TMC Academy

Final Year Top-Up Degree
Awarded by: Liverpool John Moores University

This degree is offered under the LJMU Summer Semester Programme, which offers students a unique opportunity to complete their degree by studying the final semester in LJMU in Liverpool, England.

The BA (Hons) Mass Communication programme aims to produce graduates who have a mastery of a range of communication industry skills, supported by extensive contextual studies in communication/media theory, and professional skills.

It is designed to build upon existing skills and knowledge, drawing upon the expertise of the staff at LJMU. 

The degree consists of a total of 7 modules:

At TMC:

Investigative Study

This module aims to develop your reading skills. Throughout your course, you will need to do readings to gain a better understanding of the key debates and theories. Start from reading newspapers and note current trends of the mass communications industries. This helps you to develop reading skills and ideas to contribute in your seminar classes and online forum discussions.

Assessment: 100% coursework

Ethical Performance

This module will focus on the ethical issues that a researcher should pay attention to. It will give you a good idea what research ethics you need to take note when you are conducting a research. Do bring your views and findings to the forum discussion (Blackboard) so that you can get views of other students working in similar subject areas.

Assessment: 100% coursework

Observing Media Audiences

The aim of this module is to prepare you for the Mass Communications project. You will learn contemporary research methods. One of the methods that you will be taught is virtual ethnography - research method in cyberspace.

Assessment: 100% coursework

At LJMU:

Mass Communications Research Project

The aim of this module is to give students the ability to produce work in depth and at length, on a subject within the field of Mass Communications. Students are advised to think very carefully the subject area that they wish to work on and to contribute significantly to the team they will be allocated to. At LJMU an assigned supervisor will advise you on your project throughout the 14 weeks.

Assessment: 100% coursework

Media Business and Institutions

Media Business
This section of the module will look at the media industry in particular the popular music industry. It will look at independent and corporate marketing strategies for a high risk creative product. It will give an overview of why we should be interested in issues such as ownership, professional practice and regulation and how globalization has affected the media industry.

International Media
The American Media, European Media and Middle East Media will be examined. Main focus is how the media represented itself after 9/11. We start by looking at the America media, focusing on the CNN effect. We see how CNN has become even more powerful after 9/11 and how the Middle East media in particular Al-Jazeera reacted to this. We also study the changes of international communications and some new media policies after 9/11.

Assessment: 100% coursework

Visual Communication and Criticism

Hollywood and Genre
We look at four different Hollywood genres, the musical, film noir, comedy and the western in order to understand how the concept of genre can be used to understand how film acts as a form of mass communication. For a media product to be popular it has to be able to appeal to many different audiences not just a single homogenous one. A screening of each of the principle films Chicago, Double Indemnity, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, and Shane will be shown to facilitate discussion. You are advised to look at other examples from the four genres and extend your genre analysis as genre cannot be taught through one defining film.

Democracy, Journalism and Society
We will be looking at the dynamics of public and everyday discourses in the shaping of culture and society. We examine the roles of the media and citizens through the idea of public debate. It is also important to link these understanding to the concept of moral panic. Lastly, we look at the idea behind shocking photojournalism and what impact such journalism has in our democratic society.

Public Information Campaigns
This unit will look at how Public Information Campaigns work. It will explain why businesses employ agencies to design and market campaign. Case studies will be examined from health campaigns to more consumer-oriented campaigns, for example the 118 telephone directory enquiries campaign. Throughout the study of these campaigns, you will learn the methodologies that have been employed to them as well as some theoretical content on the design and planning strategies. Students should pay more attention to how and why those methodologies were implemented to the campaigns.

Assessment: 50% exam/50% coursework

Communication Analysis

Representations
You will learn theories of representations and space and apply them to contemporary movies. The focus here is how cities are represented in movies. Two main movies that will be discussed in the lectures are Matrix and Blade Runner.

Audiences
Here you will get the opportunity to understand how specific kind of audiences consume television texts. We will be looking at the production, representations and consumption of Reality TV and Teen TV. We ask how audiences have changed over the years and if mediated texts have any influences on certain audiences and not others. Lastly, we will explore how the Internet has changed the way we research on audiences and ask if we need new research methods to understand interactive audiences.

Professional Ethics and Production
In this unit, students will consider what reality television is all about, reflecting on some of the ethical issues that many scholars have raised on the use of CCTV on human subjects and animals, questioning how they are edited into the form of reality entertainment? What are the moral and ethical implications? Questions include whether reality can be mediated, or whether the television frame automatically fictionalises all that passes through it.

Assessment: 100% coursework

back to the top ^

Liverpool John Moores University

How to Apply

Request a prospectus

Other Programmes of Interest

BA (Hons) Mass Communications- University of Hertfordshire