Media and Communications

Media and communications is a discipline concerned with how information, ideas and culture are produced, distributed and consumed through the full range of contemporary media forms. It encompasses television, film, digital platforms, social media, journalism, advertising and public communication, and it asks both critical and practical questions about how media work: who makes them, under what conditions, for what audiences, and with what effects. The field brings together creative production skills, theoretical frameworks from cultural and media studies, and practical understanding of the industries that shape public life.

At Sheffield Hallam University, this three-year full-time degree, which is available with a foundation year, combines practical and theoretical study in an integrated way. The foundation year is available for students who need additional preparation before degree-level study. In the main degree you will engage with creative media production, digital media technologies, audience research, cultural and media policy, industrial analysis, film and television storytelling, and production studies, developing both the practical skills to make media and the critical ability to analyse its social and cultural dimensions.

A sandwich year placement and a work placement are built into the programme, giving you significant professional experience in media or communications contexts and connecting your academic learning directly to the industry.

You will develop your practical production skills alongside your capacity for critical and analytical thinking about media, building a portfolio of work and a set of theoretical perspectives that together prepare you for professional life.

Graduates from media and communications degrees move into television and film production, digital media, journalism, public relations and communications, social media management, advertising, content creation, broadcasting, and a wide range of other roles in the media and creative industries. Postgraduate study in media, communications or journalism is a well-supported pathway for those who want to specialise further.