Sociology with Media Studies BA (Hons)

Modules

We’re planning to run the modules listed below in the academic year 2026/27. We’ve made some changes to keep the course fresh and future-facing.

• What’s changed on this course?

  Year 2

  • The core module Media and the Real (2027/28) is new and replaces Advertising (2026/27).

  Year 3

  • The core modules New Media Histories (2028/29) and Utopian Cultural Politics and New Horizons (2028/29) are new and replace the core module Revolutionary Media (2027/28).
  • There is now one Sociology option in autumn teaching and one in spring teaching, instead of two options in autumn teaching.

• Year 1 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • 21st Century Sociology
  • Critical Reading and Writing for Sociologists
  • Foundations of Media and Digital Culture
  • Themes and Perspectives in Sociology I

  Spring teaching

  • Digital Technology, Media and Society
  • Gendering the Life Course
  • Making the Familiar Strange
  • Themes and Perspectives in Sociology II

  Your degree

  In sociology, you’ll develop the key skills you’ll need to think like a sociologist. You’ll:

  • build an understanding in the theory and practice of sociology as a discipline
  • develop the knowledge and intellectual tools needed to undertake a more detailed analysis of social life
  • deepen your understanding of the topics, issues and debates within sociology
  • learn about key theoretical perspectives, concepts and approaches – the analytical frameworks vital to understanding the social world, and to evaluating competing sociological explanations on a range of different issues in national and international contexts
  • apply sociological thinking as tools to examine social problems and debates in the world today, including the new power elite, racism, inequalities, generations and social change.

  In media studies, you’ll gain the intellectual foundation for further study of media, technology and culture. You’ll:

  • explore the foundational schools of media theory, as well as the key methods and approaches to study media
  • learn about the key theories and theorists that have influenced and shaped media and communication
  • examine recent developments in new media with a focus on the different uses of digital media
  • learn to use digital media confidently to enhance your studies and to understand the digital environment as a complex of media and cultural forms.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include lectures and seminars.

  

  50%: Lecture
  50%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessment methods typically include essays, professional logs, a report and a portfolio.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 210 hours of contact time and about 990 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course.

• Year 2 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn teaching

  • Designing Social Research
  • Media, Memory, History

  Spring teaching

  • Media and the Real

  Options

  Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

  While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

  Autumn teaching

  • A Sociology of Generations and Social Change? From Passive to Active Generations
  • Citizenship, Activism and Resistance
  • Digital Societies
  • Drugs, Crime and Deviant Leisure
  • Lions Den: An Exploration (A)
  • Migration and Integration (Aut)
  • Sociology of Emotions and Mental Health
  • The Climate Crisis, Criminology & the Justice System

  Spring teaching

  • Class, Culture & Conflict: A View from The Inside
  • Classical Sociological Theory
  • Doing Social Research: working with qualitative data
  • Drugs, Crime and Deviant Leisure
  • Education and Inequality
  • Precarity and the Politics of Work (Spr)
  • Social Research Methods: Analysing Quantitative Data
  • Sociology of Emotions and Mental Health
  • The Alchemy of Race and Racism (Spring)
  • The Sociology of Human Rights

  Your degree

  In sociology, you’ll:

  • study the foundational principles and practices of social research – from project design to empirical practice
  • explore a range of different methods and methodologies that will strengthen your applied social research skills. These foundational research skills will improve the quality and rigour of your academic work across all facets of your degree
  • have the opportunity to tailor your degree to your interests by choosing from specialised options. Our options build on the knowledge developed in the first year and explore key topics and debates in contemporary sociological thought – for example the politics of work, the climate crisis, migration and technological changes – in greater detail. 

  In media studies, you’ll:

  • study the relationship between history, memory and media
  • explore the media’s relationship to ‘the real’ in the context of fake news, post-truth politics, virtual reality and deepfakes
  • find out how media construct realities while also claiming to represent lived-world experiences, and how contemporary media deal in questions of truth, realism and deception.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include lectures and seminars.

  

  50%: Lecture
  50%: Seminar

  Assessment

  Assessment methods typically include longer essays, portfolios, a professional log and a computer-based examination.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 210 hours of contact time and about 990 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course.

• Experience Year

  Study abroad (optional)

  Apply to study abroad – you’ll develop an international perspective and gain an edge when it comes to your career.

  If your application to study abroad is successful, you’ll have to meet the academic requirements at Sussex and also at the partner university. Find out more about studying abroad as a Sussex student

  Placement (optional)

  To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can provide you with information and advice. If you’re successful in obtaining a placement, this will form part of your course.

  Find out more about placements and internships

  Please note that if you’re receiving – or applying for – USA federal Direct Loan funds, you can’t transfer to the version of your course with an optional study abroad period in any country or optional placement in the USA if the number of credits for the placement/internship exceeds 25% of the total credits for your course. Find out more about American Student Loans and Federal Student Aid

• Year 3 at Sussex

  Your modules

  Core modules

  Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.

  Autumn and spring teaching

  • Sociology Project

  Autumn teaching

  • New Media Histories

  Spring teaching

  • Utopian Cultural Politics and New Horizons

  Options

  Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.

  While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.

  Autumn teaching

  • (Im)mobilities and the Criminal Justice System
  • Class, Power and the State (Aut)
  • Coloniality, Racism and Inequality
  • Digital Activism and Citizenship in Datafied Societies
  • Identity and Interaction
  • Migration, Identity, and Home
  • Sexualities / Intimacies / Intersections (Aut)
  • Sociology of Family, Reproduction & Care (Aut)
  • The Death Penalty

  Spring teaching

  • Capitalism, Growth, and Ecological Crisis
  • Inequalities Across the Divides
  • Riots, Strikes, Revolts
  • Temporalities - Histories - Hauntologies (Spr)
  • The Body (Spr)
  • The Death Penalty
  • Transcendence, Devotion and Desire

  Your degree

  In sociology, you become a researcher – you’ll undertake an independent empirical research project that runs across the whole year. You’ll build on the social science research methods knowledge gained in Year 2 and apply it to a research topic of your choice.

  You’ll also choose specialised options to match your interests. Your lecturers are experts in their field and inform their modules with the material they actively research. This ensures that your course is always current and up to date. You’ll take a deeper look at some of the key sociological topics, issues and debates around identity, the ecological crisis, power and the state, and how riots, strikes and revolts can challenge the social order.

  In media studies, you’ll:

  • study the transformative effects of new media in historical context
  • explore moments when emergent media have fed into social and political change, and when social and political transformations have generated new media forms and new communicative practices
  • examine alternative utopian and liberatory cultural and political ideas. Drawing on diverse cases (from sound and the city, to ecology and mutuality) you’ll explore where these alternatives can be found today and how we evaluate them.

  Teaching

  Teaching methods typically include practical workshops.

  

  100%: Practical

  Assessment

  Assessment methods typically include longer-form essays and portfolios. For your sociology project, you will submit a dissertation based on a year-long independent empirical research project. Other assessed components of the sociology project include a research proposal and an oral presentation of your project.

  Contact hours and workload

  This year of study includes approximately 1,200 hours of work. This breaks down into about 120 hours of contact time and about 1,080 hours of independent study.

  Engage and actively participate throughout your studies to get the most out of your course.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.