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Media and Film Studies BA(Hons)

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    Overview

    Media and communication are at the heart of our culture, society, and democracy. We consume news from TV and X (formerly Twitter) in moments of crisis, rely on the cinema and streaming for entertainment, and connect using social media. Film is still one of the most prominent and popular forms of media, it has the power to entertain, challenge, inspire, shock, and educate. That’s why you love it. It’s why we love it, too.

    On this course, you’ll gain a blend of analytical, creative, and technical skills, designed to help you become an expert when it comes to understanding and using the media. You will be able to focus in on film in a global, digital media landscape.

    We’ve created this degree to reflect the many different media careers you can follow, and you can tailor your studies to pursue what you’re most passionate about.

    Entry requirements

    BBC-BCC at A Level .

    112-104 UCAS tariff points from a combination of Level 3 qualifications.

    Merit in T Level .

    DMM-MMM in BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma.

    • Access to Higher Education Diploma with 45 Level 3 credits at Merit or above.
    • 112-104 UCAS tariff points from International Baccalaureate qualifications.

    Offers will be subject to an interview, after which you will be invited to attend an Applicant Visit Day, at which you will have the opportunity to meet staff and current students. Read more about the interview process on our Interviews, auditions and portfolio pages.

    If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum of IELTS 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

    For further information please see the University's minimum entry requirements.

    Course Detail

    Core modules:

    Professional Writing

    In this module you will develop your ability to write for specific purposes. The knowledge and skills you develop will provide a toolkit for success in your academic studies and in a variety of graduate careers. You will learn techniques for writing clearly and persuasively, and will hone your ability to express your ideas in fresh and vivid ways. You will explore the ethical and practical challenges arising from the use of AI-based writing tools. You will also have the opportunity to develop skills in creative writing or journalism.

    Critical Thinking

    Critical thinking enables us to go beyond the surface of information, using analytical skills to dissect, question, and evaluate ideas with a detective's curiosity and a scientist's precision. This skill set is common to all disciplines in the Humanities, where the challenge lies in unravelling complexities, probing assumptions, and exploring the neglected features of human culture, language and history, considering the importance of intersectionality along the way. The module will hone your intellectual skills in reasoning and close analysis, improve your ability to present arguments effectively, reflect on your work, and equip you to plan and conduct an independent research project.

    Online Content Production

    This module provides the knowledge for you to gain an understanding of the role of technology in shaping and being shaped by mediated communication, with a particular focus on digital media technologies. The module combines the critical analysis of media technologies with practical skills to use those technologies in the journalism, media and creative industries.

    Audio Production

    This module will provide you with an understanding the history of the English from the early medieval period, combining the description and analysis of language with close reading of texts in their historical, material and literary context. There will be a focus on poetry and prose from different periods of early English, including religious and political texts. Authors like Aelfric of Eynsham, Chaucer, Mallory, Julian of Norwich, Tyndale, and Marlowe may be studied, in order to track changes in English language and culture alongside developments in politics, religion, and technology. Students will gain a strong understanding of how the English language looked in different periods and be able to accurately describe key features of language and texts. We will examine links between key features of English texts and their contexts. We will consider how external factors like language contact, cultural dialogue with Europe, religious change, and the advent of printing interact with changes to the way writing in English developed.

    The Media's Roles, Rights and Responsabilties

    This module introduces you to essential ideas about the media’s roles in societies, along with the rights and responsibilities of those who create media content. Learners will get to grips with the key media ethics, law and policy knowledge needed for a career in this vast and dynamic industry. It will help you understand the structures in which media workers and organisations operate, and the ways in which specific ethical, legal and regulatory frameworks impact the content created. You will learn about these so you can begin to effectively apply them in the context of creating media content.

    Video Production

    The module introduces you to a range of video formats and technologies: mobile, online, television and video. You will be provided with the essential recording and editing skills necessary to produce a video output, and to understand the language and concepts required to critically evaluate video content. You will be also be introduced to legal and regulatory frameworks surrounding the production of video content.

    Core modules:

    Researching the Humanities

    This module develops the research skills you acquired at Foundation level, giving you the skills and confidence required to complete a major piece of independent research in your final year of your degree. You will learn from expert researchers and archive/heritage professionals. We will discover together how research uses different methods and approaches to answer specific research questions, engaging in scholarly debate to further knowledge. We’ll learn about the ways in which we build on existing research to generate new insight, and how research findings make a difference in the real world. The module gives you the freedom to research a wide range of relevant topics in your discipline with the structure and support of subject specialists.

