Film & Media and Psychology
Film and media alongside psychology is a pairing that brings two analytical frameworks to bear on how human beings understand, respond to and create media. Film and media studies examines cinema, television, digital media and popular culture as systems of representation and meaning, asking how audiences are addressed, how narratives work and how media industries produce and distribute content. Psychology brings the scientific study of the mind and behaviour to the same territory, exploring how people perceive and process information, how emotions shape responses to storytelling and how social and individual factors influence what we take from the media we consume.
At the University of Stirling this four-year programme develops your knowledge and analytical skills in both disciplines simultaneously. In film and media, you will engage with film history, theory, genre, narrative and the study of broadcast and digital media within their industrial and cultural contexts. In psychology, you will study the major areas of the discipline from cognitive and social psychology through to developmental and biological perspectives, alongside the research methods that psychology as a science demands.
A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you the opportunity to engage with media culture and psychological research in a different national context, which can be particularly illuminating in a field where cultural context shapes both production and reception.
Graduates of this combination work across the media industries and in roles where understanding of human perception and behaviour is valued. Broadcasting, digital media, journalism, advertising and marketing, UX research, media production, audience research and corporate communications are among the destinations. The psychological training also opens paths into market research, HR, healthcare roles and social research, while some graduates go on to postgraduate professional training in psychology or postgraduate study in film, media or communications.