Film & Media and History

Film and Media Studies alongside History is a combination that rewards the serious student of both disciplines, because moving images and media have always been one of the primary ways in which history is made, remembered, and contested. The newsreel footage of the twentieth century's wars, the propaganda films of authoritarian regimes, the documentary tradition that has shaped how societies understand their own past, and the fictional representations that often do more than textbooks to form popular historical consciousness: all of these make film and media an indispensable part of how historical knowledge is produced and circulated.

At the University of Stirling, this four-year full-time degree includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study in a different cultural and academic context and to encounter the histories and media traditions of another country at first hand. You will develop skills in film and media analysis, studying how moving images work aesthetically, technically, and ideologically, alongside the historical skills of primary source analysis, archival research, and evidence-based argument. The combination allows you to investigate how media shapes historical consciousness, how historical contexts shape media production, and how both disciplines have developed as fields of academic inquiry.

You will graduate with strong analytical, research, and writing skills, the ability to work with a wide range of primary sources including films, documents, and archives, and an understanding of how media and history intersect in public and professional life.

Graduates move into careers in heritage and cultural institutions, broadcasting, journalism, film and television research, archiving, education, documentary production, and public history. Many also pursue postgraduate study in film studies, history, media, or cultural policy, and the analytical skills developed on the degree are valued in publishing, communications, and the civil service.