Film & Visual Culture and Media & Communication
Film and visual culture combined with media and communication is a degree that takes seriously how images, screens and stories shape the world we live in. Film studies examines cinema as a major artistic and cultural form, exploring how films create meaning through visual language, narrative, genre, performance and the contexts in which they are made and received. Visual culture extends that analysis beyond cinema to encompass photography, television, digital media, advertising and the full range of visual practices through which contemporary culture operates.
Media and communication brings in the broader study of how messages are produced, distributed and consumed, including journalism, public relations, digital platforms and the political economy of media industries.
At Liverpool Hope University, this three-year programme blends practice and theory, as the university describes, allowing you to work creatively in film, photography and animation alongside developing critical and analytical understanding of the media landscape. The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad and work placements, providing multiple structured routes to develop professional experience and international perspective. You will build practical skills in filmmaking, visual production and media content creation alongside theoretical knowledge of film history and criticism, media studies, cultural theory and communication.
The combination of practical and critical skills is increasingly valued in a media and creative industries sector that expects practitioners to be both technically capable and analytically informed about the contexts in which they work.
Graduates go on to careers in film and television production, digital media and content creation, journalism, marketing and communications, advertising, public relations, arts organisations, broadcasting and education. Further study in film, media studies, creative practice or journalism is also a common route for those who want to specialise or develop their practice at a higher level.