BA (Hons) Media and Communications Bachelor's degree at Goldsmiths, University of London

Over the past 130 years, moving images have developed into a major aesthetic and social force of our times. Our realities past, present and future are consumed by the audiovisual mediations that we share in our cultures. Our imaginations and desires are built on fiction from films. We mirror ourselves through our doubles on screen. But how do moving images actually engage us? What's their language? How do they affect us as human beings with a body, a psyche and social awareness? What does it mea

How do the media shape our worldview, sense of self and ideas about public life? Media – from television and social media to on-demand labour apps and self-tracking wearables – do not just convey or coordinate information, they are also battlegrounds for making meaning and resisting power. Media producers, regulators, intermediaries and users constantly jostle to have a say, change the narrative or redesign the platform. This module introduces key concepts to engage with contemporary debates abo

This module covers the history of the British media from 1800 to the present day. It offers insights into the forces that shape the media, how the media connect to power and social change, and the ways in which the media have come to occupy a central role in the imaginative life and leisure of British society. It ranges over a variety of topics, from the struggle for a free press and the creation of public service broadcasting through to changing representations of nation, class, race, and sexua

How do we decide if a piece of media is worth our attention? How do we combine critical thinking about the media with making interesting media? In the age of social media and user-generated content, are we all artists now? The module starts by looking at some of the different ways in which artists have used media and technology across different historical periods. Through this, it introduces aesthetic concerns to the study of media, raising questions about cultural appreciation, value, and taste

Cultural studies is a field of study committed to the interrogation of power in society that starts with self-examination of the field and its own assumptions. As Stuart Hall, one of the most influential figures in the field, has argued, cultural studies 'is a project that is always open to that which it doesn't yet know, to that which it can't yet name' (Grossberg et al., 1992: 278). It starts with a general introduction to the idea of culture, and some of the problems associated with defining

The module provides you with a basic knowledge of the key works of some of the most significant foundational social theorists (Marx, Weber, Du Bois and Simmel) and explores how ideas continue to influence our understandings of the media, modernity and power. It should be evident that whilst media theorists have their own particular concerns, in many cases they are responding to problems posed within this classic tradition and within the context of their own times. The social theory examined in t

This module will examine the place of 'experience' in thinking about our self-formation. What does it mean to 'know ourselves' and what role does psychological thinking, norms and concepts play in this process of knowing? We'll examine arguments which suggest that psychology, as a body of knowledge and set of practices, does not actually reveal, or disclose who we are, but plays a central role in constructing whom we take ourselves to be. We'll interrogate the relationships between psychology, m