MA Media in Development
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 25,320 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 12,220 per year
Introduction
This MA Media in Development program challenges the assumptions behind the media and development industries and development studies and offers new ways of thinking about the critical issues facing societies today such as climate change.
The approach balances critical theoretical analysis of the hegemony implied by the ideas and practices of development with the practical issues surrounding the use of contemporary media, including the use of digital technologies for development communication, online activism, developmental journalism, and information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D).
The MA Media in Development course draws on critical media and cultural studies theory, practical knowledge and experience, alongside critical debates within and about development, to challenge assumptions about the role of media and development industries as agents of change in the contemporary world. Students combine critical theoretical analysis of the role of media in development with a focus on practical issues surrounding the use of media, including digital technologies.
The programme differs from other degrees in the field by placing the onus on the role of media to further the development agenda, especially post the Second World War, critically negotiating its origins in West-centric ideas of modernisation, social change and progress and their relevance in today's multipolar world. Students benefit from the unique position of the Centre for Media Studies as a specialist institution for the study of media in the global south.
Our research in film and media has been ranked in the top 20 in the UK in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, with more than a third of our research publications assessed as 4* (world-leading).
Gallery
Admissions
Curriculum
Students must take 180 credits comprised of 120 taught credits (including core and option modules) and a 60-credit dissertation.
Core
- Theoretical and Contemporary Issues in Media, Information Communication Technologies and Development
- Topics in Media, Information Communication Technologies and Development (Compulsory)
- Qualitative Research Methods
- Dissertation MA Media and Development
Guided options List 1
Students must take up to 30 credits from List 1 as a Guided Option
- Mediated Culture in the Middle East: Politics and Communications
- Transnational Communities and Diasporic Media: Networking, Connectivity, Identity
- International Journalisms in the Digital Context: Theory and Practice
- International Political Communication
- Podcasting
- Theoretical and Contemporary Issues in Global Media and Digital Communication
- Topics in Global Media and Digital Communication
- Prejudice, Conspiracy and Misinformation: Understanding the Debate around '(Post)-Truth'
Guided options List 2
Students must take up to 45 credits from List 2 as an Open Option
- 750B Ethnographic Locations: East Asia
- 750A Ethnographic Locations: Sub-Saharan Africa
- Civil Society, Social Movements, and the Development Process
- Law, Religion, and the State in South Asia
- Human Rights and Islamic Law
- International Commercial Arbitration
- Law and Development in Africa
- Foundations of International Law
- Colonialism, Empire, and International Law
- Water Justice: Rights, Access, and Movements
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Law and Postcolonial Theory
- International Criminal Law
- International Investment Law
Program Outcome
Knowledge
- How to assess data and evidence critically from texts, manuscripts, audio and video sources, both analogue and digital, solve problems of conflicting sources and conflicting interpretations, develop skills in critical judgements of complex source materials, locate materials in print and online, use research resources (particularly research library catalogues and websites) and other relevant traditional and electronic sources.
- Knowledge and understanding of the dynamics and debates about the role of media and Information Communication Technologies in the development process: to be able to critically examine the discourses of development, the roles of national and international organizations, NGOs, and citizens in defining and producing development and the emergence of critical and alternative paradigms for sustainable societies; to be aware of the key theoretical issues surrounding the role of media and Information Communication Technologies in development processes; to be able to analytically disaggregate economic, political, social and cultural strands of development and the nature of mediated practices within each; develop awareness of emergent models of sustainable development in which contemporary media practices play a key role; analyze the role of the media in hegemonic representations of social change and development.
Intellectual (thinking) skills
- To be critical and precise in their assessment of evidence, and to understand through practice what documents and electronic sources can and cannot tell us. Such skills should improve and be refined throughout the programme.
- Question theories and interpretations, however authoritative, and critically reassess evidence for themselves. Students will learn how to question and challenge the accepted tenets both of development and media as the means of transmission of messages. These skills should improve and be refined throughout the programme.
- Critically interrogate situated empirical examples of specific media and Information Communication Technologies practices in development contexts in Asia, Africa, Middle East
Subject-based practical skills
- Communicate effectively in writing
- Retrieve, sift and select information from a variety of conventional and electronic sources
- Communicate orally to a group. Listen and discuss ideas introduced during seminars and classes.
- Practise research techniques in a variety of specialized research libraries and institutes.
- Have developed some new competencies in digital media production and dissemination
Transferable skills
- Write good essays and dissertations
- Structure and communicate ideas effectively both orally and in writing
- Understand unconventional ideas
- Study a variety of written and digital materials, in libraries, online and research libraries of a kind they will not have used as undergraduates.
- Present material orally to a group.
- Have developed a range of online competencies
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Graduates from the Centre for Global Media and Communications gain expertise in media, communications and film production within a global framework. Graduates develop a portfolio of transferable skills including communication skills, interpersonal skills and teamwork, which are highly respected by employers.
Recent graduates have been hired by:
- Africa Mediaworks Ltd.
- Al Jazeera
- Associated Press
- BBC
- Breakthrough Breast Cancer
- British Film Institute
- Channel 5
- Comic Relief
- Cordoba African Film Festival
- Discovery Communications
- Equality Now
- Hackney Film Festival
- International Channel Shanghai
- Internews Europe
- Merlin
- Novus
- Office for National Statistics
- Royal College of Art
- The Institute of Ismaili Studies
- Unilever
- United Nations
- Westminster City Council