Gender and Media (2014 entry)

MA, 1 year full time/2 years part time

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Subject overview

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In the Department of Media and Film at Sussex: 

  • we offer exceptional opportunities for graduate study, with innovative taught MA degrees and a range of supervision for MPhil and PhD research in theory and practice 
  • we have a thriving research culture in media theory and practice, with around 50 research students working alongside faculty each year 
  • we are rated joint 8th in the UK for research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). 100 percent of our research was rated as recognised internationally 
  • we are ranked in the top 10 places to study in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2013, in the top 15 in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2014 and The Sunday Times University Guide 2012, and in the top 25 in the UK in The Guardian University Guide 2014 
  • we also rank among the top 100 universities in the world for communication and media studies in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2013 
  • we offer opportunities to make practical creative projects alongside conceptual and theoretical study 
  • we have dedicated state-of-the-art digital production facilities and links to the thriving creative and media scene in Brighton 
  • we are home to the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies and the innovative Centre for Material Digital Culture. 

Programme outline

This MA focuses on the production, circulation and reception of media representations of masculinity, femininity and sexuality. It also explores ways in which questions of gender and sexuality might shape and inform media relations more generally, for example in the negotiations of the public/private divide. 

Drawing on Sussex’s team of internationally recognised scholars in the fields of both media and film and gender studies, the interdisciplinary course allows you to combine approaches from the social sciences, cultural studies and the humanities. 

Undoubtedly, the media have been extremely influential in shaping and reflecting gendered power relations, and processes of identification in relation to the politics of gender, sexuality and the body. This unique MA brings these issues to the fore, and allows you to address them in depth. 

This course engages with a substantial intellectual area to address some of the key social, cultural and political issues of the present day: 

  • the media texts addressed in this MA are drawn from a wide range of historical and national contexts and include print and online media, film (both Hollywood and non mainstream), and radio and television genres such as soap operas, dramas and make-over shows 
  • you are introduced to the key concepts in feminism, postfeminism, queer theory, ‘crip’ theory, masculinity studies and body image studies, as well as a wide range of media and cultural theory 
  • you are encouraged to set up your own agenda throughout the course, culminating in a research-led dissertation. 

Assessment 

Modules are usually assessed by 5,000-word term papers. You are also required to submit a dissertation of 18,000 words. 

Also visit Department of Media and Film: MA preparatory reading.

We continue to develop and update our modules for 2014 entry to ensure you have the best student experience.In addition to the course structure below, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2012 modules tab.

Autumn term: Gender and Representation • Media Theory and Research. 

Spring term: two options from a list that may include Approaches to Film Noir • Culture, Experience, History • Emotion, Representation and Culture • Feminism and Film • Gender, Technology and Embodiment • Latin American Cinema • Media Audiences • Media, Communication and Culture • Queering Popular Culture • Rethinking European Cinema • Science, Technology, Culture • The Cinematic Body • Women and Human Rights. 

Summer term: you undertake work on the MA dissertation under faculty supervision. 

Current modules

Please note that these are the core modules and options (subject to availability) for students starting in the academic year 2012.

Core modules

Options

Back to module list

Approaches to Film Noir

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Re-examining and questioning orthodox arguments about film noir, this module focuses on a range of Hollywood films from the 1940s and early 1950s alongside key critical readings and approaches. We consider debates on gender representation, the social, cultural and political contexts of the US, Hollywood's industrial and institutional operations, and the aesthetic and ideological consequences of film style, narrative and narration.

Cultural Identities: Social Practices

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

How do our beliefs create material realities? This module examines discourses: fields of meaning within culture that produce and reinforce identity, subculture, community, and everyday social practises. Using a range of critical approaches from Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu, Beverley Skeggs and Sara Ahmed, you will study key social paradigms such as space, gender and sexuality, habitus, emotion, politics and protest, religion and spirituality.

You look at contemporary subjectivities and everyday life, thinking about the social effects of cultural narratives embodied within (for example) emotions such as shame, new spiritualities and paranormal culture/occultures, global/local political resistances, contemporary relations of power and their social embodiments, and queer activisms and utopias. You will consider how such discourses carve out meanings and behaviours in individuals, and how they are contested, resisted, and redefined.

