MA Media and Public Relations
Please note: This page is for 2027 entry. Click here for 2026 entry.
| UCAS code | 1234 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 1 year full time 2 years part time |
| Entry year | 2026 |
| Campus | Streatham Campus |
| Typical offer | We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree or above (or equivalent). |
|---|---|
Why study MA Media and Public Relations at Exeter?
- Build advanced expertise in PR strategy, reputation management and brand communication across diverse sectors.
- Create standout social media campaigns in the fast-paced attention economy.
- Explore the impact of AI on online culture and learn from real-life influencers.
- Apply global promotional strategies through practical case studies and live briefs.
- Tailor your degree with flexible module choices and learn from PR experts and industry pros.
Top 10 in the UK for Communication and Media Studies
Home to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum
The biggest film-related archive in the UK outside the British Film Institute
Develop transferable skills and specialist knowledge through interdisciplinary teaching
Varied graduate careers
Entry requirements
We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree or above (or equivalent). We welcome students from any academic background.
Please also see our guidance on essential documentation required for an initial decision on taught programme applications.
Entry requirements for international students
English language requirements
International students need to show they have the required level of English language to study this course.
The required IELTS test scores for this course fall under Profile B1.
Please visit our English language requirements page to view the required test scores and equivalencies from your country.
Course content
The MA Media and Public Relations offers a dynamic blend of academic theory and practical application, preparing you for careers in PR, media and the creative industries. You'll explore key strategies in branding, digital marketing, social media campaigning and reputation management, while gaining a critical understanding of AI’s impact on online culture.
The course focuses on developing transferable skills such as persuasive communication, ethical decision-making and creative problem-solving. You’ll also gain hands-on experience through case studies and optional modules tailored to your interests.
With access to cutting-edge facilities like the Digital Experience Lab, and learning from leading academics and industry professionals, you’ll be part of a vibrant, future-focused learning environment. The Industry Insights module supports you in mapping out your career goals.
Whether you're starting out or upskilling, this MA equips you with the expertise and confidence to thrive in today’s fast-paced media and PR sectors.
The modules below provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.
Please note that the module information displayed here is subject to change.
Students should take 120 compulsory credits, and 60 optional credits.
Compulsory modules
| Code | Module | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Compulsory 1 | ||
| Dissertation - Written | 60 | |
| Strategic Communications | 30 | |
| Public Relations and Promotional Media | 30 | |
CDFM001: Dissertation - Written
The dissertation project is the culmination of your postgraduate course and represents an opportunity to explore a research question in detail over an extended period of time. Across the module you will conceive, plan, research and write a study of 15,000 words. Initially you will be supported by a supervisor, but during the writing period you will be expected to work independently.
The dissertation will enable you to consolidate and develop your subject knowledge and methodological skills in your discipline by exploring in detail a topic of your own devising.
You will be supported through the early stages of planning your dissertation in the second term of your studies through a series of workshops. This will enable you to develop and submit a dissertation proposal by the end of term 2 (for part time students the proposal will be submitted by the second term of the second year of study).
You will then be assigned a supervisor who will support you during term 3 as you conduct initial research, prepare draft work and establish your project sufficiently to enable you to work independently after the end of term 3. Your supervisor will support you as your research, planning and writing progress through one-to-one supervision sessions. These combined activities will offer you the necessary guidance and support to refine your initial plans and bring your research project to completion.
CMMM016: Strategic Communications
This module explores how communication is designed, coordinated, and deployed to influence attitudes, behaviours, and decision-making across political, corporate, military, and civil society contexts. The module critically examines the theories, practices, and ethical challenges underpinning contemporary strategic communication in a global, digitally mediated environment. You will engage with concepts such as narrative power, audience analysis, messaging coherence, reputation and legitimacy, information operations, and the relationship between communication, strategy, and policy. Drawing on international case studies, the module analyses how organisations align communication objectives with broader strategic goals while navigating misinformation, persuasion, and public trust. Emphasis is placed on critical evaluation, strategic planning, and ethical judgement. You will develop the analytical and practical skills required to design, assess, and critique strategic communication campaigns in complex and contested communication environments.
CMMM018: Public Relations and Promotional Media
This module critically examines the strategic role of public relations and promotional media within contemporary organisations and cultural industries, across international contexts, including the UK, US, Europe, and China. The module considers key histories and theories of PR, providing you with a grounding in critical PR studies. Drawing upon a range of advertising, branding, PR, and marketing strategies you will examine numerous campaign case studies to understand how organisations use media relations, social media, and influencer partnerships to shape public perception and achieve strategic objectives. Attention is given to ethical, legal, and cultural issues including misinformation, diversity, sustainability, and responsible communication practice. By the end of the module, you will have an advanced understanding of major debates in the study of public relations, promotional media, and consumer activism across sectors and international contexts.
Optional modules
| Code | Module | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Optional 1 | ||
| Media and Communications: Advanced Theory and Concepts | 30 | |
| Social Media: Management and Strategy | 30 | |
| Industry Insights | 30 | |
| Digital Media Cultures | 30 | |
| Cultural Adaptation | 30 | |
| Ideas Generation and the Creative Process | 30 | |
| Creative Management | 30 | |
| Creative Industries | 30 | |
| Critical Debates in Screen Studies | 30 | |
| Transmedia Adaptations | 30 | |
| Archival Encounters: Material Film Histories | 30 | |
CMMM001: Media and Communications: Advanced Theory and Concepts
This module explores current theoretical and conceptual frameworks that are shaping the field of media and communication studies. We will explore a range of theories that can be used to analyse the role that media texts and technologies play in our lives. The module will combine new ways of understanding media, whilst providing you with analytical skills and knowledge that will help you to conduct your dissertation research.
This module aims to:
- Explore the historical development of a range of communication theories.
- Encourage you to consider the potentials, limitations, and critiques of different forms of communications theory and situate these debates in their socio-historical contexts.
- Motivate you to critically analyse media genres, styles, and forms and understand them in relation to their production, consumption, dissemination, and engagement practices.
- Provide you with an advanced understanding of communications as a discipline and the various research-based approaches the discipline can offer.
- Help you begin the process of identifying a suitable idea that can be developed into a research topic for the final dissertation.
CMMM002: Social Media: Management and Strategy
This module explores topics of social media management and social media strategy from a critical and practical perspective. Topics covered may include issues of marketing foundations and strategies on social media, brand management and reputation management on social media, and disinformation, propaganda and persuasion in the age of social media. It may also consider practices in different socio-cultural contexts and a range of social media.
The module aims to:
- Provide you with core knowledge and key skills to critically assess developments in the field of social media management and strategy.
- Offer key industry insights and empirical evidence and studies to help you build these skills.
- Provide you with advanced knowledge of management, as well as strategic communication.
CMMM014: Industry Insights
This module provides you with an opportunity to develop your employability skills and potential so that you may more effectively prepare for entering the job market. Through a series of industry-facing guest lectures from practicing media and communications sector professionals, you will be guided through possible career paths and learn to identify employers' needs in a changing job market. You will also have the opportunity to network with the guest speakers, further developing your interpersonal communication and networking skills, maximising your employability potential. There are no pre-requisites or co-requisites for this module, and no specialist knowledge, skills, or experience are necessary to take it. This module is recommended for interdisciplinary pathways.
This module aims to:
- Prepare you to join the workforce by developing your employability and career prospects.
- Provide you with the opportunity to reflect on your career goals and plan for your future career.
- Offer you a range of industry perspectives from guest speakers from the media and communications sector.
- Equip you with a working understanding of the day-to-day realities of different media and communications jobs via industry speakers.
- Provide you with opportunities to engage with the University's Career Zone and familiarise yourself with the services and support they can offer.
- Enable you to deepen your understanding of the media and communications sector and organisations relevant to your own potential career trajectory.
