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Digital Cultures and Media BA Honours

  • UCAS code: P305
  • Full time
  • 3 years

Digital technology now shapes every aspect of culture and society. This degree will make you stand out as a specialist in this field. It will set you up for a career in the digital, media or creative industries.

You are currently viewing course information for entry year: 2024-25


Next start date:

  • September 2024

Fees (per year)

  • Home: £9250
  • International: £21600

Entry requirements and offers

  • A-Level: AAB
  • IB: 34 points

UCAS Institution name and code:

  • NEWC / N21

Course overview

Ever wondered how social media influences our politics, or how AI can discriminate against different ethnicities? Are you fascinated by how apps have affected our lives?

We rely on digital technologies - to read the news, maintain our friendships, and manage our work. They affect what we do and how we behave.

This Digital Cultures and Media degree focuses on how digital technologies shape society. It explores how media influences culture and communication. You'll create and analyse contemporary media like mobile apps and data visualisations. You’ll learn creative applications of immersive technologies, and how to apply them in the real world.

You will graduate with the ability to combine critical thinking with the practical digital skills needed to reshape our digital lives.

Your course and study experience - disclaimers and terms and conditions  
Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption, for example in response to Covid-19.

View our Academic experience page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2023-24.

See our terms and conditions and student complaints information, which gives details of circumstances that may lead to changes to programmes, modules or University services.

Quality and ranking

Professional accreditation and recognition

All professional accreditations are reviewed regularly by their professional body.

Modules and learning

Modules

The information below is intended to provide an example of what you will study.

Most degrees are divided into stages. Each stage lasts for one academic year, and you'll complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each stage. 

Our teaching is informed by research. Course content may change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback.

Optional module availability
Student demand for optional modules may affect availability.

Full details of the modules on offer will be published through the Programme Regulations and Specifications ahead of each academic year. This usually happens in May.

To find out more please see our terms and conditions.

You'll learn key digital skills and be introduced to cultural theories that will set you up with a strong foundation for the rest of your degree. You'll explore how digital technologies shape, and are shaped by, their cultural and political contexts. You'll learn basic skills in digital storytelling, data visualisation, interactivity, and the creative web. You'll take a module on critical writing and research to support your undergraduate learning.

Modules

Compulsory Modules Credits
Introduction to Digital Cultures 20
Skills and Methods in Digital Cultures 20
Media Studies 20
Critical Skills in Media, Communication & Cultural Studies 20
Social and Cultural Studies 20
Optional Modules Credits
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 10
Data Science 10
Stuff: living in a material world 20
Journalism: Pasts, present and future 20
Introduction to Popular Music Studies 20

You’ll expand your understanding and knowledge of digital cultures. You'll develop your digital skills and put them to use working in a group to respond to a real-world problem, introduced by partners in industry.

You'll choose from a wide range of optional modules to focus in more depth on topics that interest you, such as gender, race, sexuality, social media, digital politics, and celebrity culture.

Modules

Compulsory Modules Credits
Work Experience: Find, Apply & Succeed 0
Research Methods 20
Expanding Digital Cultures 20
Collaborating in Digital Cultures 20
Optional Modules Credits
Histories of Photography 20
Social Geographies 20
Film Theory for Practice 1: What is cinema? 20
Film Theory for Practice 2: Why Cinema? 20
Mobile App Design Through Prototyping 20
Student Exchange: Semester 1 60
Introduction to Public Relations 20
Race, Culture and Identity 20
Sex, Sexuality and Desire 20
Popular Culture, Media & Identity 20
Visual Culture 20
Celebrity Culture 20
Conflict and Crisis Reporting 20
Free Music Practice: Experimental Pop & Interdisciplinary Performance 20
Jazz Today: Tomorrow Is The Question 20
Popular Music and Media 20
Career Development for second year students 20
Consciousness, Art and Technology 20
Philosophy and Science 10
Digital Civics 20

Teaching and assessment

Teaching methods

Teaching is through lectures, seminars, practical skills workshops, and one-to-one tutorials.

In Year 3 you undertake a research project that accounts for one-third of your time.

Assessment methods

You'll be assessed through a combination of:

  • Assignments – written or fieldwork

  • Coursework

  • Dissertation or research project

  • Essays

  • Group work

  • Projects

  • Reflective report/journal

Skills and experience

Practical skills

You'll learn to create digital media such as mobile apps and data visualisations. You’ll create digital stories using immersive technologies, combining photography, film, sound and text. You'll explore the interactivity of wearable technologies and modern mobile devices and learn to look at the web as a place that can be creatively remade.

Business skills

In Stage 2 you'll apply your digital skills to real-world problems through a group-based practical project introduced by partners in industry and the charity/public sector.

Research skills

In Stage 3 you'll undertake a digital cultures practical project or dissertation. This gives you the chance to demonstrate your learned knowledge and develop your skills, techniques and understanding around independent, in-depth research.

