Loughborough University
Leicestershire, UK
LE11 3TU
+44 (0)1509 222222

Programme Specifications

Programme Specification

SS MA Media programmes

Academic Year: 2014/15

This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if full advantage is taken of the learning opportunities that are provided.

This specification applies to delivery of the programme in the Academic Year indicated above. Prospective students reviewing this information for a later year of study should be aware that these details are subject to change as outlined in our Terms and Conditions of Study.

This specification should be read in conjunction with:

Reg. XXI (Postgraduate Awards) (see University Regulations)
Module Specifications
The teaching, learning and assessment strategies used at Loughborough (available soon)
What makes Loughborough University programmes and its graduates distinctive (available soon)

Summary
Programme aims
Learning outcomes
Programme structure
Progression and weighting

Programme summary

Awarding body/institution	Loughborough University
Teaching institution (if different)
Owning school/department	Department of Social Sciences - pre 2018
Details of accreditation by a professional/statutory body	N/A
Final award	MA/PGDip/PGCert
Programme title	Media and Cultural Analysis (SSPT36); Global Media and Cultural Industries (SSPT46); Digital Media and Society(SSPT47); Global Political Communication (SSPT50)
Programme code	SSPT36, SSPT46, SSPT47, SSPT50
Length of programme	One year
UCAS code	N/A
Admissions criteria	Media and Cultural Analysis: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/departments/socialsci/mediaculturalanalysis/ Global Media and Cultural Industries: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/departments/socialsci/globalmediaandculturalindustries/ Digital Media and Society: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/departments/socialsci/digitalmediaandsociety/ Global Political Communication: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/departments/socialsci/globalpoliticalcommunication/
Date at which the programme specification was published

1. Programme Aims

To enable students to gain a systematic and critical awareness of current issues and debates in communication media studies and related disciplines.
To develop students' skills and competencies in a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of media communications and related disciplines.
To enable students to interpret evaluate and apply advanced knowledge in the discpline in an innovative way.
To prepare students for employment in diverse professional environment through a combination of independent work and industry exposure.

Specific to the Media and Cultural Analysis degree pathway:

To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about the relationship between media and modernity.
To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about the politics of representation.

Specific to Global Media and Cultural Industries degree pathway:

To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about digitilisation of media and cultural industries.
To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about the political economy of media and cultural industries.

Specific to Digital Media and Society degree pathway:

To foster students' abiloity to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about digital culture.
To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about digital economies.

Specific to Global Political Communication degree pathway:

To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about the production, dissemination and reception of political communication in a global context.
To foster students' ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about political marketing.

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external and internal reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

The Benchmark Statement for Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to demonstrate and apply knowledge and understanding in the following areas:

K1. The major traditions, theories and frameworks of inquiry relevant to the analysis of media, communications and associated disciplines.

K2. The historical expansion of communications media, the institutionalisation of media systems, various audiences uses of the media, and the implications of new media for cultural life.

K3. The range of relevant research methods employed in the analysis of media and culture.

Specific to the Media and Cultural Analysis degree pathway:

K4. The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates in the analysis of media and cultural texts and audiences.

K5. The ways media and communicative forms construct the shared meanings that comprise public cultures and subcultures and of the issues of representation these practices raise.

Specific to Global Media and Cultural Industries degree pathway:

K6. The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about media and cultural industries.

K7. The development of the global character of media and cultural industries.

Specific to Digital Media and Society degree pathway

K8. The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about the social and cultural impact of digital media.

K9. The relationships and tensions between old and new socio-economic practices and structures in the digital environment.

Specific to Global Political Communication degree pathway:

K10. The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about political communication in local, national and global context.

K11. The development of new forms of political communication and the transformation of traditional forms of political communication.

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able, with reference to media communication and culture, to:

C1. Generate research data according to set procedures and methods.

C2. Independently organise, classify and critically evaluate information gathered in the course of their projects and assignments.

C3. Use advanced concepts and theories drawn from media, communications and associated disciplines to analyse relevant empirical evidence.