Using material drawn from cultural politics and social change, you will explore how people perform, and/or are performed by, cultural narratives, and how the politics of representation can be challenged by cultural activisms.

Film Studies: Theories and Methods

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module presents you with a mapping of the intellectual histories, key approaches and theoretical debates within the field of film studies. You will begin with early debates around realism and auteurism, moving to genre theory and ideological and structuralist approaches. Later sessions deal with psychoanalytic and feminist approaches. The module finishes with contemporary critiques of both the textual focus of traditional film studies and the concept of representation itself. Throughout, the concern is to link theoretical approaches with methodologies inviting you to explore, critique and reflect on the discipline's intellectual history.

Gender and Representation

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module addresses the gendered nature of both mainstream and minority discourses and representations in history and culture. It will introduce you to the conceptual and theoretical frameworks which facilitate understanding of the production and reception of powerful representations of masculinities, femininities and sexualities, and how gendered discourses operate in different spheres.

The first part of the module concentrates on key issues in feminist and queer theories, focusing specifically on the concepts of gender, representation, and constructions of masculinities, femininities and sexualities.

The second part of the module considers these theoretical constructs within the frame of various media-centred case studies. We will also examine the way in which theories of gender and representation across a number of academic disciplines are located within specific cultural and historical contexts which themselves are both structurally and institutionally gendered.

Media Audiences

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

On this module you will explore and evaluate the broad tradition of critical research into media audiences which has developed over the past two decades.  You will consider, through an exploration of this tradition, how we should understand the nature of media texts, and in particular how meanings, uses, (dis)pleasures and responses are produced in the complex interactions between audiences and texts, in specific social settings.  This module gives you the chance - and to develop the skills to be able - to carry out a small piece of original audience research. Key methods encountered on the module include interviews, semi-structured focus group discussions, open-ended questionnaires, respondents' letters, and participant observation.

Media Theory and Research

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

The module offers you the chance to explore at an advanced level a number of principal theories and methods within a cultural studies approach to media studies, and to consider how these shape the ways we might think about and research particular media industries, forms and issues. The theory element aims to introduce you to the key thinkers, traditions and debates in media and cultural studies and contributing disciplines. It investigates media as institutions and systems of representation and explores problems of production and consumption in a variety of social and geo-political contexts. You will be encouraged to prepare informal presentations and to engage in discussion with other members of the seminar group. Each week there will also be a short introduction to the following week’s topic in the lecture given by members of the Media and Film faculty.  The research element aims to develop a systematic and critical understanding of the practical, epistemological and ethical issues involved in conducting different kinds of media and cultural research. It also aims to make you methodologically self-conscious in your own research and written work.

Media, Culture and Communication

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The module offers you the chance to explore at an advanced level a number of principal theories and methods within a cultural studies approach to media studies, and to consider how these shape the ways we might think about and research particular media industries, forms and issues. The module begins with a focus on questions concerning media production, distribution and consumption. In the latter part of the module, we pay attention to a variety of methodological approaches which draw attention in particular to different ways of conceptualising the relation between the media and concepts like subjectivity, identity, perception and experience.

The theory element aims to introduce you to the key thinkers, traditions and debates in media and cultural studies and contributing disciplines. You will investigate media as institutions and systems of representation and explore problems of production and consumption in a variety of social and geo-political contexts. You will be encouraged to prepare informal presentations and to engage in discussion with other members of the seminar group. Each week there will also be a short introduction to the following week’s topic in the lecture given by members of the Media and Film faculty. The research element aims to develop a systematic and critical understanding of the practical, epistemological and ethical issues involved in conducting different kinds of media and cultural research. It also aims to make you methodologically self-conscious in your own research and written work.

Queering Popular Culture

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module offers you the chance to explore lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer contributions to, and perspectives on, the key fields of popular culture, including film, television, the press, popular music, fashion and style. Topics for detailed study will include lesbian representation in mainstream television genres; cinematic homosexualities and their historical context; lesbian and gay 'community television'; contemporary lesbian and gay magazines and newspapers; queer pop from David Bowie to the Pet Shop Boys and beyond; sexuality and style politics; and the pleasures and problematics of camp.

