Programme Specifications

Programme summary

1. Programme Aims

• To enable students to gain a systematic and critical awareness of current issues and debates in the analysis of media and creative industries.
• To foster students’ ability to critically analyse current research and advanced scholarship about economic, social, cultural, political and historical dimensions of the creative industries in a global context;
• To develop students’ skills and competencies in a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of media and creative industries.
• To enable students to interpret, evaluate and apply advanced knowledge of media and creative industries in an innovative way
• To prepare students for employment in diverse professional environments through a combination of independent work and industry exposure.

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

• UK Quality Code for Higher Education, The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, April 2012, especially Part A: Setting and maintaining academic standards:
  • The Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ), the QAA, August 2008
  • Master’s Degree Characteristics, the QAA, March 2010
  • The Higher Education Credit Framework for England, the QAA, August 2008
• The Quality Code, Part B: Assuring and enhancing academic quality
  • Chapter B1: Programme Design, Development and Approval
  • Chapter B3: Learning and Teaching
  • Chapter B4: Enabling student development and achievement
  • Chapter B6: Assessment of students
• Benchmark Statement for Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies, the QAA, 2008

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to explain in a systematic, comprehensive and critical way:

K1.       The major traditions, theories and frameworks of inquiry relevant to the analysis of media and creative industries and their social, political, economic and cultural contexts.

K2.       The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about the social, economic, political and historical character of the media and creative industries;

K3.       The global development and operation of media and creative industries.

K4.       The major arguments and issues in contemporary debates about the impact of the digital age on the creative industries;

K5.       The historical expansion of communications media, the institutionalisation of media systems, various audiences’ uses of the media, and the implications of new media for cultural life.

K6.       The range of relevant research methods employed in the analysis of media and creative industries;

K7        Critically evaluate the ways in which study of a complementary subject deepens knowledge and understanding of the influence and operation of the Media and Creative Industries.

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

P1.       Engage with major thinkers, debates and intellectual paradigms within the fields of media, communication and culture, critiquing and synthesising the insights gained in their own analytical work;

P2.       Demonstrate their capacity to design and carry out appropriate research strategies to address the issues they have selected for sustained investigation in self-chosen projects;

P3.       Analyse new and emerging trends and interrogate both common sense understanding and received wisdom in relevant areas of inquiry;

P4.       Discuss and evaluate historical transformations in media and creative industries and their social, political, economic and cultural contexts and wield this understanding in appraising current patterns of development, such as cultural globalisation and media convergence.

P5.       Discuss their self-designed research and the issues it raises reflexively.

b. Subject-specific practical skills:

On successful completion of this programme students should be able, with reference to media communication and culture, to:

C1.      Generate research data according to set procedures and methods;

C2.      Independently organise, classify and critically evaluate information gathered in the course of their projects and assignments;

C3.      Apply advanced concepts and theorises drawn from media and communications studies and associated disciplines to empirical evidence relevant to media and creative industries.

C4.      Locate and interpret industry practices, data and policy documents

c. Key transferable skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to: 

T1.       Critically evaluate a range of academic and industry sources;

T2.       Communicate effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences;

T3.       Deploy qualitative and quantitative research techniques

T4.       Plan, organise and manage, with appropriate supervision, a significant self-directed project;

T5.       Work flexibly, creatively and independently, displaying a high degree of self-direction and initiative;

4. Programme structure

Semester One

Compulsory Modules (30 credits)

 Optional Modules (students should select 30 credits)

Semester Two

Compulsory Modules (30 credits)

Optional Modules (students should select 30 credits)

Semester Three

Compulsory Module (60 credits)

5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award

In order to be eligible for the award, candidates must satisfy the requirements of Regulation XXI.

All modules available in the Special Assessment Period (SAP) unless specified in the Module Specification.

6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the Purposes of Final Degree Classification

Not Applicable.