Coming October 2014 is a joint venture between the Cardiff University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning and the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. The school is widely considered to be one of the best media schools in the UK. This partnership has been set up in order to deliver a pathway onto an undergraduate degree.
The pathway is intended for adult learners and those that have been out of formal education for a long time to experience a taste of university, and engage in the topics they are most interested in. The main goal is for pathway students to complete six of the seven modules on offer which will allow them to progress onto an undergraduate degree at the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Alternatively, the modules can be taken as standalone subjects by anyone who has an interest in them.
To appeal to adult learners the pathway is built in such a way as to slot into people’s busy lives. The course runs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from October 2014 onwards, and there will be three Saturday school in July 2015. The pathway is affordable, and there is financial support available for those who meet the criteria. Finally, and most importantly you do not need any prior qualifications to enrol on a course. Just the enthusiasm and interest in the subject is all that is required.
But Why Study Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies?
The modern world is media saturated, the media is everywhere, and it is part of everything that we do. New technologies have meant that this saturation reaches beyond television broadcasts and print newspapers to include the internet, mobile phones, feature films, advertising and video games.
The media has become a 24-hour phenomenon spreading across multiple platforms and across technologies. As a result, we as a population are exposed to more mass media messages in one day than our grandparents were in a month.
Our leisure time has become dominated by media consumption, so much so that after work and sleep we consume media more than doing anything else we do. Therefore, the messages which the media produces, the ideas promoted and underplayed, the images transmitted, and their impact on our society is incredibly important to study.
If you have ever wanted to learn more about anything to do with journalism, media and cultural studies then the Our Media, Our World pathway is for you. The modules on offer cover a wide and varied range of subjects taught by experts in their field from war and propaganda to sport, digital media to comedy, news to pop music.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Our Media, Our World pathway please contact the pathway’s coordinator Dr Jonathan Cable. He can be reached by emailing [email protected], or by phone on 029 208 70646. You can meet him and the Our Media, Our World tutors in person at the Centre’s open days which take place on Wednesday September 10 and Saturday September 13 (see here for more information).
Our Media, Our World can also be found on the Centre’s website here with more details about each module and ways to enrol, and a mailing list has been set up to deliver email updates. For more regular updates follow the pathway on social media. The pathway can be found on Twitter at @OurMediaWorld, and the official Facebook page entitled Our Media, Our World.
Image accompanying this article is copyright Esther Vargas.
