Subject overview

Programme outline

Recent experiences in the Middle East have demonstrated the power of social media around the world. Communications technologies can be used for a diversity of purposes and forms of participation – from equipping people with more vivid and diverse forms of information about issues of concern to providing interactive forums through which citizens can communicate and ensure representation in the context of processes of democratisation and social action. This innovative MA brings together the expertise of two of Sussex’s leading areas of research and study – media practice and development studies in the School of Media, Film and Music and the School of Global Studies – for those who are interested not only in media and their role in relation to development processes and social action, but media as a tool of social change.

This degree, unique in the UK, equips you with practical skills in mobile media, radio, documentary and/or photography and interactive media and gives you a critical foundation in development and media theory. You will consider questions such as:

• How do ownership and media regulation connect to development processes?
• How do social movements and other civil society organisations use media to strengthen their influence and impact?
• In what ways can media support processes of democratisation and social change?

This MA offers a forum for critical debates on development and social change and analysis of the contemporary global media landscape, includes a practical project and culminates in a professional placement, an independent media project engaging with real-world issues or a written dissertation.

You will gain an understanding of how different media can and have been used in processes of social change, and also of practical applications and creative projects that will help you use media for change. This MA aims to foster a lively, creative environment in which you can learn from your fellow students, exchange ideas and skills, build on existing professional experience and acquire new skills, insights and impetus.

This MA may appeal to you if you already work for an NGO or are employed in the voluntary sector, or have other work commitments, as the two-year part-time study option has been designed to enable you to complete the programme while being on campus on only one day per week.

Assessment
Assessment will consist of a variety of practical media projects, critical reflection reports, presentations, essays and the final project in the form you have chosen: work placement, independent media project, written dissertation.

This programme is under development and subject to validation. 

Programme structure

We continue to develop and update our courses for 2012 entry to ensure you have the best student experience.

Throughout your degree, you take a combination of core courses and options.

Autumn term: Critical Approaches to Development and Social Change (lectures and seminars) • Documenting the Real or Interactive Media Theory and Practice (seminars, workshops and technical demo sessions)

Spring term: Media Practice for Development and Social Change (theory and practice). You also choose from a list of options recommended by the School of Media, Film and Music and the School of Global Studies.

Summer term and vacation: you begin either a placement with a social movement, civil society organisation or international development organisation and produce a media project in the field together with a critical reflection report, or execute an independent media project together with a critical reflection report, or write a desk-based 15,000-word dissertation. 

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in an appropriate discipline. We also welcome applicants who do not have this academic qualification but who have work experience in the field of development or media. The latter applicants will be shortlisted on the basis of their CV and a personal statement to demonstrate analytical and
writing skills.

Please note: you will be required to take a short compulsory practical pre-sessional course commencing 17 September 2012 prior to the start of the academic year. The pre-sessional course aims to ensure you are familiar with the equipment and facilities you will be using throughout your studies before you start formal teaching. The cost of this course is included in the tuition fees.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column A on the Overseas qualifications table.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Related programmes

• Development Studies MA
• Environment, Development and Policy MA
• Gender and Development MA
• Gender and Media MA
• Journalism and Documentary Practice MA
• Journalism and Media Studies MA
• Multimedia Journalism MA
• Music and Sonic Media MA
• Social Development MA

Fees and funding

Fees

'Home' UK/EU students: £5,600
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £5,600
Overseas students: £12,800

For more information, visit Fees, Fees by programme, Living expenses, and Other costs.

Funding

Refer to Funding, and find out more about our extensive range of scholarships and bursaries in our online funding guide.

Faculty interests

Our internationally respected research explores questions around the materialities, technologies and politics of cultural forms and formations. Researchers work on, across and through a range of media: film, television, radio, photography, and ‘new’ and interactive forms. 

They specialise within three interlocking themes: media technology, form and experience; cultural histories/cultural politics; and the politics of representation. 

Media technology, form and experience The relationships between technology, form and experience are explored through studies of techno-cultural innovation, sense perception, and embodied experience. A key aspect, which builds on expertise in the Department, is the development of new critical frameworks for the exploration of new media forms and practices as they emerge in everyday life. 

Cultural histories/cultural politics Research is focused on histories of the public sphere and the relationships between cultures, technological change and social and political change. It also encompasses an analysis of the construction of national identities and borders, and their institutionalised histories and marginalised others. 

The politics of representation The Department of Media and Film has long been a centre of excellence for research on gender, sexuality and representation. We continue to build on this through a concern with the images and narratives of popular culture, and the ways in which these construct identities and play on pleasures, fears, and desires. 

Individual research interests are briefly described below. 

Thomas Austin Audiences for popular film, screen documentary, and Hollywood cinema. 

