BA (Hons) Mass Communications University of Hertfordshire

"Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, examinations may be replaced by an alternative form of assessment during the academic year 2021/2022. Please refer to the Programme Specification on these pages for further details."

Why choose this course?

Do you want to join the next generation of media professionals?

This powerful, practical course will give you the skills and agility to thrive in a rapidly changing industry. You’ll explore the nature of language, communication, and the media. Write news, features, and fiction. Study films, music, and celebrity. Design magazines, websites, and a fascinating, successful future.

The media world is evolving fast. Digital and social media are developing at breakneck speed and changing the way we talk to, learn from, and understand each other. Here at Hertfordshire, our mass communications course focuses on communication and media practice, encouraging you to be entrepreneurial and professional, with a diverse set of sought-after creative skills.

You’ll have a whole range of opportunities, including exploring publishing and PR, examining the ethical and legal aspects of journalism, developing your voice as a writer, studying the context behind films, spending a life-changing year abroad, or taking a year-long work placement.

The course is strongly linked to industry and taught by a team of media academics and professionals. You'll have the opportunity to take part in industry events thanks to our affiliation to the Public Relations and Communications Association, one of Britain's top trade organisations for PR professionals, and attend the Media Matters guest lectures given by a range of media speakers from top journalists to our recent graduates. You'll meet media industry experts such as B.A. (Hons)Mass Communications graduate, Tobi Akingbade who is now a showbiz writer; Charlotte Jones who is now a global content manager in the beauty industry; and Uche Amako, who is now a sports writer. What’s more, you’ll study at a TEF Gold rated University. That’s the highest rating for teaching and support.

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 them 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 the film, you can study television drama, reflect on diversity and sexuality in US films, 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.

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.

This course includes the options of:

• Work placement
• Study abroad