Media and Communication

As the media and communication industries continue to grow there will be many opportunities to find a career within them.

The world of media and communications is fast-moving and fascinating. Take social media, for example, where companies are using and selling personal data and world leaders are sharing their views on foreign policy. On this course you’ll get right under the skin of media and communications, and you’ll be able to choose areas of study that most interest you. From publishing, advertising and branding to social media and creative digital production, you’ll gain a solid skills set that will give you the confidence to forge a career in this exciting industry.

PR and Advertising Practice – Year 3

In this module, students are tasked with working for real clients on live briefs to develop successful PR and communication campaigns.

This year the students’ one of two clients, Valconia, a recruitment firm looking to create a fresh and exciting branding identity to help them reach new clients. Or, The Kent Wildlife Trust, who needed help from our students to on how best to create a campaign that would encourage dog walkers to keep their dogs on leads in order to introduce free roaming Bison into the Blean woods. The students then had to conduct an online pitch and showcase their final concepts to their clients.

Media Production 3 – Year 3

Students on this module are tasked to re-create a trailer or a scene from a movie. The only stipulations, they must embrace low-budget aesthetics. The video below showcases three students Cate Bishton, Dan Millen and Katie Wagstaff’s completed Swede movies.

Publishing Practices – Year 2

In this module, students gain an understanding of the processes and different forms of professional writing and publishing. Showing expert communication and copywriting skills the students learn how to design a magazine and write accompanying articles.

Multimedia Journalism

David Applin (Year 3) – Final Year Radio documentary

For my specialist project I decided to create a radio piece exploring the dark web and darknet markets. I chose to focus on this subject not only because of the high-level mystery that surrounds the dark web, but also for the many misconceptions that most believe to be true.

I was able to obtain a wide range of interviews that each provided a unique perspective and their own experience with the dark web, from a mother whose son sadly passed away after taking tramadol purchased from the dark web, Lyn Ulbricht, the mother of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road, and one man who exposes those attempting to hire hitmen online.

Due to the digital nature of the dark web, Covid-19 caused only a few complications whilst producing the piece. I was unable to conduct interviews in person and the ability to record my sound effects was greatly reduced. However, with the help of technology, these issues we easily overcome and sometimes blended to become part of the piece.

Throughout the semester I received regular support and guidance from the course lecturer, whose assistance not only showed me areas in which I could improve the piece, but also pushed me to work to my highest ability which I believe can be seen in this piece.

Having to create a radio piece, whilst being pushed to work at professional level during the difficult times of Covid-19 has given me a great experience that greatly developed not only my abilities, but my worth ethic as well.

Dan Bichener (Year 3) - The Anaphylaxis Archive

I was inspired to create this website as I’ve always had a personal connection to life threatening allergies, without actually having one myself, and have always felt as though there isn’t enough conversation about them.

I wanted to create something where people would be informed about this important topic but in a way that would keep them interested and would make them want to help. Having such personal interviews and a wide variety of information helped me to create exactly what I had envisioned.

Creating it whilst in a pandemic meant I had a few obstacles, such as finding a good location for a piece to camera, and gaining lots of original photographs. However, with help from allergy sufferers and charities, I was able to overcome them.

I’m very proud of the website I’ve created and I hope it sheds some more light on such a serious topic.

The website can be accessed at: https://theanaphylaxisarchive.wordpress.com/

Kellen Blackwell (Year 3) - TV piece exploring the secret underneath Hythe church

My inspiration for this story was that I wanted to try something a little more cinematic, but also something that had a nice local angle too. Therefore, the crypt fitted both of these categories, as it is nearby to me and is certainly eye catching and unique. In addition to this, while it is not a typical hard news story, it is certainly a strong feature piece which would be perfect to end a news broadcast on. This in particular made it an interesting story to cover, as the emphasis was less on the story itself, and more on the visuals and narrative, which I preferred.

My main challenge was only having a limited filming time due to the pandemic, as well as some of the interviews having to be done over video call platforms instead of in person. One particular aspect of the filming that I struggled with, was that the natural lighting in the crypt was rather poor. This meant I had to be creative in the ways that I lit my subjects (skulls), in order to achieve the cinematic look, I desired.

Overall, I really enjoyed filming and working on this story, as despite the restrictions and challenges with Covid, it was still rewarding to be able to see such a unique place first hand, as well have the opportunity to film it.

“I think the newsdays were so successful, I truly felt like a working journalist in the industry. The encouragement we have had by our lecturers evidently gave us the confidence and belief that we could do the newsdays remotely, something that I feel would be a challenge to real working journalists let alone students. It has filled me with confidence as the amount of content and stories we were able to find and produce from the limitations of our own houses and in such a short time period was impressive. It has shown the use of social media and how helpful it is as a story source and how vital it is to being a working journalist in terms of building contacts too.”

“I feel even more encouraged to embark on a career in journalism, as the remote newsdays showed how flexible the profession can be.”