PGDip in Political Communications

Goldsmiths, University of London

The Postgraduate Diploma in Political Communications combines theory with practical, applied elements, and draws on a range of research and contemporary examples. It offers teaching that is critical, innovative and diverse.You will cover political communication, from the national and international to the local and personal - from governments and parties, to NGOs and local activist groups.The programme engages with cultural, alternative and digital, interactive communication as well as traditional mass media.The Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies has been ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 16th in the world (third in the UK) in the 2024 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.The Postgraduate Diploma in Political Communications aims to provide you with a systematic understanding of the interactions between political actors, communication industries and the public in contemporary societies.Specifically, the programme will equip you with in-depth knowledge of the importance of communication in the political process and of how, in a democratic polity, political institutions and others seek to communicate with the public and vice-versa.For the main part, this will lead to a concentration on the role of the mass media but other forms of political communication - including the techniques of marketing, polling, face-face interaction and internet campaigning - will also be studied. However, the knowledge and skills acquired in such a study will have far broader applications.Students completing this programme will gain a range of tools that will enable them to analyse social and communicative interactions in the public sphere and to make judgements about future modules of action based on this understanding.