Overview and entry requirements

The MA Global Media and Communication is unique in that it offers a critical appraisal and critique of Western Media and Communication theories and approaches through focusing on the complex specificities of Asia, Africa and the Middle East and their diasporas. Drawing on the grounded expertise of staff, it offers a specialised study of the global media environment in relation to Asian, African and Middle Eastern societies and cultures, together with rigorous training in and questioning of contemporary media and communication theory.

We ask what concerns and hopes the people of the regions we study have; how should we address comparatively the global role of mass and digital media in contemporary politics and conflict, as well as processes of exclusion, inequalities, development, participation and empowerment. By considering how, where and by whom media is produced, consumed and used, students develop advanced knowledge and understanding of the theoretical, methodological and empirical issues involved in the analysis of non-western media and communications within historical and contemporary contexts. Students will address alternative ways to situate mediated articulations of agency and subjectivity in non-Western contexts through engaging with various texts challenging the hegemonic claims of mainstream Western media theory that insists the rest of the world subscribe to a narrow exclusive vision of the world.

Our research in film and media has been ranked in the top 20 in the UK in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, with more than a third of our research publications assessed as 4* (world-leading). See Centre for Global Media and Communications. 

The SOAS MA Global Media and Communication will appeal to students with a variety of backgrounds and objectives:

• those coming from a media or journalist background who wish to engage more deeply with global media and communication theory in relation to regional specialisation, especially, but not exclusively, the societies of Asia, Africa and the Middle East; 
• those coming from Asian, African or Middle Eastern Studies who wish to incorporate the study of global media and communication into their own areas of expertise; and 
• those having previously trained in other disciplines, such as Anthropology, politics, international relations, Religious Studies, History, etc.
• those wishing to pursue further study through doctoral research

Prospective students should contact the MA Convenor, Dr Dina Matar (dm27@soas.ac.uk), at an early stage of their application in order to seek advice on the most appropriate options for study.

Please note that not all optional modules are available every year (see the 'Structure' tab for more information).

Venue: Russell Square: College Buildings

Start of programme: September intake only

Mode of Attendance: Full-time or Part-time

Introducing Global Media and Communications

Global communications and digital technologies are at the centre of intellectual and public debates around the role of media in society in the 21st century.  Dr Dina Matar, Chair of the Centre for Global Media and Communication underlines the relevance of the MA Global Media and Communications at SOAS University of London.

What does the course involve?

With the expansion of digital technologies and other changes in global media institutions, forms and content, there is a need to recognise and critically address the concomitant transformations in social, cultural and political lives, particularly in the Global South. The MA Global Media and Communications at SOAS engages with critical debates around these transformations, the political economy of the media, the digitalisation of the global and the relevant debates around nations, identities, representation, voice, empowerment and disenfranchisement, as well as protest movements in the digital age.  The degree offers a unique opportunity to consider these issues using critical theories and solid methodological approaches, while also opening options in international journalism, political communication, media and the Middle East, critical media, media and development, as well as other modules offered across the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and across SOAS.

What kind of students will the course appeal to?

Prospective students will typically be interested in pursuing careers as practitioners, managers, consultants, policy advisers and entrepreneurs in the creative and cultural industries.  Others are more concerned with developing academic research in the expanding field of global media, political communication, media and development and critical journalism studies.

What is special about the programme at SOAS?

The course allows students to pick modules that fit their interests while at the same time providing students with the theoretical and methodological skills to address some of the most pertinent questions in modern times, the increasing mediation of lives. The regional focus offers students the chance to meet leading experts on politics, development, international relations, culture and traditions of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.  Alongside critical analysis and regional expertise, students can choose from a number of practical hands-on modules, in sound recording, podcasting and broadcasting, that will enable them to enhance their skill-set.

What facilities are available?

SOAS offers strong interdisciplinary support for the study of media including the Centre for Media and Film Studies and the Department of Anthropology.  We offer off-site visits to media institutions, invite media and other speakers to our popular research seminars, and offer practical digital training workshops at the end of term two each year. Further, the Library houses a major collection of books and journals on world media, as well as extensive audio-visual materials.

What do students do after graduating?

The course provides a focused, knowledge-based approach to transformations in global media and digital technologies in a global context as well as expert knowledge in media in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.  It also provides students with the ability to read, write and assess critically in the fields of media and communication, film and the arts.

