Digital Cultures and Media BA Honours
Newcastle University Undergraduate programs
Key Information
Campus location
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
3 years
Pace
Full time
Tuition fees
GBP 21,600 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
Request info
* international students; GBP 9,250 - home students
Introduction
Digital technology now shapes every aspect of culture and society. This degree will make you stand out as a specialist in this field. It will set you up for a career in the digital, media or creative industries.
Ever wondered how social media influences our politics, or how AI can discriminate against different ethnicities? Are you fascinated by how apps have affected our lives?
We rely on digital technologies - to read the news, maintain our friendships, and manage our work. They affect what we do and how we behave.
This Digital Cultures and Media degree focuses on how digital technologies shape society. It explores how media influences culture and communication. You'll create and analyse contemporary media like mobile apps and data visualisations. You’ll learn creative applications of immersive technologies, and how to apply them in the real world.
You will graduate with the ability to combine critical thinking with the practical digital skills needed to reshape our digital lives.
Study abroad
Experience life in another country by choosing to study abroad as part of your degree. You’ll be encouraged to embrace fun and challenging experiences, make connections with new communities and graduate as a globally aware professional, ready for your future.
You can choose to spend up to a year studying at a partner institution overseas. If you choose to study abroad, it will extend your degree by a year.
Work placement
Get career ready with work placement and leave as a confident professional in your field. You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months working in any organisation in the world, and receive University support from our dedicated team to secure your dream placement. Work placements take place between stages 2 and 3.
You'll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.
If you choose to take a work placement, it will extend your degree by a year, and your degree title will show you have achieved the placement year. A work placement is not available if you're spending a year studying abroad. Placements are subject to availability.
Rankings
- 8th in the UK – The Complete University Guide 2023 (Communication and Media Studies category)
- 17th in the UK – The Guardian University Guide 2023 (Media and Film Studies category)
- Global Top 125 University - QS World University Rankings 2023
- Top 150 for Communication and Media Studies - QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022
- Top 185 for Social Sciences and Management - QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022
- 65% increase in research power since 2014 – Research Excellence Framework 2021
- 42% of our research is classified as 4* world-leading research – Research Excellence Framework 2021
- 7th in the UK – Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023 (Communications and Media Studies category)
- 1st in the UK and 8th in the world for sustainable development – Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2022
- Top 150 for Social Sciences – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022
- Global Top 140 University - Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023
Curriculum
Stage 1
You'll learn key digital skills and be introduced to cultural theories that will set you up with a strong foundation for the rest of your degree. You'll explore how digital technologies shape, and are shaped by, their cultural and political contexts. You'll learn basic skills in digital storytelling, data visualisation, interactivity, and the creative web. You'll take a module on critical writing and research to support your undergraduate learning.
Compulsory Modules
- Introduction to Digital Cultures 20
- Skills and Methods in Digital Cultures 20
- Introduction to Media Studies 20
- Introduction to Scholarly Practice 20
- Introduction to Social and Cultural Studies 20
Optional Modules
- Adventures in Digital Learning 20
- Stuff: living in a material world 20
- Journalism: Pasts, present and future 20
- Introduction to Popular Music Studies 20
- Contemporary Pop Performance 20
Stage 2
You’ll expand your understanding and knowledge of digital cultures. You'll develop your digital skills and put them to use working in a group to respond to a real-world problem, introduced by partners in the industry.
You'll choose from a wide range of optional modules to focus in more depth on topics that interest you, such as gender, race, sexuality, social media, digital politics, and celebrity culture.
Compulsory Modules
- Work Experience: Find, Apply & Succeed 0
- Research Methods 20
Further compulsory modules
- Expanding Digital Cultures (20 credits)
- Collaborating in Digital Cultures (20 credits)
Optional Modules
- Film Theory for Practice 1: What is cinema? 20
- Film Theory for Practice 2: Why Cinema? 20
- Introduction to Public Relations 20
- Race, Culture and Identity 20
- Sex, Sexuality and Desire 20
- Visual Culture 20
- Celebrity Culture 20
- Conflict and Crisis Reporting 20
- Free Music Practice: Experimental Pop & Interdisciplinary Performance 20
- Jazz Today: Tomorrow Is The Question 20
- Popular Music and Media 20
- Music and Visual Culture 20
- Career Development for second-year students 20
- Consciousness, Art and Technology 20
- Philosophy and Science 10
- Digital Civics 20
Further optional modules
- Online User Interaction (20 credits)
- Analysing Social Media Interaction (20 credits)
- Media and Democracy (20 credits)
Stage 3
You'll put the knowledge and skills from Stages 1 and 2 into practice, undertaking your own research with the option for a dissertation or practice-based project.
You continue to take options in digital cultures and media studies, or modules from across the University.
Compulsory Modules
- Digital Cultures dissertation (40 credits)
OR
- Digital Cultures project (40 credits)
Optional Modules
- Introduction to Public Relations 20
- Race, Culture and Identity 20
- Sex, Sexuality and Desire 20
- Visual Culture 20
- Celebrity Culture 20
- Conflict and Crisis Reporting 20
- Magazine Publishing 20
- Youth, Identity and Contemporary Media 20
- Memory Matters: Mediating Present Pasts for the Future 20
- Fashion, Communication and Culture 20
- Global Public Relations 20
- Storytelling and Collective Psychology 20
- Religion and Recent US Films 20
- Advertising and Consumption 20
- Power, Politics and Communication 20
- Feminist Approaches to Media Analysis 20
- Digital Discourses and Identity 20
- Case Studies in 21st-Century Music 20
- Music, Politics and Policy 20
- Jazz Studies 20
- Career Development for final year students 20
- The Networked Society: Human Identity and Practices 20
Further optional modules
- Cultural Phenomena and the Role of the Media, Digital/ Social Media and PR (20 credits)
- Digital Communication for Cultural Institutions and Organisations (20 credits)
- Critical Approaches to Media, Communication and Culture (20 credits)
Career Opportunities
The critical, creative and analytical skills you’ll develop will make you an attractive hire in almost any graduate job in the contemporary job market. You’ll be well suited to a career where innovation, collaboration and constant reskilling are key. This could mean you go on to work for:
- creative industries
- charities
- advocacy
- think tanks
You would be well suited to work in web, app or UX design, copywriting, content creation or strategy. Your understanding of the media, digital skills and ability to tell stories in a new way will be an asset as a journalist as well as in publishing, advertising, marketing and PR.
Admissions
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Scholarships and Funding
Several scholarship options are available. Please check the university website for more information.
Program Tuition Fee
Program delivery
Teaching is through lectures, seminars, practical skills workshops, and one-to-one tutorials.
In Year 3 you undertake a research project that accounts for one-third of your time.