Caroline Bassett New media technologies, most recently working on narrative and new media. Published widely on new media and gender. 

Michael Bull Works extensively on the nature of auditory experience. Specialises in the work of The Frankfurt School. 

Wilma de Jong Researcher, scriptwriter, director and producer. Media and activism, independent production, documentary and news. Co-editor of Rethinking the Documentary: New Perspectives, New Practices (2008). 

Andrew Duff Production tutor. Specialises in exploring reactive and interactive multimedia, experimental digital and analogue audio, and old and new media. 

Melanie Friend Representations of conflict and trauma, asylum detention in the UK, and post-communism in Bulgaria. A practising photographer. 

Rosalind Galt European film histories, world cinema since 1945, aesthetics, critical theory, gender and sexuality. 

Lee Gooding Senior production tutor. Has produced a range of programmes for a number of organisations. Research interests in post-war European cinema and digital editing. 

Adrian Goycoolea Film-maker whose work addresses issues of location and identity, exploring the intersections of personal memory with social and political histories. 

Catherine Grant Film authorship, intertextuality and film cultural curation in relation to a range of world cinemas. 

Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives: Studies in the Everyday (2009). 

Dee Kilkelly Production tutor. Co-runs APT new media, a collective that has been responsible for art events, installations and club nights in and around Brighton. 

Mary Agnes Krell Media artist whose work spans performance, digital media and narrative practices. Created large-scale interactive projects with Forced Entertainment, the Lee Miller Archive and the BBC in recent years. 

Frank Krutnik Film noir, comedy, stardom and film, popular culture and politics. 

Kate Lacey Gender, media and the public sphere. Has published widely on radio history and theory. Current work focuses on listening publics. 

Michael Lawrence World cinemas, Indian cinema, screen performance, child and non-professional actors, animals in film. Author of Sabu (forthcoming). 

Andy Medhurst Post-war British popular culture; media representations of masculinity and homosexuality. Writes frequently for Sight and Sound and The Wire. 

Sharif Mowlabocus Digital cultures, gender, sexuality and representation. Author of Gaydar Culture (2010). 

Professor Sally Munt Queer studies, cultural studies, identity and emotion. Co-author of Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places (2010). 

An Nguyen Senior Lecturer in News and Journalism Studies. Research interests include online news and the public; globalisation; journalism and the public sphere; science journalism. 

Kate O'Riordan Cultural studies of science and technology. Author of Human Cloning and the Media: from Science Fiction to Science Practice (2008); The Genome Incorporated (2010). 

Niall Richardson Representations of gender, sexuality and the body in film and popular culture. Author of The Queer Cinema of Derek Jarman (2009) and Transgressive Bodies (2010). 

Martin Spinelli Produces award-winning literary and experimental radio projects. Interests include contemporary radio art and sound poetry, Italian Futurism, and cultural studies. 

Dolores Tierney US and Latin American film-making. Mexican exploitation and contemporary Spanish horror film. 

Professor Sue Thornham Feminism, film and cultural theory. 

Lizzie Thynne Film-maker who has exhibited widely in broadcast, festival and gallery contexts. Interests include auto/biography, surrealism, and documentary practices. 

Janice Winship Published on women’s magazines, advertising and consumption in the 20th century. Currently writing about Marks and Spencer in British national culture. 

Kirk Woolford Media artist and software developer who engages in practice-led research to explore concepts and experiences that defy textual representation. 

Careers and profiles

Civil society institutions, social movements and international development agencies increasingly require skilled and creative people to apply digital media technologies in enhancing their capacity to communicate, interact and influence.

This MA is has been developed specifically for those seeking employment in:

• global or national media industries
• NGOs and the international voluntary sector
• international development institutions
• independent media production. 

Wilma's perspective

‘The role of the media has often been undervalued in processes of democratisation and development. Since the Arab Spring and the crucial part played by the media, the possible transformative power of the media has been apparent. It’s not only the national or global media that can transform communication and citizen participation – at a local level the media can contribute to processes of social change and foster citizen participation via community radio, photography and documentary projects, etc.’

‘In the contemporary media landscape a convergence of formerly distinct media has created different platforms and new media products – photos or video-footage taken on mobile phones can find their way on to the internet or news broadcasts, and radio or short documentaries can be transmitted as podcasts.

‘For those interested in media production it’s no longer sufficient to focus on one medium only, you have to acquire the skills to be able to work across different distribution platforms. The MA in Media Practice for International Development offers you the opportunity to immerse yourself in media creation and in a variety of theoretical approaches to processes of social change and development. The creation of media for development and social change is an emerging and exciting field of work, which will become increasingly important in the near future.’

Wilma de Jong
Lecturer in Media and Film Studies
University of Sussex

School and contacts