Students of Media Studies at SOAS have found employment in broadcasting and print, film and video production, international development, UN agencies such as UNDP and UNICEF, public relations, political marketing, human rights, as well as in education.

Recommended reading

Toby Miller and Marwan Kraidy, Global Media Studies, London: Polity, 2016.

David Singh Grewal, Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization, Yale University Press, 2008.

Daya Thussu (ed.) Internationalizing Media Studies, London: Routledge, 2009.

Philip Howard, The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam. Oxford University Press, 2010.

John Thompson. Media and Modernity, Polity, 1995

David Faris, Dissent and Revolution in the Digital Age, London: I.B. Tauris, 2014.

Structure

Students must take 180 credits comprised of 120 taught credits (including core, compulsory and option modules) and a 60 credit, 10,000 word dissertation. All students must take the core modules in addition to Qualitative Research Methods in Media and Communication.

Further options include a wide range of media and media-related courses from a comprehensive list offered by the Centre for Global Media and Communications and other constituent units in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. All courses are assessed via written assignments.

Programme Specification

• MA Global Media and Communications Programme Specification 2020/21 (pdf; 298kb)

Important notice

Teaching & Learning

Learning outcomes

Knowledge

• Ability to address the role of global media in Asia, Africa and the Middle East without pre-assuming media are all powerful
• Understand the theoretical underpinnings and debates on the role of media and communication in politics, social lives, cultures and transformations.
• Address the dynamics of the global, the regional and the local in a continuously changing media environment.
• Be able to analytically disaggregate economic, political, social and cultural strands of global media and communication in a neo-liberal environment.
• Address the role of the media in identity formations, representations and cultures.

Intellectual (thinking) skills

• To be critical and precise in their assessment of evidence, and to understand through practice what documents and electronic sources can and cannot tell us. Such skills should improve and be refined throughout the programme.
• Question theories and interpretations, however authoritative, and critically reassess evidence for themselves. Students will learn how to question and challenge the Euro-centric dominant global media and communication approaches and provide evidence-based critique that takes into account different histories, including colonial and post-colonial histories, of media and communication in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These skills should improve and be refined throughout the programme.
• Critically interrogate situated empirical examples of specific media and communication practices in Asia, Africa, Middle East

Subject-based practical skills

• Communicate effectively in writing
• Retrieve, sift and select information from a variety of conventional and electronic sources
• Communicate orally to a group. Listen and discuss ideas introduced during seminars and classes.
• Practise research techniques in a variety of specialized research libraries and institutes.
• Have developed some new competencies in digital media production and dissemination

Transferable skills

• Write good essays and dissertations
• Structure and communicate ideas effectively both orally and in writing
• Understand unconventional ideas
• Summarize your arguments in a coherent and critical way.
• Study a variety of written and digital materials, in libraries, on-line and research libraries of a kind they will not have used as undergraduates.
• Present material orally to a group.
• Have developed a range of on-line competencies

Tuition fees

Fees for 2022/23 entrants, per academic year (Band 1 tuition fee) 

Fees go up each year, therefore, your tuition fee in your second and subsequent years of study will be higher.

Our continuing students, on the same degree programme, are protected from annual increases higher than 5%.

For full details of postgraduate tuition fees see our postgraduate tuition fees page.

Scholarships

For further details and information on external scholarships visit the Scholarships section

Employment

Graduates from the Centre for Global Media and Communications gain expertise in media, communications and film production within a global framework. Graduates develop a portfolio of transferable skills including communication skills, interpersonal skills and team work, which are highly respected by employers.

Recent Centre for Global Media and Communications graduates have been hired by:

• Africa Mediaworks Ltd.
• Al Jazeera
• Associated Press
• BBC
• Breakthrough Breast Cancer
• British Film Institute
• Channel 5
• Comic Relief
• Cordoba African Film Festival
• Discovery Communications
• Equality Now
• Hackney Film Festival
• International Channel Shanghai
• Internews Europe
• Merlin
• Novus
• Office for National Statistics
• Royal College of Art
• The Institute of Ismaili Studies
• Unilever
• United Nations
• Westminster City Council

Find out about our Careers Service.

• How to Apply
• Online Application
• Request a prospectus
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• Funding options
• English language requirements
• Tuition Fees
• Admissions Contacts