MA Screen Cultures MA

About the course

Screen Cultures is about the way so much of work, pleasure and leisure, personal lives and other parts of the day-to-day involve the display of image, text or other signs on a ‘screen’ of some kind. It looks at the contemporary world as a place where a 'print culture' of fixed texts is giving way to a 'screen culture' of ephemeral, networked, interactive, fluid texts embedded in ubiquitous media devices.

We live in a world of screens, a world of IMAX cinema and HD television, of easy photography and everyday video, of smartphones and games consoles, of laptops, tablet computers, e-book readers and the Internet, of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google Earth...

Mixing cultural studies and media practices, Screen Cultures draws on an increasing body of ideas from cultural, media, and film studies, from literature, communication, creative writing and game studies, from governmental and commercial sources, to reflect on – and create out of – a period of profound and radical transition.

On this masters degree you will create podcasts and short video artefacts, print and web texts, and you will define and organize physical and online exhibitions that explain and comment on our changing world. You will develop public and academic understanding of the many factors at play in our changing relationship with media forms and with our ideas about ourselves. During your study, you will develop knowledge and skills in a range of digital media processes such as web page creation, digital video and sound editing, design for print and image manipulation.

The postgraduate Media programme offers you a coherent learning in one of several awards. It enables you to develop creative practical skills in a discipline of your choosing. That work may extend your existing skills, knowledge and understanding, or it may mean a change of direction, new learning, and new experiences. Induction, seminars and social events for students and staff mean that you will be part of a friendly and supportive postgraduate community, which includes film makers, musicians and professionals working in new media.

Senior research staff and internationally renowned professionals work with postgraduate students, helping you to develop original and challenging work. Your study will include ways of thinking about the cultural resonance of your work and about the audiences it is made for, about the nature of creativity, and the role of the Cultural Industries in a modern knowledge economy.

Through your study you will develop a range of project management skills, and an ability to identify and manage your own learning. You will consider the role of enterprise opportunities in commercial, professional and social environments. Enquiry, research and clear communication underpin work throughout the programme. As well as specialist modules in your chosen discipline area the programme includes modules that are shared with other postgraduate awards in the School of Creative Arts. This structure promotes cross-discipline discussion and maintains the enthusiasm and focus of discipline specialists. It enables you to develop the key transferable skills of postgraduate study grounded in activities that have currency, relevance and application for your future career and for further academic study.

Why choose this course?

• This MA Screen Cultures degree allows you to develop an advanced knowledge, understanding and creative use of screen-based media within 21st century life.
• You will develop a personal portfolio characterised by supple responses to media theory and practice at the forefront of contemporary culture.
• On this postgraduate degree you will develop advanced skills of enquiry, research, critical analysis, creative invention, project planning and management.
• You will learn in a multi-disciplinary environment through lively discussion and the edgy exploration of ideas.
• Develop a personal portfolio in approach, style and vision that looks to the forefront of current practices.

Study routes

• Part Time, 2 Years
• Full Time, 1 Years

Locations

• University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Careers

Screen Cultures provides you with the skills necessary to engage with the cutting edge of digital media: in commentating, writing, and presenting for broadcast and social media; the development and management of branding and identity through modern digital media; the curation of exhibitions and media events; and careers in academia and education.

The course is designed to help you understand and work within the contemporary media environment. Particular attention is given to helping you acquire enquiry and information handling skills, enterprise skills in the development and presentation of ideas, in communicating in the spoken and written word, and addressing particular audiences.

Teaching methods

On this programme teaching and learning emphasises enquiry-led project work, developing the kind of independence and autonomy that is appropriate for postgraduate education. Lectures, seminars and other discussions bring students together in multi-disciplinary groups where ideas are shared, challenged, developed. Workshops and other activities develop specific discipline centered skills and understandings while tutorials develop individual study trajectories and responses to assignment tasks and briefs. Much of the time students are engaged in self-managed independent study, undertaking enquiries and research, developing skills, inventing and developing ideas, realizing project outcomes, exploring the cultural resonance of their work.