C4. Discuss their research and the issues it raises reflexively.

Specific to the Media and Cultural Analysis degree pathway:

C5. Interpret media texts, representations and cultural identities.

Specific to Global Media and Cultural Industries degree pathway:

C6. Interpret industry data and policy documents.

Specific to Digital Media and Society degree pathway:

C7. Analyse and interpret digital social, cultural and economic practices.

Specific to Global Political Communication degree pathway:

C8. Analyse and interpret political/media texts, representations and processes.

b. Subject-specific practical skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

P1. Engage with major thinkers, debates and intellectual paradigms within the fields of media, communication and culture, productively employing the insights gained in their own work.

P2. Demonstrate their capacity to develop appropriate research strategies to address the issues they have selected for sustained investigation in self-chosen projects.

P3. Analyse new and emerging trends and interrogate both common sense understanding and received wisdom in relevant areas of inquiry.

P4. Discuss historical transformations in media, communication, and culture and wield this understanding in appraising current patterns of development, such as cultural globalisation and media convergence.

c. Key transferable skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

T1. Critically evaluate a range of academic and industry sources.

T2. Communicate effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

T3. Deploy qualitative and quantitative research techniques.

T4. Plan, organise and manage, with appropriate supervision, a significant self-directed project.

T5. Work flexibly, creatively and independently, displayhing a high degree of self-direction and initiative.

T6. Deploy their independent learning ability required for continuing professional development.

4. Programme structure

MEDIA AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS (SSPT36):

Compulsory Subjects (total modular weight 135)

Code	Title	Modular Weight	Semester
SSP301	Media and Modernity	15	2
SSP302	Media and Cultural Industries: Political Economy and Public Policy	15	1
SSP303	The Politics of Representation	15	1
SSP317	Production and Reception Analysis	15	1
SSP503	Online Research Methods and Media Analysis	15	2
SSP399 or SSP400	Dissertation or Dissertation (Placement Experience)	60	1 + 2

Optional Subjects (choose three optional modules, with a total modular weight of 45)

Students must choose one optional module in semester one and two optional modules in semester two. In addition a 60 wgt dissertation module will run for the whole year, which will include compulsory attendance on SSA306 which is a media landscapes module.

A selection from the following list will be offered each year. The selection for 14-15 is denoted with an asterisk:

SSP305*	Digital Futures: Explorations in New Media	15	1
SSP309	Popular Music and Modern Times	15	2
SSP311	Citizenship and Communications	15	2
SSP314*	Global Communications	15	1
SSP316*	Media and Cultural Work	15	2
SSP318*	Digital Economies	15	2
SSP319*	Digital Cultures	15	1
SSP320	Tourism, Culture and Society	15	2
SSP321*	Sex Industries	15	2
SSP323*	Marketing Politics	15	2
SSP324*	Cultural Memory and the Heritage Industries	15	1

GLOBAL MEDIA AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES (SSPT46):

Compulsory Subjects (total modular weight 135)

Code	Title	Modular Weight	Semester
SSP302	Media and Cultural Industries: Political Economy and Public Policy	15	1
SSP305	Digital Futures: Explorations in New Media	15	1
SSP316	Media and Cultural Work: inequality and discrimination in the creative industries	15	2
SSP317	Production and Reception Analysis	15	1
SSP503	Online Research Methods and Media Analysis	15	2
SSP398 or SSP400	Dissertation in Global Media and Cultural Industries or Dissertation (Placement Experience	60	1+2

Optional Subjects (choose three optional modules, with a total modular weight of 45)

A selection from the following list will be offered each year. The selection for 14-15 is denoted with an asterisk:

SSP301*	Media and Modernity	15	2
SSP303*	The Politics of Representation	15	1
SSP309	Popular Music and Modern Times	15	2
SSP311	Citizenship and Communications	15	2
SSP314*	Global Communications	15	1
SSP318*	Digital Economies	15	2
SSP319*	Digital Cultures	15	1
SSP320	Tourism, Culture and Society	15	2
SSP321*	Sex Industries	15	2
SSP323*	Marketing Politics	15	2
SSP324*	Cultural Memory and the Heritage Industries	15	1

DIGITAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY (SSPT47):

Compulsory Subjects (total modular weight 135)

code	title	modular weight	semester
SSP319	Digital Cultures	15	1
SSP305	Digital Futures: explorations in new media	15	1
SSP318	Digital Economies	15	2
SSP317	Production and Reception Analysis	15	1
SSP503	Online Research Methods and Media Analysis	15	2
SSP397 or SSP400	Dissertation in Digital Media and Society or Dissertation (Placement Experience)	60	1+2

Optional Subjects (choose two optional modules, with a total modular weight of 45)

A selection from the following list will be offered each year. The selection for 14-15 is denoted with an asterisk:

SSP301*	Media and Modernity	15	2
SSP302*	Media and Cultural Industries: Political Economy and Public Policy	15	1
SSP303*	The Politics of Representation	15	1
SSP309	Popular Music and Modern Times	15	2
SSP311	Citizenship and Communications	15	2
SSP314*	Global Communications	15	1
SSP316*	Media and Cultural Work: inequality and discrimination in the creative industries	15	2
SSP320	Tourism, Culture and Society	15	2
SSP321*	Sex Industries	15	2
SSP323*	Marketing Politics	15	2
SSP324*	Cultural Memory and the Heritage Industries	15	1

GLOBAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION (SSPT50):

Compulsory Subjects (total modular weight 135)

code	title	modular weight	semester
SSP314	Global Communications	15	1
SSP303	Politics of Representation	15	1
SSP317	Production and Reception Analysis	15	1
SSP323	Marketing Politics	15	2
SSP503	Online Research Methods and Media Analysis	15	2
SSP396 or SSP400	Dissertation in Global Political Communication or Dissertation (Placement Experience)	60	1+2

Optional Subjects (choose two optional modules, with a total modular weight of 45)

A selection from the following list will be offered each year. The selection for 14-15 is denoted with an asterisk:

SSP301*	Media and Modernity	15	2
SSP302*	Media and Cultural Industries: Political Economy and Public Policy	15	1
SSP305*	Digital Futures	15	1
SSP309	Popular Music and Modern Times	15	2
SSP311	Citizenship and Communications	15	2
SSP316*	Media and Cultural Work: inequality and discrimination in the creative industries	15	2
SSP318*	Digital Economies	15	2
SSP319*	Digital Cultures	15	1
SSP320	Tourism, Culture and Society	15	1
SSP323*	Sex Industries	15	2
SSP324*	Cultural Memory and the Heritage Industries	15	1

5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award

In order to be eligible for the award, candidates must satisfy the requirements of Regulation XXI.

MEDIA AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS:

In accordance with Regulation XXI, but with the exclusion of module SSP399 (Dissertation), candidates who have a right of reassessment in a module may choose to be reassessed in the Special Assessment Period.

GLOBAL MEDIA AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES:

In accordance with Regulation XXI, but with the exclusion of module SSP398 (Dissertation), candidates who have a right of reassessment in a module may choose to be reassessed in the Special Assessment Period.

DIGITAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY

In accordance with Regulation XXI, but with the exclusion of module SSP397 (Dissertation), candidates who have a right of reassessment in a module may choose to be reassessed in the Special Assessment Period.

GLOBAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

In accordance with Regulation XXI, but with the exclusion of module SSP396 (Dissertation), candidates who have a right of reassessment in a module may choose to be reassessed in the Special Assessment Period.

6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the purposes of Final Degree Classification

This section relates to undergraduate degrees only.

