Media and English Literature

The BA in Media and English Literature at Aberystwyth University enables you to discover a broad range of literary texts and cultures with a superb choice from the early medieval period to the present day. In addition, the Media component of this course will provide you the opportunity to widen your knowledge and explore who controls and owns our media, how content is produced and what kind of impact the media has on the audiences. The Media and English Literature degree scheme will provide you with a solid foundation to develop your powers of expression, hone your critical thinking and establish specialist knowledge and research skills- all grounded in a detail and broad understanding of literary history and cultural context.

The course
Taught by two departments (the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies and the Department of English and Creative Writing) you will have an opportunity to study in great detail the following: advertising, news analysis, website design, digital culture, surveillance society, gender and the media, media history and policy together with creative practices experience in multi-platform production and experimental media.
The English Literature component of this course will enable you to engage with a variety of approaches to literature and cultural history, combining critical thinking with scholarship. During the duration of this course, the various core and optional modules will give you an insight into literary theory, philosophical and conceptual ideas that inform, challenge and problematise the ways we read.
The various core and optional modules available to you during the duration of this course will give you a deeper understanding of sociology, psychology, cultural studies, history, philosophy, linguistics and marketing.

Facilities
At Aberystwyth University, our students benefit from our strategic closeness to the National Library of Wales. The National Library is a copyright library which houses every book that has been published in the United Kingdom. In addition, it also home to National Sound and Screen Archive in Wales which will become a valuable resource to your research projects in your final years.

On the University campus, our facilities include the Hugh Owen Library which is open 24/7, the Students’ Union, the Sports Centre and the Arts Centre which has close and deep links with the departments of Theatre, Film and Television Studies and the department of English and Creative Writing. The multitude of facilities on Penglais campus ensures that your student experience is memorable and exceptional.

The Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies has strong links with external media industries, these include the BBC Wales which houses it regional office in the heart of the Department, Boom Cymru, Avanti, Arad Goch and the Mid-Wales Arts Centre. The Department itself is modern, vibrant and has all the latest teaching facilities that media student requires, this includes a brand-new PC lab designed to assimilate the digital media industry, digital production and editing suits, a viewing cinema, television studies and modern learning spaces.

The Department English and Creative Writing provides you with every opportunity to develop and become a flourishing writer. Their links with New Welsh Review, Wales’ foremost literary magazine enables students to contribute to their monthly and annual publications. In addition, all final year students take part in a writing retreat at a country house in Mid-Wales. The writing retreat is an amazing opportunity to spend time with fellow students and staff, developing your final year projects and dissertations, in a splendid rural setting.

Employability
Many of our graduates have found career paths which include:
• Broadcasting media;
• Floor managers;
• Camera operators;
• Producers and directors;
• Marketing;
• Media Planning;
• Education;
• Public relations.