MA Media, Communications and Critical Practice Open Day
hello hi welcome to the ma media communications and critical practice open day so my name is sarah marino i'm the course leader for dma and you can see here an accurate representation of myself but i will talk you through uh today um the key information about about the course um and some of the things that you should expect um on on this course and some important uh also details about about the courses and what this course is all about so um so why well first of all why london college of communication um now just a brief uh brief contextualization of uh this place of study london college of communication is part of university of the arts london which comprises a diverse body of 18 000 students from 130 countries and it is ranked second in the world for arts and design education specifically this ma is part of the media school london college of communications media school as a comprehensive portfolio and a number of identities as well stunning through publishing advertising pr medium communication sys1 photography and journalism and you see here um a photo of the um of london college of communication so uh so as i said my name is sarah marino i'm teaching and i'm teaching on the course and i'm course and i'm course leader um what is this course about so this course the ma media communications and critical practice um is a unique blend of theory uh and creative and professional practice so over the course of um of this program of study you are encouraged to think critically about the role of media today um so facing some of the most critical challenges of the digital age but also you're encouraged to express your ideas and to solve problems through a broad range of creative media practices and the photo that you see here is from the 2019 2020 court visit to the museum of brands part of one of the unit that we run um it is uh characterized by high quality interactive teaching uh in the form of lectures seminars workshops and external visits as the uh museum as the photo from the museum that i showed you uh i'll show you before in this live before um and you should also expect uh to work uh with a range of dynamic project brief that are relevant to the key issues are emerging nowadays in the media creative and communication and sector and the photos that you see here is again from one of the um keep exciting projects that we run uh in this in this course and this is part two um kind of a visit to the classroom exhibition on big data um and and also you should expect to be introduced to a range of uh practical skills including for example video production blogging podcasting and digital image production so what you should expect really is to receive some sort of um introductory um training um to achieve a familiarity and to improve uh and to strengthen uh your skills uh your practical skills and your creative um skills which you can then develop as well independently by uh taking advantage as you will see of the kind of many labs and and and and services that london college of communication um offers including the kit room and digital space and the broad range of technical resources um and spaces that you will be able to access at london college of communication now as you can see uh and as a pictures show you the photos show you uh you should also expect um to be involved in a number of exception beats as well unfortunately due to the current situation um we cannot uh of course provide students with external visit now but they will resume as soon as possible um another thing that you should expect is to cultivate a range of opportunities to also implement practice based projects through collaboration with students from other courses and this is going to happen um alongside other units which i'm going to uh to present to present in a moment and there is also flexibility in your program of study through the selection of preferred topics media and methods of inquiry also opportunities for networking as well with industry professional with creatives um through our industry speaker series and again i will introduce uh the the units that you would be expecting to um to learn in a moment and of course uh throughout the course of study um individual support from lecturers who are extremely active in research and or creative uh practice um so you should expect to be involved in a number of opportunities um for learning uh from each other but also learning from us from from other students and in collaboration with other students as well as from your tutors so due to the current situation we are now providing what's what is called as blended learning which is a mix of on campus and online activities so we do provide access to studios digital spaces and physical spaces workshops libraries which are essential for your study where possible but at the moment at the moment of course due to the current pandemic we are mainly focusing on online learning which includes lectures and tutorials that happen in real time so synchronously and through recorded sessions there are also opportunities for in-person teaching on campus but this is of course depending on the evolving of the current situation and of course government um regulations so at the moment we are following uh we are following current governmental regulations so at the moment we are teaching online but of course we are following uh the situation as it evolves and and hopefully provide more opportunities for face-to-face uh teaching in the future so the qr code that you see here um if you um if you if you use your phone you'll be redirected to the corona virus page with more information about blended learning and more information about what to expect so feel free to uh to use read and consult these these resources so let's move to the core information about what to expect in in the course so so you have different units taking place during the autumn term spring term and summer term during the spring term uh during the autumn term sorry you will be attending uh two main units um analyzing contemporary media and a medium culture and economy and we will then move on to the springterm with three key units collaborative unit which i will explain in a moment what that entails media mobility and culture professional industry practice now this uh these two units