    Work Experience Placement

    You will be expected either to complete a graduate or professional level work placement – or, as an alternative an enterprise or citizenship project with a tangible end product (e.g. feasibility study for turning hobby/idea into a personal business or setting up campaign group/developing volunteering/charity initiative) plus associated documentation – plus a self-reflective evaluation of the process. In preparation for this you will undertake career planning and placement research, supported by workshops and tutorial meetings.

    Investigating the Archive

    This module will develop your skills in investigating archival records and help you to understand and critically analyse how they are used in a range of different sites and formats that include academic scholarship, museums, literature, literary heritage, reportage, digital media and online. The module will be based around materials held in Heritage Quay, the University Archive, and you will have a hands-on introduction to how archives are collected, catalogued and utilised in public-facing environments. It will also develop your independent research, communication and employability skills.

    Magazine, Influencers, Promotion and PR

    This module focuses on developing your understanding of different kinds of promotional culture and visual brands – magazine, influencers and public relations (PR) - and your critical, analytical and evaluative skills. You will analyse the diversity and complexity of the magazine market alongside online brands and promotion. You will learn how to critically analyse different kinds of promotional culture and evaluate its role in society, developing skills you will need to help you develop successful, effective and ethical promotional campaigns and content. You will examine the economics, techniques and organisation of magazine design and production and investigate the nature of the publishing industry. The module also looks at the market for new magazines and you will examine how editors and publishers identify new opportunities, allowing you to develop your own entrepreneurial ideas. You will work with design software packages used in the magazine industry. As the module continues, you will apply what you have learnt to the practice of Magazines and PR, and further develop the creative, analytical and technical skills you need to succeed as a public relations practitioner.

    Global Popular Cinema

    In this module you will examine contemporary cinema as a global media industry, with a particular emphasis on the processes of globalisation and circulation that allow film texts to become meaningful far outside the contexts in which they were made. While the global dominance of Hollywood is central to this, cultural influences, values and meanings flow in multiple directions. You will develop knowledge of key theories in film and global media studies, including theories of globalisation, cultural hybridity and exchange, national identities, and imagined communities. By focusing not only on the films themselves, but on their production, distribution, promotion and reception, the module provides you with a detailed understanding of how and why cinema spreads around the globe, and the tensions this cultural flow creates at a political, social, economic and cultural level.

    Podcasting

    This module gives you an understanding of the technical, legal and professional standards involved in planning, producing and publishing digital audio content, with a focus on podcasting. You will develop advanced skills in creative audio storytelling and editing. You will take part in creating a podcast and will develop abilities in promoting your work on social media platforms.

    Choose one from:

    Arts and Humanities Placement

    The placement year is your chance to gain hands-on experience and build on the skills you’ve developed in your first two years of study. You’ll spend up to 48 weeks (minimum 36 weeks) in a graduate-level role, sharpening your professional skills, exploring career options, and boosting your future job prospects. During your placement, you'll reflect on your performance, develop real-world skills, and learn to approach your role with a critical eye. Your placement will be monitored, and you’ll be assessed on your achievements, setting you up for success in your final year and beyond.

    Portfolio Sandwich Year

    The Portfolio Sandwich Year module provides a flexible and tailored approach to professional development. It allows you to create a customised portfolio of graduate-level opportunities if your career aspirations don’t align with a traditional sandwich year placement. This module will help you develop a diverse and adaptable skillset, build professional networks, and enhance your career readiness through a mix of structured and self-directed activities.

    Core modules:

    Dissertation

    This module is the culmination of your degree, allowing you to apply your skills and knowledge to researching and writing an extended piece of work on a subject of your choice, including, if applicable a public engagement output with an external organisation, such as a museum, archive, community heritage group or similar.

    Humanities Showcase

    This module challenges you to design and develop a project aimed at showcasing the value of the humanities to the general public. You will collaborate with your fellow students to deliver a project that communicates the importance of your disciplines in a non-scholarly, non-academic way. More broadly, you are encouraged to think about the real-world applications of a humanities degree, and about the role of the humanities in challenging and changing society. Taking this module will develop skills enabling you to articulate the value and importance of your studies to a non-specialist audience.