SS MSc Conversation Analysis (Full-Time - SSPT48; Part-Time - SSPT51); and MSc Discursive Psychology (Full-Time - SSPT49; Part-Time - SSPT52)

Programme Specification

SS MSc Conversation Analysis (Full-Time - SSPT48; Part-Time - SSPT51); and MSc Discursive Psychology (Full-Time - SSPT49; Part-Time - SSPT52)

Academic Year: 2014/15

This specification should be read in conjunction with:

Reg. XXI (Postgraduate Awards) (see University Regulations)
Module Specifications
The teaching, learning and assessment strategies used at Loughborough (available soon)
What makes Loughborough University programmes and its graduates distinctive (available soon)

Summary
Programme aims
Learning outcomes
Programme structure
Progression and weighting

Programme summary

Awarding body/institution	Loughborough University
Teaching institution (if different)
Owning school/department	Department of Social Sciences - pre 2018
Details of accreditation by a professional/statutory body	N/A
Final award	MSc or PG Certificate or PG Diploma
Programme title	Conversation Analysis; Discursive Psychology
Programme code	SSPT48/49/51/52
Length of programme	1 year (full-time), or 2 years (part-time) for MSc only. 1 year for PG Certificate for Conversation Analysis only. 1 year for PG Diploma for Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology.
UCAS code	N/A
Admissions criteria	A typical offer would be a good first degree (normally an Upper Second or First class award) or equivalent. Alternatively, offers may be based on evidence of senior professional experience. Where relevant, qualifications in written and spoken English will also be required.
Date at which the programme specification was published

1. Programme Aims

PG Certificate in Conversation Analysis

To enable students to gain advanced understandings of theoretical, empirical and applied studies of social interaction.
To develop students' skills in analysing social interaction using conversation analytic methods.
To enhance students' career and employment opportunities on graduating.

PG Diploma in Conversation Analysis

To enable students to gain advanced knowledge and understanding of issues in communication and interaction through specialist study and research.
To develop students' skills and competences in the full range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of social interaction.
To enhance students' ability to question existing theories and research findings on the basis of a thorough knowledge and understanding of relevant theoretical frameworks and research methods.
To enable students to demonstrate their command of relevant concepts, theories and methods by undertaking a series of research-based coursework assignments and practical exercises.
To enhance students' career and employment opportunities on graduating.
To provide students with a comprehensive introduction to current thinnking and analytic techniques, and a critical awareness of developments and debates in the key areas of conversation analysis.

PG Diploma in Discursive Psychology

To enable students to gain advanced knowledge and understanding of issues in communication and interaction through specialist study and research.
To develop students' skills and competences in the full range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of social interaction.
To enhance students' ability to question existing theories and research findings on the basis of a thorough knowledge and understanding of relevant theoretical frameworks and research methods.
To enable students to demonstrate their command of relevant concepts, theories and methods by undertaking a series of research-based coursework assignments and practical exercises.
To enhance students' career and employment opportunities on graduating.
To provide students with a comprehensive introduction to current thinking and analytic techniques, and a critical awareness of developments and debates in the key areas of discursive psychology.

MSc

To enable students to gain advanced knowledge and understanding of issues in communication and interaction through specialists study and research.
To develop students' skills and competences in the full range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of social interaction.
To enhance students' ability to question existing theories and research findings on the basis of a thorough knowledge and understanding of relevant theoretical frameworks and research methods.
To enable students to demonstrate their command of relevant concepts, theories and methods by undertaking a series of research-based coursework assignments and practical exercises, and devising and executing a sustained piece of original research on a topic of their choice to be presented in their dissertation.
To enhance students' career and employment opportunities on graduating.

Specific to the MSc in Conversation Analysis Degree Pathway

To provide students with a comprehensive introduction to current thinking and analytic techniques, and a critical awareness of developments and debates in the key areas of conversation analysis.

Specific to the MSc in Discursive Psychology Degree Pathway

To provide students with a comprehensive introduction to current thinking and analytic techniques, and a critical awareness of developments and debates in the key areas of discursive psychology.

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external and internal reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

QAA Master’s Degrees Characteristics

FHEQ Level 6 & 7 grade descriptors

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of the programme (PG Certificate in Conversation Analysis), students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

K1. The major traditions, theories and debates relevant to the analysis of social interaction.

K2. The process of data collection, corpus building and advanced interactional analysis.

