Department of Media
The long and distinguished history of the Department
makes Media one of the most well established of its kind amongst British
Universities. Illustrious alumni of the Department include Neil
Marshall (Writer/Director) and Keith Bell (Producer) who recently made
the box office success ‘The Descent’ in 2005. In 2008, another graduate,
director of photography Lol Crawley, won the Cinematography prize at the
Sundance film festival.
The Media Department was originally launched to cater for the growing demand in technically oriented undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Media Production. The newly re-structured Department covers a wide span of media and communication, incorporating film and television studies, media studies, cultural studies, media production, advertising, mass communication and journalism. Staff in the Department are (individually and collaboratively) engaged in a wide variety of research, enterprise, consultancy and professional activities that reflect and enhance its standing in the academic community. Examples of current projects include: theoretical approaches to the ideological role of the media; the history of popular music on television; the application of new media technologies for pedagogical purposes; the cultural politics of celebrity; the development of online student broadcasting; the synthesis of fashion and media cultures in post-war Britain; and photographic and textual representations of the local environment. While the range of topics is an indication of the diversity of interests and approaches within the Department, they are united by a common recognition of the enormous significance of the media’s institutions, an awareness of the central importance of global communication processes in shaping and transforming the world, and an understanding of the constraints and opportunities brought by the introduction of rapidly changing technologies. In addition, many of these research activities spring from, and feed back into, the student curriculum.
The Department of Media places great emphasis on the quality of its environment and believes that a successful teaching and research milieu flourishes in an atmosphere of mutual support and respect. It also relishes the opportunities which arise from being situated in one of the most vibrant and cultured city-regions of the United Kingdom.
The Department of Media is equipped with state-of-the-art production tools, ranging from a variety of digital video cameras to a recently refurbished studio, fully networked industry-standard edit suites, journalism newsroom, media IT labs and viewing facilities.
The Department of Media is part of the School of Arts and Social Sciences. The Department was rated 4 in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise and was deemed to be excellent in the 1999 Quality Assessment Audit.