    Video Shorts: Music, Advertising and Short film

    This module gives you the knowledge and practical skills to develop an advanced understanding of the emerging and diverse use of short film in a variety of forms. You will examine how video can be used across digital and broadcast platforms in innovative and complex ways. You will work in small groups to develop video narratives using a range of styles and platforms, with a clear understanding of audience and production.

    Fantasy, Horror and Cult Film

    Exploring the key genres of fantasy and horror, this module allows you to consider how cult status has been incited, sustained and marketed. You will analyse cult film through a blend of film-makers’ and audiences’ agency versus structural (film industry/technological) forces. The module explores whether there are textual attributes through which ‘cult movies’ can be defined, and introduces you to how fantasy and horror film have been theorised in the academy (via cultural-historical, formal, and psychoanalytic approaches, along with others). You will consider a range of horror subgenres, as well as creatively assessing the possibilities for subgeneric innovation; you will also analyse the cultifying processes which have surrounded specific fantasy/horror films.

    Option modules:

    Choose one from a list which may include:

    Writing Techniques Across Media

    This module concentrates on helping you develop an advanced professional and distinctive style in journalistic writing for different media platforms, with a particular focus on transmedia feature writing. You will closely analyse the writing styles adopted for a variety of journalism platforms in the context of media convergence. You will produce work that reflects your understanding of the style and format in each context as well as how to develop narratives across media.

    Voices of the Holocaust

    On this module we will study the Holocaust through the words of those who survived and/or bore witness to it. Bringing together both literary and historical perspectives, we will approach this bleak yet defining episode of human history in a unique interdisciplinary fashion, focusing on non-fictional texts such as memoirs, diaries, and verbatim theatre. By studying how those who witnessed the events of the Holocaust chose to put the experience into words, we will attempt to understand these events neither in terms of traditional history textbooks nor in terms of their representation in our culture, but in terms of some of the individual stories behind it. This will allow us better to grasp issues such as trauma, memorialisation, the relationship between testimony and truth, and the difficulties involved in putting the events of the Holocaust into words.

    Experimental Writing

    This module is intended to explore the boundaries of genre: the hazy area between fiction and non-fiction. Through study of exemplary texts, you will become acquainted with a variety of experimental narrative and poetic possibilities which they can apply to their own writing practice. You will produce a portfolio of work—narrative fiction, poetry or hybrid/experimental forms to demonstrate different approaches to innovative writing. A self-reflective commentary on intentions and the creative process will accompany the portfolio.

    Creative Writing Project: Going Public

    This module aims to support you in the production of a portfolio of original work in a category to be negotiated with the tutor. The production of a self-reflective commentary on the creative process is integral to the project. You'll be asked to provide a project proposal outlining the content of your project. Regular tutorials will be available to help you manage your time and offer constructive feedback to help with rewriting and drafting of creative work. It is recognised that a single piece of creative work may not be appropriate for all students, so a portfolio may contain a mixture of poetry and prose or other kinds of creative writing.

    Sound for Filmmaking

    This module will introduce advanced concepts, theory and practical skills in the use of a broad range of equipment used for recording and mixing sound for Film and Television. The focus will be on Sound Design, Foley, Sound Effects, Dialogues recording and editing, track lay, and mixing in stereo and surround. Practical experience of location sound recording will be gained and will form an integral part of the module and its assessment. You will develop your ability to track lay, synchronise and edit audio along with video in a DAW and develop advanced post-production editing and mixing techniques. Discussions of the theoretical, philosophical and creativity aspects of the area will underpin the module content in lectures.

    This course has modules making up 360 credits over the 3 Years, with each credit being 10 hours of study (3600 hours in total). An average of approximately* 13%(413 hours) of the study time on this course is spent with your tutors face to face or online in lectures, seminars and workshops. The remainder of the time will be spent on independent study. Assessments takes place through a variety of exams, coursework and dissertation.

    Subject to mode of study. *Based on current core modules.

    Calculated using data from the academic year 2024/25, as of November 2024.

    Teaching

    The teaching year for most courses normally starts in September with breaks at Christmas and Easter, finishing with a main examination/assessment period around May/June. Teaching on other courses including professional courses, postgraduate taught, research, distance learning and apprenticeship may have other start dates including January and May. All start dates can be found on each course page and term dates are also available. Students on a full-time course may have to attend every day of the week. Students who choose to study a full-time course on a part-time basis will generally attend modules at the same time as our full-time students. Timetables are normally available one month before registration.

    Our courses are taught at our University campus and you can expect that your lectures and seminars will be held face to face, except in cases of emergency or if specifically stated otherwise in the module description.

    Feedback

    Feedback (usually written) is normally provided on all coursework submissions within three term time weeks – unless the submission was made towards the end of the session in which case feedback would be available on request after the formal publication of results. Feedback on exam performance/final coursework is available on request after the publication of results.

    Progression

    You may progress to the next stage of your course or research degree, subject to meeting University assessment criteria and professional, statutory or regulatory body guidelines.

    1. The University of Huddersfield has been rated Gold in all three aspects of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023. We were the only university in Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West to achieve Gold ratings in all three aspects of the TEF among those announced in September 2023. In fact only 13 Universities, out of the 96 that were announced in September 2023, were Gold in all three ratings.

    2. Our teaching staff rank first in England for the proportion with higher degrees and teaching qualifications, as well as being top five for those holding doctorates (HESA 2025). So you’ll learn from some of the best, helping you to be the best.

    3. We are second in the country for National Teaching Fellowships, which mark the UK’s best lecturers in Higher Education, winning a total of 24 since 2008 (2025 data).

    4. We won the first Global Teaching Excellence Award, recognising the University’s commitment to world-class teaching and its success in developing students as independent learners and critical thinkers (Higher Education Academy, 2017).

    Visit ‘Our experts’ page where you’ll find in-depth profiles of all our academic staff

    At Huddersfield, you'll study the Global Professional Award (GPA) alongside your degree* so that you gain valuable qualities and experiences that could help you to get the career you want, no matter what your field of study is. On completion of the Award, you'll receive a GPA certificate from the University of Huddersfield, alongside the specialist subject skills and knowledge you gain as part of your degree, which may help to set you apart from other graduates.

    Giving students access to the Global Professional Award is one of the reasons the University won ‘Best University Employability Strategy’ award at the National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2021. Find out more on the Global Professional Award webpage.

    *full-time, undergraduate first degrees with a minimum duration of three years. This does not include postgraduate, foundation, top-up, accelerated or apprenticeship degrees.

    Placements

    Students are supported to undertake a full professional training year in Year 3. We help our students in finding suitable placement opportunities in the Media or Film Industry and beyond. During the placement years you are supported by an academic tutor and will build professional experience invaluable for your final year of study and graduate career alike.

    Previous placement providers have included the BBC and independent TV companies, a variety of radio stations and newspapers and magazines, along with leading public relations companies and social media agencies.

    A placement is a great opportunity to explore your chosen industry, to understand the sector, network and make valuable contacts, whilst developing your skills, knowledge and experience. A placement is a chance to get involved, to put theory into practice and to work alongside professionals.

    Photo of Steph Bower, Placements officer for SAH

    Stephanie Bower, Placements Officer

    Our Facilities

    Discover our facilities, in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Huddersfield.

    Dedicated to exploration, students across the School of Arts and Humanities have the opportunity to cultivate, curate and showcase in a range innovative spaces, utilising extensive and purpose-built facilities. These include 3D printers for rapid prototyping and modelling, laser cutters, the virtual reality cave, print and dye capabilities, photography studios, digital print centre, specialist film studios including industry-standard equipment, and so much more.

    Newsroom
    Student using Adobe Audition for audio editing
    Stewart Film Studios
    TV Studio
    Radio Studio

    Discover more about the course

    Your Career

    Discover the job roles our graduates are working in now.

    Inspiring Graduate

    Get inspired by real students and their careers.

    Careers advice

    Check out the personalised guidance we offer you.

    Student Support

    Discover all the support available so you can thrive.

    Research Excellence

    See how our innovative research shapes what you'll learn.

    Important information

    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 if you are unhappy with the change 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 being unable to teach due to illness, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to pandemics, other disasters (such as fire, flood or war) or changes made by the government.

    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 consult with affected groups of students and any changes would only be made in accordance with our regulations. 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 let us know before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for any additional tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so and you may be eligible for an exit award depending on how far through your course you are.

    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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