PME School of Media : Creative Industries and Cultural Policy (Distance Learning)

Faculty of Performance, Media & English

School
Birmingham School of Media

Campus
Distance Learning

Duration
Full-time: 1 year
Part-time: 3 years

Fees
2012/2013: £10,300 per year
2012/2013 (Part-time): £3,430 per year

Overview

Course duration: September start: 12 months full time or 36 months part time

The creative industries have become increasingly important for economic activity. According to the UK Work Foundation (2007), the country has the largest creative sector in the EU, and relative to GDP probably the largest in the world. Across the world, governments are investing in the creative industries and supporting infrastructure for economic return as competition intensifies. Investment ranges from the use of tax breaks and other incentives, such as those used to underwrite the games industries in Canada and France, to the building of new media cities and clusters in Asia and the Middle East and of course directions in the educational curriculum aimed at enhancing skills and creativity.

The creative industries are also important as part of a wider knowledge economy, responding to the potential of digital technologies and online environments. As a result, the creative industries are undergoing significant change. New ways of distributing and consuming the products of media and other cultural experiences have challenged standard models of business and consumption and transformed its place in our lives. The results are informing policy, law, business and everyday lives.

Of course, creativity and culture are also about much more than the economy. They are about the meanings by which we live, our collective heritage and how communities are made and defined. This conjunction is what makes the creative sector so interesting and what makes this course so engaging. In it, you will be able to contribute to understanding the value of culture and creativity at a local and global level and to engage in public debates about related issues.

On this course you will master the existing theoretical work on cultural policy and approaches to the study of the creative industries, applying these insights to understanding contemporary issues, and contributing to current knowledge. You will work by engaging with industry workers, policy bodies and makers operating individually and in groups, exploring ideas, and producing research straightaway.

Your academic skills of research and analysis will be developed, and you will make strong professional contacts and build relationships within the academic community and across the creative industries and cultural sector. This really is the course for you if you aspire to lead at the forefront of innovation in scholarship.

Course Structure

You will start your studies in this master’s degree in Creative Industries and Cultural Policy with an exploration of the different ways in which policy is understood and formulated. While the work is based in the theoretical study of policy around the globe it involves and engagement with the means by which governments and other bodies seek to support cultural sector and creative work. You will also explore the emergence of social media and its cultural character as a set of practices that have informed creative industry work as well as facilitating access to its key players and communities of interest.

There will certainly be lots of key material to survey in this growth area of academic research. At the same time, though, you will work through case studies drawn from work conducted by members of our Interactive Cultures research team, as well as key industry and policy thinkers. Most importantly, though, we want you to start to develop your own research ideas and develop them in ways that contribute to our understanding of culture and creative industry work.

Lectures will be replaced with audio slide shows, recordings of a lecture, or live-streamed lectures which cover the same material. These will often be identical to those delivered to students with attendance.

Access to your tutors for tutorials will be via audio-visual communication technologies such as Skype and will be further supported by email.

We invite a range of relevant speakers from industry and policy bodies which will be made available through a range of online platforms, and we want you to get involved in the interesting research undertaken by members of the Interactive Cultures team, who are part of the school’s Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research. There is a vibrant creative industries sector in Birmingham, and we have good contacts with creative workers and policy bodies across the world. We keep in close contact with our alumni, and there will be opportunities to exchange ideas with them and others from across the world.

Later in the course you will develop your skills as a researcher engaged with the nature and scope of creative industries. What are the organisations like I this sector? What is particular about work and production for creatives? In answering such questions, we encourage you to be explorative, to try out innovative ideas in research and thinking, and to produce truly original work. Although we often draw upon insights from the past, we are always looking to the future, and we want you to develop dissertations which really make a contribution to knowledge and understanding.

You can find out more details about the course modules below.

Modules

Creative Industries and Cultural Policy (30 credits)	Social Media as Culture (30 credits)
This is a theory module, which explores the current state of academic knowledge and debates within, and about, the creative industries, and the implications of cultural policy in the global, European, and UK context. The core aim is to explore the principles that have fore grounded the creative economy and cultural industries as an object of policy attention and practice in recent years.	This is a theory module which explores the current state of academic knowledge and debates around the emergence of social media that inform an understanding of related practices conceptualised as cultural. It will provide you with a systematic understanding of the approaches to studying social media culture and its social and cultural role and character.
Researching Creative Industries (30 credits)	Research Methods (30 credits)
This is a theory module exploring the range and character of the contemporary creative industries in terms of their economic and social value. You will explore ways in which established media and cultural theory and allied methods engages with, and allows us to understand, the nature and dimensions of contemporary organisation and practice in the creative and cultural industries.	This module prepares you for MA by Dissertation. It draws upon other taught modules which mapped out the current state of academic knowledge in the field and established academic conventions and explored current intellectual challenges. You will be provided with the opportunity to apply, experiment and innovate in a range of intellectual ideas, supported by a systematic exploration of methods for research or production development.
MA by Dissertation (60 credits)
You will complete your award with an original contribution to scholarship in the MA by Dissertation. You will develop and consolidate your mastery of key skills, knowledge of and engagement with current opportunities in the field of academic enquiry. This module encourages and test skills of initiative and independent research and is conducted largely outside the classroom with support from a tutor.

