Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing (Taught)

The MA Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing crosses the formalised boundaries established between media, public relations (PR), marketing and advertising in theorisations of these fields; establishing links between practitioner literatures/theory, and media and cultural studies.

• You will explore the convergence between public relations, advertising, and marketing roles, as well as digital-first roles including paid social, short-form video production, social listening, and community management.

• This MA isn’t about studying ads or press coverage, but about becoming a professional who can cross-examine and critique the power dynamics between promotional professions, their client-organisations and today’s platformised media landscape.

• At its core, this Masters looks at how you can better serve society by improving communications across the promotional disciplines, and how public relations (PR), advertising, and marketing professionals can best develop within a challenging, fast-changing digital world.

• You’ll learn how to reflect on contemporary intellectual theories – including digital media studies, sociology, feminist theory, software studies and algorithmic culture – and apply them to workplace realities so you plan the next decade of your career.

• The School of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies (MCCS) has been ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 22nd in the world (fourth in the UK) in the 2025 QS World Rankings by Subject.

The questions we explore

• We want you to understand the existing power struggles shaping traditional and digital-first promotional professions as they get to grips with AI, automation and digital platforms. Therefore, this programme will look at public relations, advertising, and marketing as inter-related disciplines, drawing on theoretical and professional debates around industry issues as they happen.

• You’ll explore the implications of Generative AI on production practices in promotional work, and the skills required to contend with the growing mountain of marketing technology or ‘martech’ software now serving the promotional industries.

• You’ll also examine current industry expectations and trends, and look at the crossovers between digital skills, creativity, management, and strategy.

The processes we use

• The programme blends theory and practice-based teaching on its core modules. In addition, you’ll have many practice-based options in different subject areas, from storytelling strategies to film craft fundamentals, digital audiovisual media, to consumer behaviour or marketing strategy.

• You'll also get the latest insights from industry professionals across PR, advertising and, marketing through our visiting speaker series. Recent industry guests have discussed: go-to market strategies for the tech sector, executing campaigns with creator communities, and developing effective ‘social-first’ strategies.

• We periodically host public seminars on topics such as algorithmically enabled digital advertising, with prestigious academic speakers from around the UK.

• You’ll also be encouraged to attend the School's Community Lectures and Media Forums, which cover everything from ‘Platform Capitalism and the Gig Economy’ and ‘Radical Ethics and Transformative Justice for Responsible AI’.