Content Creation and Digital Futures (P5098)

30 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

Social media, content creation and AI play vital roles in our online present and digital futures. It’s now commonplace to receive increasingly personalised, AI-driven content through online platforms that encourage users to ‘subscribe, like and share’.

This module will introduce you to platforms and infrastructures that have become influential in:

  • communication
  • journalism
  • promotional culture
  • education.

You’ll also explore the AI-driven tools and processes that are changing the future of many media industries.

On this module you’ll:

  • take a step back from the everyday use of social media and AI tools to question and critically analyse them through the lens of content creation
  • learn how and why digital content creation is impacting journalism, entertainment and digital culture
  • enhance your digital skills through workshops that explore different types of written, visual and data-driven content.

You’ll examine a range of social media platforms, AI tools and digital journalism practices. You’ll also look at:

  • their present promise and risks, and how these play out in digital everyday life
  • their outputs in regard to content creation, and how such outputs relate to platform infrastructures and algorithmic power
  • their future politics, economics, aesthetics and pleasures, and how this might impact content creators and influencers.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 58 hours of contact time and about 242 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 2026/27. 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.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses: