Module UXS-4038:
Media, Culture & Creativity

Module Facts

Run by School of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics and Media

30.000 Credits or 15.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 1

Organiser: Dr Steffan Thomas

Overall aims and purpose

  1. To provide a systematic overview of major 20th and 21st century critical schools and theoretical approaches, which are key for an advanced understanding of how to read and analyse creative, cultural and media artefacts such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, film, video games and other new media texts.
  2. To examine creativity theory and knowledge-generating activities in relation to media, culture, and creative artefacts.
  3. To provide the opportunity for students to critically consider the role and significance of creativity within an academic context and to analyse its role in generating knowledge.
  4. To provide a forum for the wider discourse about current research in media, culture, and creativity, and give students wider exposure to the many types of research and approaches influencing the creative industries and creative studies.

Course content

Students will be given the opportunity to study, discuss and close-read seminal readings from the canon of critical literature and apply them to creative, cultural and media artefacts.

Assessment Criteria

excellent

Excellent (70%+/A)

Submitted work is of an outstanding quality and excellent in one or more of the following ways:

  • Has originality of exposition with the student's own thinking being readily apparent.
  • Provides clear evidence of extensive and relevant independent study.
  • Arguments are laid down with clarity and provide the reader with successive stages of consideration to reach conclusions.

threshold

Threshold (50%/C)

Submitted work is adequate and shows an acceptable level of competence as follows:

  • Generally accurate but with omissions and errors.
  • Assertions are made without clear supporting evidence or reasoning.
  • Has structure but is lacking in clarity and therefore relies on the reader to make links and assumptions.
  • Draws on a relatively narrow range of material.

good

Good (60%+/B)

Submitted work is competent throughout and occasionally distinguished by superior style, approach and choice of supporting materials. It demonstrates:

  • Good structure and logically developed arguments.
  • At least in parts draws on material that has been sourced and assessed as a result of independent study, or in a way unique to the student.
  • Assertions are, in the main, backed by evidence and sound reasoning.
  • Accuracy and presentation in an appropriate academic style.

Very Good (60%+)

Submitted work is competent throughout and distinguished by superior style, approach and choice of supporting materials. It demonstrates:

  • Very good structure and logically developed arguments.
  • Draws on material that has been sourced and assessed as a result of independent study, or in a way unique to the student.
  • Assertions are backed by evidence and sound reasoning.
  • Accuracy and presentation in an appropriate academic style.

Learning outcomes

  1. Demonstrate an ability to make an independent and sophisticated contribution to the study of contemporary media and creativity

  2. Demonstrate originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in either traditional humanities, or practice-based research (as appropriate for their subject area)

  3. Evaluate, and develop critiques of, forms, conventions, languages, techniques and practices in their field

  4. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of key terms and concepts across contemporary media, cultural, and creativity theory

  5. Demonstrate an advanced intellectual ability to apply a number of methodological frames to media/cultural/creative artefacts

  6. Demonstrate an advanced ability to clarify and refine individual positions as critics, theorists and (where appropriate) creative practitioners

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION Presentation 25.00
ESSAY Final Project 75.00

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Private study 284
Tutorial

Supervision: 1 hour per week for 5 weeks (biweekly).

 5
Seminar

Workshop/Seminar: 1 hour per week for 11 weeks.

 11

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
  • Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sensitevely with others
  • Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
  • Presentation - Able to clearly present information and explanations to an audience. Through the written or oral mode of communication accurately and concisely.
  • Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
  • Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others
  • Leadership - Able to lead and manage, develop action plans and objectives, offer guidance and direction to others, and cope with the related pressures such authority can result in

Resources

Courses including this module

Compulsory in courses:

Optional in courses: