Global Communication and Social Change

This module introduces theories and approaches to practice in communication, development and social change to critically explore the role of media and communication in a globalized and changing world. Dominant ideas about international development will be explored. Students will engage with the experiences of people from the Global South, and will explore broader debates on media, communication and social change.

The aim of this module is to critically examine and understand key theories and debates associated with the field of international development. The module aims to deconstruct the epistemological underpinnings informing dominant theories of development and examine how they translate into the practice of international and sustainable development as seen amongst key stakeholders such as UN agencies, national governments, companies, civil society organisations and social movements. This module examines the growing critique of development and explores the diversity of thought reflected in the epistemologies of the South. By further assessing how colonial history, patriarchy and capitalism have influenced discourses and practices of development this module seeks to complexify and nuance our understandings of theories of development and actors of change.

The aims of this module are to examine international security through a variety of traditional and non-traditional approaches, and through case studies across several issue areas. The overarching aim of the module is to provide students with a wider understanding of security as it has evolved historically, and the role it plays in contemporary societies and in global politics. 

The aim of this module is to examine media representations of social identities with particular focus on gender, race, class and sexuality and its intersections. Combining key theories from critical theory, cultural studies, film, gender studies and communication studies, the module will explore processes and practices of production and re-production of social identities making emphasis on said productions on media, paying special attention to questions of racism, colonialism and capitalism.

The aims of this module are to equip students with the necessary academic skills to understand the challenges firms face in different developing countries and assessing different ways in which firms can overcome these challenges.

The aims of this module are to:

• Explore the links between developmental interventions and the reduction (and creation) of disaster risks.
• Introduce developmental practitioners to sustainable Disaster Risk Management (DRM) activities (structural and non-structural) worldwide.

The module focuses on developing understanding of foundational concepts from cultural studies, contemporary debates on design and culture, identity, gender and feminist studies relevant to strategic design. Key theoretical concepts of 'identity', 'socialisation' and 'representation' will be introduced through lectures and seminars in order to explore the complex interrelationships between identity, sociocultural contexts and strategic design.

The aims of this module are to understand the continuities and changes in work and employment in the media and creative industries internationally.

This module will consolidate knowledge on the global cultural and heritage industries and contemporary developments, with a focus on the integration and impacts of digital media. The module has the following key aims:

• Introduce students to the cultural and heritage industries in the UK and across the world and explore their structure and operation alongside their sociocultural, economic and political impact;
• Provide a critical, theoretically-informed analysis of how these industries are shaped and constrained in contemporary times by social, cultural and economic policy and by technological change;
• Introduce and consolidate knowledge on key concepts and theories in heritage and digital heritage studies, with application on three areas: (1) museums and GLAM institutions (Gallery, Libraries, Archives and Museums); 2) community and indigenous heritage; and (3) heritage tourism.
• Offer theoretical and methodological tools for examining the integration and effects of digital media in the production of cultural experiences, cultural participation and cultural learning;
• Develop understanding of and ability to use analytical and methodological tools for engaging with key issues and debates in contemporary heritage and digital heritage studies, from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The aims of this module are to:

• Provide students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings (understood in this context as involving a range of multidisciplinary, multicultural and demographic elements in differing configurations), aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence, while raising awareness and appreciation of diversity itself.
• Provide students with hands on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions.
• Support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds.
• Provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.

The module introduces issues around media and social movements, by tracing the theoretical evolution of media and social movements, understanding media within broader social movements in historical processes rather than merely focusing on media technologies or impact media. The model seeks to cover topics on control of media systems on different parts of the world, alternative media practices, media ecologies, networks, and social media. Whilst focused on grassroots or community activism, it considers the relationship between media, protest and democracy. The module uses a series of case studies to understand how diverse groups harness media to articulate their political voice.

The aims of this module are to:

• enable students to become familiar with a range of methodologies for the analysis of the structure, operation, outputs and uses of media, creative and cultural industries;
• enhance the acquisition of applied skills for research design, data collection and analysis applied to the media industries;
• enhance the acquisition of critical and analytical skills for assessing quality in media research, using appropriate quality assessment criteria and standards.

The aims of this module are to:

• enable students to become familiar with a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of international development practices as well as social change and social justice policies and mobilizations;
• generate insight and understanding of how different methodologies dialogue with different epistemological perspectives, aligned to specific research paradigms or philosophies.

The aim of this module is to interrogate various permutations of violence, from physical to structural and symbolic, in several political contexts stretching a spectrum  from open war and conflict to the everyday. It aims to do so through the explicitly transdisciplinary objective of bringing scholarly and practitioner debates in security, conflict and peace-building studies to bear on debates in development and sustainability, and vice versa.

In doing so, throughout the module, students will be encouraged to think through and analyse contemporary global problematics, policy problems and cases across disciplinary divides; and through a critical re-thinking and examination of the development-security-sustainability nexus via a unique lens of political violence. The module aims to achieve the latter via explorations of several competing or complementary conceptions of violence drawn from Political Thought and Political Philosophy from both Western traditions and those in the Global South. These are then put to use to explicate contemporary problems and cases in the nexus of development-security-sustainability.

The aims of this module are to introduce students to the major theoretical and methodological issues at stake in researching people's engagement with media, as audiences, users and consumers. The module examines the historical evolution of audience research; the key theoretical paradigms in the field; the practice of market research, and how it is employed within the media and creative industries; methodological and ethical dimensions of research; and the implications of new media technologies, both for the experience of audiences/users/consumers and for the practice of research. Case studies will be presented by visiting speakers from relevant organisations in the media and creative industries."

This module has two main aims. The first is to expose students to concrete development challenges experienced by different stakeholders (policy makers, communities and industry representatives, etc) in developing countries. The second is to experiment with the ways through which the immersion into the field can inform the identification of development challenges and the formulation of research questions and action plans in the area of development.
Note that there are additional fees involved in taking this module to cover travel expenses and visas.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.
The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on field research
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.