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Journalism, Media and Film MA

2026-27 (also available for 2025-26)

This course is eligible for Master's loan funding. Find out more.

Start date

21 September 2026

Duration

1 year full-time

About the course

Reasons to study

  1. State of the Art Facilities - You'll learn in the state of the art £30m Barbara Hepworth Building with collaborative studios, photography studios and exhibition space.
  2. Skills Development - You’ll develop your skills and tell compelling stories – on location and in our purpose-built Stewart Film Studio
  3. Industry Experience - Yorkshire’s screen industries are going from strength to strength – you can put yourself at the heart of them via work experience and industry contacts.  

This degree is part of an interdisciplinary MA suite, combining specialisms you may have studied previously with areas that might be new to you, opening up careers in the creative, educational, heritage, and media industries. Working across different disciplines, such as History, English and Creative Writing as well as Media, Journalism and Film, means that you benefit from staff expertise and industry contacts in all of them. You’ll discuss ideas with people from a range of backgrounds and viewpoints. This adds up to a stimulating and creative student experience, with the chance to learn and do new, challenging and worthwhile things.

Having developed skills on the Methods and Approaches module, your keystone assignment will be your Major Project, a significant piece of independent research, culminating in a written output. This might include long-form journalistic writing, a series of features, travel writing, film studies critical writing, biography, fan studies, or an industry report on audience/user research. The project can be on a topic of the student's choice. We work closely with partners to put your skills and knowledge into practice. This includes working with the on-campus archive, Heritage Quay (including our Ted Hughes collection), the on-site Holocaust Centre North, and nearby literary heritage organisations and museums.

Our modules have been designed with innovation at their core to enable students to become inspiring and enterprising global professionals, an aspiration for all our students at the University. There is lots of choice in the format and content of your assignments, allowing you to pursue existing passions and discover new ones.

Course detail

Heroes and Villains

Why do we villainise some people and actions, and understand others as heroic? This module explores the concepts of the hero and the villain in language, myth, literature, film, media and other forms. Using case studies, we explore how these archetypes function in culture, society and representation from the medieval period to the present. You will learn to spot the process of heroization and villainization in your chosen and related fields. This learning is applicable in any context where we need to decode language and imagery, demonstrate critical thinking, or understand the broader context of ideas.

Innovation and Impact

How do we apply academic learning and research in the real world? What is at stake in working across disciplines to solve challenges? How can you prepare yourself to succeed after your Master’s degree? This module exploits the entrepreneurial and enterprise expertise of colleagues across the University and contacts with the creative, heritage, media, cultural and educational sectors to give you a unique and memorable learning experience and prepare you for your professional future.

Patterns of Prejudice

This module examines examples of human prejudice from medieval Anti-Semitism to modern-day hate crime. It makes particular use of the on-campus learning resource, Holocaust Centre North, including discussions about the social media strategy of an organisation like this in contemporary political climates. Students on this module are also encouraged to make use of the Jo Cox More in Common Centre to (in line with the Centre's mission) enable 'students and staff to facilitate and participate in significant conversations education and programmes that celebrate Jo’s famous words: “We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us”'. This includes student-led conversations about Islamophobia. The module reflects on the impact of changing media technologies in reproducing or constructing patterns of prejudice. It also considers film, literature and other forms of representation and communication. Topics typically include the medieval Middle East ('Encounters on Crusade’) and representation of Romani communities.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally:

  • An Honours degree (2:2 or above) in either Media, Journalism or Film or a similar subject.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum of IELTS 7.0 overall with no element lower than 6.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

Your career


Graduates with a degree in Journalism, Media and Film MA may expect to go into a variety of roles, including broadcast and newspaper journalism, editing, directing, location management and research.*

*Source: Prospects

**Percentage of the University’s postgraduate students go on to work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating. (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2021/22, UK domiciled, other activities excluded).

93.4%** Graduates employed

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Research excellence

Research plays an important role in informing all our teaching and learning activities. Through research our staff remain up-to-date with the latest developments in their field, which means you develop knowledge and skills that are current and highly relevant.

Find out more about our research staff and centres.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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