BA (Hons) Anthropology & Media
This programme emphasises issues of cultural difference, symbolism and representation in relation to their social contexts, with a contemporary and historical scope. In particular, it looks at concepts of 'culture' and 'communication'.
3 years full-time.
LP63
ABB or equivalent; see find out more about our general entrance requirements.
Please see undergraduate tuition fees.
Contact the Admissions Tutor, Dr Mao Mollona.
Download a booklet [PDF, 571KB]
This interdisciplinary degree combining social and cultural anthropology with media and cultural studies and communications theory is taught in the Departments of Anthropology, and Media and Communications, and explores links and areas of overlap between the social sciences and the arts. We don’t assume you have any knowledge of anthropology, and welcome applications from anyone with arts, social studies or science backgrounds. Teaching is through lectures, seminars and tutorials.
What you study
In your first year you are introduced to some of the main theories within social anthropology and its sub-fields – political anthropology, economic anthropology, and kinship. You also consider the role of ethnography, and will be given a foundation in anthropological methodological practice. For the media element, you take courses that enable you to study the historical development of the British media; debates surrounding the term ‘culture’, and the development of British cultural studies; and the formal address of media texts as a means of examining the way in which they make meaning.
In year two you consider the anthropology of religion, morals and symbolism, and explore interactions between changing economic and political structures in the world today. You take media theory courses that cover the internationalisation of cultural and media studies, and either the psychology of communications or theories of political economy in the cultural industries. In addition, you take a media practice course in which you develop production skills by creating small-scale projects.
You take a compulsory link course in year three that unites each element of the degree through an interdisciplinary study of both subjects. You also pick anthropology and media theory options from a range of courses available, and take a media production course that enables you to focus on a different practice area to the one you studied in year two. See the anthropology options. Third year media course options currently enable you to, for example, study music as a form of communication; develop and extend theories of media audience; understand political communications; and interrogate critical perspectives on embodiment and the self from the standpoint of critical psychology.
Assessment
Coursework, extended essays, reports, and seen and unseen written examinations. Media practice examined by project work and essays/log.
Register your interest
If you register your interest in this programme we will keep you informed about open days and send you relevant further information.
Equivalent GCE A-level qualifications
| BTEC National Diploma |
Access courses |
Scottish qualifications |
European Baccalaureate |
International Baccalaureate |
Other requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DDM | 60 Credits including 45 Credits at level 3 (with Merits in related modules) | BBBBB (Higher)
BBB (Advanced Higher) |
77% | Pass with at least 33 points, with 6, 6, 5 at HL | - |
Courses and structure
All courses are valued at 15 credits unless otherwise specified.
Year 1
Anthropology
You take the following compulsory core courses:
- Introduction to Social Anthropology (30 credits)
- Ethnography of a Selected Region I
- Anthropological Methods
Media and Communications
You take the following compulsory core courses:
- Media History and Politics
- Culture and Cultural Studies
- Key Debates in Media Studies
- Media Texts: Interpretation and Sensation
Please note: there are no media practice courses in Year 1.
Year 2
Anthropology
You take the following courses:
- Anthropology of Religion
- Anthropology and the Visual 1
- Politics, Economics and Social Change (30 credits)
Media and Communications
You take the following theory and practice courses:
Media Theory
You take two courses from:
- Communications, Psychology and Experience
- Culture Society and the Individual
- Media, Economy and Society
Media Practice
Media Production – Option 1 (30 credits).
This is chosen from seven Media Practice areas chosen by the student.
Year 3
Anthropology
You select four Anthropology Option courses from the full list.
Media and Communications
Media Theory
You are required to take two option courses from the range offered by the Department of Media and Communications. There are normally six courses offered, and these vary from year to year. The following have recently been offered for third year study: Political Economy of the Mass Media – Media and Power; Political Communications, History and Culture; Re-conceptualising Audiences; Media, Ethnicity and Nation; Music as Communication and Creative Practice; Contemporary Cultural Practice.
Media Practice
You take Media Production – Option 2 (30 credits)
Careers and employability
Department of Anthropology
Our Anthropology programmes and courses aim to equip you with a range of specialist and transferable skills.
As part of your studies, seminars and course work, you will develop skills in communication (including public speaking, developing and presenting an argument, note taking, report writing), analytical thinking, awareness of social, political and cultural processes.
The particular set of skills associated with anthropology, including development of awareness of social and cultural difference, and learning to think ‘outside the box’, provides a good foundation for a number of career paths.
Our students have been successful in a range of areas, from postgraduate research and teaching in higher education, to film making and other media careers, journalism, and museum curating, to applied or advocacy work for NGOs and development agencies.
Our particular emphasis on public anthropology encourages our students to explore options in a range of practice-based and public sector career paths.
Department of Media & Communications
Just some of the skills you'll develop during a Media & Communications degree include:
- critical and analytical skills;
- proficiency in assessing evidence and in expressing ideas clearly;
- ability to bring together insights from a range of subjects;
- IT skills;
- communications skills;
- journalistic and creative writing skills.
Careers
Alumni from the Department have gone on to careers in television, radio, the press, publishing, film-making, advertising, marketing and public relations, web design, teaching and research, advertising, arts and administration, business and industry, European Union private sector management and personnel work, and many more both in the media industries and elsewhere.
About the Departments of Anthropology and Media
The Department of Anthropology
- Anthropology at Goldsmiths is an exciting, multi-disciplinary department, with specialists in a variety of areas of research not undertaken in other Anthropology departments in the UK or abroad.
- We are one of the most consistently innovative departments in Britain. Instrumental in the development of new fields and directions in the discipline, the department continues to be at the forefront of a number of areas, including visual anthropology, medical anthropology, the anthropology of development and rights, cultural politics, political economy, and the anthropology of media.
- Anthropology at Goldsmiths has above all a contemporary orientation, and contributes both to the development of the academic discipline and to the world outside it, through policy- oriented research and advocacy in a range of areas. What you learn in the classroom will be relevant in a variety of public domains – in Britain and elsewhere – as all of our teaching refers to relevant contemporary social issues.
- The department currently has 16 permanent members of teaching staff and three administrative staff. We have a large group of visiting tutors, and several research fellows working on a range of projects funded by bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the British Academy. We have approximately 250 undergraduate students, plus 80 Masters and 40 research postgraduate students.
- We also have close links with other departments and research centres at Goldsmiths, including the Centre for Cultural Studies, the Centre for Urban and Community Research, the Centre for Balkan Studies, Sociology, Psychology, History, and Media and Communications, and the Community and Youth Work section of the Department of Professional and Community Education.
- As a part of the University of London, Goldsmiths’ students have opportunities to attend seminars and courses throughout the University’s colleges and institutions, and can make use of the excellent library facilities at Senate House and fellow colleges.
Our areas of specialisation include: the environment, peasantries, post-socialism, kinship, gender, animals, medicine health and the body, anthropology of science and biotechnology, visual anthropology, development and rights, representation, material and popular culture, cultural politics, neo-colonialisms, postcolonialisms, and history.
Staff research interests cover many geographical regions including Latin America, North America, Africa, the Pacific, Asia, and Europe, including Britain.
The Department of Media & Communications
The Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths is one of the UK’s leaders in the field of media theory and media practice.
This reputation teamed with a thriving research and postgraduate community makes Goldsmiths a lively and challenging place to study Media and Communications.
The Department offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and has over 700 students.
Key facts
- An internationally recognised Department. The 2008 RAE exercise places Goldsmiths’ Department of Media and Communications among the top four in the country for this subject area. 80% of work submitted fell within the two highest bands in the new system – that is to say ‘World Leading’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’.
- Commitment to teaching of the highest standard resulting in a score of 22/24 in the Teaching Quality Assessment Exercise, with an emphasis on high quality lectures and small group work.
- Teaching is led by research active staff including some of the leading names in media, cultural and communications studies.
- We concentrate on high quality lectures, small group work and all our teaching takes place on one site.
- We attract students from a wide range of backgrounds – mature students, international students, students from south-east London and from all over Britain. We welcome every student’s contribution to the Department.
- Research strengths include: the political economy of the mass media, transnational media, political communications, popular music, new technologies, new media economies and cultures, news journalism, film, feminism, critical psychology, contemporary British art and the fashion industry.
Facilities
The Department has up-to-date facilities in all of its media areas, and aims to provide practice facilities that emulate current industry use.
These include:
- digital and analogue acquisition for time-based media and photography
- radio and TV Studios
- photography studios
- digital video and audio editing
- ENPS facility
- animation and image manipulation software and hardware
- traditional darkrooms
- computer rooms for student production.
Student profile
"I took BA Anthropology & Media at Goldsmiths because I have aspirations to work in the film and TV industry, but wanted a theoretical grounding that went beyond media theory. Anthropology seemed like the perfect choice.
The options to learn theory have all been widely varied over the two departments and the practical options in media have helped me learn new skills and production techniques.
I’ve found a lot of people with similar goals to mine and have started short film productions with many people I’ve met here, as well as having made lifelong friends."
Mahmut, BA Anthropology & Media
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK
Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7919 7171
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