Digital Documentary Dissertation (856P4)

60 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

All year

Subject to your preference to undertake a written dissertation rather than a major practical project.

The third term and the following long vacation are reserved for the research and writing of a dissertation on a topic which is of special interest to you. With guidance from your supervisor, you will identify a suitable question in theory and/or history of documentary or 'realism' and/or their contemporary manifestations and write an 18,000 word dissertation on this topic.

In the process, you will compile a relevant biography of critical and textual sources or industrial sources as appropriate, which you critically evaluate in constructing a response to the chosen question, and undertake primary and secondary research utilising methodologies suitable to the topic in hand.

You may undertake an optional placement in a relevant media organisation as part of your research for this project.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 600 hours of work. This breaks down into about 17 hours of contact time and about 583 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2021/22. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.