Digital and Interactive Storytelling LAB MA is a new and innovative course, designed for digital storytellers and shaped like a media LAB. This means that during the course you will be able to produce a wide range of digital-first work for multi-platform story formats. Your work will be underpinned with academic research, theories and expertise on mobile platforms, and digital interactive communication.
The course delivers industry-level professional expertise in visual communication from photography to cinema journalism, interactive narratives and apps for change.
You’ll be involved in creating content that extends beyond current ideas in multimedia and online productions – our aim is to advance storytelling. We recognise how competitive the job market currently is, therefore this Master's has been created to develop your skills and knowledge in a way that will enhance your career.
The Digital and Interactive Storytelling LAB MA prepares you for a range of industries, present and future, as entrepreneurial content creators, mobile and platform producers, cinema and video journalists, interactive factual narratives, social marketers, and project managers.
The content is structured around a knowledge of platforms and three major fields: cinema (video) journalism, photographic communication and interactive factual narratives, which are seamlessly knitted together into five modules.
Cinema Journalism builds upon videojournalism – a much-misunderstood term that in reality embraces multimedia and the creation of multiple genres of video production in different styles – from one-minute social-media docs, two-minute news, to lengthier docs. Cinema journalism combines a deep understanding of cinema cues and tropes to create compelling immersive content on fast-turn around times whilst mastering an array of tools from different lenses, cameras, drones and mobiles. You can find examples of student work David has previously supervised, as well as read about his work in journals, such as the The Documentary Handbook.
The rethinking of photographic digital communication both in terms of media and content is what drives my research The Image As Storytelling. By engaging the quickly evolving worlds of photography and photojournalism within a digital-first approach, in the LAB you will learn how to engage visual communication to its full potential, and incorporate storytelling as a digital practice for interactive platforms. Through a hands-on, experimental and practice-led approach, you will reconsider today’s shifting visual vocabulary specifically for digital and interactive communication frameworks.
Interactive Factual Narratives range from web-documentary, to games for change, VR and social mobile apps. You’ve likely seen examples of interactive factual narratives with the New York Times Snowfall, and Brett Gaylor’s Do Not Track. You will be given an exhaustive overview to be able to map the territory and position your practice in it. You will be guided through your creative journey with a user-centred workflow that mixes design and software methodologies to prototype and design interactive narratives. You will be challenged by a “what’s next” approach and will be pushed to think further than current trends.
The course incorporates an agency media LAB approach to learning through knowledge sharing and project completion which is pragmatic. It underpins problem solving using evolving theories and practice. The goal is the production of digital stories and, or interactive factual narrative. The method is through iteration and collaboration.
Modules on the course are compulsory and follow a schedule towards production of digital and, or interactive projects via an iterative approach. Testing and user experience is taken into consideration at each step of the creative process. You will be encouraged to work in ways that rewards experimenting, building and refining ideas. We expect a mix of cohorts, some yet to enter industry, others looking to bolster their careers or change direction and encourage a wisdom of crowds method in learning – also from one another.
You’ll be encouraged to work collaboratively, opening up your professional expertise, or experiences to the benefit of your course peers. In doing so, you will feel part of a creative community that will support you when needed, and may serve you as a network even after the course has finished.
By the end of the year you should reach a level of expertise to create innovative digital and interactive storytelling artefacts, acquiring a solid knowledge of the field, consolidating a multi-skilled network of people and developing digital prototypes of your ideas. By then your project should be ready to be presented to potential financers and media partners.
The following modules, below, which are all compulsory are indicative of what you will study on this course. The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.
Modules
The course is mainly geared at giving you the right support and methodology to develop your interactive project during the course. The critical awareness and the iterative methodology that you will gain will then serve you to remain competitive in the digital creative industries you might enter in the future, regardless of the technologies they use.
Our MRes in Storytelling is a cross-discipline combined critical/creative course that will give you a detailed understanding of the study of stories, storytelling and narrative in English. Uniquely working with the Department of English and Storyhouse in Chester, you will have the option to pursue either a critical or creative writing project for your dissertation.