On successful completion of the programme (PG Diploma in Conversation Analysis), students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

K1. The major traditions, theories and debates relevant to the analysis of social interaction.

K2. The process of data collection, corpus building and advanced interactional analysis.

K3. Analysis of data from real-life indsitutional settings in order to identify its significant constitutive practices.

K4. The generation of analytic findings that will be useful to practitioners and improve the effectiveness of institutional interaction.

K5. The extensive literature of the application of conversation analysis to the fields of medicine, education, psychotherapy, the law, helplines and other institutions where talk is a central feature of service-delivery.

On successful completion of the programme (PG Diploma in Discursive Psychology), students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

K1. The major traditions, theories and debates relevant to the analysis of social interaction.

K2. The process of data collection, corpus building and advanced interactional analysis.

K3. Analysis of data from real-life indsitutional settings in order to identify its significant constitutive practices.

K4. The generation of analytic findings that will be useful to practitioners and improve the effectiveness of institutional interaction.

K5. Is not applicable to this pathway.

K6. The major theoretical and methodological arguments and issues in contemporary debates about discursive psychology.

K7. The range of conceptual issues that arise in discursive psychology, including epistemics, construtionism, relativism/realism, and apply them in analysis of interactional data.

On successful completion of the programme (MSc), students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

K1. The major traditions, theories and debates relevant to the analysis of social interaction.

K2. The process of data collection, corpus building and advanced interactional analysis.

K3. Analysis of data from real-life indsitutional settings in order to identify its significant constitutive practices.

K4. The generation of analytic findings that will be useful to practitioners and improve the effectiveness of institutional interaction.

Specific to the Conversation Analysis MSc degree pathway:

K6. Is not applicable to this pathway.

K7. Is not applicable to this pathway.

K8. Specific interactional practices or phenomena, through application of past literature and independent analysis in a conversation analytic dissertation.

Specific to the Discursive Psychology MSc degree pathway:

K5. Is not applicable to this pathway.

K6. The major theoretical and methodological arguments and issues in contemporary debates about discursive psychology.

K7. The range of conceptual issues that arise in discursive psychology, including epistemics, construtionism, relativism/realism, and apply them in analysis of interactional data.

K8. Is not applicable to this pathway.

K9. Specific discursive practices or phenomena, through application of past literature and independent analysis in a discursive psychological dissertation.

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of the programme (PG Certificate in Conversation Analysis), students should be able to:

C1. Compare and evaluate the theoretical and technical differences between casual conversation and communication in more formal environments.

C2. Critically engage with the historical underpinnings of the study of language in interaction.

On successful completion of the programme (PG Diploma in Conversation Analysis), students should be able to:

C1. Compare and evaluate the theoretical and technical differences between casual conversation and communication in more formal environments.

C2. Critically engage with the historical underpinnings of the study of language in interaction.

C3. Explain the different affordances of different kinds of communicative medium (face to face, telephone, social media and others).

C4. Discuss the problems of research requiring the collection, storage and analysis of linguistic data.

C5. Critically evaluate the theoretical linkages between psychological, linguistic and sociological levels of analysis in understanding the use of language in interaction.

C6. Demonstrate a reflexive approach to research and the issues it raises.

C7. Evaluate and apply conversation analytic research and methods in understanding interaction in institutional settings.

On successful completion of the programme (PG Diploma in Discursive Psychology), students should be able to:

C1. Compare and evaluate the theoretical and technical differences between casual conversation and communication in more formal environments.

C2. Critically engage with the historical underpinnings of the study of language in interaction.

C3. Explain the different affordances of different kinds of communicative medium (face to face, telephone, social media and others).

C4. Discuss the problems of research requiring the collection, storage and analysis of linguistic data.

C5. Critically evaluate the theoretical linkages between psychological, linguistic and sociological levels of analysis in understanding the use of language in interaction.

C6. Demonstrate a reflexive approach to research and the issues it raises.

C7. Is not applicable to this pathway.

C8. Evaluate and apply discursive psychological research and methods in understanding social interaction and behaviour.

On successful completion of the programme (MSc), students should be able to: