1. Apply knowledge of professional contexts to produce a practical outcome relevant to creative media and an understanding of their creative and industrial practices. Knowledge & Understanding

2. Solve creative or industry-informed problems using appropriate methods and processes for creative media, working independently while engaging with relevant professional, technical, or academic feedback. Application & Problem Solving, Critical Reasoning & Collaboration

3. Communicate your work to academic, professional, or non-specialist audiences. Communication

4. Reflect on how employability and enterprise concepts inform your developing practice in creative media. Personal Development & Entrepreneurship

Assessment 1: Reflective Presentation
A 5–6-minute verbal presentation reviewing a creative media documentary output. You will agree your chosen text with the module tutor.

You will be assessed on your ability to:
Analyse a creative media text
Show understanding of genre and production choices
Consider audience engagement and representation
Communicate ideas clearly and confidently within the time limit
Briefly reflect on how the skills developed through this task relate to professional or employability contexts within creative media and how you have engaged with feedback

Assessment 2: Report
This assessment requires you to submit an analytical report exploring a contemporary creative media text and why it is significant.

You will be assessed on your ability to:
Analyse the text in relation to its creative and industrial context
Use research and sources effectively
Discuss representation and audience engagement where relevant
Develop a clear, well-structured written argument

Formative Assessment:
Midway formative feedback will be embedded within practical sessions, providing structured opportunities for feedback on work-in-progress to support student development and progression.

- This module provides the framework to consider the production focused analysis of different creative media live and pre-recorded outputs, and the exploration of their creative, institutional, economic, and industrial practices which have shaped their development.
- The focus will be around how popular genres have been produced and consumed by audiences through case study explorations including drama and soaps, documentary, light entertainment, comedy, quiz/game shows, and children’s media and how they continue to maintain interest for contemporary audiences.
- The module also reviews the representation of LGBTQ+ and ethnic experiences in different creative media texts, and how pioneers within these groups impacted on the shape and growth of representations across outputs.
- There will be opportunities for you to locate and analyse different research resources to consider textual construction and engagement with viewing and listening audiences.

How have popular media shaped the way we see and understand the world? In this module, you will explore how genres such as drama, soap operas, documentaries, comedy, and children’s media are created, produced, and consumed. Through case studies, you will examine the creative, industrial, and economic factors that influence media production and audience engagement. You will also investigate representation, including LGBTQ+ and diverse cultural perspectives, and analyse how media texts are constructed to attract and sustain audiences, developing your research and critical analysis skills.

Workshops with mixed mode delivery offer an interactive approach to bring ideas around your own creative media experiences and to select, analyse and assess sources to establish your own learning conclusions. Activities will be based around the genre case studies and discussions related to specific case study examples. Independent Study should be used to complete research tasks, viewing of extracts and complete content outputs, preparation tasks and wider reading.

Bignell, J. and Woods, F. (2022) An introduction to television studies. London: Routledge.

Cooper, M. (2022) Radio’s legacy in popular culture. London: Bloomsbury.

Creeber, G. (ed.) (2023) The television genre book. London: BFI.

Gorton, K. and Garde-Hansen, J. (2019) Remembering British television. London: BFI and Bloomsbury.

Piper, H. (2025) Hopeful vision: Entertainment on the small screen. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Where older texts are included, they are retained as foundational texts within the discipline, remaining relevant where no more recent equivalent texts are available.

Blackboard, Library, and online resources (including Box of Broadcasts), Blu-Ray/DVD/Audio/IT playback facilities.

The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available to support this module.