Media Studies examines the roles that various forms of media play in communities, societies and cultures.

Study a variety of media, how it is produced and consumed, and the media’s role in New Zealand and abroad. Explore how we use media to inform and entertain us, to socialise with others, to share our thoughts and beliefs, and to engage in political debates and social movements.

You can focus on topics as diverse as advertising, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, news culture, popular music, social and interactive media and television drama.

Literary journalism

The study of literary journalism that includes the very early days of journalism in the 17th century and the latest online writing.

Staff expertise include:

• Nikki Hessell
• Harry Ricketts

Publications include:

The Awa Book of New Zealand Sports Writing, ed. Harry Ricketts; Literary Authors, Parliamentary Reporters: Johnson, Coleridge, Hazlitt, Dickens; The Collected Parliamentary Reports of Robin Hyde, ed. Nikki Hessell.
Recent and current postgraduate projects include:
Reading and writing The New Zealand Dairy Exporter and Farm Home Journal 1927-1940; The journalism of Hunter S. Thompson; Epistemic responsibility and the literary journalist, Lindsay Morton’s PhD study of the ethics of the new New Journalism.