This MA unpacks the nitty-gritty of global transformations where media and politics, culture and society converge. Its cutting-edge approach to study provides you with the analytical skills and hands-on experience to grasp these shifts in theory and practice.

• Studying on this MA, you will focus on critical themes like the ‘Digital Divide’, privacy and surveillance, freedom of expression, and the climate crisis. You will also explore the role and impact of governments, international organisations, broadcasters, activists, artists, and communities.
• These issues are more important now than ever, in the wake of both climate change activism and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as worldwide mobilisation such as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. In the context of fast-changing markets in digital goods and services and technological advances such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G networks, and machine learning programs, these issues underscore our increasing dependence on digital, networked technologies.
• Spending time online is now the rule rather than the exception, as nearly half of the world’s population is active on at least one major social media platform. This dependence has implications for the politics of technology design, internet-access and terms of use, for how our personal data is collected and stored, media and internet-policy agendas, and public life in general. Such developments deserve closer study as battles for ownership and control of internet-dependent media and communications gather momentum, and global markets in digital goods and services shift their geocultural axis as they undergo fundamental transformations.
• This MA programme interrogates these broad trends and their local manifestations from a critical, culturally comparative, and historical perspective. The term “global” works as a critical point of reference as well as a descriptor of how the contemporary domains of politics, media, and communications are interconnected at home and abroad, on an intimate, interpersonal, and planetary scale.

The programme addresses key questions central to the relationship between global media and politics, culture and society, such as:

• What is the relationship between ‘everyday life’ – our own and that of others – online and offline?
• Can political institutions ensure that the online environment is safe for all, or should this be left to internet service providers?
• How do we protect fundamental rights and freedoms online such as freedom of expression in the wake of terrorist attacks?
• What are the differences between how public and private broadcasters, activists, artists, and communities make use of social media?

Careers

Our alumni work for internet companies (e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft), national governments around the world, intergovernmental agencies (e.g. Council of Europe, UNESCO), think tanks, non-profits and international NGOs (e.g. Amnesty, Greenpeace, Carnegie Foundation, Centre for Investigative Journalism, Privacy International), public and private broadcasting corporations and (e.g. the BBC, CNN International), in the arts and cultural sectors (e.g. museums, theatres, galleries). Others have continued and established careers as policy advisors, documentary filmmakers, TV producers, journalists, musicians, and technology experts whilst a number go on to pursue an academic or research-based career path.