Film & Television Studies/Social & Public Policy

Film and television studies combined with social and public policy is a pairing that connects the critical analysis of media with the study of how society organises and governs itself. Film and television studies examines cinema and broadcast media as art forms, cultural institutions, and social forces, asking how moving images construct meaning, how they reflect and shape public culture, and how the industries that produce them are organised and regulated. Social and public policy examines the decisions governments and other bodies make about welfare, housing, education, health, criminal justice, and other areas of collective life, and the processes and consequences of those decisions.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year MA (Hons) programme includes a year abroad, and benefits from a film and television studies faculty whose lecturers are leading researchers in the field. Glasgow's creative and cultural organisations contribute to the programme through practitioner engagement, including talks from policymakers and screen practitioners in a core media and cultural policy module. This connects the academic study of media with the real decisions that shape the screen industries and the policy contexts within which they operate.

You will study film and television history, theory, and criticism alongside social policy theory, comparative welfare systems, and the political and organisational dynamics of public governance.

You will develop skills in textual and visual analysis, policy research, critical writing, and the ability to engage with both aesthetic and political dimensions of culture and governance.

Graduates from film, television, and social policy programmes pursue careers in media policy, broadcasting regulation, journalism, arts administration, academic research, government, the third sector, and cultural organisations. The combination of media literacy and policy analytical skills is particularly relevant in digital regulation, cultural policy, and the governance of public media. Postgraduate study in media studies, social policy, or cultural policy is a natural continuation.