Media Studies with a Year Abroad

Media studies is a discipline concerned with understanding how media shapes and is shaped by the societies in which it operates. From the printing press to the smartphone, from the nightly news to the social media feed, media has always been central to how human beings communicate, make sense of the world, and exercise power. Studying it seriously requires both critical and creative skills: the ability to analyse how media texts produce meaning and effect, and the practical competence to create media that serves a purpose.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year, full-time programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study media in another country and to experience a different media culture and regulatory environment from the outside. You will develop critical and creative skills for navigating and working in today's digital media landscape, examining the history and theory of media, the economics of media industries, questions of representation and power, and the evolving relationship between media, politics, and everyday life. The degree is designed to equip you for careers in a media world that continues to change rapidly, developing both the analytical depth to understand those changes and the practical skills to work within them.

Graduates go on to careers in journalism, broadcasting, digital media, content production, public relations, communications, social media management, advertising, film and television, and arts administration. The critical skills the degree develops are also valued in the civil service, policy work, education, and the charity sector. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in media, journalism, film, or communications, and some pursue academic careers in media studies, exploring the questions about culture, power, and representation that the discipline continues to raise.