The Degree

The Master of Arts in Creative Media (MACM) is a new degree offered with effect from 2015/16, replacing the existing Master of Arts in Media Cultures (MAMC). The MACM offers a humanities-oriented curriculum intended to complement the School of Creative Media’s mission to investigate the most significant artistic, professional, and socially relevant aspects of contemporary mediated expression.  Successful applicants will join one of two streams within the degree: Curating Art and Media (CAM) or Media Cultures (MC). The distinctive area of creative media studies represented by each stream caters to diverse student interests under a curriculum structure that provides a broad and flexible academic framework.

The Streams

The Curating Art and Media Stream (CAM) aims at developing the creative, intellectual, and technological competence required of future leaders in the art and media curating sector. It emphasizes the impact of digital media on all aspects of art, with a focus on developing capabilities in using new technologies in curating, exhibiting, and communicating art. Graduates will gain a critical understanding of key issues in contemporary practice of art and media, as well as solid skills in research, curating, collection, and exhibition to become successful in their careers or further studies in research degree programmes.

The Media Cultures Stream (MC) is intended to complement the Master of Fine Arts (MFACM) offered by the School of Creative Media, through an emphasis on the critical consideration of significant areas of media history, theory, and criticism. In keeping with the School’s mission, the curricular emphasis is in areas of digital media, but traditional media forms (e.g. film) are also addressed. This stream is intended to provide postgraduate level preparation especially for media professionals and graduates, and for applicants from other professional areas in which the role of being a media specialist is increasingly desirable or necessary.

This programme is intended to provide postgraduate-level preparation especially for media professionals and graduates, and for applicants from other professional areas in which the role of being a media specialist is increasingly desirable or necessary.

Each applicant must apply to one specific stream. Admissions will be stream-based.

Applicants normally must satisfy the University’s General Entrance Requirements for taught postgraduate programmes, i.e. they should be graduates of an accredited bachelor’s degree programme or equivalent. Both fresh graduates and individuals with some working experience in relevant industries are invited to apply. Applicants without the specified qualifications may still be considered for admission to the programme if they are able to present equivalent qualifications. All applicants must have a demonstrated capacity to pursue the programme.

The School assumes that applicants will have achieved a basic level of computer literacy. Accepted students may be advised to take intensive courses or take additional coursework together with MACM courses to make up for knowledge/skills gaps.

English Proficiency Requirement

Applicants whose entrance qualification is obtained from an institution where the medium of instruction is not English should also fulfil the following minimum English proficiency requirement:

• A TOEFL score of 550 (paper-based test) or 79 (internet-based test); or
• An overall band score of 6.5 in International English Language Testing System (IELTS); or
• A score of 500 in the new College English Test (CET-6) of Chinese mainland or a pass in the old CET-6 test; or other equivalent qualifications

The total requirement for the programme is 30 credits including 15 credits of Required Courses (3 credits of a programme core course and 12 credits of stream core courses) and 15 credits of elective courses. Required courses explore key topics, methodologies, and issues in media studies, as well as field -specific material within each of the three streams, while elective courses provide students with the opportunity to explore relevant subject areas of personal interest.

Elective courses are divided into three areas to align with the streams. Students will complete 4 or 5 elective courses (a total of 15 credits), including at least 2 from the students’ home stream. This design allows students to individualize their own study paths. Because of the practical and scholarly interconnections among the streams, students within each stream will complete both stream-specific courses and courses from the other streams. This provides students of each stream with plentiful opportunities to interact, collaborate, and exchange ideas with their peers, while ensuring that students within each stream develop unique knowledge and expertise.

Assessment in all courses normally will be entirely through coursework, which will consist primarily of written assignments (e.g. analytical essays, research papers, thought pieces, journals, critical responses and reviews, ethnographic study). Practical assignments involving the use of various media technologies (e.g. Web design tools, video, sound recording, animation) may be incorporated within individual courses.

Course Descriptions
School of Creative Media