Gain a strong understanding of contemporary methodological issues by examining various critical methods through practical techniques and case studies related to media analysis.

You will explore different research practices, including:

• Textual and discourse analysis
• Visual analysis
• Ethnography
• Participatory approaches

You will focus on how who we are, how we differ and the power we hold shape our experiences in today’s hyper-complex media and cultural environment. You will draw on recent examples of media and cultural research at Lancaster University and examine their theoretical and practical implications.

By the end of this module, you will have a good understanding of the key elements in planning and carrying out independent research projects.

Apply the knowledge you’ve gained throughout the year to a topic that interests you most in this module. You will be guided by an expert supervisor who will support your progress and offer support and advice as you develop your project.As part of your dissertation, you will take part in MA study skills sessions that cover topics such as:

• Useful tips to manage your research
• Guidance on writing and planning
• Ongoing support throughout your project
• Structuring your dissertation effectively

This module introduces you to key themes of innovation and production in global media. You will focus on the analysis of power in relation to media, while exploring new and emerging forms of social and technological innovation.

You will examine the interplay between power structures, such as global and local inequalities and modes of (dis)engagement in global media. You will ask critical questions about what is at stake in media innovation, from ecological damage to global inequalities in media use.

In this module, you will read and discuss recent and formative writings in global media studies and develop an understanding of key concepts, such as:

• Media cultures
• Industries
• Practices

This module helps to support students to become future media leaders by honing your critical thinking skills.

The media industries employ millions of people around the globe. This module examines key historical and theoretical foundations that shape a critical understanding of the media and cultural industries.You will analyse major advancements in media production and how they have been influenced by regulation and cultural policy.The module explores inequalities within the cultural industries, including:

• Issues of diversity
• The realities of creative work
• The cultural and economic dimensions of the industries

By examining these aspects, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the media and cultural sectors. The module encourages critical thinking and engagement with contemporary issues, helping you develop a deeper understanding of how media, culture and society interact.

Join us as you develop your critical understanding of the theories, debates and methods that inform the study of cinema’s past. Focusing on the concepts of nation, canon and genre. You will explore how film histories are constructed and how they can be challenged through alternative frameworks.

Engaging with postcolonial, feminist, and queer historiographies, the module encourages you to question dominant narratives and consider how cinema reflects and shapes cultural memory across diverse historical and geographical contexts. Through close analysis of case studies and films, you will examine the socio-political impact of cinema in different periods and places.

The module also deepens your methodological skills by engaging with a range of research practices—including archival research, textual analysis, qualitative approaches such as interviews and questionnaires and digital tools – equipping you with a broader and more critical toolkit for independent research. It is ideal for students interested in cinema’s role in historical discourse and cultural transformation.

What ethical and political questions can we ask about ‘smart’ digital infrastructures that are typically overlooked by engineers and tech corporations? How can we approach the social connections forged by ‘smart’ digital infrastructures?

In this module, you will consider the forms of power and control underpinning algorithmic cultures and data. You will explore the progression of technology and how it has made the relationship between the digital and non-digital more complex.

You will consider how technology doesn’t always work as planned, whether it affects people differently or leads to unexpected consequences, such as:

• The messiness of datafication
• Algorithmic culture tied up with affective contagion
• Unpredictable ecosystems
• Electronic waste straddling the planet

Although keyword searches are a common gateway to analysing digitised and digital collections, many new, innovative approaches are being developed that enable humanities researchers to ask questions of their sources.

In this module, you will learn basic methods for analysing text, images, and other types of data in a variety of computational environments, from common desktop- or browser-based software to Jupyter notebooks or RStudio. With origins in linguistics, statistics, computer science, geography and more, these methods have been adapted and reimagined for scholarship in history, literature, and other humanities disciplines. As you refine your analytical skills, you will explore how these methods move between disciplines, the role of the humanities in methodological innovation, and how the emergence of AI is changing this methodological landscape.

The study of audience has a long history in media and cultural studies. However, in the digital age, how do we approach and understand audiences? From watching television to writing fanfiction, digital media has transformed our relationship with media texts.In this module, you will explore timely topical issues related to contemporary media culture, delving into the concept of fandoms. You will examine how fan communities and media industries engage in a dynamic interplay that shapes the evolving meanings and experiences of being a fan today.This module explores media participation in the globalised and digital era. You will develop a comprehensive understanding of media engagement by examining theoretical frameworks and contemporary issues that shape how communities interact with media. The module explores major theoretical trajectories that have shaped scholarly understandings of audience communities and participatory cultures.

