Ba (Hons) International Communications Studies

The school of media, languages and cultures offers several three-year honours degree programmes in international communications studies. These courses combine knowledge in the study of communications, journalism, media, film and cultural studies with foreign languages. Our degrees offer global perspectives or the various aspects of communication, media, and culture. 

Degrees offered in Malaysia are mirrored on those in the UK and China thus enabling mobility and the sharing of materials and resources between campuses. Optional modules in Film and Television Studies, English Languages and Literature along with Performing Arts provide further avenues for specialisation and additional career options. 

Students learn from native speakers and use the International Language Studio which offers flipped-classroom teaching and blended learning to improve the student experience when learning a foreign language. Our Digital Media Lab enhances media production opportunities for students doing module assignments and media production exercises including filmmaking, audio and podcasting; and colour grading for video. 

Why choose this course?

• Media and communications underpin almost every facet of modern life, from the global economy to interpersonal relationships and our leisure time, to how we learn about the world we live in. With digitisation and convergence only accelerating this trend, there is an ever-increasing need to understand the implications of these developments and to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to participate in shaping global media and communication infrastructures. 
• International Communications explores the complex world of communications, culture and media in their various forms including linguistic, multimodal and visual – from new technologies, politics and popular culture, to critical theory, high culture and news media. 
• The degree will train you in the theories and realities of local and international media and communication, enabling you to develop the analytical, creative, practical and problem-solving skills needed to succeed in our globalised society.

Year 1

• Students will learn and practise the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing together with basic grammatical structures. This will enable them to manipulate the language and participate effectively in everyday social situations.

Learning outcomes:

• Pronunciation.
• Standard spelling.
• Ab initio syntax.
• Ab initio sentence semantics.
• Gist comprehension and more detailed reconstruction of audio material.
• Basic oral skills.
• Intellectual skills.

Culture and Society

• To familiarise students with the discipline of cultural studies and question the taken-grantedness of the ‘everyday’ in society.
• To enable students to undertake basic cultural analysis.
• To develop a critical understanding of key areas of culture and society.
• To appreciate the relation between particular cultural phenomena and the representations of everyday life, and their broader context.

Learning outcomes:

• Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of culture and epistemological problems associated with archiving and representing the everyday.
• Key areas of contemporary culture.

Media and Communications Theory

• To familiarise students with the interdisciplinary field of communications theory, including communication technologies.
• To encourage students to discriminate between particular theoretical positions.
• To enable students to analyse a range of communicative texts, acts and contexts and the impact of technology upon communications practice.
• To enable students to reflect upon their own technologised communications practices.

Learning outcomes:

• A broad knowledge of the terrain of communications theory as well as an understanding of the historical evolution and contemporary forms of information and communications technologies.
• The theoretical equipment to deal with a wide range of communications situations.
• A glossary of key terms, concepts and models relevant to the field of communications studies.

Year 2

• The overall aim of the module is to develop further competence in the language by improving the four skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing. Students will continue to develop their awareness of autonomy in language learning under the guidance of their language tutor. Teaching is communicative with regular opportunities for pair- and group- work. Emphasis is placed on oral and aural skills, making full use of multi-modal resources available.

Learning outcomes:

• The language structure at post- beginner level.
• More complex grammatical structures through the study of a broader range of topic areas across the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
• Political Communication, Public Relations and Propaganda
• To familiarise students with the history of political communication and public relations.
• To enable students to spot ‘spin’ and propaganda.
• To enable students to understand the links between public relations, politics and the exercise of power in liberal democracies.

Learning outcomes:

• An understanding of the historical evolution and contemporary forms of public relations and news management techniques.
• A knowledge of the theoretical debates around the ideological effects of public relations and propaganda campaigns.
• An appreciation of the overt and covert information strategies employed by politicians.

Researching Culture, Film and Media (full year)

• To familiarise students with the wide range of interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge production.
• To encourage students to make informed decisions regarding the appropriateness of particular methodological approaches to concrete communications contexts.
• To enable students to identify, plan, and carry out a communications research topic of their own choosing.

Learning outcomes:

• An understanding of the varied and interdisciplinary methods used in cultural research.
• An appreciation of the distinction between qualitative and quantitative methods and the uncertainties and limits of particular methodologies and theoretical approaches.
• An awareness of the implications of technological, discursive and generic mediation upon communication processes.
• An appreciation of the importance of audiences and contexts to the understanding of communications processes.
• An understanding of the pragmatics of research processes.

Community Interpreting

• To help students acquire language interpreting skills appropriate to the context of community interpreting.
• To review and identify examples of good interpreting practice, and to encourage students to demonstrate extended competence in both languages.
• To encourage students to reach their own decisions about dilemmas and challenges encountered while interpreting a foreign language.
• To explore the main linguistic and cultural issues associated with the profession of liaison interpreter.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate an understanding of linguistic, textual and cultural issues relating to interpreting.
• Use different techniques to resolve interpreting difficulties.
• Have developed a reasonable range of specialised vocabulary used in the process of interpreting.
• Have developed a wide comprehension of sophisticated written and spoken language.