CMMM015: Digital Media Cultures
This module on digital media culture examines a wide variety of perspectives and discourses on digital media from dimensions like (but not limited to) access, capabilities, economy, gender, power, class, and social hierarchies. This module will weave in a range of global trends and perspectives of digital media allowing you as a student of media studies to think of digital media services, software, and platforms as both individually designed experiences and also globally navigated systems. The module will offer you new ways to think about the cultural significance of digital media and the online lives we lead.
This module aims to:
1. Explore the cultural value and significance of digital media and online services and to think of online lives as sites of cultural production.
2. Encourage you to consider the potentials and limitations of different digital media theories and forms in their socio-historical contexts.
3. Motivate you to critically analyse digital media technologies, services, and processes and understand them in relation to production, consumption, dissemination, and engagement practices.
4. Provide you with an expert understanding of communications as a discipline and the various research-based approaches the discipline can offer.
DRAM103: Cultural Adaptation
Human beings are characterised by their ability to adapt, and cultures themselves also adapt to a variety of influences, while humans adapt to cultures. In this module you'll look at the processes affecting performance in the contemporary world, taking into account factors such as globalisation, interculturalism, diaspora and migration. As well as being able to locate yourself within your own cultural histories and values, you'll also understand the role of performance and arts in different cultural contexts, and the complexities of communicating and adapting texts, events, and performances between cultures.
This module aims to:
- Introduce you to the concept of cultural adaptation, with reference to a wide range of potential cultures, and to such related concepts as globalisation, diaspora, postcolonialism, interculturalism and identity
- You will discuss examples of cultural adaptation within their own cultures, and study how these may be best analysed using the theories to which they have been introduced
- Introduce research skills including critical writing and performance analysis.
DRAM141: Ideas Generation and the Creative Process
Working at the intersection of theory and practice, you will explore creativity not as a neat sequence of steps, but as a dynamic, non-linear process shaped by intuition, constraint, environment, and collaboration. Drawing on theories of creativity, innovation, and design-led thinking, you will test how ideas are generated, stretched, disrupted, and transformed through doing.
The module places particular emphasis on embodied and performative approaches to thinking. Through improvisation, play, and structured experimentation, you will work with creativity as something that is enacted - something that happens in space, in interaction, and often under pressure. Performativity here is both a lens and a method: a way of understanding how ideas take form, and how they are communicated, negotiated, and brought to life across different cultural contexts.
At the same time, you will situate creative practice within the realities of the creative industries. Ideas do not exist in isolation: they move through systems of production, distribution, and value. You will critically examine how imaginative, non-linear processes can be translated into viable, impactful, and responsible outcomes, and what is gained, and sometimes lost, in that translation.
DRAM142: Creative Management
This module explores the management of creativity and the application of creative approaches to project, team, and creative project development. You will investigate the challenges of working with creative individuals and teams: What motivates and drives creative talent? How can leaders inspire, support, and enable innovation? Conversely, how do organisational practices or managerial behaviours stifle creativity? You will examine the roles of individuals and teams in promoting ideas, developing projects, and generating value.
Through case study analysis, research, and reflective discussion, you will engage with live challenges and debates from the creative industries. You will be encouraged to consider how organisational culture, sectoral differences, digital storytelling, placemaking, and Theory of Change frameworks may influence creative decision-making, processes, collaboration, and outcomes. Examples may draw on creative management case studies, including projects, events, or exhibitions, offering insight into both successes and lessons from failure.Assessment is portfolio-based, allowing you to demonstrate practical and strategic skills. Portfolios may include elements such as creative projects, business strategies, business model canvases (BMCs), or project plans, providing opportunities to apply your understanding in realistic professional contexts.
DRAM169: Creative Industries
This module explores concepts, structures and issues that draw from creative industries narratives and challenges. By looking at the past, present and future of the creative industries, you will form an understanding of how cultural value is created, consumed and evaluated. This module provides you with an overview of the creative industries in a global context and equips you with a rich, critically informed understanding of the sector. Through engaging with organisational challenges, disruptive innovation and strategic change, you will learn how the business of creativity and value capture has resulted in a growing creative economy, and will analyse, reflect and creatively respond to a range of professional, sustainable contemporary contexts.