You will learn from our expert staff who are at the forefront of the discipline. Our research themes include:

  • digital communication and cultures
  • feminism, intersectionality, and post-colonialism
  • media, journalism and popular culture
  • intimacy, sexuality, family, childhood and education
  • digital labour, platform economies and neoliberalism
  • media ethics

 

Opportunities

Study abroad

Experience life in another country by choosing to study abroad as part of your degree. You’ll be encouraged to embrace fun and challenging experiences, make connections with new communities and graduate as a globally aware professional, ready for your future.

You can choose to spend up to a year studying at a partner institution overseas.

If you choose to study abroad, it will extend your degree by a year. 

Find out more about study abroad

Work placement

Get career ready with a work placement and leave as a confident professional in your field. You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months working in any organisation in the world, and receive University support from our dedicated team to secure your dream placement. Work placements take place between stages 2 and 3.

You'll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.

If you choose to take a work placement, it will extend your degree by a year, and your degree title will show you have achieved the placement year. A work placement is not available if you're spending a year studying abroad. Placements are subject to availability.

Find out more about work placements

Facilities and environment

Facilities

As a student of Media, Journalism and Film Practice at Newcastle University, you will join a vibrant community in the School of Arts and Cultures' Media, Culture, Heritage department. 

You will be based in the Armstrong Building and Film@CultureLab, right at the heart of our city-centre campus. You'll be close to all of Newcastle University's amenities, as well as being just a five-minute walk to Newcastle's main street, Northumberland Street. 

You'll have access to:

  • professional-standard video and audio equipment, studio space and AV-editing facilities
  • specialist computing facilities, including industry-standard software, such as Adobe Creative Suite
  • a mobile studio suite

Support

You'll have the support of an academic member of staff as a personal tutor throughout your degree to help with academic and personal issues.

You will also benefit from the expert knowledge and skills of our dedicated team of technicians based in Culture Lab.

Peer mentors will help you in your first year. They are fellow students who can help you settle in and answer any questions you have when starting university.

Your future

The critical, creative and analytical skills you’ll develop will make you an attractive hire in almost any graduate job in the contemporary job market. You’ll be well suited to a career where innovation, collaboration and constant reskilling is key. This could mean you go on to work for:

  • creative industries
  • charities
  • advocacy
  • think tanks

You would be well suited to work in web, app or UX design, copywriting, content creation or strategy. Your understanding of the media, digital skills and ability to tell stories in a new way will be an asset as a journalist as well as in publishing, advertising, marketing and PR.

Make a difference

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Careers support

Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers. We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through our ncl+ initiative.

Visit our Careers Service website

Recognition of professional qualifications outside of the UK

From 1 January 2021 there is an update to the way professional qualifications are recognised by countries outside of the UK

Entry requirements

All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements and offers below apply to 2024 entry.

A-Level
International Baccalaureate

Other UK and the Republic of Ireland qualifications

Contextual Offers

Through one of our contextual routes, you could receive an offer of up to three grades lower than the typical requirements.

What is a contextual offer? Find out more and if you’re eligible for this or our PARTNERS Programme supported entry route.

Qualifications from outside the UK

English Language requirements

Entrance courses (INTO)

International Pathway Courses are specialist programmes designed for international students who want to study in the UK. We provide a range of study options for international students in partnership with INTO. 

Find out more about International Pathway Courses

Admissions policy

This policy applies to all undergraduate and postgraduate admissions at Newcastle University. It is intended to provide information about our admissions policies and procedures to applicants and potential applicants, to their advisors and family members, and to staff of the University.

Credit transfer and Recognition of Prior Learning

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) can allow you to convert existing relevant university-level knowledge, skills and experience into credits towards a qualification. Find out more about the RPL policy which may apply to this course.

Tuition fees and scholarships

Tuition fees for 2024 entry (per year)

Qualification: BA Honours

Home students

full time 3 years

Tuition fees (per year)

9250

International students

full time 3 years

Tuition fees (per year)

21600

Year abroad and additional costs

For programmes where you can spend a year on a work placement or studying abroad, you will receive a significant fee reduction for that year. 

Some of our degrees involve additional costs which are not covered by your tuition fees.

Find out more about:

Scholarships

Find out more about:

Open days and events

How to apply

Apply through UCAS

To apply for undergraduate study at Newcastle University, you must use the online application system managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). All UK schools and colleges, and a small number of EU and international establishments, are registered with UCAS. You will need:

  • the UCAS name and institution codes for Newcastle University (NEWC/N21)
  • the UCAS code for the course you want to apply for
  • the UCAS 'buzzword' for your school or college

If you are applying independently, or are applying from a school or college which is not registered to manage applications, you will still use the Apply system. You will not need a buzzword.

Apply through UCAS

Apply through an agent

International students often apply to us through an agent. Have a look at our recommended agents and get in touch with them.

Visit our International pages

Get in touch

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Call us on +44 (0) 191 208 3333 and press option 1. Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 10am until 4pm.

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