Sport, Media and Culture with a Year Abroad

Our four-year Sport, Media and Culture, BA (Hons) with a Year Abroad degree programme equips you with a future career as a professional sports content creator and communicator across the contemporary sports mediascape. programme includes opportunities to undertake a range of sports communication placement options.

This highly practical course allows you to study subjects such as sports journalism, sports commentary, and sports promotion. Through the study of theoretical constructs such as fandom, sports journalism, national identity and sports narratives, students will see how our abiding interest in sport has shaped how we view the world. Students will always develop a robust understanding of the contemporary sports mediascape.

As part of this programme, you will spend a year abroad between your second and final year, broadening your skills and experience. Our partner institutions span the globe, with opportunities varying each year. If you wish to receive more information, please get in touch with us on study@swansea.ac.uk

Changes in how we consume sport means that the traditional legacy media model (newspapers, TV broadcasts, radio) has been hugely interrupted, with many sports organisations now opting to communicate directly with fans. Simply knowing how to write a match report or interview the triumphant winner and the beaten rival is no longer enough.

With all this in mind, this course has been developed to ensure you will graduate as a skilled and competent sports content creator, equipped with journalistic skills, and adept at creating and promoting multi-media sports-focused content, from podcasts to match reports and from sports commentary to promotional sports communication strategies.

Why Sport, Media and Culture at Swansea?
You will be taught by academics who have a wide range of industry experience and will benefit from access to industry-standard filming, editing and design facilities. In addition, our close links with sports organisations such as Swansea City FC, the Ospreys, and our partnership with Sport Swansea means that you will gain a sports communications industry perspective across your degree programme.

This programme is based within our Media, Communication, Journalism and PR department. Media at Swansea is ranked:

• 8th in the UK for Student Satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2025)

• 8th in the UK for Student Experience (Times Good University Guide 2025)

• 10th in the UK for Teaching Quality (Times Good University Guide 2025)

This course is based on our stunning Singleton Park campus, in parkland overlooking Swansea Bay on the edge of the Gower Peninsula. You will also be within close proximity to Swansea city, a vibrant, multi-cultural, safe and cost-effective city.

Your Sport, Media and Culture Experience
Our Sport, Media and Culture programme has been designed to allow you to develop and apply a practical multi-dimensional skillset. On completion of the programme, the successful student will know how to find an interesting and compelling sports news story, write that story for publication, film and/or record that story for broadcast or for their podcast, edit the package so that it can be broadcast in various formats, and know how to drive audiences and promote that story.

Developed with employability as one of its cornerstones, the programme maps out viable employment routes into the sports mediascape, culminating in the opportunity to undertake a range of sports communication placement options in the third year of your studies.

Outside of your studies you will be part of a supportive student community and will be able to get involved in many different sports clubs and societies including the Media society.

In Year 1, you will typically study areas including: Introduction to Media Communication; Delivering and Decoding the News; Pitch Invasion: Sport and its Impact on Society; Principles of Mediation; Creative Media Platforms; and Public Relations: Strategic Communications.

In Year 2, you will typically study areas including: Theorising the Media; All Ears - an Introduction to the Art of Podcasting; Pitch Perfect: Sports Commentary and Punditry; Introduction to Film Production; Professional Development: Preparing for Work; Public Relations Theory in Action; Creative Media Practice; Social Media Cultures; Investigating Text, Process and Audiences; Media Law; and Pop Culture and Alternative News Genres.

As part of this programme, you will spend a year abroad between your second and final year, broadening your skills and experience. Our partner institutions span the globe, with opportunities varying each year. If you wish to receive more information, please get in touch with us on study@swansea.ac.uk

In Year 4, you will typically study areas including: Sports Public Relations; Dissertation Preparation; Documentary and Fiction Filmmaking; Reporting the 21st Century; Game Over - Press Start to Continue: Critical Game Studies; Professional Sports Communication Placement; Strategy, Marketing and Branding; Practical Web Technologies; Journalism in Practice; Guerrilla Campaigns: Subversive and Interruptive PR; Media and Communication Internship. You will undertake a dissertation.

We are proud to provide an outstanding educational experience, using the most effective learning and teaching approaches, carefully tailored to suit the specific needs of your course. Apart from a small number of online-only courses, most of our courses consist of in-person, on-campus teaching, enabling full engagement with your lecturers and fellow students. Practical skills sessions, lab work seminars, and workshops predominantly take place in person, allowing for group working and demonstrations. We also operate virtual labs and Simulated Learning Environments which will facilitate greater access to training opportunities in the future. However, our approach also includes the use of some online learning to support and enhance traditional face-to-face teaching. Online learning may take place ‘live’ using software such as Zoom, allowing you to interact with the lecturer and other students and to ask questions. Lecture recordings also allow for more flexibility to revisit material, to revise for assessments and to enhance learning outside of the classroom. Some modules have extra resources in Canvas, such as videos, slides and quizzes enabling further flexible study. This course may offer some modules taught through the medium of Welsh or bilingually for students who consider themselves to be fluent Welsh speakers. For more details on the provision available see the Welsh Provision expander below.