This module aims:
- To develop critical skills through the analysis of contemporary case studies from a range of creative organisations.
- To interrogate the notion of value as applied to creativity and to creative industries.
- To develop a balanced understanding of generic business content, such as business structures, business models and funding streams.
- To equip you with an understanding of how the creative sector is adapting to digital technology, social media and changing audience behaviour
- To introduce and study the role and impact of social entrepreneurship.
- To equip you with skills to develop and communicate key business concepts and ideas.
EAFM007: Critical Debates in Screen Studies
This module introduces you to contemporary aesthetic, critical, political and philosophical debates in screen studies and a range of advanced methodological approaches that is central to the study of contemporary and historical film, television, digital screens and visual culture. This module will enable you to engage in current key debates on film and wider screen visual cultures. You will think through philosophical and aesthetic developments in recent screen studies, analysing the ways in which the language of film produces meaning and explore film within a more expansive media ecology, considering the intersections of film and other screen media. From documentary film, through animated fables, experimental and independent films, to blockbusters and emerging minor cinemas, you will hone your ability to research and write about national and global film and screen cultures in new depth. You will examine how screen media responds to political and cultural events across the world, and to technological shifts, questioning the various potentialities for the future of film in a climate of media exhaustion, cultural amnesia, and the proliferation of the image in the digital age. The module cuts across historical and contemporary developments in screen media - and screen theory - and ultimately considers, what is film in the 21st century?
EAFM009: Transmedia Adaptations
Adapting stories across media is one of the most established practices across creative industries. This module will introduce you to advanced study of these practices across several disciplines. You will consider the creative, cultural, and commercial decisions of media creators, considering how stories move across forms such as stage, screen, games, print, comics and webtoons as well as franchises incorporating these. It will also develop case studies derived from different disciplines, aiming to foster interdisciplinary expertise in areas that may include, but are not limited to: media and communications, film studies, games studies, comic studies, TV studies, English, and drama. The module will draw on interdisciplinary expertise from tutors and is suitable for individuals wishing to gain interdisciplinary understanding of the ways that transmedia adaption operates as a creative, commercial, or political practice. There are no pre-requisite modules; however, it will be useful if you have relevant educational experience in any part of the humanities, social sciences or creative industries.
EAFM089: Archival Encounters: Material Film Histories
This module explores the relationship between film and the archive. It will guide you through a range of case studies exploring the international histories and contemporary practices of film archiving from the perspective of the researcher, the donor, the archivist and the public user. We consider how and why film and film culture has been preserved through diverse archival practices. The focus will be upon hidden histories and the uncollected/undercollected in film history. The module will enable you to gain a deep understanding of key currents in archival film theory and to apply these to the use of physical and digital archive collections from across the country.
Your study will be grounded in Exeter's own internationally significant film archive the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. Here you will work hands-on with a range of archival ephemera, interact with film archive curators and develop your skills in archival cataloguing and research. Module assessment will enable you to undertake detailed critical analysis of archival practice and artefacts and build your skills in working with public-facing archival cataloguing and digital curation.
The module aims to do the following:
Fees
2026/27 entry
UK fees per year:
£12,650 full-time; £6,325 part-time
International fees per year:
£25,550 full-time; £12,775 part-time
Scholarships
The University of Exeter offers a wide range of scholarships to support your education, with £7 million available for international students applying to study with us in the 2026/27 academic year, including our prestigious Exeter Excellence Scholarships. We also provide awards for sport, music and other achievements, as well as regional and partner scholarships with organisations such as Chevening, The Beacon Trust and the British Council. For more information on scholarships and other financial support, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.
University of Exeter Alumni Scholarship
We are pleased to offer the University of Exeter Alumni Scholarship, a scholarship for University of Exeter alumni beginning a standalone postgraduate programme in 2026/27 with us a scholarship worth 20% of the cost of your first year tuition fees.
