologies also prepares students to tackle novel problems in the Networked Society, such as misinformation and challenges in human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communication.

Other:

• The program is delivered by the Department of Communication and Media, a close-knit community of dedicated, innovative teachers and researchers.
• Students benefit from a personalized approach that encourages involvement in the department's life.
• The department has strong partnerships with industry, arts, and creative venues in the city and internationally.
• The program is ranked 4th in the sector for outstanding (4 ) research impact, with 100% of its impact classified as either outstanding (4 ) or very considerable (REF 2021).
• The department's internationally-acclaimed research is casting innovative light on many aspects of the discipline, engaging with topics such as social media, populism, artificial intelligence, global media events, fake news, and online harassment.

• UK fees (applies to Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland) • Full-time place, per year • £10,800 • Part-time place, per year • £5,400 • International fees • Full-time place, per year • £22,400 • Part-time place, per year • £11,200