Critical & Creative Media

This one-year (full-time) MA advances practical, research, and analytical thinking skills while deepening creative and theoretical engagement with media of all kinds. The programme combines critical thinking and cutting-edge creative practice to tackle the challenging environment of contemporary media industries. It develops a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches across several media forms, including film, interactive media, print, broadcast TV, and radio. It situates these media in their historic and social contexts, examining how people engage with them, their economic infrastructures, and technological forms, alongside hands-on practical engagement with media tools.



The programme's flexible structure also allows you to build a degree that suits you.



Students can follow one of our 3 pathways: Creative Media; Society and Justice; or History and Culture, or a programme of their own design. The programme also allows students to pursue their own interests by taking related modules from across a range of subjects available at MU. Finally, students can choose between a final dissertation or creative project based on where they want the MA to take them.

The compulsory module Critical and Creative Media Research, lays the foundation for the programme in Semester One, building key skills for developing a research project. This is followed by a second compulsory module Media Theory in second semester which provides the theoretical spine that underpins the subject. Together, these modules set students up for the final dissertation or project.



All other modules during semesters one and two are elective. Students have the freedom to choose individual routes through the programme by selecting from our range of modules or by following one of our 3 pathways: Creative Media; Society and Justice; and History and Culture. Students may also take a number of media related modules from across a range of other subjects available at MU.



The MA programme culminates with a supervised individual project that may assume a variety of forms, from a scholarly essay to an empirical study to a practice-based project, where creative outcomes are contextualised and framed theoretically. A Postgraduate Diploma is available to students who do not wish to complete the final dissertation/project.

Candidates for the MA in Critical and Creative Media must have the equivalent of a 2.1 honours degree in Media Studies, or in a related subject in Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, or Communication and Information Technology.



Applicants from abroad must have a recognised primary degree that is considered equivalent to Irish university primary degree level.



Minimum English language requirements:



Applicants for whom English is not their first language are required to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study. For information about English language tests accepted and required scores, please see here. The requirements specified are applicable for both EU and International applicants..



Maynooth University's TOEFL code is 8850

Applications are open for the 2025/6 academic year. Visit our online application portal to start your application.

We are here to support you throughout the admissions process.



For queries on your postgraduate course options please contact pgstudies@mu.ie

For queries or support on your application process please contact pgadmissions@mu.ie



If you are an international (Non-EU) applicant please contact internationaladmissions@mu.ie

1 year full-time, 2 years part-time

Commences September

Knowledge of, and skills in, mediated communication are required across a whole range of sectors. Media industries such as web design, games, film, and television all require understanding of the wider communication landscape, practical knowledge of production, and research skills. But it is also companies that interact with the public – that have communications and a wider social presence – that call for informed media graduates. Businesses include sports, arts, and heritage organisations, charities and NGOs, corporations and brands increasingly require media-trained graduates, particularly in the areas of content production and interactive media. They also demand the kinds of critical thinking, research skills, and creative problem-solving that are developed across this programme.



Graduates of the MA in Critical and Creative Media are also well prepared to pursue further research opportunities, including postgraduate studies.