Digital Media and Creative Practice with Foundation Year BA (Hons)

Our BA Digital Media and Creative Practice gives you the opportunity to combine the academic study of digital media with a focus on gaining applied creative skills. You will work directly with digital technologies and techniques.<br/><br/>Our world today is increasingly digital. We can know our city’s iconic places through location-aware apps. We shape our identity alongside social media influencers. We fuel the growth of platform monopolies through small, daily gestures like posting videos or ‘liking’ friends’ jokes. We are learning that biases around race, class, gender and sexuality are embedded into algorithms that need to be challenged.<br/><br/>You will not only explore digital media theories with leading scholars and practitioners, but learn how to become a digital media professional. Rather than offering a pre-packaged model, we aim to help you shape your own practice, which can take many forms. This course is your chance to equip yourself with the professional skills you need to create engaging digital content, products and services, guided by leading scholars who are themselves immersed in creative industries.<br/><br/>You will study areas such as:<br/><br/><br/>- social media strategy<br/><br/><br/>- web design and user experience<br/><br/><br/>- video editing, podcasting<br/><br/><br/>- data mining and analysis<br/><br/><br/>- PR and marketing.<br/><br/><br/>You can also gain the tools and skills needed to develop your own creative project, a curatorial concept, a creative business strategy, or to manage a creative organisation.<br/><br/>By the end of your studies, you will have the knowledge and skills needed to work in the digital media and creative industries as well as a broader range of professional settings where applied knowledge of digital media is in high demand. <br/><br/>If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didnt achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. <br/><br/>**Highlights**<br/><br/><br/>- Birkbeck was ranked as one of the top four universities in the UK for its Art and Design research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.<br/><br/><br/>- In film, media and cultural studies, Birkbeck fosters an especially research-intensive environment. We offer an extensive portfolio of internationally respected courses that span a variety of academic disciplines and engage with the latest ideas and techniques in journalism, media and cultural theory, arts policy and management, film and television studies, creative marketing, digital culture and East Asian cultural studies.<br/><br/><br/>- Attend our dynamic programme of seminars, events and guest lectures organised by affiliated research centres and networks such as Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture, the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image and the Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology.<br/><br/><br/>- Make yourself at home in our Bloomsbury campus, which includes facilities such as the award-winning Birkbeck Cinema, the Peltz Gallery, and computer labs equipped with video editing, print layout and web design software packages.<br/><br/><br/>- Learn from leading academic researchers in the field such as Scott Rodgers, Joel McKim, Rebekah Cupitt, Silke Arnold-de Simine, Lina Džuverović, Robert Topinka, Sophie Hope and Professor Tim Markham. Acquire up-to-date skills and knowledge from experienced industry practitioners at the heart of Londons global media industry.<br/><br/><br/>**Careers and employability**<br/><br/>Graduates can pursue careers in the media and cultural industries, for example in:<br/><br/><br/>- film<br/><br/><br/>- television<br/><br/><br/>- newspapers<br/><br/><br/>- online publishing<br/><br/><br/>- digital media management<br/><br/><br/>- magazines<br/><br/><br/>- trade publications<br/><br/><br/>- public relations.<br/>