Media Studies

Media are at the heart of contemporary life. From social media to print, from websites to television, from search engines to apps: our understanding of the world is shaped by media.

Media have a major impact not only on how we communicate with one another, but also on how societies are organised: culturally, politically and economically. This academic programme therefore studies the informative and social function of media and conceives 'culture' in its anthropological definition: as the ideas, customs and social behaviour of particular (groups in) societies.

You will acquire knowledge and a variety of theoretical perspectives on the way different media platforms are structured, how they operate and how they relate to each other; how media systems are underpinned politically and economically; and how patterns of media use, production and content develop and change. You will learn to apply and critically reflect on different types of academic research methods on a variety of topics. In addition, you will also get acquainted to the professional fields related to media, develop your professional skills to help you perform in media-related internships and jobs.

The programme's distinctive features are:

• an international, comparative and interdisciplinary curriculum
• a focus on the informative and social function of media
• emphasis on the theoretical perspectives, methodological skills to understand and research practices of media use and production
• attention for professional skills

​The programme has a specific focus on the informative and social function of media, providing a comparative perspective by studying media in their cultural, international, historical, economic and political contexts, using methods and theories from social sciences. It has attention for the practices of media use and production, as well as for professional skills. The perspective of other programmes is more often grounded in popular culture, arts, language and/or film and television studies.