King's College London

Our Culture, Media and Creative Industries BA gives you a deep understanding of how the cultural and creative industries operate, how media shapes our lives and the world around us, and how you can shape the future of the media and creative sectors.

You’ll get plenty of opportunities to follow your interests and build your own specialism. With a wide choice of modules, you can explore areas like fashion, visual arts, music, performance, film and TV, gaming and more, and how these industries connect and change.

We will also help you build the creative, critical and adaptable thinking skills that employers are looking for. Whatever direction you take after university, you’ll be ready to thrive in creative roles, even ones that don’t exist yet.

This Culture, Media and Creative Industries BA will give you an unrivalled insight into how culture and media are produced, distributed and consumed across various sectors and industries, from fashion and computer games to arts management and contemporary art. You’ll learn to apply concepts to real-world examples, hear from industry practitioners and experts, explore media and arts management and cultural policy.

First year: build your foundation

The first year of your Culture, Media and Creative Industries BA will give you a grounding in cultural and media theory and an understanding of the creative industries. You’ll dive into big questions about how culture and media shape our lives, and how they influence governments, social movements and the way we see the world. You’ll explore how media flows across global platforms, how audiences engage with it, and how it’s produced and consumed across different industries.

You will explore the key concepts and debates within cultural studies and sociology to define what culture is, how we study it, and why it matters. You’ll also build the analytical and critical thinking skills to make sense of cultural production in a global, digital world, drawing on everything from literature to screen industries, music, visual art, and more.

You’ll get a solid grounding in how the creative industries work: how they’re defined, how they’re managed, and the policies that shape them. You’ll also start thinking about the social and environmental impacts of these industries, and the debates that surround creativity, innovation and cultural value.

Thanks to a wide-ranging list of optional modules, you can shape your culture, media and creative industries expertise. Whether you’re curious about museums and heritage, media production cultures, celebrity and fandom, or who gets represented in the creative industries, there’s space to follow what excites you most.

Second year: deepen and specialise

In your second year, you’ll take two required modules. One focuses on the real-world challenges of diversity and inclusion in the creative industries, and gives you the chance to develop your own practical toolkit for change. The other explores creativity itself: where it comes from, what it means, and how it drives personal and professional growth.

You’ll get to choose the rest of your syllabus for the second year from a diverse range of optional interdisciplinary modules. This allows you to tailor your studies to what interests you most, whether you want to explore the economics behind the creative industries, dive deeper into topics like gender and media, cultural activism, or global performance cultures, or get hands-on with project management and cultural leadership, there’s plenty to shape your degree around your passions and career goals.

It’s also possible to study abroad for a semester in your second year, with a variety of partner universities available to choose from.

Final year: produce original events and research to set yourself up for the next step

In your final year you’ll bring everything together through two key experiences. One is a collaborative group project that forms part of the CMCI Winter Festival, where you’ll plan and deliver a public event or creative activity. Previous years’ festivals have taken place within Somerset House, with exhibitions, performances, talks, film screenings, workshops, installations and more. It’s a chance to apply your skills in a real-world, public-facing context and get some important work experience for your CV.

The second required module is a dissertation, an independent project where you choose your own topic and carry out original research with the support of a dedicated academic supervisor. You can present your findings as a traditional dissertation or in a creative format.

Beyond that, the rest of your final year is yours to shape. Whether you want to specialise in areas like the music business, global film industries, arts management or cultural entrepreneurship, or explore topics such as sustainability, cultural memory, creative cities or activist culture, you’ll have the flexibility to build a degree that reflects your interests and your ambitions.

You can also use your optional modules to build a clear career focus. For example, by combining topics like arts and cultural management, social and cultural entrepreneurship, the music business, and global film industries to shape your own professional pathway. Or you might prefer to mix and match, following your curiosity across a range of subjects. Explore modules on creative citizenship, memory and commemoration, cities and culture, sustainability and care, writing about culture, and many more, building a unique portfolio of modules that reflects your interests and ambitions.

There are plenty of extracurricular activities to enjoy alongside your Culture, Media and Creative industries degree, ranging from employability-focussed events and opportunities for students to support academics in their research through fellowships, to becoming a student representative and influencing the development of the department.

This is a three-year course that comprises of modules totalling 360 credits. Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.