Master's Programme in Media and Communication Studies
Our teaching is based on international expertise in a high-ranking, research-led department (in the top 100, QS World University Rankings by subject). We emphasise theorising and researching media, society, and culture using real-world case studies.
The Master’s Programme in Media and Communication Studies offers a critical approach to contemporary social, political and cultural issues in media and communications, covering theories of knowledge, power and social relations in national and transnational media environments. As a student, you analyse debates and problems in media engagement, democracy and cultural citizenship, media industries and creativity, gender, health and society, audiences, popular culture and everyday life. The courses and your independent research projects teach you diverse theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research tools.
As a postgraduate student, you will experience lectures, seminars, group work, and independent study. Our MSc courses are taught in English, with key readings, lectures and seminars in English. You should be comfortable speaking English and writing full-length academic essays in English.
Michael Rübsamen
Email: michael [dot] rubsamen [at] iko [dot] lu [dot] se
Telephone: +46 46-222 88 64
Structure and courses
Courses are taught in Lund and connect with collaborative partnerships with NGOs and cultural organisations in the region. They involve a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops, including student presentations and group work. Assessments include academic essays, presentations and an academic thesis.
We offer 15-credit courses covering broad theories and methodologies. Our 7.5-credit courses are specialisation courses taught by experts who have published in their respective fields.
Semester I: Specialisation courses
15+15 or 2x7.5+15 credits
After introducing the historical genealogy of media and political engagement, the course focuses on how the internet and social media affect modern engagement practices. We examine how digital technologies affect citizens’ information environments and how platforms shape political engagement and disengagement practices. The course approaches the "political" in terms of institutionalised politics (elections), extra-parliamentary politics (protests and activism), and cultural politics (the arts), to encapsulate the myriad of ways that citizens engage with politics in modern civic life.
The media heavily influences our responses to illness, health care and health-related behaviour. It provides strategic tools for health politicians, professionals, and other opinion makers, including health consumers and various patient groups. The media is often the only source through which the public gains information about scientific discoveries. It is consistently ranked as the number one nutrition and food information source.
This course merges Media and Communication Studies with Sociology of Health and Illness. It aims to critically explore the mediation and mediatization of health to better understand the media's role in people’s comprehension of personal and general health, health development, and social change processes.
The course addresses why popular culture matters in the study of media, culture and society. Popular culture highlights the significance of imagination and storytelling in media representations, and it signals a sense of belonging for various individuals and communities. It also highlights the power relations between the cultural industries, producers and audiences, where meaning and symbolic power in popular culture are constantly in a state of iteration, as it is shaped and re-shaped by cultural institutions, producers and audiences.
Diversity is a key value of the MSc in Media and Communication Studies. The course on Media and Diversity approaches the topic from different perspectives. The course critically evaluates ideas about diversity and the role of the media in creating space for diversity, and in the construction of a society's moral imaginary; and, therefore, in the representation of others and how media practices contribute to this understanding. Can media be a space for challenging polarisations and injustices, regarding issues such as racism, Islamophobia, environmentalism, and humanitarianism? In doing so, we aspire to higher education becoming a transformative experience, creating socially aware, socially engaged, tolerant, open, respectful students and global citizens, who will contribute to the wider society or world they live in.
Audiences have evolved from viewers to consumers, producers, participants and performers. Audience studies need to look beyond text or genre to understand how to research the connections between changes in media and cultural industries and changes in our media experiences.
The course is structured in relation to core components of audience studies concerning history and media audiences, quantitative and qualitative audience research, media industries and audiences, fans and anti-fans, and transforming audiences, producers, consumers and users. These five areas of enquiry offer a comprehensive analysis of audiences within the media and communication industry and academic research. In this course, you evaluate the significance of empirical and theoretical audience studies for international media and communication research.
Semester II: Methodology and Theory of Science
One 7.5-credit course can be replaced by an elective course
The course is structured according to a critical reading of dominant methodological and epistemological perspectives of research methods within social science. This is done from the perspective of a pragmatist and phronetic philosophy of social science, which emphasizes questions of how, why and to whom media and communication studies matter. The course aims to problematize and evaluate the significance of media and communication research for individuals, society and culture.
We offer a range of perspectives and methods on how to understand and critically analyse digital media production, content and everyday practices. This course introduces digital media research methods, emphasising the significance of reliable, valid and situated research in a critical study of digital environments. These environments include various contexts from business, public service and non-commercial spaces, the architecture and content of participatory cultures, social media and social activism, and digital socialities. Our guiding approach in this course is that digital media research methods matter in studying digital environments critically.
