MFC5032 - Researching Media, Film and Culture

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Comprehend the importance of academic research in the context of your chosen degree programme and its relevance beyond the institution;
Develop a search strategy to identify and critique the prior art relevant to a subject matter;
Consider ethical considerations in designing a research project;
Produce an effective research proposal suitable for a Level 6 research project that identifies a topic relevant to your degree programme, selects research methods appropriate to that topic and formulates a feasible project outline.

Content:

This module is designed to familiarise you with approaches to researching media, film, and culture. It is led by internationally recognised researchers specialising in film analysis, digital humanities, interactive media, politics and society and contemporary popular culture.

The module challenges you to understand goals of research and the role of the researcher and to explore the research process, so that you become an autonomous and effective researcher. You will learn how to identify suitable topics for study and to place them in the context of existing fields of knowledge in order to frame hypotheses and research questions. You will learn how to select methods appropriate to the successful conduct of a research project. You will engage with ethical issues in research and learn how to manage data. You will learn how to design and plan a research project and will produce a proposal that will form the basis of your Level 6 research project.

The knowledge, attributes and abilities you develop on this module will expand your understanding of your chosen degree subject; help you to develop as an independent and original critical thinker; and develop your critical thinking, project management, and communication skills.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Contact hours:
The contact hours on this module comprise workshops based around the research process. These sessions are the starting point for learning about the different stages of research, identifying and developing key research skills, and sharing and developing your ideas with other students. The concepts and approaches to research you learn about in these sessions will form the basis for your proposal for your own research.

Independent learning:
Contact time with teaching staff will shape and guide your studies; introducing new ideas, equipping you with new knowledge and abilities, and providing guidance and feedback on your own work. Alongside this contact time, you spend a substantial amount of time where you will structure and organise your own learning based on your needs and your interests. You therefore take a highly active role in the module, forming your own perspectives on the topic, and developing independent learning habits as you adopt an enquiry-led approach to learning.

Workshops
Hours: 40
Intended Group size: Cohort

Assessment
Hours: 60
Intended Group size: 1

Guided independent study
Hours: 100

Further details relating to assessment

Assignment 1: Research Logs
The objective of this assignment is to find and critically evaluate sources relevant to a specific research topic. Selecting one of the research questions listed on Moodle, you will devise a search strategy to identify four sources and academically appraise them, noting their thesis, methodology, theoretical framework, and primary and secondary conclusions.

Assignment 2: Research Ethics Online Test
Research ethics are the rules that regulate the design and conduct of research to ensure researchers act in a fair, safe, and principled manner. Students are required to demonstrate they have sufficient knowledge of ethical issues and data management in research for the protection and safeguarding of participants in their research project, and that that minimizes risk to themselves as a researcher and to the institution.

This assessment takes the form of an online test that will take you approximately one hour to complete. The test will be available on Moodle from week 18 until week 22.

This assessment is marked on a pass/fail basis. You must achieve a mark of 80% to pass this test. If you fail to score above 80%, you can retake the test once. If you fail to pass the test a second time, you will be required to retake the research ethics class in week 22. You will then have a further opportunity to complete the test before the end of week 24.

Assignment 3: Research Proposal
Your Level 6 research project counts for 40 credits of your final year at Leeds Trinity University and will be the culmination of your studies, bringing together your subject knowledge and your ability to analyse and theorize. For this assignment you will propose a final year research project to be undertaken either as an 8000-word dissertation or as a research-by-practice artefact accompanied by a 2000-word theoretical justification.

Assessment:

001 Logs; 2,000 words; end of semester 1 50%
002 Ethics test; 1 hour; pass/fail; mid-semester 2 0%
003 Proposal; 2,000 words; end of semester 2 50%
200 Logs; 2,000 words; end of semester 1 100%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Nicholas Redfern
Level - 5
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 5YL

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