Cultural and Creative Industries (MA)

Embrace an entrepreneurial approach to the creative and cultural industries and familiarise yourself with key policies while building your understanding of debates changing and shaping the sector.

The MA in Creative and Cultural Industries will focus on key debates taking place in this fast moving and rapidly changing sector. Whether you’re interested in working in film and television, theatre and dance, community arts and education, museums, tourism and heritage, digital storytelling and/or publishing online or offline, this is the programme for you.

You’ll learn how to work entrepreneurially and as an effective contributor to global debates on access to cultural and human rights, access into the creative workplace for all, globalised digitalisation and how this affects environmental and economic sustainability, how the freelance and entrepreneurial ‘creative’ and/ or producer can work in one specific field or as a specialist, amongst others.

The creative and cultural industries are known to be effective in both identifying storytelling opportunities to communicate global issues but also as agents of change within their own fields. We’ll examine how the industries work and can be equipped with academic research to inform better production choices online and offline in digital creativity and offline participatory processes.

Your learning will be supported by leading academics in the field, experts from Cardiff University’s groundbreaking Centre for the Creative Economy, and industry professionals. This ensures you’ll develop strong industry connections and will help inform and shape your own projects and career aspirations.

You'll gain sector-wide conceptual knowledge and strong professional abilities such as the development of sound critical judgement, self-direction and initiative, problem solving and responding to industry level briefs; enabling you to identify, engage and operate within the creative and cultural industries and the challenges and opportunities the sector has to offer. You'll become a flexible and reflective independent worker with the skills and knowledge to adapt to the changing demands of the workplace.

This will be taught by engaging in theory, research and case studies focusing on policy and key debates found across the sectors, thinking around best practice, ‘participation’ in cultural rights within museums, theatres, film and community arts and developing a portfolio of digitally produced projects using multi and digital media.

All modules have employability and entrepreneurship embedded into them to develop you as an independent and confident creative, incorporating academic and critical thinking, innovative problem solving, digital competency, storytelling and leadership skills.

Careers

Placements

Core activities connected to learning outcomes are all incorporated in the modules and are experienced through academic content and sessions with input and support from industry connections.

You’ll complete a module in Professional Development and Practice, which involves 35 hours of freelance work experience mentored and supported by industry professionals and experts. We have a diverse and extensive range of industry connections through our relationship with the Centre for the Creative Economy and each student will respond to an industry brief as part of a working group. This experience will prepare you for real-life hybrid and freelance working and how to respond to project-by-project industry level briefs.

This activity will also see you pitching your ideas to a panel of industry experts as formative feedback. This opportunity is offered to all students  and functions as an integrated class project and assessment where you’re all mentored together on a group basis and respond to the same brief.