English and Multimedia Journalism

An introduction to the analysis of narrative forms and genres, focussing primarily on pre-20th Century, 20th and 21st Century texts.

You will be introduced to, and develop, core journalism skills including news reporting, interviewing, reporting meetings, press conferences and much more. There is also the opportunity to interview guest speakers and to attend and report on live events.

This module introduces the theory and practice of creating digital media assets for web pages. This will include industry standard methods of production, storage and the use of digital video, audio and images. You will also have the opportunity to produce digital images, audio and video content as well as collaborate on the delivery of online content and media.

This module introduces key skills for university study, progressing to research, writing and project development. You will learn skills of close reading and textual analysis, practice on a range of cultural forms and focussed on representations of Manchester as a diverse, international city. You will then develop your own independent project and put into practice the analytical skills developed. 

For this module you will undertake an evaluation of the values and style of presentation used in national, regional and local press, and equivalent digital sites. You will be introduced to editing, design principles and production software.

This module covers the British legal system including court procedure and reporting restrictions. You will be introduced to key laws including the Defamation Act, Contempt of Court Act, Sex Offences Act, Children and Young Persons Act, Copyright Act and the Human Rights Act. The module will also address legal and ethical issues regarding the protection of privacy and the right to report and will outline the role of the media's key regulatory bodies.

This module will analyse the current climate crisis applying the methodologies of creative writing, English literature, or film and media studies.

This module will explore the organisations and activities that make up Manchester’s UNESCO City of Literature network, and assess ways in which literary activity can help cities address contemporary global challenges.

A module that is about reading in context, focussing on the relationship between aesthetic form, thematic content and historical context in a diverse range of texts and genres from the 19th to early 20th centuries. 

You will practise reading in context, focussing on the relationships between aesthetic form, thematic content and historical context in a diverse range of texts and genres from the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

A module that is about reading in context, focussing on the relationships between aesthetic form, thematic content and the historical context in a diverse range of texts and genres from the 1940's-1970's.

Students focus on two literary forms chosen from a list (for example prose, poetry, scriptwriting) and follow an intensive workshop for one semester. 

This module investigates cultures of resistance and their historical conditions. To do so, it places a range of resistant cultural texts in dialogue with relevant theoretical and critical material. 

An innovative module which applies interdisciplinary methods and perspectives in a professional and/or public setting. Students work in interdisciplinary teams on one of a range of projects to showcase interdisciplinary skills in practice.

An innovative module that applies interdisciplinary methods, approaches and perspectives of humanities and social science disciplines to contemporary socio-economic challenges, complementing Engaging the Humanities 1. Each year the module will address a different contemporary issue or theme.

This topic-based module introduces a range of cinematic modes, movements and genres, whose formal, historical and cultural properties will be analysed. Topics may, for example, include: genres (eg Horror, Melodrama, Musical, Noir); theories of genre (structuralist and historical); other cinematic modes of expression (eg the gothic, queer cinema, art-house narrative) and other theoretical approaches to cinema (eg National / transnational cinemas, star studies, women's cinema).

The module will take students through the various stages of recruitment from identifying strengths and skills, to job searching and CVs, using platforms such as LinkedIn, and interview practice. Students will build up a portfolio of tasks related to employability, for instance, CV, video interview, assessment centre and reflect on their learning across the module.

A module that is about reading in context. You will initially focus on a diverse range of texts and genres from the 1940s to the 1970s, considering the relationships between aesthetic form, thematic content and historical context.  Focus will then move onto the relationships between aesthetic form, thematic content and historical context in a diverse range of texts and genres from the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

How can literary and cultural texts write back to the former colonial centre, enact the decolonisation of the mind, and unpick the stereotypes and ideologies central to the establishment of the British empire? How do literary and cultural works represent the lingering effects of imperialism in the present day? What does contemporary inequality, nationalism, Islamophobia and racism have to do with Britain’s colonial past? This module supports students to address the formal, ideological and ethical questions negotiated in postcolonial literature and cinema. The module offers an introduction to postcolonial theory as it relates to the texts and contexts we discuss. Areas of investigation might include climate change, migration, war, gender and sexuality, race and religion.

You will work with a supervisor to define an independent project on an appropriate topic of your choosing. You may focus on an academic subject or work with an external partner. Preliminary research will generate a detailed proposal, which will form the basis of a guided independent research-based project to produce an extended piece of work that presents a thesis. Your final submission will be an individual project that builds upon the skills you have developed on your course.

