Are you fascinated by contemporary culture? Are you curious to learn about how new digital technologies form our identities, shape our politics, affect audiences – and how you can influence change in the creative industries? Study our Media Studies degree to explore how media shape us, how they can enrich our lives and how you, through creative practice, can shape the media.

Media Studies at Kent is based in the School of Arts, a creative and academic hub for students in drama, film, media studies and art history. Together we occupy the award-winning Jarman building, which houses outstanding teaching facilities and media 

Our teaching staff are leading researchers in the field. They help you to answer questions such as: How can social media empower – but also endanger – users? What are the ethical dilemmas that new digital technologies create? How do media help construct – but also distort – our ideas about identity? The degree also gives students the opportunity to create blogs, podcasts, videos and other creative media.

Our degree programme

Communication happens through still and moving images, spoken and written words, music, drawing and animation. In the 21st century the boundaries between these forms have blurred. On this programme, you examine how old and new media are creating meaning today and using our first-class resources to create work of your own.

In your first year, you cover media and meaning, media identity and diversity, media  power and/or making media (i.e. a practical introduction to media content creation). This gives you a solid grounding in the subject and introduces you to some of the most pressing issues in contemporary media culture and the creative industries.

The second and final years of your degree build on these foundations. You take a module on media ethics and choose from a huge range of modules, covering everything from podcasting, gender and digital culture, social media, digital storytelling, to photography and arts criticism, screenwriting and curating. You can also study modules from other subjects, such as film, drama and theatre, art history, literature, history, philosophy, politics and sociology.

Year abroad

You have the opportunity to spend a year abroad, between the second and final years of your degree. For more information, see Media Studies with an Approved Year Abroad.

Study resources

Our first-class resources allow us to offer innovative modules and ways of learning. These include:

• our own Media Hub, with dedicated video and sound editing software
• our own cinema, which screens ten to 15 films a week
• 8,000 DVDs and videos in the library
• a fully equipped construction workshop
• media production facilities
• an extensive collection of books and journals, including online resources.

Extra activities

The School of Arts puts on many special events, which you are welcome to attend. In previous years, these have included symposia, seminars, conferences and exhibitions.

You can take part in media-related student societies, such as:

• Canterbury Student Radio (CSR 97.4FM)
• InQuire student newspaper
• Kent Television (KTV)

Kent Union also runs a media hub, the Student Media Centre, where student volunteers work together to produce print, radio and online content. You can use the hub’s industry-standard editing suites, a radio studio and a TV studio.

Professional network

The School of Arts has developed excellent links with industry and frequently brings in colleagues from organisations such as the BBC and The Guardian to talk to students.