Promotional Media

Media are indispensable tools for businesses and organisations in the creative industries to create awareness and promote themselves and their products, but how have new digital technologies altered the shape and forms of these promotional tools? How do promotional activities impact our culture and society? You’ll explore promotional media as an academic field of study, reviewing the development of promotional media in both historical and contemporary contexts. You’ll critically discuss their key current forms and examine different types of public relations, marketing and advertising practices in the media and culture industries. Alongside theoretical reflection and the critical analysis of key case studies, you’ll also apply your knowledge about promotional media in your own independent projects.

Audience research underpins work in promotional media. To reach an audience, you must know your audience. This module teaches you methods to research audiences in a systematic manner, in order to examine how audiences engage with media texts, technologies, practices, and institutions. You will develop a theoretical understanding of how different audience cultures and practices have emerged, acknowledging the intersections of identity which play key roles in conceptualising and researching audiences. You will engage with a range of approaches and learn to apply practical research and methodological skills to collect, analyse and evaluate data – in a variety of settings and circumstances. Your practical application of research skills will be grounded in your critical reflection on ethical research practice. By the end of the module, you will have developed skills to manage your own audience research project, analyse research data and produce recommendations.

Following on from ‘Theories and Contexts’, this module encourages you to build on your knowledge and reflective work on contemporary promotional media to design, create, and deliver your own small media campaigns. You will work within appropriate promotional media forms and styles, and strategically use particular media platforms to market a product or service. Through a series of professional workshops, you will learn the key creative and technical skills to deliver such content, including use of camera, video editing, and sound design, as well as experiment with how social media can be used to deliver and enhance promotional media content. Through the creation of promotional media campaigns, you will be able to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the core debates around the subject of public relations, marketing, and advertising.

What styles and forms are used in promotional media? You’ll refine the research, conceptual, and practical skills acquired in the modules you have done so far through a focus on the styles and forms used in promotional media. You’ll strategically choose and create marketing materials that deploy promotional media forms and styles to resolve promotional mini case-studies, with a particular focus on articulating a coherent brand proposition of an external client and tailoring style to corporate brands. You’ll also learn through an examination of real-world best practice and through the application of practical skills in written and audio/visual styles, and in different forms of promotional media, including writing short press releases, creating online blog posts, as well as completing short promotional business-to-consumer or B2C (e.g. for YouTube/TikTok) and business-to-business or B2B (corporate/industrial) videos. Alongside theoretical reflection, the critical analysis of key case studies and practical skill training, you’ll also practise professional skills in pitching, understanding clients’ visions, or working to set briefs.

How does the academic and professional field of promotional media operate within the commercial world? How does the branded professional put into practice their knowledge and skills of media theory, creativity, research, and contemporary practice?

By analysing and evaluating existing contemporary professional practice you will further develop a range of proficiencies necessary for working or researching within promotional media. Grounded in practice you will research, plan, and develop a series of projects with hypothetical or real audiences. You will develop your own branded digital footprint drawing upon your knowledge of media semiotics, communication theories, narratology, and cultural theories. You will refine your own professional portfolio in preparation for future post-MA opportunities.

What are the pressing issues within the study of promotional media – and media studies more broadly – today? This module will allow you to engage with a range of prominent and significant theoretical topics across media studies, including but not limited to: the semiotics of promotional media, media narratology and storytelling, media ethics, media in relation to conceptions of identity, gender and race, the stylistics of promotional media, colonialism, decolonisation and the media, and media in relation to the environment and sustainability. The topics focussed on will reflect the research interests of the academics delivering the module. You will engage with a range of critical and theoretical approaches to promotional media and explore their relevance and utility in terms of your own promotional media professional practice.This will include developing your skills in research, critical analysis and project planning.

Ever wondered what it takes to run a successful promotional media campaign? This module represents your chance to forge your own campaign, from working out initial aims and ideas, to carrying out market research, through to prototyping and testing the campaign, then reflecting and analysing the results.

The module provides you with a unique opportunity to fully explore how to carry out your own work of promotional media, tailored around your interests and skill set, and to industry standards. Within this module, you will develop your own media campaign, based around a topic of your choice, and enabled by a series of group workshops and individual staff supervision. Through the process, you will hone your market research skills, analytical skills, creative skills, as well as production skills.

Are you drawn to a particular area of theoretical enquiry within Promotional Media and the media and communication industries? Did you find certain topics you studied particularly appealing and would you like to find out more? Would you like to conduct original research and expand your academic writing skills?

This module represents your chance to conduct an original research project where you will choose your own topic, develop a question and methodology, and conduct research. You will be allocated a personal supervisor with suitable expertise who will guide you through this process, offering advice and guidance about how to conduct independent research. You will have the opportunity to communicate your work-in-progress with members of the department and your peers, before producing a piece of extended, original writing on a subject you are passionate about.

By the end of this module you will have first-hand experience in conducting independent research and developing an area of specialist expertise which will help you consider options for your future career and/or further study.