Accessibility statement

Research Skills For Creative Industries (BCI) - TFT00054H

« Back to module search

  • Department: Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Nathan Townsend
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module will equip students with key research skills to guide you through their third year of University study and to underpin their business projects beyond. It will explore how to approach and pursue academic research projects in general. and as they relate to the gathering of data in particular. Here the module will focus on aspects audience, market, and consumption and perception analysis. As well as giving students important academic tools which encourage critical rigour, the module will also introduce students to the data and surveying tools that will allow them to understand and appeal to markets.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module aims to:

Develop your research skills and to fully prepare you to write an extended research project in your final year

Introduce you to key theoretical frameworks and encourage you to experiment with them, and analyse their value critically in relation to research objectives.

Develop your ability to engage with ideas and concepts, and to develop - and present - persuasive and complex arguments

Explore and evaluate means of gathering data in order to evidence and drive research ideas or other advanced third year projects.

Explore the value of data-gathering procedures to both university projects and to wider business concerns - audience, market testing, etc. - in the creative industries beyond.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of this module students will be able to:

Identify and critically engage with key concepts in existing research

Use appropriate research skills to draft a list of useful and relevant sources or procedures for your chosen research project

Write a literature review which demonstrates your ability to address a field of scholarship, or a key creative business activity

Plan and pursue an extended research inquiry by invoking key concepts, theories of analytical frameworks appropriate to the project. or business area under scrutiny.

Evaluate different data gathering methods and their application to different forms of inquiry or business project.

Design and apply data-gathering methods in order to promote or evidence your area of inquiry or business interest.

Module content

This module will contain some flexible time to accommodate research methods that may be specific to the project or business area that you are interested in investigating.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
3000 word essay plan: Research proposal & Methodology		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Formative work is embedded into the practical sessions for this module. 

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
3000 word essay : Methodological Analysis		 N/A 100

Module feedback

Students will receive feedback on all assessments and reassessments within four weeks as per university guidelines. Verbal feedback on the formative presentation - peer and staff - will be largely immediate.,.

Indicative reading

Cottrell, Stella (2011) Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Feak, Christine B.; Swales, John M., (2009) Telling a research story: writing a literature review. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Fortier, Mark. (2016) Theory/Theatre: An Introduction. 3rd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.

Greetham, Bryan (2014) How to write your undergraduate dissertation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kershaw, Baz. Nicholson, Helen (2011) Research methods in theatre and performance. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Taylor, Gordon (1989) The student's writing guide for the arts and social sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rae Earnshaw, Research and Development in the Academy, Creative Industries and Applications (London: Springer, 2017)

Nick Lacey Media, Institutions and Audiences (London: Palgrave, 2002)

Virginia Nightingale (ed), The Handbook of Media Audiences (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.