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.
Industry-standard facilities
The practical elements of the course are delivered in the Poole Gateway Building, which opened in spring 2020. This is home to two broadcast-standard TV studios with the latest Sony HDC-3500 4k cameras, along with impressive editing and lighting set-ups.
Getting hands-on experience with the same equipment used in industry settings prepares you for both your time on placement and your future career.
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 practice 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 communicaiton, 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 constitues 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 profressional practice.
Year 1
Core units
Concept to Screen: This unit will help develop your creative and group work practice, as you initiate, develop, pitch, manage, film and deliver a variety of different television productions.
Media Scholarship: Here you will be introduced to the key scholarly approaches involved in studying television in higher education.
Negotiated Project: Here you will claim ownership of all stages of the initiation, development and realisation of a television production as you produce an innovative project that will test your collaborative and creative potential.
Television Craft: This unit will equip you with the core edit, camera, sound and lighting skills required in television programme making. It will help you develop technical and workflow competencies, as well as understand the craft conventions and practices of professional television.
Television Principles: Through making and evaluating a variety of television programmes in different genres/forms you will develop your knowledge of the ‘language of television’ and the principles and processes of professional television production.
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 television.
Year 2
Core units
Media Perspectives: In this unit you will choose two from a menu of options as you engage with significant industry debates and case studies within your discipline.
Open Project: Here you will work collaboratively, interdisciplinary and across platform as you use your television production skills to take on a ‘social action’ project.
Production Portfolio 1& 2: Across these two units you will further develop your television production skills as you choose from a menu of group work options: these typically include Short Form Fiction, Live Studio, Developing and Realising Formats, Comedy, Documentary Practice and Studio Drama.
Researching Media: In this unit you will identify an aspect of television practice you wish to research, and then prepare a proposal to take forward to your final year research project.
Television Specialisms: Here you will select a core television specialism, as you consider, review and develop the production and craft skills needed to work within professional television programme making. Specialisms typically include: Production Management; Edit/Post-production; Sound; Cinematography; Producing; and Directing.
Optional Placement Year
You'll have the option to complete either a 4-week or optional 30-week (minimum) work placement during the course, working in a professional environment alongside experienced programme-makers.
The placement provides you with the experience of how an organisation operates, as well as an opportunity to enhance your personal development and future employability.
Final Year
Core units
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.
Concept and Production Skills Development: Here you will meet with a range of industry professionals, as well as showcase your programme ideas and skillset for the group work Graduate Project ahead.
Graduate Project: Bringing together all your television knowledge, and picking up on programme ideas shared and developed in the previous unit, here you will work collaboratively to create a high production-value television programme that can act as your calling-card to industry.
Option units
Dissertation: The Dissertation provides you with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate your critical, analytical and research skills by conducting a significant piece of individual scholarly enquiry in to television.
Enquiry & Experiment: Here you can opt to undertake a practice led or practice based scholarly research project. Exploring, examining and analysing television through the act of making - and critically reflecting on that making.
Industry Research Project: Here you can opt to critically examine your chosen area of practice through conducting original research into a media industry organisation.
Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.