The next intake for this course is October 2018.
The Department of English offers expertise in a variety of writers and eras – including in the practice of creative writing and in a wide range of literary specialisms – which will facilitate your exploration of your own interests in particular forms of narrative and storytelling.
You will work alongside Storyhouse staff, who are committed to widening access to the magic of storytelling within the community of Chester. We also recognise the importance of pastoral support, and offer a supportive environment in which to learn and study.
On the Telling Stories and Research Methods module, topics may include: storytelling practices; narrative studies; community storytelling; producing innovative writing and research; theoretical study and creative practice; praxis and critical appraisal; critical and creative writing pedagogies; traditional research methods; using libraries and archives; research for writing; writing as research; new practices in research methods/creative writing; creative writing as a research methodology.
The dissertation itself is on a topic of your own choice.
Teaching will take place at both the University of Chester’s Parkgate Road Campus and at Storyhouse. It will be delivered through lectures, seminars and one-to-one supervision with an academic and/or a member of Storyhouse staff.
As well as regular supervision between students and academics, the MRes in Storytelling will also require substantial independent study.
You will be assessed through written coursework comprising annotated bibliographies, essays, reports, reviews and oral presentations, as well as a final 28,000-word dissertation.
Digital Direction is a new 240-credit, 15-month Master’s programme starting in September 2017.
Digital Direction addresses media and storytelling in the digital era, assessing emerging issues associated with contemporary digital communication and the creative economy, training new creative leaders who are responsive to continually changing contexts, infrastructures and technologies and engendering a new wave of creative leadership. Graduates will develop a deep understanding of critical and experimental communication/media production, creation and design practices, and through applied innovation will address current and future contexts.
The programme prepares students to evolve and lead new approaches to media and storytelling through predictive innovation, enabled by rapidly changing cultural and industrial practices, plus uses of, and developments in, digital technologies. Centring on the interrelated domains of broadcasting, film and experience/brand, the programme addresses knowledge and skills gaps in four key areas of practice: production, direction, content development/making/writing and communication/digital media design.
The programme proposes new imperatives for storytelling in an age of alternative facts and fictions; challenges associated with multiple media forms and systems; and methods for engaging publics as audiences, users, consumers, (co-)creators, stakeholders and participants.
Established approaches to production, direction, content creation and communication/digital media design are transforming at an exponential rate, employing innovative forms of storytelling and narrative experience to engage audiences in new ways. The programme is informed by associated transformations in digital technologies, including the prevalence of post-broadcast models of On Demand media; the proliferation of networked forms of production and distribution; source- and platform-agnostic, multi-cast, multi-access and multi-layered, multi-linear media; cultures of openness and control; and the primacy of interactivity.
The programme acknowledges human adaptations to living with digital technologies. Contemporary media platforms are mobile, embedded in multiple types of environments, infrastructures and products, and user-controlled with an engagement in more democratic forms of content generation and curation. In parallel, core discrete professions within the media and communication design industries are being challenged and broadened by increasingly transdisciplinary requirements. .
The programme equips students with the knowledge, understanding and skills to engage productively with the creative, design and commercial demands of this emerging and rapidly evolving multi-platform and multi-layered world. To match, a transdisciplinary approach is demanded with a strong narrative sense and a honed instinct for communication. Our contemporary uses of new digital technologies have prompted a reconsideration of communication borders and different types of responsive modes; and content developers and distributors are, in turn, converging within an increasingly fluid space.
Traditional skill sets involving narration, scriptwriting, production design, direction, set design, casting, photography, filming, lighting, and sound recording, for example, are now increasingly accompanied and informed by hitherto unrelated practices such as coding and programming, interactive design, AI, cross-platform and cross-media integration (e.g. transmedia), data visualisation and analytics, visual design, gamification, virtual/augmented reality and social media. Digital Direction addresses the demands of this new world – for example, by enabling designer-directors to produce and create content for social videos with an accompanying strategy for ensuring delivery to their target audiences, including deployment of mechanisms for openness and input.