All students on the PG Media programme engage in an interdisciplinary project as a part of their MA study, giving them an opportunity to work with students from other disciplines in an experimental and creative way.

Work Placement

There are work-related learning opportunities on this course.

Professional Accreditations

Skillset Media Academy

Structure

Year 1

Core Modules

• Creative Enterprise and Context

  This module emphasises the professional contexts of the student's work both in terms of its content and in terms of the kind of outcomes used for assessment. A series of lectures present ideas about key issues in the Creative Industries and Health and Social sectors. The lectures provide a broad context for ideas about the emergence and future of the Creative Industries and Health and Social sectors about Intellectual Property Rights, about the social conditions of the workplace and about the planning and management of projects. 'Break out' seminars lead to the student producing a piece of work that explores topics relevant to their award of study. Alongside these is the development of professional 'presentation of self' skills appropriate for the student's aspirations. This includes the development of portfolios, showreels and other material and skills in preparing and delivering a pitch or bid for funding as if for a Creative Industries or in the Health and Social sectors.

• Discourse/Relection: Media Literacies

  The module works out from the student's existing media skills and understanding to develop those further and to introduce a range of new ones. There are two phases of learning activities. The first, deals with a range of software and other processes that support the design and realisation of web pages, posters, leaflets, podcasts, video sequences and constructed display objects. This uses structured learning activities to develop the student's practical and evaluative skills in creating a range of media artefacts, in creating effective media design and in evaluating the aesthetics and inter-related meanings of media artefacts. In the second phase students identify two or three media processes which they can demonstrate are relevant to their studies and through a series of negotiated projects, further develop their skills through the design and realisation of project outcomes.

• Major Study: Screen Cultures

  The Screen Cultures student undertakes a detailed study of the cultural conditions of the contemporary world and its relationship with the screen. The format of this study is open to the student - it may be as a set of academic papers intended for academic journal publication or for a magazine - it may be as a series of interactive or time based artefacts which manage a blend of playfulness and serious discussion - it may be a critique of the theories of a particular figure - it may apply the theories of a particular figure in a new way, to a new subject - it may seek a synthesis from several theories, accounts, positions.

• Practice 1: Media

  The student develops their knowledge and understanding of current processes, techniques and the scope of their chosen award field in this module. They become aware of contemporary activities and of the forefront in terms of artefacts, figures, debates, technologies and ideas. The student develops the kind of self-managed autonomy that characterises post-graduate work in their field through a series of projects which develop their own voice or style, exploring the particular issues, processes and ideas that interest them.

• Practice 2: Media

  In this module students are required to relate their own practice and learning to developments and emergent activities in their chosen field. In particular, students are asked to challenge their preconceptions of what the field is about and to work innovatively in the field. The portfolio of projects used for assessment includes a 1000 word evaluative commentary which discusses how the student's work relates to the forefront of their field in terms of subject knowledge, the application of technology, or in terms of current enterprise activities and opportunities. This is likely to include such things as new artistic practices, emergent genre forms, alternative culture formations, the appropriation of technologies for unexpected ends, the furthering of existing knowledge structures, the reapplication of established processes to novel and inventive ends, the subversion of norms, expectations and conventions, popular culture trends in the consumption of media artefacts and funding council and other government initiatives.

• Research and Enquiry

  This module aims to provide students with a range of research skills suitable for postgraduate level study in art, art therapy, design, film, media and music. The module helps students locate their work within contemporary advance-level practice in their disciplines and to make a critical evaluation of the bodies of ideas that sustain them. Key skills addressed include those of data management, critical evaluation, communication skills, notions of creativity and a range of modes of contextual analysis. The skills gleaned on this module will provide students with a platform for research for the remainder of the programme and in their future careers.

Optional

Fees & funding

Fees 2013

UK/EU Students

Full time: £6,700 for the 2013 academic year

International Students

Full time: £11,000 for the 2013 academic year

Discounts are available for International students if payment is made in full at registration

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Other financial support

Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students

Living costs / accommodation

The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.

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How to apply