You will investigate issues of representation, consumption and interpretation; unravel debates over stereotyping, subcultures and sensibilities; and ask whether a specifically 'queered' critique of the existing academic discourses used in the study of popular culture is conceptually feasible and/or politically desirable. You can expect to sharpen and deepen your skills in interdisciplinary cultural analysis, and there will be a particular emphasis on a self-reflexive examination of (y)our own popular cultural tastes and practices, exploring the connections and contradictions between theoretical accounts of popular images and forms and our experiential investments in them as consumers located in (or interested in) sexual minorities.

The approach on this module is unrepentantly interdisciplinary - there is no overarching theoretical model to which you will be obliged to subscribe. Students with or without backgrounds in cultural studies will be made equally welcome.

The Cinematic Body

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module examines the interplay between body and cinema. This includes not only the representation of the body in films but also how the body of the spectator and cultural formations of the body influence and shape cinema itself. You will draw on a wide range of theoretical frames (including film studies, psychoanalysis, gender studies, philosophy, feminism and cultural theory) to consider a variety of themes including: the body as resistance and force; notions of beauty and the sublime; the hysterical body; discipline and punishment; the body as desire. The module will also consider recent developments in film, including the idea of cyber-cinema and its impact on the body.

Women and Human Rights

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module is divided into two halves. The first half consists of core topics providing a theoretical framework for the study of women's human rights. You will draw on feminist legal theory, human rights theory, anthropological and historical materials and international and national rights instruments and documentation. The second half focuses on the conception, implementation, adherence and breach of a specific right or related rights. 

Back to module list

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in media, film or another relevant discipline. We also welcome applications from those with relevant professional experience. The latter applicants will be shortlisted on the basis of their CV and a personal statement demonstrating analytical and writing skills.

Overseas entrance requirements

Overseas qualifications

If your country is not listed below, please contact the University at E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

CountryOverseas qualification
Australia Bachelor (Honours) degree with second-class upper division
Brazil Bacharel, Licenciado or professional title with a final mark of at least 8
Canada Bachelor degree with CGPA 3.3/4.0 (grade B+)
China Bachelor degree from a leading university with overall mark of 75%-85% depending on your university
Cyprus Bachelor degree or Ptychion with a final mark of at least 7.5
France Licence with mention bien or Maîtrise with final mark of at least 13
Germany Bachelor degree or Magister Artium with a final mark of 2.4 or better
Ghana Bachelor degree from a public university with second-class upper division
Greece Ptychion from an AEI with a final mark of at least 7.5
Hong Kong Bachelor (Honours) degree with second-class upper division
India Bachelor degree from a leading institution with overall mark of at least 60% or equivalent
Iran Bachelor degree (Licence or Karshenasi) with a final mark of at least 15
Italy Diploma di Laurea with an overall mark of at least 105
Japan Bachelor degree from a leading university with a minumum average of B+ or equivalent
Malaysia Bachelor degree with class 2 division 1
Mexico Licenciado with a final mark of at least 8
Nigeria Bachelor degree with second-class upper division or CGPA of at least 3.0/4.0
Pakistan Four-year bachelor degree, normally with a GPA of at least 3.3
Russia Magistr or Specialist Diploma with a minimum average mark of at least 4
South Africa Bachelor (Honours) degree or Bachelor degree in Technology with an overall mark of at least 70%
Saudi Arabia Bachelor degree with an overall mark of at least 70% or CGPA 3.5/5.0 or equivalent
South Korea Bachelor degree from a leading university with CGPA of at least 3.5/4.0 or equivalent
Spain Licenciado with a final mark of at least 2/4
Taiwan Bachelor degree with overall mark of 70%-85% depending on your university
Thailand Bachelor degree with CGPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or equivalent
Turkey Lisans Diplomasi with CGPA of at least 3.0/4.0 depending on your university
United Arab Emirates Bachelor degree with CGPA of at least 3.5/4.0 or equivalent
USA Bachelor degree with CGPA 3.3-3.5/4.0 depending on your university
Vietnam Masters degree with CGPA 3.5/4.0 or equivalent

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

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with not less than 6.5 in each section. Internet TOEFL with 95 overall, with 22 in Listening, 23 in Reading, 23 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Visas and immigration

Find out more about Visas and immigration.