Assessments

Assessments emphasise scholarly practice through which the key learning objectives are tested. These involve critical reviews of cultural policy and its outcomes, research reports and oral presentations.

Placements

The MA has a strong thread of individual personal development planning. This is designed to support your studies and enhance your career ambitions. To this end you will undertake a work placement/internship with an organization involved in the creative and cultural industries, whether in production, policy generation or research. This will aid your engagement as a researcher (from the inside) as well as finding ways in which your postgraduate skills and learning can be explored outside of academia in the pursuit of applied research. The Birmingham School of Media has a variety of strong contacts to aid your application for appropriate placements.

Photo of Dr Paul Long

Dr Paul Long

Reader in Media and Cultural History

Dr Paul Long is Reader in Media and Cultural History at the School of Media and Associate Director of the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research.

He is an Academic Researcher and has broad experience of teaching undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

He joined the University in 1999 as a Visiting Lecturer, and took up post in 2001. He took his first degree in Film and Literature at the University of Warwick and has a Master’s award in Cultural Studies from the University of Birmingham. He completed his PhD ‘The Aesthetics of Class in Post-War Britain’ at the Centre for Social History, University of Warwick, in 2001.

He is the author of a number of academic articles on media and cultural history and has produced two books: (With Prof. Tim Wall, BCU), Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context (Pearson Longman) and ‘Only in the common people’: The Aesthetics of Class in Post-War Britain, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing)

He has recently completed a role as research fellow on an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - funded knowledge-transfer project in which he was part of a team working with over 30 music and radio companies and a variety of other cultural enterprises. He is also completing research on the creative industries and cultural policy as part of Creative Metropoles, an Interreg, EU-funded project (see http://www.creativemetropoles.eu).

Current projects concern the politics of archival preservation and heritage in relation to popular culture. Along with other colleagues in the School of Media, he is working with Screen West Midlands on a range of innovative projects, funded by the Digital Film Archive Fund (DFAF), to preserve and promote screen and film archives. In particular, he has an ongoing interest in the life and work of the BC documentarist Philip Donnellan (see http://philipdonnellan.posterous.com/).

CICP (Distance Learning) Staff

A broad and challenging course like MA Creative Industries and Cultural Policy needs a team of expert staff to design and deliver suitable material. The award and much of the teaching is led by Dr Paul Long with contributions from other members of the School of Media who contribute their research and experience in industry projects.. Most of the teaching staff also work together as part of the Interactive Cultures research team, which specialises in studying creative industries and applying new ideas to work in the sector.

Paul Long is Reader in Media and Cultural History at Birmingham City University. He has published a range of work on media and culture. You can see a full list of his publications here. Together with Tim Wall he wrote one of the leading text books in university media courses, and he is an expert on music heritage and digital archives. He was a leading member of the university’s KT Fellowship, and has been part of the recent work in Interactive Cultures on digital and online approaches to radio and music industries.

Dave Harte is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications. Most recently he has worked with Birmingham City Council on their Digital Birmingham project where he championed the use of social media and digital tools to the city leaders and the business community.

For many years he has worked closely with Birmingham’s vibrant digital media sector acting as a link between the public sector and the business community and has also managed a major business support project on their behalf.

Further Studies

This Master's is research based and would be an excellent basis for anyone interested in taking their research interests forward into an MPhil or PhD. For more information, speak to the course director about your particular area of expertise.

Employment Opportunities

Upon successfully completing the MA Creative Industries and Cultural Policy, you will have developed knowledge and understanding of the creative and cultural industries, related issues and debates as well as how to make sense of these sectors and what they mean for contemporary economies and social life. Successful students will be self-motivated independent learners and thinkers who will have advanced and transferable skills in research, investigation and presentation.

You will have made a number of contacts and joined a number of networks whilst on the course and be ready to take your skills into the workplace. You will be able to develop the role you already have in the cultural industries, or embark on a new career in related sectors. Those students who aim for future academic careers will be well placed to pursue further research and collaborations.

Entry Requirements

Anyone undertaking this course must possess an upper second class bachelors degree or higher in a relevant subject area. It is advantageous to be able to demonstrate an understanding of research in the creative industries or cultural policy.

We also welcome non-traditional applications, particularly from applicants with substantial professional or production experience. We therefore accredit prior experiential learning.

Application Details

Please apply direct to faculty.

Online Application Form

Telephone: +44 (0)121 331 6618
Email: media.admissions@bcu.ac.uk

Enquiries

Prospective students from the UK or EU may enquire online by using the Course Enquiry Form or call +44 (0)121 331 5595.

Prospective students from non-EU countries may enquire via the International Enquiry Form or call +44 (0)121 331 6714.

Further Information

Birmingham School of Media
Birmingham City University
City North Campus
Perry Barr
Birmingham
B42 2SU

Telephone: +44 (0)121 331 6618
Fax: +44 (0)121 331 6501

Email: media.admissions@bcu.ac.uk

PME School of Media : Creative Industries and Cultural Policy (Distance Learning) - MA

Creative Industries and Cultural Policy (Distance Learning) - MA