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Research and Data in the Creative Industries - TFT00054H

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  • Department: Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Jon Swords
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

This module will equip you with key research skills to guide you through your third year of University study and into the professional world of business
beyond. It will explore how to approach and pursue academic research projects in general. But it will spend the majority of its time exploring the
importance of data in gauging the viability and market for creative projects and creative enterprises. Here you will focus on aspects of audience, market,
and consumption and perception analysis, and the means for gathering evidence and data about them. As well as giving you important academic tools
which encourage critical rigour, the module will also introduce you therefore to the data and surveying tools that play an increasingly important role in
understanding and applying business strategies to creative markets.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

Over the course of this module, you can expect to:

  • Develop your underlying research skills in preparation for an extended research project in your final year
  • Explore key theoretical frameworks, to experiment with them, to analyse their value critically in relation to research and business 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, business proposals and creative 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
  • Present data and conclusions derived from data in compelling formats

Module learning outcomes

At the end of this module, you will be expected to:

  • Identify and critically engage with key concepts in existing research. Use appropriate research skills to identify useful and relevant sources or procedures for your chosen research or business project.
  • Compile a literature and / or data review which demonstrates your ability to address a field of scholarship, or a key creative business activity.
  • Evaluate different data gathering methods and their application to different forms of inquiry or business project.
  • Design and apply data-gathering procedures in pursuit of specific research, business development or marketing questions.
  • Apply data towards understanding, and where appropriate promoting, the viability or appeal of a creative business idea or enterprise.

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
Research and Data in the Creative Industries		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Research and Data in the Creative Industries		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive written feedback in line with standard University turnaround times. Verbal feedback on the formative presentation - peer and staff - will be largely immediate.

Indicative reading

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

Feak, C. and Swales, J. (2009). Telling a research story: writing a literature review. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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.