In this module, you will focus on crucial feminist interventions in cultural production and cultural studies. You will explore the intersections of feminism media and culture while critically examining how gender identities and inequalities are constructed through various forms of media.

You will think about media as a global practice and address issues such as:

• Class
• Race
• Sexuality
• Disability

This module explores how feminist cultural theory connects with everyday culture by studying sources from popular media such as art, public culture and policy.

The results from digital methods will often be very different from the evidence humanities researchers collected and synthesised before digital interventions began to change our working practices. How do we work with big data? What is the relationship between quantitative and qualitative results? How do we combine more traditional forms of close with the types of distant reading often produced by digital methods?

This module prepares you to select appropriate methods for your sources, frame research questions that are answerable with digital methods, and distil results into significant claims. You will explore claim-making across different disciplines and how scholars make successful arguments at the intersection of traditional humanities disciplines and DH. You will thus develop skills essential to conducting larger studies, including developing a dissertation proposal.

Humanities researchers interact with sources in ways that were unimaginable a generation ago – photographing archival documents, searching full-text collections online, and automatically transcribing text from document images. But what ideas, methods, standards, and tools enable these tasks?

This module prepares you to access, create, curate, structure, enrich, store, and share historical materials such as books, newspapers, official publications, letters, maps and photographs – exploring opportunities and challenges when these are undertaken by individuals compared to organisations.

Along the way, you will review the history of digitisation and discuss key debates around the politics, economics, and cultures of digitisation around the world. This in-depth exploration of how and why sources are converted into machine-readable collections prepares you to make critically informed decisions about your own research and in future professional engagements with digital collections.

In this module, you will develop your own feminist practice with a creative project that could take many shapes, from an activist campaign to artwork. You will reflect on the ethical underpinnings of this work, and on its contribution to wider communities.You will engage in your own practices of feminist world-building, informed by intersectional feminist ideas of reflexivity, responsibility and situated knowledge.You will explore a variety of themes, such as:

• Power – Who makes knowledge and for whom?
• Political – How can we serve different communities through our work?
• Knowledge – How is knowledge always shaped by history and social context?

This module engages with history and contemporary developments in intersectional feminist thought. It focuses on feminist research and knowledge, highlighting the importance of cross-cultural work in Women’s and Gender Studies and the sensitivity to questions of difference and diversity.You will explore different approaches, including:

• Intersectional
• Transnational
• Interdisciplinary

You will engage with a diverse range of case studies and material to explore ways in which Women’s and Gender Studies has critically engaged with issues of equality and justice globally. You will participate in lively, critical debates about important contemporary issues, considering how theoretical perspectives can help to shed light on the world around us.

This module prepares you to situate your research and career ambitions in the multicultural and multimodal world of digital humanities (DH) research internationally.

How does DH in the UK relate to DH elsewhere in the world? What role do libraries, archives, museums, and heritage organisations within and beyond the UK play in shaping research? How does DH relate to research across the range of humanities disciplines, and also beyond the humanities to fields such as natural language processing, artificial intelligence, information studies, and others?

Forward looking, this module creates a space for you to explore cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and put it into conversation with your own interests and current scholarly and public debates.

You are invited to explore the concept of transnational cinemas and how it helps us understand film in a rapidly changing global landscape. As patterns of production, distribution, and reception shift across borders, transnational cinema offers a critical framework for thinking beyond fixed notions of national or world cinema.

You’ll engage with key debates and theoretical approaches that reflect how contemporary film challenges traditional geographical divisions and gives voice to complex questions of identity, migration, diaspora and belonging.

The module considers the impact of global encounters and border politics, and examines how films negotiate cultural difference, hybridity and power.

Through case studies from a range of regions—including Asian cinemas, the Middle East, Eastern and Central Europe, and South America—you’ll develop a nuanced understanding of the diverse ways cinema operates across and between nations. This module supports your ability to think critically and comparatively about cinema in a global context.