Course details
On this course, you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
Details of the assessment methods and contact hours for each unit of the course can be found in the programme specification (pdf 454kb).
Showcase your skills in your final-year project
The Graduate Production Project Unit takes place in the second half of the final year of study and is the largest and most significant unit in the course. You’ll be encouraged to create a media project of your choice for a defined client and a specified audience.
Foundation Year
Core units
Academic & Professional Practice: You will build your confidence in both academic and professional skills. This unit will cover the academic skills which will be required at degree level study and you’ll practise them throughout the unit with support from key university services including the library and study skills team. There will also be the opportunity for you to reflect on and develop your own professional skills through interactions with employers, careers services and online resources.
Collaborative Communication Project: The unit focuses on the centrality of communication, both as a process and as a project. Through the collaborative development of a communication solution to a specific communication problem, the unit aims to promote the principles and practices of team-based iterative project work.
Media & Current Debates: You will be introduced to a) the important role and responsibilities of the news media within democratic societies and b) the varied nature of reporting of key events, issues and debates within the contemporary 24/7 news cycle. You will gain an essential level of understanding of what constitutes news and what the work of journalists entails. You will also develop an awareness and appreciation of differing coverage of particular stories by a range of news organisations.
Media Work: You will become familiar with a range of profiles and career paths in the communication and media industries, and be inspired to reflect on and develop your own professional identity. Through case studies of seminal campaigns, programmes and artefacts, profiles of ground-breaking personalities, masterclasses from industry professionals, and guest talks from BU staff who have worked or currently work in marketing, PR, media production, journalism and communications, you will encounter and interact with diverse role models, career trajectories, and types of professional practice.
Year 1
Core units
Media Scholarship: Here you will be introduced to the key scholarly approaches involved in studying media in higher education.
Digital Film: In a group setting, you’ll explore the principles and practice of digital film production. We look at professional workflows throughout the pre-production, production and post-production process.
Audio Production: The focus here is a critical awareness of the professional processes and practices involved in the creative experimentation, conception, planning, design and realisation of audio content.
Scriptwriting: In this unit we examine the role of the script in media products. This will provide a foundation in the development of your scriptwriting skills for a range of platforms and formats such as film, television, radio and the web.
Digital Media Design: In this unit you will consider the basic concepts and develop key skills for understanding, designing, and producing media content for web-based and interactive platforms.
Understanding Media: Here you will develop your knowledge of the key scholarly concepts within the field, as well as how to apply these concepts in analysing media in a time of change. You will consider your own engagement with media as both producer and consumer.
Year 2
Core units
Media Perspectives: In this unit you will choose two from a menu of options as you engage with current industry debates and case studies within your discipline.
Factual: Form & Content: Running in parallel with, and complementary to, Fiction, this unit focuses on factual content with the creative emphasis being online environments.
Fiction: Form & Content: This unit will extend both your practical skills and your critical understanding of fictional forms and content, examining the similarities and differences in practice across media, with particular reference to audio and video content.
Work in Media Industries: This unit will examine the current state of the media industries, their adaptive and evolutionary nature, and the implications of this transitional culture for the professional demands upon, and subjective experiences of, industry workers.
Stories & Spaces: The emphasis of this unit is on ‘experience design’ and the use of physical spaces for media content, including event-led, live, and installation practices.
Client & Audience: This unit focuses on understanding the client relationship, responding to a brief, pitching ideas, managing client expectations, and producing a solution to a specific communications challenge.
Optional Placement Year
The placement element of the course is mandatory – but its duration depends on the length of your degree. You’ll have the option to complete either a four-week placement if you take the three-year version of the course, or a 30-week (minimum) placement on the four-year version.
The placement is a key feature in helping you develop your abilities and understanding of media production; it also provides a platform for successful entry into the profession following graduation.
Final Year
Core units
Industry Research Project: This unit aims to give students the opportunity to critically examine their chosen area of professional interest through the application of original research into a media industry organisation.
Specialist Craft Skills: This unit will enable you to review, sharpen, and further develop your craft skills within an aspect of media production to inform your graduate project.
Ideas Development & Research: You’ll explore turning ideas and concepts into commercially viable end products to be pitched, sold, defended and tested in the global creative media marketplace.
The Graduate Production Project: You will individually produce a production project where you decide the mix and range of media to engage with, and the industry context it sits within. We encourage you to think of this as your ‘calling card’ for employment. See examples of student work
Career Pathways: Here you will present and reflect on your work and learning so far, as well as construct a forward-facing career profile/plan.
