Media and Creative Writing BA (Hons)

Aberystwyth University

The BA in Media and Creative Writing and Aberystwyth University enables you to learn the strategic and structural components of the media industry while at the same time pursuing, improving and developing your creative writing skills. The Creative Writing component of this degree will enable you to focus on the craft of writing, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screen plays and more. You will also develop the critical and analytical skills necessary for a career in a broad array of creative industry. 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 Creative Writing 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.

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: media fandom, advertising, news analysis, website design, digital culture, children and the media, surveillance society, language and the media, media history and policy together with the exploration of the connections between creative and critical thinking and develop a deep understanding of the relationship between professional practice and imaginative thought.

The Creative Writing 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. This 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 is a valuable resource to your research.

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 industry, 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, a television studio and modern learning spaces.

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.