Media Cultures

The world we live in is profoundly mediated. Many aspects of our daily lives are now fundamentally structured and informed by media, such as television, film, and new media – from the arts, politics, economics, to our collective memories. This has changed significantly in recent years because of our constant engagement with media through the use of smartphones, apps, and social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Netflix, WeChat, Whatsapp and Snapchat. We are constantly consuming and engaging with feature films, television programmes, documentaries, and many other types of audiovisual “texts”. The need to understand and analyse audiovisual discourse is therefore more urgent than ever - across all media platforms.

As a Media and Culture student you will explore how and why particular media have certain roles in different cultural contexts. You will examine how they attract and direct our attention, and shape our experiences of the world. The programme invites you to develop a more critical engagement with media by teaching you about the history and theory of film, television and cross-media culture. Studying how certain stories or facts are presented and disseminated by media, whose interests they serve, and what worlds they create, is central to this programme. You will also learn how media objects are created, positioned and used in the world, as well as begin to create and use them yourself. 

Is Media and Culture right for you?

Media and Culture is the ideal programme if:

• You are interested in culture and media in the broadest sense.
• You have cultural and creative interests, as well as a critical and investigative attitude.
• You have a great passion and intellectual curiosity for film, television, popular culture, global culture, cross-media practices, and/or the arts.
• You would like to become a researcher, advise or supervise media makers, work at a media research agency, in the creative industry, in the media, for cultural organisations, or in academia. 

Why study Media and Culture at the UvA?

• It provides a world-class education: the UvA ranked 1st in the world for Media Studies in the QS World University Rankings 2018, 2019 and 2020.
• You want to take part in a programme that offers the most recent, cutting-edge developments in the field, yet also allows you to pursue your own areas of specialisation and academic interests.
• You want to gain a broad overview of all cultural aspects of media and – starting in the first year – further specialise in film, television or new media.
• You want to study the broad, fast-growing field of media from a cultural and interdisciplinary, cross-media perspective, and from a wide set of media research methodologies; including cognitive analysis, political and philosophical analysis.
• You see yourself as belonging to an ambitious, international intellectual environment: in groups and independently you will discuss the global media landscape with leading experts from all over the world, as well as an international student community.
• The programme offers many connections with the city of Amsterdam, which is a hub for cinemas, television studios, new media, museums, festivals and cultural institutions.
• The programme offers inspiring career prospects: aside from careers in the academic field, graduates go on to work at production companies for film, television, new media, in advertising and in the creative industries, as researchers, producers, directors, creative editors, and journalists. They may also hold positions as project managers, advisors, curators and programmers at distributors, broadcasting networks, festivals, museums, libraries, archives and other cultural institutions, or commercial companies.
• The Media and Culture programme often cooperates with leading media institutions in the Netherlands, such as the EYE Film Museum, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, the Stedelijk Museum, and television broadcasters and production companies.
• The programme also promotes intensive contact with new media institutions like the Waag Society, the Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo, Mediamatic, the Virtueel Platform E-culture Knowledge Institute, and other cultural institutions working with (new) media, such as Paradiso, De Balie and De Melkweg.
• After completing your Bachelor’s, you can apply to one of UvA’s many Master’s programmes, including their range of programmes in advanced Media and Culture studies.

Webinar Media Studies

What does the field of Media Studies entail? What are the similarities and differences between the two programmes? Why choose Media Studies instead of Communication Science? What sort of workload should I expect? Questions such as these will be answered during the webinar. Two current students talk about student life and share their experiences with studying Media Studies at the UvA.

Degree certificate

Media and Culture is an accredited degree programme. After completion of this programme, you will receive a legally accredited Bachelor's degree and the title Bachelor of Arts (BA).