Film and Media Studies

Film and media studies is a discipline that examines the most pervasive forms of communication and entertainment in the modern world, exploring how films, television, journalism, online media, radio, and digital platforms are produced, distributed, and consumed, and what they reveal about the societies and cultures that make and receive them. It is a discipline that takes popular culture seriously as an object of intellectual inquiry, asking how media shapes our understanding of politics, gender, class, race, history, and the possibilities of social life.

At the University of Leicester you will follow a three-year programme that explores the relationship between film and other screen, broadcast, and print media, engaging with the various theoretical traditions that have developed around these subjects. You will study film history and form alongside media theory, textual analysis, production contexts, and the political economy of media industries. The programme includes a year abroad, giving you access to different national media traditions and scholarly approaches.

You will develop skills in critical analysis, research, written argument, and the ability to situate media texts in their historical, industrial, and cultural contexts.

Graduates of film and media studies enter careers in broadcasting, film and television production, online media, journalism, public relations and communications, advertising, education, arts administration, and the wide range of roles in the cultural and creative sectors. The critical and analytical skills the programme develops are also valued in research, public policy, and the many professional contexts in which the ability to interpret and communicate about complex media environments matters. Postgraduate study in media, film, cultural studies, journalism, or communications is a natural extension for those who wish to develop specialist expertise or pursue academic research careers.