Terms and conditions, including deadlines, apply.
Teaching and research
Students on our MA in Media and Public Relations will receive a world-class education, including hands-on experience and training within unique facilities that support high-quality research and innovative creative production.
Research-led teaching ensures that module content reflects the latest trends in Media, Communications, and Public Relations. Alongside experts in PR, our department is home to world-leading Media and Communications scholars who research and publish in areas such as critical AI studies, big data, games studies, digital media governance and policy, digital technology and democracy, social media and migration, celebrity studies, cultural studies, digital platforms and collaborative communities, media and cultural activisms, digital inequalities, technology and inclusion, digital media and intimacy, data and communications infrastructure, and social studies of outer space.
Providing added value to your degree, guest speakers will provide valuable insights and connections, giving you the foundations to develop your own professional network and to identify key practitioners in public relations, strategic communications, and other media industries. Throughout the MA, you will also be encouraged to critically engage with the public relations industry and participate in debates about its future challenges and opportunities.
Facilities
We are fortunate to offer outstanding facilities and resources on the main Streatham Campus and in the Communications, Drama and Film buildings at Thornlea.
In the Alexander Building at Thornlea:
The Digital Experience Lab is home to two large OLED screens, a full surround sound audio system, and 16 workstations comprising 32-inch gaming monitors, Sony PS5 consoles, Apple Mac Studio M4 Max’s, and state-of-the-art multimedia editing and manipulation software.
The Content Creation Lab is a multimedia content creation studio that houses a greenscreen and range of digital cameras, lighting and audio recording equipment.
On the main campus:
The Digital Humanities Lab offers tools for examining digital content, preserving media artifacts, and analysing public discourse. The lab includes: a flagship seminar room with a 4.2-metre video wall, fostering interactive learning and collaborative media analysis; two state-of-the-art photography labs, supporting the digitisation of media content and visual PR materials; an audio-visual lab with a recording studio and sound editing suite – ideal for podcasting, campaign media, and digital storytelling; and a MakerSpace with 3D scanning and printing facilities, providing opportunities for creative promotional material development
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum holds a vast collection of over 70,000 film-related artefacts, making it the largest research archive of its kind in any British university. It serves as a rich resource for students interested in media history, visual culture, and the evolution of public narratives. The state-of-the-art technology in our Digital Humanities Lab enhances your ability to study and analyse these materials, offering a distinctive, hands-on research experience.
I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Promotional Media (E&R). Before my appointment at Exeter, I worked at the University of Greenwich, Cardiff University, and King's College London. I have taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate subjects in the fields of advertising, media and communication and digital humanities.
Before entering academia, I worked for Country Garden Real Estate in China as a Senior Brand Manager; as a Journalist for Chinese Southern Daily in Foshan, and UK Chinese Journal in London; and as a Research Associate for China Current Network. I am the vice-president of the UK-China Media and Cultural Studies Association (UCMeCSA), and also a member of IAMCR, ICA, ECREA and MeCCSA.
Dr Zizheng Yu
Programme Director, MA Media and Public Relations
Careers
Our Masters programmes are designed to prepare you for a successful career, wherever in the world you plan to work. Employers expect advanced communication and technical skills, team-working and independent research, project-management and the very latest specialist knowledge from their postgraduate recruits.
Graduate destinations
Graduates from this programme will be prepared for professional opportunities in Public Relations, the creative industries and beyond. They will be equipped to enter research-led careers in sectors such as: education, the media, cultural industries, policy and production sectors, commercial and public service organisations, NGOs and the third sector.
Careers support
When it comes to securing a graduate-level position, we enjoy extremely good relations with members of the legal profession regionally, nationally and internationally. You will be supported by an Employability Officer, the wide range of services offered by Career Zone and have the opportunity to meet potential employers face-to-face through our annual Law Fair, workshops and careers sessions.