Cultural Politics

• To familiarise students with the ethical and political dimensions of cultural and critical theory.
• To encourage students to make politicised decisions regarding the appropriateness of particular theoretical approaches to concrete situations.
• To enable students to analyse the complex cultural politics of their own everyday lives.

Learning outcomes:

• A broad knowledge of the terrain of cultural politics.
• Theoretical techniques for the analysis of cultural forms and practices with an awareness of their political impact.
• Knowledge of the forms taken by power relationships within culture.
• An appreciation of the processes by which power/ideology enters our lives and affects everyday experience.

Introduction to Translation

• To help students acquire translation skills appropriate to a variety of types of general texts, and to develop an awareness of the main socio-linguistic and cultural issues associated with the job.
• To review and identify examples of good translation practice, and to encourage students to demonstrate extended competence in both languages.
• To encourage students to reach their own decisions about the most convenient translations methods and choice of words.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate an understanding of linguistic, textual and cultural issues relating to translation.
• Use different techniques to resolve translation difficulties.
• Critically analyse the source text. Have developed a reasonable range of specialised vocabulary used in the process of translation.
• Demonstrate some knowledge of the variety of translation approaches appropriate to a range of texts.
• Have developed a wide comprehension of sophisticated written and spoken language.

Reading Japanese Literature I

• To provide an introduction to Japanese literary works
• To increase understanding of Japanese literature and cultural background, society and people in which the chosen authors worked
• To develop the skills to identify and examine key themes or issues of the period in relation to the literary works studied
• To develop further the skills of the target language
• To develop further the skills needed for close reading and textual analysis
• To develop further the skills needed for research and presentation

Learning outcomes:

• Knowledge and awareness of the cultural, historical and political contexts appropriate to Japanese culture
• Knowledge and understanding of the key features of literary works produced by the selected authors
• Knowledge and understanding of the authors and their work in relation to their literary and cultural context

Year 3

Advanced French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin or Spanish (full year)

• The overall aim of the module is to consolidate and extend students’ competence to an intermediate level in the four skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing. Special emphasis will be placed on developing more sophisticated oral and written skills. Students will continue to develop their awareness of autonomy in language learning under the guidance of their language tutor. 

Learning outcomes:

• The language structure at intermediate level.
• More complex grammatical structures through the study of a broader range of topic areas across the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Cultural, Film and Media Dissertation (full year)

• To give students the opportunity to develop a critical argument within a sustained piece of writing, extending research competence through the gathering, organising and processing of primary and secondary materials.
• To teach skills of planning, developing and presenting project-based work, paying attention to issues of research methodology and to the critical apparatus that supports scholarly work.

Learning outcomes:

• Close understanding both of the chosen subject and of its related field of study.
• Familiarity with an appropriate range of secondary literature.

Digital Communication and Media

• To provide a sound breadth and depth of knowledge of a broad range of contemporary digital communication and media.
• To cultivate critical engagement with the different factors that have shaped and continue to shape the development of digital communication and associated media cultures.
• To develop analytical and conceptual skills in both oral and written engagement with digital communication and media contexts from cultural, political, economic, technical and regulatory perspectives.
• To advance students' familiarity with key debates and discourses in the field of digital communication and related media cultures.
• To convey the skills required to carry out analysis of digital texts in their social, cultural, political and technological contexts at an advanced level.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate knowledge and robust critical understanding of the numerous contexts within which digital communication and media are applied.
• Knowledge and critical understanding of the historical contexts of digital communication and media, how these have evolved, and continue to evolve.
• Ability to assess the wider impact of the constantly evolving digital communication and media contexts including the emergence of new modes of interactive forms and practices.
• Show a good awareness of key scholarship and other significant discourses and how they inform the study of digital communication and media and their relationship to various social, economic and cultural practices.

Gender, Sexuality and Media

• The purpose of the module is to familiarise students with key concepts, theories and debates in feminist media studies and queer media studies.
• To encourage students to discriminate between particular theoretical and political positions in feminism and queer theory.
• To enable students to analyse a range of media and cultural texts, contexts and practices through the perspectives of feminism and queer theory.

Learning outcomes:

• Knowledge of concepts.
• Theories and debates on gender and sexuality.
• Understanding of the ways in which media and popular culture are shaped by, and at the same time shape gender and sexual norms, practices and identities.
• Understanding of the political potential of media engagement with issues of gender and sexuality.
• Students will be able to critically analyse, interpret and evaluate representations of gender and sexuality in media and popular culture; and draw on the industrial context of media and reflect on its impacts.

Writing for the Media This module aims to:

• Develop skills to write for the media.
• Equip students with the necessary knowledge of writing with clarity and coherence and with responsibility.
• Developing students’ skills and methods in researching and gathering information.

Learning outcomes:

• The module will be taught through a combination of interactive lectures and workshops. By the end of the module, students will be able to put together a news report, researching and writing a feature article. You will explore the differences and similarities between writing for a newspaper and writing for a radio or TV news program. This module will help you understand the legal and ethical framework in which journalists must operate.