Digital Media, Culture and Film Studies

Digital media, culture, and film studies is a combination that addresses the full landscape of contemporary media, situating film within the broader context of digital culture, examining how digital technologies have transformed the production, circulation, and consumption of cultural texts, and engaging with the critical tools needed to analyse all of this with rigour. Film studies provides an analytical foundation rooted in the specific language of cinema, the history of the medium, and the theoretical traditions developed to understand it. Cultural and digital media studies extends that inquiry to encompass the full range of media environments in which we now live, from streaming platforms and social media to digital archives and algorithmic content recommendation.

At the School of Oriental and African Studies in London this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year option and brings the distinctive perspective of an institution specialising in the cultures and media of the Global South and Asia. You will engage with film and media from a genuinely global perspective rather than one focused primarily on Hollywood and European traditions, examining how cinema and digital culture look in contexts ranging from South Asian cinema and African documentary to Middle Eastern media production and digital activism. The programme equips you with critical and analytical tools that are relevant and distinctive.

You will develop skills in close media and film analysis, critical writing, cultural theory, and the research capabilities needed to engage with media in its diverse global forms.

Graduates pursue careers in film and media criticism, cultural policy, broadcasting, journalism, digital content, archives and heritage, arts organisations, and education. Postgraduate study in film studies, media studies, digital humanities, or cultural policy is a natural continuation.