This unit offers an introduction to the history and theory of media and communications studies. Students will gain a foundation in key concepts, methodologies and theorists in the field. They will also explore the interdisciplinary roots of media and communications studies and acquire basic research skills. By the end of the unit students should be familiar with major shifts in the history and theory of media and communications studies and with basic concepts and methodologies in the field.

This unit introduces Digital Cultures, the critical interdisciplinary field of research into the cultural and social dimensions of digital technologies. It explores the histories, imaginaries, ideas, platforms and thinkers that inform the study of digital cultures. Students will examine tools and theories that explain the interrelated processes of digital media and communications development and social change. This unit will explore what it means to be a digital cultures researcher and practitioner, offering students foundational knowledge and skills for the major as well as investigating the latest technologies and trends.

The Internet is at the heart of major digital transformations in industry, society and culture. This unit introduces key skills in analysis and critique of the technologies involved in networked change, exploring internet imaginaries, histories and emerging phenomena.

How we eat, sleep, talk, love, shop, work, play, learn and die are all shaped by digital media. Everyday digital media focuses on the transformation of self and society through the digital mediation of everyday practices. How do we organise our social lives and engage creatively in online realms? What are the opportunities and risks of sharing and self-presentation in networked publics? How are communities reconfigured in a digital context? This unit introduces theories of digital culture and identity and applies them to our everyday experiences and interactions with social media, participatory culture, locative media, computer games, virtual reality, smart homes and connected cities.

How do people make and use new media technologies? To answer this question you need to know how to conduct research: a systematic investigation using carefully chosen and ethically sound methods. In this unit students prepare a research proposal to improve knowledge about the social implications of the latest developments in information technologies. They build their methodology by choosing a combination of methods: big data analysis; ethnography, interviews, surveys, online methods, discourse analysis, content analysis and/or case studies.

Technology and Culture analyses the relationships between technological developments and cultural change, with a particular focus on digital media. This unit of study interrogates the changing conceptions of technology in society by tracing the influence of key works in the critical Humanities and social sciences. Through close readings and provocative discussion of advanced texts, students explore the significance of technology in social power, identity, gender, social shaping, class, space, assemblages, actor-networks, experience, thought, time, and the future.

Explore digital technologies in the visual and performing arts, film and popular culture to analyse how new media transform the ways art is made and experienced. Discuss and evaluate their technologies, aesthetics, and how audiences interact with, and even produce them.

Games are distinctive cultural forms, with histories, aesthetics, design cultures, player communities and academic theory. This unit explores how games work and how they are situated in culture. Drawing on games studies, media studies, HCI and design, students analyse games and develop a game concept.

What is cinema in the twenty-first century? Where do we locate the essence of a medium that has undergone such a radical transformation? This course examines the intersection of film, digital cinema, and new media platforms such as YouTube, mobile cinemas, and virtual reality technologies. Where many have spoken of the death of cinema in a digital era, we will conceptualise the complexity of cinema's evolution from its earliest celluloid incarnation to the technologies of digital simulation.

Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.

This interdisciplinary unit provides students with the opportunity to address complex problems identified by industry, community, and government organisations, and gain valuable experience in working across disciplinary boundaries. In collaboration with a major industry partner and an academic lead, students integrate their academic skills and knowledge by working in teams with students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. This experience allows students to research, analyse and present solutions to a real¿world problem, and to build on their interpersonal and transferable skills by engaging with and learning from industry experts and presenting their ideas and solutions to the industry partner.