Media and Culture

Media and culture is the study of the relationships between communication systems, cultural production, and social life. It asks how media shapes public understanding and individual experience, how cultural meanings are made and contested, and what happens when images, stories, and information cross borders and audiences. It is a discipline that takes both the texts of popular culture and the theoretical tools for analysing them seriously.

At the University of Liverpool this three-year full-time programme combines the critical analysis of media with broader cultural studies, drawing on sociology, semiotics, cultural history, and political economy. You will examine film, television, journalism, social media, advertising, and digital platforms, thinking about both how they work and what they do in the world. You will develop skills in textual analysis, research, argumentation, and writing that are relevant both to academic understanding and to professional practice in media and communications.

The programme includes a sandwich year with a work placement and a year abroad. The placement year gives you real professional experience in a media, communications, or cultural organisation before you complete your degree. The year abroad places you in a different cultural and media environment, providing a comparative perspective that enriches your understanding of how media and culture work differently in different national contexts.

Graduates go on to careers in journalism, broadcasting, digital communications, public relations, advertising, arts administration, social media management, content creation, and cultural organisations. The combination of critical analytical skills, professional experience, and international outlook is well suited to a media landscape that is both intellectually demanding and rapidly changing. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in media studies, cultural studies, journalism, or communications.