Film & Media and Religion

Film, media, and religion is a combination that brings together two of the most significant domains through which human beings make meaning: the screen arts and the sacred. Film and media studies examines how moving image and digital media produce meaning, shape culture, and construct representations of the world, drawing on cultural theory, semiotics, and the history of media technology. Religious studies takes seriously the beliefs, practices, texts, and institutions through which human communities have understood the sacred, the transcendent, and their obligations to one another.

The two fields connect in profound ways, since religion has been one of the most persistent subjects of cinema and media, and since both fields are ultimately concerned with how human beings represent the world and what those representations mean.

At the University of Stirling, this four-year degree allows you to develop expertise in both areas. You will explore the history and theory of cinema and media, learning to analyse film form, genre, and narrative alongside the social and cultural contexts of media production and reception. The religion strand engages you with the world's major religious traditions, the methods of religious studies, and the debates about how religion functions in modern societies.

Together, the programme encourages you to examine how sacred themes and traditions are represented, contested, and transformed through contemporary media, and how media technologies shape religious experience and community.

The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study in a different cultural environment and encounter different media cultures and religious contexts firsthand.

Graduates move into careers in broadcasting, journalism, documentary filmmaking, education, religious organisations, cultural programming, arts administration, and policy. The combination of media literacy and religious understanding is particularly valuable in contexts where questions of representation, diversity, and belief are central. Postgraduate study in film studies, religious studies, media studies, or related fields is a natural route for those who wish to continue their research.