Explore our Creative and Media Enterprises taught Master's degree.

P-W4P4

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time (Home/EU)

2 October 2023

Cultural and Media Policy Studies

University of Warwick

The MA in Creative and Media Enterprises was the first in the UK to examine the business of creativity by focusing on the special relationship between creativity, strategic management and cultural entrepreneurship. The course facilitates an entrepreneurial and strategic approach to managing creative business, people, and ideas across the creative and media industries.

In this programme you will be invited to develop your understanding of creative organisations, teams, value creation, and markets within the global creative economy. We encourage you to consider a creative approach to management and a managed approach to creativity, which can then be applied to a range of scenarios and industries.

You will also develop your understanding of intellectual property and its strategic and regulatory significance within the creative and media industries. This course will invite you to critically reflect on the theories and ideas that shape industry practice and help you to tackle the real challenges of running a creative business.

You will learn in an international environment through interaction with academic experts and industry practitioners.

The core modules are taught through a combination of lectures, workshops and student-led presentations and discussions. These sessions are complemented by self-directed learning and access to resources and activities in a virtual learning environment.

The course is designed to facilitate participation and critical reflection and in some modules you will have the opportunity to apply your learning in a professional context.

There are between 20 to 30 students on each of the four taught Master's courses.

Typical contact hours range between 6 to 10 hours each week for core teaching – this excludes additional tutorials, workshops, and research seminars.

• All coursework
• Written assignments come in a variety of forms: essays, case studies, evaluations, reports, proposals, portfolios and business plans
• Group presentations and tasks, and creative and practical projects
• A major project (written dissertation of 12,000 words) on a research topic of your choice

Additional course costs

For all MA courses, the cost of field trips or off-campus assignments are estimated to cost between £100-£200, although this will depend on which option module has been chosen or the nature of a project or placement undertaken for an applied management module.

Reading lists

Most departments have reading lists available through Warwick Library. Explore our Warwick Library web pages.Link opens in a new window

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:i undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

There are no additional entry requirements for this course. However, we may ask applicants to write a short essay, attend an interview, or respond to a set of questions.

Creativity and Organisation

The module examines the internal organisational dynamic of the creative business, from financial planning and human resource management to organisational theory. The module is divided into three parts. The first part examines the definition and creation of ‘value’ in the creative and media industries and relates this to issues in financial management. The second part considers the organisational structure of creative and media businesses. The third part focuses on strategic planning, incorporating a critique of ‘scientific’ approaches to management and planning, and a search for alternative models for strategic planning for small creative enterprises.

Managing Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is the currency of creative and media enterprises. In this module you will examine the legal, policy and commercial mechanisms through which intellectual property is managed. Management refers to the exploitation and protection of intellectual property both by organisations and individuals and at the level of government policy and legislation. You will explore the conflicts between different legal, commercial and political imperatives for managing intellectual property through case studies, seminars and presentations by visiting experts.

Creative Business Project

In this module you will apply your learning by participating in a specific project for a creative or media organisation. Working as a member of a small team you will deliver a strategic solution to a genuine issue or challenge faced by the company. Your project may relate to business planning and development, product or service design, or marketing strategy. Working in association with colleagues from your client company, your team will put their ideas into practice to meet the objectives of their brief. You will deepen your understanding of the dynamics of creative work, teams and organisations through the execution of your project and ongoing reflective practice.

Research Design

This module aims to prepare you for your Major Project, which is a substantial piece of independent research on a topic of your choice. The module will equip you with a broad understanding of relevant research methods from which to select an appropriate approach for your own project. It will introduce you to ethical dimensions of research. It will equip you to write an effective proposal (including research questions, rationale, explanation and justification of research methods, identifying relevant literature and data sources).

By the end of the module, you should be ready to submit your proposal and be equipped with a broad understanding of research methods in the cultural, creative and media industries field.

Plus the following:

Major Project

The Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies is an interdisciplinary centre for teaching and research in the fields of cultural and media policy and the creative industries. The commitment to interdisciplinarity is reflected in our Major Projects, where you will be encouraged to draw on approaches from across the humanities and social sciences in producing your work. Successful projects can emerge from creative engagement with scholarly debates, from the design and analysis of original empirical work, or from some combination of these. This openness of approach is also reflected in how Major Project research can be represented.

• Marketing and Markets
• Cultural Entrepreneurship
• Media, Policy and Markets
• Developing Audiences for Cultural Organisations
• Managing Creativity for Sustainable Development

All students will take one optional module. There are five core modules, which also includes a course specific applied management module. The bespoke applied management module for this MA is ‘Creative Business Project’ (see above). This module gives you the opportunity to apply your learning in practice- or industry-related contexts.

Read more about the MA in Creative and Media Enterprises on the Centre's website.Link opens in a new window

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