Media and Advertising MA

Course description

The MA Media and Advertising will equip you with both the theoretical and the practical research skills to understand and critically evaluate one of the most creative promotional industries in the world: advertising. You will explore this dynamic phenomenon from different standpoints and use multidisciplinary approaches deriving from Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, as well as Marketing and Consumer Studies.

The course covers a range of topics, including:

• the role of advertising in media and consumer societies (history, industry and issues)
• the ubiquity of promotional culture (political advertising, public service advertising, branding, anti-consumer movements, etc.)
• the importance of researching advertising messages and campaigns using a variety of methods
• the position of advertising in the marketing toolkit available to companies
• the necessity to understand consumers' behaviour

You will also explore advertising from the standpoint of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, and explore the relevant key concepts and practices. You will investigate how advertising promotes brand awareness and influences consumers' decision making processes. You will gain an understanding of the creative strategies used in advertising and the use of research in relation to advertising effectiveness, as well as the ability to work and be assessed on live creative briefs and advertising research projects. During the course you will also have the opportunity to hear guest speakers from the industry, who will share their valuable experiences with you. In the past few years, the MA Media and Advertising featured the following guest speakers from the advertising industry:

• Jamie Mollart, Director of the advertising agency Rock Kitchen Harris
• David Bassett, Director of Analytics at the advertising research company Lumen Research
• Natalie Edwards, Director of the cultural insight and innovation consultancy Canopy

The MA Media and Advertising is taught by Media and Communication. As a result you will be well equipped to pursue a career in advertising or marketing or continue your study in a research degree (PhD).

The programme consists of core and option modules and a dissertation based on a piece of individually supervised research. This provides you with the opportunity to examine in depth a topic of particular relevance to your study and interests, and to put into practice the skills you have acquired in data analysis, project management, and research presentation.