medium mobility and culture and professional industry practice continue in the summertime uh where you will also be involved with the uh major project um and the yellow blocks are the summative assignments so when you are expected to submit uh your your assignments for each specific uh unit uh some units also have a formative assessment formative assignments which means are not graded but will provide you additional sources of feedback and help in preparation for graded assignment there are 10 weeks in each term autumn term spring term and summer term and you will be expected to attend two three units per turn so there is a broad range of assessment opportunities um typically they include practical project works um but also more traditional forms of assessment including essay writing case studies work uh presentations and also more creative form of assessments including reports portfolios and of course the major project which can be a thesis so a written kind of a traditional type of dissertation or a practice based project now just to give you a sense of what to expect in terms of assessment um 50 of assessments are group tasks so you will be asked to collaborate with other students uh doing the course with you and 85 percent will be approximately uh individual tasks so with exclusion of the major project which is an individual um kind of project that you basically develop and and discuss with your tutor 60 of assessment tasks are theory-based and 40 are practice based this is just to give you an idea also the nature of these of this ma and and the um the balance as well between uh theory and and practice um and there are also opportunities as you can see in this picture of discussing your ideas your creative works with tutors with experts with external speakers and and with tutors working on the course so there are opportunities for collaboration for discussion and for really opportunities for sharing your ideas now let's move on to the um to the units um so just to give you again a sense of what to expect in each in each unit so the first one um that runs in the autumn term is analyzing contemporary media which i i teach um this unit uh introduces you to the key theories of media and communication and what to expect uh in this unit is um um kind of an overview and analysis of um contemporary debates around uh around media and communications but also case studies from current events um for example um topics that we have discussed this year included media media publics questions of representation and identity but also media infrastructures media ecologies um and and really what we do together in this unit is uh analyze uh the contemporary challenges that um that we face uh through a media perspective through a media lens and this particular unit is assessed by a review essay and a podcast and this is one of the podcasts created by a group of students this year which looked at children representations in the media so it was a really fun experience for students as well to work together to collaborate for the realization of a short podcast as i mentioned before you should also expect to receive some practical training with for example podcast realization so students had an opportunity to develop creative skills with podcasting with a practitioner and the result was an impressive range of podcasts touching on different uh aspects rate to medium communication including representations uh representations but also more critical questions around around for example climate change and other important important topics in the autumn term you will also attend another unit which is called media culture and economy and what you do in this unit is exploring the organization and financing of media industries media industries will be looked at from a political and cultural economy perspective and as with analyzing contemporary media this is also unit strongly based on case studies from kind of the present present situation topics i should expect to um to learn include digital economy branding and advertising and creating commons among many others of course and this unit is assessed by a creative learning journal and a branded content film and this is just a snap of a short film created by a group of students on the food sharing app audio and again in this in this situation receive some practical training on field production um and so you will be able to to get some creative skills with the help of our practitioners and and members of staff uh working with kind of female production and um and there is also an an interesting unit called the collaborative unit which is a bit different from the previous one that i introduced and the collaborative unit is a college ride initiative that enables you to work on a more complex project so you will collaborate with other students from different courses and or external partners and through this collaboration you'll be able to develop skills in research and project realization now projects are different each year and um and and and they're assessed by a portfolio of project work and so for example some of the projects that were conducted in previous years in 2019 2020 our students collaborated on a project called our algorithmic lives which included collaborative work with a range of external partners also from the civil society on creative responses to a brief that asks students to work on the role and impact of algorithmics in in society um in 2018 and there was a different project more focused on the theme of social justice and visual justice and visible justice and so on that occasion our students worked with a range again of external partners including artists um and on the project they required ask students to uh to find the creative strategies uh about the relationship between uh visual culture and and social justice so every year projects change but you should expect to again cultivate management skills and creative skills alongside other post-bride with students artists practitioners and external partners so it is it is a very lively and exciting unit um so and the collaborative unit um is taught during the spring term together with medium obligation culture which i also teach and also happens in the spring term and this unit as well as collaborative unit runs for two terms so it continues in the summer term this particular one explores concepts of space place mobility and immobility again through a median communication perspective and approach which focuses not just on how digital technologies have changed our concepts of space and place and the way in which we move or we don't but also looks at the how also how different forms of media have affected the notion of culture more generally um some of the topics that we discuss with other students include include the refugee crisis for example but also how cities have changed um how the mobility of tourists have changed more recently we have introduced the new theme of the mobility of objects how objects are moving in the globalized world and during the summer term we also look at more innovative and sophisticated ways of interpreting mobility for example through an analysis of more sophisticated technologies including artificial intelligence and this unit is assessed with an essay and with a creative artifact where students can apply any sort of platform or device they want they can do films they can do storytelling um projects they can do they can create portfolios photo essays and through a creative artifact explore any of the themes discussed in the unit in a more visual way and it's usually an impressive range of creative works and then we have the professional industry practice session unit sorry which explores critical debate uh about work about labor and employment in the creative industry um and and this is also taught in the uh in the in the sprinter and what you're asked to do in this unit um is to search for and organize a work placement or implement a work work-related research project now what you see here um is a couple of examples from two two students one is alissa she did their placement with the british science festival and then a former student victoria um she did she did a placement at pc magazine during the pandemic um students have carried out remote placements uh so online only or selected uh more kind of research project options now you will be asked to find your own placement but you will receive also plenty of support in order to do so from a placement manager and unit leader of professional industry practice and there are other sources of support in the college uh something to bear in mind as well which might be useful to know is that university of the arts london has its own jobs board which is called the creative opportunities um so so there are plenty of ways in which you can again strengthen your more practical skills through placements or uh to implementing a more kind of traditional research project this unit is assessed by a brief and a report and past just to give you an idea of what our students did uh past past placements uh hosts include the bbc world service uh british science association um grazia ipr london talk radio 12 nyc the united nations and many many others so there are plenty of opportunities for you to also decide what is that you want to do after dma and where your interests really um are and um and then we have the major project which is really the last piece of work that you will be doing in this ma um and for the major project you will design and implement a dissertation which may be more academic or more practice based the major project is also a unit so you will be learned a number of research methods and also ways in which you can write a dissertation so you should expect lectures and seminars on how to develop your research question for example um how to interview um how to um how to structure your work uh how to uh proceed and how to work ethically and so on um and and of course you will be assigned um a a tutor who is going to guide you throughout the all dissertation writing process and this is assessed by a dissertation or creative research outcome plus written written reports so there are two main directions of research either a traditional dissertation which is around 15 000 words or a more kind of practical work which is shorter but includes a creative component and this one in particular uh this this photo that you see here uh is from uh a dissertation uh from a student of ours lisa dehrand who um did a dissertation on exciting rebellion branding strategies but also some of the topics that our students researched including a celebrity shaming on twitter the moral economies in kpop and fans conception of free labor which clearly linked to previous discussions around media culture and um science journalism in the code 19 pandemic that was a recent work um the role of social media in the dissemination of wellness culture blockchain was was also a line of inquiry brand activism and um as you can see from the photo here um another student victoria a student of mine she created a magazine um and and exploring the issue of sustainable fashion and so she created a magazine she um she was involved interviewing fashion designers as well as photo shooting and it was an impressive and impressive work you see um snapshot year now there are plenty of facilities as i mentioned at the beginning of this presentation that you can use in order to strengthen your skills and learn a new one and these facilities include 3d workshops the creative technology lab also spaces for networking and relax such as the canteen and typo cafe digital space the kit room where you can book equipment such as cameras for example library services photography studios printing and finishing studios print making so there are plenty of spaces that you can access as as a student now after graduation our students go into different really trajectories career trajectories um some of them in the creative industry market for example film television magazines music but also different sectors as well for example marketing and strategic communications some of our students also decide to continue their studies with a phd and that is of course an option but just to say that this uh m.a really prepares you to a broad range of careers and in to certain extents this course will also help you to find out what is really that you want to do after graduation and these are some of the graduate stories that uh that we are happy to share with you um today some of our students became head of research at the tortails podcast production um festival operation officer at the british science association digital media coordinators um uh account executives games designer podcast producers and also phd students at different institutions um as well so you can see here a really a broad uh broad range of career a broad range of um of trajectories that you can choose from and there is also post-graduate hub which is designed to provide information to students that are moving into their ma course provide careers and employment advice for you and also provide ongoing teaching and learning support and guidance so really as a student you should expect to be guided and supported from day one on a number of situations and a number of opportunities and of course as tutors we are always very happy to support during during um interview and stay with us really and just to mention the resource and industry mentoring scheme uh which connects uh postgraduate students with industry professionals to support their development and their progression as they enter the creative industry market it is a competitive on a competitive entry but we also of course uh invite and encourage students to participate especially because it creates a nice transition into the job market and many of our students have benefited from it so of course you will receive more and more information about all of these and how to apply uh during during the progression of your study now how to apply so if all of these is interesting to you uh to make an application you will need um to send us the following details your personal details including your full name your date of birth your nationality your address and your english language level but also your current and or previous education and qualification details your employment history your cv and a personal statement now you don't need um to um send um portfolios for example by you uh you need to uh to send us all these details and there are more information on how to make an application and particularly how to write your personal statements on the course page and particularly under the section how to apply um there are some entry requirements um as you might know already applicants should have a honors degree or equivalent preferably to one in a relevant subject um and really the students who apply to our ama course are from a variety of educational backgrounds but particularly because of the nature of this course which is theory based mainly humanities and social science graduates are well equipped uh usually to join the course but of course perform performing and visual arts and applied science students will of course be considered now the reason why i want to stress and emphasize this point uh is because this is a theory based course so for example in your personal statement you should really need to demonstrate that you have critical skills and critical analytical skills so if you did a performing a visual art or an applied science course for example design or photography or broadcasting or a business course or a low course it's a more practical practical degrees try to explain how this previous background and educational background developed your potential for critical thinking so tell us about your dissertation about your research interests your thesis what did you do your thesis on um or your major project or maybe the best essay that you've written what is it about so try to explain how your educational background really gave you the relevant critical skills that are really needed in order to join um this course um tell us about the scholars uh the theories that the philosophers that your bread that you're interested in so try to give us really an understanding of your profile um and this is from the personal statement really so tell us about you and why you want to study media communication not just from a practical point of view but also from a theoretical point of view and make sure you address the selection criteria an academic or professional background in a relevant subject or if it's not strictly relevant explain to us how that could be relevant the evidence of an ability to foster a critical and analytical approach the evidence of collaborative skills if you've done projects in collaboration with other students or or practitioners for example do mention all of these opportunities if you have an experience of working in the media in the cultural creative industry please do explain to us what experience was all about and what you've learned and now what you've learned can affect uh your participation for the course what can you bring to this to this ma um if you have an experience of um creating um or producing media content tell us about this experience tell about what you produced because these all it's all very important in terms of us learning to know you um and and and also evaluating um your your application to this ma um and of course some of the things you will learn during the course but um it is important to explain and to explain to us your background your interests and what you would like to learn as well and this photo here is kind of a very recent uh photo um from the um two courts ago um and this is me um and uh the other kind of staff member vic abramol and one of our um students so there are also fun opportunities uh as well uh which i hope uh we will be able to enjoy soon and and once the situation comes down really um so just to just a few final information university of the arts london offers a wide range of scholarships um provided through donations from individuals companies and charities as well as from university some of the funds include the post graduate master's loan the ual uk eu postgraduate scholarships and scholarships for international students as well now there are two important links here to know more about these opportunities the first link is to know more about eligibility criteria and the second one the second link is the name email address in case you want to know more or inquire about these opportunities now as i mentioned at the beginning of my presentation um in case you have specific questions about accommodation student support scholarship and fees you have the addresses relevant email addresses here um lcc.contact arts.ac.uk is your key contact for any general inquiries about the course so this is all i wanted to say um [Music] and before we we move to the um to the q a so hopefully this presentation was useful just to give you a general overview of what to expect in the course how the course is structured and also what is the unique um nature of this course which is really the convergence of theory and practice and really a strong connection to real case uh study scenarios uh and a real connection to some of the practical challenges that the media and cultural industries are facing and today so hopefully this gave you a sense of ready of what to expect um to study to learn and the facilities that lcc london college of communication will provide to you as a student um so we'll now give some space to any any question that you might have about the course thanks sarah thank you for the presentation um there have been quite a few questions coming in already and i'll i'll read them out to you and if anybody else has any more questions do please put them in the questions panel we've got you know a bit of time left to go through these so i'll start at the beginning so someone is interested in finding about how this course compares and stands out to other courses at occ and i suppose and we've already sort of talked about that but maybe how it compares to the other courses in the program particularly right okay well um well yes as i said the really the unique component of this master is the um is the provision and the focus on um theories of culture media and communications um but also um a focus on both kind of theories theoretical and creative skills so in certain ways it is really um quite open to the complex field of of media and and communication so it is not a master advertising or public relation it is a mastering media communications and critical practice so really the unique nature of this course is a convergence of theories and critical practice which makes this course quite different from from the other courses which are more specifically aligned to either advertising for example or public relations in the media school um and so i would say that that's the unique um nature of this course um and and and this is also um something that we try to implement in all in all units that you will be uh attending so every unit you will see has a very unique convergence of theoretical frameworks and and and opportunities for more practice uh work alongside a broad range of media and creative and cultural industries so if you are unsure about what kind of uh career uh you you want to pursue in the kind of the creative sector this course is quite um open to uh to allow for a broad range of skills uh and and and and really and um um an interest to be cultivated i'd say great thank you sarah um and i would also just add to that if if anybody here is interested in any other courses and would like to find out uh anything about them this today is actually the first day of three weeks of open days or open day webinars for each of our postgraduate courses so if you wanted to find out about advertising public relations or any other course that we offer lcc at a postgraduate level they're on our website and are bookable now um so yeah the next question says amazing presentation this course sounds great so that's a good start thank you for that and they say they're coming from a fashion background is it possible to base all the units or the unit assessments around one subject example fashion or are you expected to have a range of responses um does the question relate to assessment specifically not assessments so i suppose is it possible to base all unit also assignments not assessments around one subject so i suppose this person is interested in fashion and would like to apply fashion to the work they do in the course can they do that or does it have to be a range of responses yes good question um well we um we kind of encourage students to to develop and to strengthen their interest and of course if passion or you have a background in in fashion uh you will be able to uh to build from from the things that you've learned around this particular world but of course um as you move from unit to units or from different understandings of the and also different types of media and creating industries you will be facing different media and cultural industries not just fashion um so by all means uh we encourage students to cultivate to strengthen to develop their interests but there is also the case the students find different interests as well over the course of the of the different units now just to give you an example um a former student uh or just uh supervised um her master dissertation victoria she is interested in passion and she wants a career in in fashion so over the course of of dma she had the opportunity to develop this interest more and more to also understand how to approach some critical questions around fashion in her case it was mainly around sustainability and passion uh in in a number of kind of practical works and especially uh for the major project so the major project um is really the moment where you can you can bring your interest to a whole new level of complexity and for the major project she created a fashion magazine which she's planning to distribute and to promote and advertise more broadly which we are helping her with and really this is her first step for her to build her career in the fashion industry so there are examples of students interested in fashion who had the opportunity to really build their interests and strengthen their interests and do something with them and of course depending on what you're interested in specifically on passion you have a broad range of facilities where you can um see your interest taking a more practical uh form for example printing magazines fashion magazines so by all means you will have a chance to um to develop your interests father but at the same time different units have different assessments you will be asked to confront yourself and familiarize yourself with different topics too okay yeah i uh if if you need any more on that uh do let us know and i just said thanks so much so yeah obviously um so the next question is around uh the kind of entry requirements i suppose um so someone who said they recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and as a part of that they had a lot of marketing and communication subjects would that kind of experience be suitable for the course right yes what i would recommend to all of you who are coming from more kind of applied or or just different backgrounds not typically the arts and humanities background what i would recommend you to do is to really familiarize with the content of the unit which are only briefly explained during this presentation because you didn't have more time but you will find more information about about the units um on the course page um so what i would recommend is to familiarize with the um key theories concepts and ideas that each unit focuses on and really think about how your background are your expertise how your knowledge can fit into the um the current provision for the course so try and think about the things that you've learned and how the things that you've learned can um can align with the uh with the with the key characteristics of the course as i said this course is predominantly um theory based there are there are of course critical and creative component but it is uh based on on theories and critical thinking and creative thinking which i guess is also what distinguishes this course from from others but it is also a course that really focuses on global themes on on on the global challenges of our time so think about that and think about how how your your interest and and and career ambitions can be um can be accommodated uh in the course and if you think that there is a connection if you think that there is something about what the course does that that you want to explore more or in more depth then by all means do do send do send an application do you apply for this course but in your personal statement really make clear how will you blend fit with the with me in particular thank you very much uh so there's a another question here and it's about the staff on the course the tutors associate lecturers um and what kind of work they've done and what kind of current research projects they have going on right good question so uh good a complex question now um we have a range of um of senior members of staff practitioners and associate lecturers i myself i'm a migration scholar media migration scholar so my main research is on how media and digital media affect mobility of european migrants as well as forced migrants so i recently published a book on the refugee crisis and how technologies have been um used uh on different for different purposes during the cut during the current syrian refugee crisis but my main research interest is migration mobility and digital technology so i look at the political material effective implications of media for migrants um so this is my my my research but of course i've been teaching media and communication for years and this is why i'm i'm teaching across different different units including analyzing contemporary media and the media mobility and culture and they do use my research my studies my interviews quite a lot in my in my teaching just to give students ability and opportunity to apply theory to practice um and then um bartin who is teaching barfin and teaching also media mobility and culture with me she has also a similar background and research interest in mobility uh television mass media mobility migration and questions of cultural and political identity um rebecca brahmal she does research on political economy um and and and she is teaching the unit media culture and economy so again um i guess one of the really exciting things about this course is that you have members of staff who are teaching units that are profoundly based on their research interest and research expertise so you get really high quality teaching and you really get research inform the teaching so we constantly use our own research and expertise and work uh to give you something more to give you really um the inside perspective into into some of the units that you will be attending um and then we have um we have a number of associate lecturers and practitioners who will be able to we're mainly doing um practical workshops uh and tutorials um with kind of photography um virtual reality um and lab mo is our film practitioner so he is the one who will deliver the practical workshops in film film production uh farri bradley um she um she taught podcasting to our students um and again another practitioner um doing kind of practical and visual skills um and and then and then we have we have uh other kind of unit tutors were mainly involved with the professional practice aspect of this course and the industry speaker so more connected to the industry part of of the course but again um you will see you can see our profiles on on the on the web page just to get a sense of the kind of research that each of us is doing but again really what you should expect from this course is to um receive high quality research informed uh teaching and we are all some ways all very very attractive um and and our practitioners are constantly involved in kind of practical work they will be teaching as well um so so you get a broad range of skills passions and and interests in this course great thank you sarah and just a quick mention as well that on the course page there are a number of staff profiles so if you wanted to you could go and have a look at the profiles for the that sarah has or rebecca has anyone else who's involved with the course or even the program generally um you know program directors for example there are many profiles on there under the lcc people category i believe um i can't go into the specifics of what each of us is doing but the course page is really specific about what we are doing and what we are researching on so please do do have a look great um so i think at that point we've sort of answered all the questions and i think this is probably a good time to sort of close the session i just wanted to say thank you very much to everyone who attended um if you do think anything just as soon as we close i'm sure that'll happen please make a note of the uh addresses that you have on your screen we're also going to follow up shortly with an email just so that you can get in contact as a result of that but yeah just thank you very much any last words sarah and then we can close up the session i guess i hope this presentation was it was interesting to get a perspective of the course and i just say good luck with the application if you decide to go forward with that
2021-03-03 12:50