The course is based on a digital ethnographical approach in order to study how social interaction and social worlds today are played out in online and offline environments. This means that traditional social scientific concepts and distinctions are articulated in new ways.
Digital ethnography focuses on how social interaction and social worlds intersect across online and offline environments. This approach uses various qualitative ethnographic methods to critically reflect on traditional social scientific concepts and distinctions and how these are articulated in new ways within everyday lives. A key aspect of this course is that the digital is understood as an expansion of spaces where everyday lives are played out and as something affecting the way the ethnographer conducts research. In such a way, digital ethnography highlights what we study and how we study it.
Graduate School at the Faculty of Social Sciences offers interdisciplinary courses in theory of science and research methods.
Semester III: Elective courses, study abroad, or internship
30 or 2x15 credits
Electives are the 30 credits worth of courses you take in your third term that are eventually included in your degree. Some of you may travel abroad for studies, fieldwork or an internship, others may choose to stay in Lund or study at another university in Sweden.
As a student at the Faculty of Social Sciences, you can apply for exchange studies at top-ranked universities all over the world. The Faculty of Social Sciences has an international office coordinating the applications for exchange studies. The staff answers your questions and guides you through the process.
Visit the Faculty's website for Information about studying abroad.
Advanced Internship
You spend 15 weeks at your place of internship, and then 5 weeks writing an empirical essay where the internship period is considered fieldwork. The essay is examined through hand-ins and a mandatory examination seminar. You receive grades according to the A-F grading scale.
Read more on the page about the Advanced Internship.
There is a shorter internship course of 15 credits. The course is given at the undergraduate level, meaning you only receive the grade of Pass or Fail. It must be combined with another 15-credit course at the Department of Communication or another department or university to fit the Master's Programme structure.
Semester IV: Master's thesis
A master's thesis is a scientific research project intended to demonstrate the student’s capacity for doing independent work. You develop and implement a comprehensive scientific investigation. You identify a relevant research problem, select methods and theory, and gather and process empirical material. Finally, you present the results in written and oral form and act as a discussant on a classmate's essay.
The thesis usually consists of a theoretical and empirical analysis of an issue within media and communication studies, often based on a case study. It mixes theoretical and empirical research so that empirical research is analysed in relation to relevant theories and concepts for the topic of study.
It is a genuine contribution of new knowledge as scientific research. The research and the writing of the thesis will offer an occasion for creativity and intellectual growth within the context of a scientific project.
Lecturers
Our teaching is research-led by international experts who have published in their specialist fields. We have regular visiting scholars from around the world, including scholars John Corner (Leeds University, UK on politics and the media), Jose Manuel Noguera (Catholic University, of San Antonio, Spain, on social media activism), Kun Li (Peking University, China, on Chinese broadcasting and journalism), Anjali Monteiro and Kizhavana Jayashanker (Mumbai University, India, on documentary).
Students and alumni
Students in our programme have varying backgrounds and professional experiences, including media and cultural industries, NGOs and charity sectors. During the two years of cross-cultural meetings and idea exchange, you will develop a critical understanding of media and communication. You are invited to participate in a lively research environment where we run regular international conferences, seminars and events. Our community of international students and alumni help prepare you for further research and professional life, and our graduates go on to work in the media and communications field and pursue research careers in public and commercial spheres.
Career prospects
Students graduating from this programme will be prepared for professional opportunities in research-led careers, education, academic careers, media and cultural industries, national and international policy and production sectors, commercial and public service organisations, and NGOs. Above all, graduates will have the critical skills necessary to evaluate and understand media in a range of professional and private spheres.
Application Tips
Instructions for applicants of the Master's Programme in Media and Communication Studies
In addition to the documents supporting your basic and programme-specific eligibility, you must submit a CV and a statement of purpose (500 words, also referred to as a 'letter of intent') when you apply for this programme.
When writing your statement, consider that we are looking for applicants who fit with our programme. The programme addresses media structures and processes in modern life; we consider media as situated in politics, society and culture. The programme also uses theories from critical media studies and social and cultural theories; weaddress power, both from a structural aspect in terms of institutions and from a symbolic aspect in terms of media content and audiences.
When writing your statement think about the following questions as a means to structure your comments:
- What do you hope to contribute to our programme?
- How does your educational background and/or professional expertise prepare you for this programme?
- In what ways can this programme enrich your educational development?
Please remember to include all other documentation needed.
Country-specific requirements for students applying for Master's studies.