Additional admissions information

This MA provides perspectives and information for people already in the media field or wishing to enter it, or for people in any occupation where gender awareness would be an advantage.

If you are a non-EU student and your qualifications (including English language) do not yet meet our entry requirements for admission directly to this degree, we offer a Pre-Masters entry route. For more information, refer to Pre-Masters.

For more information about the admissions process at Sussex

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk 

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: £5,5001
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £5,5002
Overseas students: £13,0003

1 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
2 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
3 The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

To find out about your fee status, living expenses and other costs, visit further financial information.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

To find out more about funding and part-time work, visit further financial information.

Chancellor's International Scholarship (2014)

Region: International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 1 May 2014

25 scholarships of a 50% tuition fee waiver

Fulbright-Sussex University Award (2014)

Region: International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 15 October 2013

Each year, one award is offered to a US citizen for the first year of a postgraduate degree in any field at the University of Sussex.

Santander Scholarship (2014)

Region: International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 1 May 2014

Two scholarships of £5000 fee waiver for students studying any postgraduate taught course.

USA Friends Scholarships (2014)

Region: International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 3 April 2014

Two scholarships of an amount equivalent to $10,000 are available to nationals or residents of the USA on a one year taught Master's degree course.

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: 

Cultural histories/cultural politics

Research is focused on histories of journalism and 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. 

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. 

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, sounds 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.

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

Dr 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. 

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

Melanie Friend Documentary photographer. Representations of conflict and trauma, asylum detention in the UK. 

Lee Gooding Senior production tutor. Has produced a range of programmes for a number of organisations. 

Adrian Goycoolea Filmmaker addressing issues of identity, exploring the intersections of personal memory with social and political histories. 

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

Dr Gholam Khiabany Academic leader of the journalism degrees. 

Professor David Hendy Media and communication history, sound studies, modern mass media. 

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

Dr Margaretta Jolly Oral history, auto/ biography, diary writing. 

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

Mary Agnes Krell Media artist whose work spans performance, digital media and narrative practices. 

Dr Kate Lacey Director of Doctoral Studies, writes on media and the public sphere. Author of Listening Publics (2013). 

Andy Medhurst Post-war British popular culture; media representations of masculinity and homosexuality. 

Dr Monika Metykova Lecturer in Media Communications/Journalism Studies. Transnational media; cultural and media policies. 

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

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

Dr 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). 

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

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

Janice Winship Published on women’s magazines, advertising and consumption in the 20th century. 

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

Careers and profiles

This MA will equip you with the skills for a career in the media industries, cultural and events management, and in fields in which a knowledge of both gender politics and the media is useful. 

Claudia's career perspective

Claudia Biedert

‘I’d been aware that gender and sexuality often shape how the media report issues in my job as a radio journalist and I became interested in gender studies while studying for my first degree in Switzerland.

‘The MA in Gender and Media at Sussex stood out for me as truly interdisciplinary and one of a few of its kind, introducing me to key concepts in areas such as queer theory and postfeminism, while allowing me to set my own agenda throughout my studies. The discussions in seminars were always lively and often continued to the pub.

‘I’ve since been able to apply the critical framework I gained in a very practical way during my career. In my job as an editor, gender awareness is key for producing balanced, up-to-date publications that aren't stuck in stereotypes.’

Claudia Biedert
Prospectus Editor, University of Sussex

For more information, visit Careers and alumni.

School and contacts

School of Media, Film and Music

The School of Media, Film and Music combines rigorous critical and historical studies of media, film, music and culture with opportunities for creative practice in a range of musical forms and the media of photography, film, radio, and interactive digital imaging.

School of Media, Film and Music,
University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RG, UK
T +44 (0)1273 873481
E mfm@sussex.ac.uk
School of Media, Film and Music

Postgraduate Open Day 2013

4 December 2013, 1pm-4pm
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