This module explores nineteenth-century British and global literature and culture through a gothic lens, using a range of texts such as fiction, poetry, short stories, autobiographies, art, essays and non-fiction published or produced during the long nineteenth century (1790-1914).

The module will take students through the various stages of recruitment from identifying strengths and skills, to job searching and CVs, using platforms such as LinkedIn, and interview practice. Students will build up a portfolio of tasks related to employability, for instance, CV, video interview, assessment centre and reflect on their learning across the module.

The module will aim to introduce English as a core curriculum subject in secondary schools and as an A-level subject. It will provide students with insight into the application of their subject specialism to teaching in school and colleges in England, covering aspects of both curriculum content and subject pedagogy.

The Study Abroad module will involve study for one semester at an approved partner University overseas.

To build on a student's understanding of advanced audio skills and methods employed by journalists and explore theory of audio journalism in relation to contemporary debates. 

This module further embeds the key concepts of journalism to expert level, with a focus on advanced skills. It looks at the role of journalists within the current media landscape and how they contribute to it effectively, both as an individual and as part of a growing commercial venture. This module involves the identification of an issue worthy of a single campaign or investigative-style piece of journalism and you will have the opportunity to work on real time live news events, operating in a newsroom environment and producing content to deadline. Advanced journalism techniques will reflect current professional practice and equip you with the key skills, knowledge and insight to operate both collaboratively and independently. Understanding the role of newspapers and news websites in investigating and campaigning on behalf of audiences and the ability to undertake more advanced journalism projects will further enhance employability.

This module will focus on representations of the United States’ history, culture and selfhood promulgated by the nation’s movie industry from the early twentieth century to the present day; exploring how Hollywood has articulated, interrogated and dominated available ideas of American national identity.

American Sounds and the City combines the study of American literature, film and music to explore the soundscapes of the American city. 

This module investigates the question of the human in contemporary cultural debate. To do so, it draws upon theoretical and critical work in the field and sets these conceptual frameworks in dialogue with a wide range of literary and cinematic texts. 

This module will introduce students to all parts of the book publishing process and industry. Through practical exercises and interactive lectures, students will learn how the industry developed, specialist genres such as children's publishing and how publishers commission, edit, design and produce books in all formats. 

Building on knowledge already acquired on key pieces of legislation affecting journalists, this module will explore their impact through scenarios and practical exercises, examining the impact of the law across a range of platforms. The module will also explore the legal, practical and ethical problems posed for journalists by social media in newsgathering and publishing. The module will explore in depth a range of legal and ethical issues including protection of privacy and freedom of information, protection of confidential sources and reporting race and racist organisations.

This module covers arts reviews and interviews across a number of forms/genres that represent art and cultural journalism. There will be opportunities to understand the role that arts journalism plays in context with other forms of journalism.

This module explores the relationship between race, postcolonialism and popular culture, examining the ways in which colonial histories and legacies are interrogated, mythologised or sublimated within popular cultural forms.

This module provides an analytical study of a range of classic and modern texts written for children. It also uses these texts as models for the production of new texts. The module also covers appropriate techniques for writing for children. It provides you with the skills to analyse a range of children's literature, and to use the resulting knowledge to produce original texts suitable for teenagers and children. 

This module introduces students to the range and diversity of contemporary poetry, and develops students' own critical skills in relation to the study of contemporary poetry.

This module provides an analytical study of a range of twenty and twenty-first century games, both analogue and digital. Students will be introduced to the critical and historical field of game studies, and given guidance on the appropriate critical approaches and terminology to enable them to read games and gaming.

Students will study a range of popular fiction texts and study the ways in which such texts conform to and subvert a set of generic conventions.

This module is concerned with critical and creative conceptions, constructions and depictions of forms of violence and trauma, and introduces students to representations and theories of trauma drawn from multiple locations (temporal and geographic).

This module looks at Shakespeare's plays and poems in regard to both his contemporary intellectual, political and social meanings and effect, and the influence of his work on subsequent culture, in terms reception, adaptation and reinvention. 

This module will critically analyse the representation of place in key contemporary texts. These texts, drawn from a range of genres, will be evaluated within the frameworks (including literary geography and ecocriticism) provided by contemporary theoretical debates. The module will also situate creative and conceptual writing about place within the context of 'real world debates': topics to be covered will include environmental crisis, regeneration and the post-industrial city, and digital technologies and spatial literacy.