This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of how media and cultural contexts shape understandings and practices of crime, violence, victimisation and justice.

You'll leave with a critical understanding of media representations of crime and violence and skills to identify the ways in which media is used as a vehicle for crime, violence and/or justice.

The aim of this module is to provide you with a critical understanding of the core contexts, critical arguments, theories and debates in penal policy and criminal justice practice. It's designed to provide you with relevant knowledge, understanding and skills to critically engage with theory, research and contemporary debates about penal responses to people who offend, and with critical debates in contemporary policies and practices, as well as introducing more radical approaches to penal change.

To be taken from a range of modules (see indicative list).

This module is designed to provide you with skills and knowledge to design research projects.

By the end of the module, you'll know:

• what is expected from a Masters dissertation in communication
• how to design research questions, literature review, and methods
• how to choose the most suitable approaches for your research interests

This module enables you to delve more deeply into a core area of media, crime and violence that interests you – with expert guidance - in preparation for the dissertation. This module is designed to give you the opportunity to pursue research interests which are not aligned to existing optional modules.

It enables students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to enhance their understanding of core debates essential to their interdisciplinary dissertation project.

To be taken from a range of modules (see indicative list).

Your dissertation will provide you with the opportunity to undertake a piece of independent research, which is of professional or academic relevance to you.

This will be assessed on the basis of a dissertation of approximately 15,000 words. The work enables and requires you to draw on the skills and insights acquired during the Masters programme.

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding of how media and cultural contexts shape understandings and practices of crime, violence, victimisation and justice.

You'll leave with a critical understanding of media representations of crime and violence and skills to identify the ways in which media is used as a vehicle for crime, violence and/or justice.

This module enables you to delve more deeply into a core area of media, crime and violence that interests you – with expert guidance - in preparation for the dissertation. This module is designed to give you the opportunity to pursue research interests which are not aligned to existing optional modules.

It enables students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to enhance their understanding of core debates essential to their interdisciplinary dissertation project.

To be taken from a range of modules (see indicative list).

The aim of this module is to provide you with a critical understanding of the core contexts, critical arguments, theories and debates in penal policy and criminal justice practice. It's designed to provide you with relevant knowledge, understanding and skills to critically engage with theory, research and contemporary debates about penal responses to people who offend, and with critical debates in contemporary policies and practices, as well as introducing more radical approaches to penal change.

To be taken from a range of modules (see indicative list).

This module is designed to provide you with skills and knowledge to design research projects.

By the end of the module, you'll know:

• what is expected from a Masters dissertation in communication
• how to design research questions, literature review, and methods
• how to choose the most suitable approaches for your research interests

Your dissertation will provide you with the opportunity to undertake a piece of independent research, which is of professional or academic relevance to you.

This will be assessed on the basis of a dissertation of approximately 15,000 words. The work enables and requires you to draw on the skills and insights acquired during the Masters programme.

This module with afford you an advanced insight into the principles, tactics and ethical responsibilities of strategic communication. Using appropriate case studies, the module will critically evaluate the necessary communication concepts, the position of stakeholders and strategic narratives, as well as the ethics of strategic communication in working with notions of corporate responsibility and social development.

You'll study the dominant media and communication theories, and their application across a number of international contexts and media platforms. You'll examine the trends and texts over a number of media contexts and genres, including popular cultural platforms and the coverage of politics, as well as dealing with the implications of international media on the mediation and public understanding of conflict and terrorism. 

This module is designed to give students an understanding of key ethical issues, practices and norms of the digital media environment.

Due to the rapid changes in the digital environment, journalism and wider information media systems have become key sites where normative questions arise about the ethics of these systems, processes and technologies. This includes the interrogation of the tensions between old and new values and traditions in a globally-networked system that has a bearing on individual and collective experience and identity.

This module is for students who wish to learn how to apply theoretical frameworks to complex topics in the digital media environment. 

The aim of this class is to provide fundamental data analytics skills to postgraduate students in the media and communication subject area. The class focuses on embracing new analytical capabilities provided by developments in the field of information communication and technology. The Media Analytics module will provide a much-needed set of analytical skills, enabling students to adapt to recent trends in the media and communication landscape.

This module will teach students the specific industry legal framework which applies in digital journalism. It will enable students to understand international media law and the application of international media law to digital journalism globally.

The most important skill students should develop in graduate education is how to design research projects that withstand critical scrutiny. This module is designed to develop this skill at MSc level.

The class introduces students to the theoretical and practical issues they will need to address when designing and conducting research in social and public policy and related areas. During this module students will critically evaluate empirical research, develop an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different research designs, and build a foundation for their research projects and master theses.

This class introduces students to some of the most important concepts which have shaped our understanding of social policy as an academic discipline, including such concepts as need, citizenship and entitlement, equality and justice, and happiness and wellbeing.

It also looks at issues surrounding the governance and implementation of social policy and the variety of ways in which our needs for welfare provision can be addressed. We also look at some of the main theoretical perspectives which have informed the development of social policy, such as social democracy, liberalism, conservatism, feminism, environmentalism, Marxism and the New Right.

The final part of the class looks at some of the main challenges facing social policy-makers today.

This module will provide you with an understanding of feminist frameworks for understanding, measuring and investigating gendered violence and the ways it intersects with other inequalities. It is an interdisciplinary module taught by staff from Media, Gender Studies, Social Policy, Criminology and Politics.

This module Contemporary Issues in Criminology introduces students to the subject of criminology, tracing some of the major themes and topical issues that arise within this discipline. It begins with an overview of the development of criminology and provides an in-depth critique of criminological theory. It follows with three sub-topics, allowing for more detailed focus on three contemporary issues over the course of one semester. These subtopics are:

• crime, criminal justice & the media
• punishment & the State
• gender, sexuality & justice

The aim of this module is for you to develop a critical understanding of the use, impacts and harms of imprisonment. It's designed to equip you with both the knowledge and the theoretical tools to engage in debates surrounding contemporary imprisonment. You'll learn about the diversity, complexity and international breadth of scholarship in the area of punishment and society scholarship. In particular, the module will draw from social theory, political science, critical gender studies, human rights and anthropological and narrative studies.

This module focuses on understanding how policy can be made in 'co-produced' ways that engage with external stakeholders and unequal publics. This will include some contextual consideration of traditional methods of influencing policymaking, such as consultation, advocacy and lobbying, before progressing to examine more innovative and participatory ways in which stakeholders and members of the public, or particular communities, can be brought into decision-making in health policy and practice.