Students will analyse and reflect upon changes to both politics and policy driven by the growth of social media, the communications industry and the 24/7 news cycle. In recent years, institutional politics have become more mediatised, and political leaders are now media-driven and speak in soundbites. Political campaigning is no longer limited to pre-electoral periods and public relations strategists and political consultants have become more and more central to politics. These links are affecting policy too, both at the national and the international levels. The spread of the internet and the development of social media has also brought changes to the relations between citizens and their political representatives, and constitute a new platform for citizens’ political deliberation, and for the organisation of activists, protesters, and new social movements (often at a transnational level). This new course aims to critically examine these and many other issues. Many graduates progress onto our postgraduate journalism, public relations and communications masters degrees and from there to various jobs in the media. Having progressed from entry level jobs our alumni now hold numerous media and administration roles such as: production journalist (Telegraph Media Group), magazine editor (The Independent), senior press officer (Guardian News & Media), film producer (See Saw Films) and digital campaigns & community manager (Ruder Finn).