The programme draws on six key principles from the School of Communication – conceptualisation, experimentation, expression, information, contextualisation and interdisciplinarity – which are in turn supported and developed through strategic research clusters based on the broader themes of identity, experience and publishing.
This master’s programme is designed for those with an ambition to write within the range of non-fiction genres. Running over two years, it attracts students from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages, all of whom work closely within workshop and tutorial settings to produce a publishable work. The unifying factor for all writers on the programme is their intention to deliver their research or story through a narrative structure.
Our definition of narrative non-fiction includes biography, travel, history, life writing, true crime, sports and other forms of sustained and structured non-fiction storytelling. The Creative Writing (Non-Fiction) MA provides you with essential skills and a supportive and challenging environment in which to write a full-length work of narrative non-fiction. You will develop your research skills, experiment with different writing styles, reflect on your own and other writer’s work and learn the essentials of the publishing industry.
The teaching, all by published authors, across the two years is front-end loaded in terms 1 and 2 with workshops, lectures and seminars held two evenings a week. Here you will extend your writing skills, your understanding of non-fiction genres and your awareness of creative possibilities. You will also analyse the work of leading writers and explore writing through a variety of exercises, encouraging you to experiment with new approaches.
All workshops are based around the students’ own writing assignments which work towards the completion, or opening chapters, of a book. We also closely analyse published works of non-fiction, taking apart books to examine their style, structure and research methods.
Throughout the two years there are readings and workshops with visiting authors. In terms 3, 4, 5 and 6 you work principally on your own book project with the support of one-to-one tutorials.
In term 6 (the final term) the lectures and guest sessions focus on the publishing industry which will provide you with the knowledge to be placed with a literary agent. During the final term you will have the opportunity to read from your work in progress, to contribute to an anthology of writing and to submit a full draft of your book.
Term 1
Term 2
Terms 3,4,5 and 6
The MA creative writing non-fiction is proud of its track record in publishing with students from the programme winning publishing contracts every year.
Graduates include:
Graduates have also gone on to work for media outlets and used their transferrable skills in a variety of professions including teaching, political campaigning and in the charity sector.
The Sequential Design/Illustration MA attracts new and established illustrators, artists and designers from all over the world who are keen to explore the principles of sequence within their chosen field and make them visible through a variety of forms.
These forms have included written and illustrated books for children and adults, interactive design, film, graphic novels, stage and exhibition design, animation, book arts, narrative textiles, experimental writing, product design and even community projects that encourage social development through storytelling.
In its 25-year history, this course has built on the gathered knowledge and experience of its staff and students to cover topics that are relevant to all MA students interested in storytelling, visual narrative and delivering complex sequential messages.
Recent graduate work – ranging from a biography of Edith Sitwell to a series of calendars made from human hair – demonstrates the diversity of individual research. Other students have examined the legacy of recipes, the secret language of headscarves, the parallels between quantum physics and Taoism as demonstrated through a detective novel, and the role of plumage in communication.
You can study on a part-time or full-time basis.
Lectures, seminars, reviews and assessments are held at fixed times on Wednesdays. Other patterns of attendance vary according to individual circumstances. During holidays you will be engaged in independent study.
Your work will be predominantly project based, which may comprise of one or more parts focusing on a central theme or idea. A single project or investigation will in most cases sustain a student through the entire duration of the course, but at stage assessment, in consultation with tutors, it may naturally evolve into a new or related area of study.
The nature of the subject demands the continual interaction between research, analysis, and practical realisation, as well as an extended period of development for ideas to become fully meaningful. Throughout this investigation you will receive support and guidance from the course tutors.
Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through our applicant portal.
As the course develops, there is increasing opportunity for independent and self-directed work, though each student is allocated a personal tutor who oversees the planning and content of individual projects. Besides practice-based work, the course also includes a written element in which you will be asked to reflect critically on the research and development of your project.
The Visual Narrative module includes lectures, themed group events and small practical activities such as the Surprise Project, where you are asked to deliver a surprise though a sequence of six images or objects, with the module group as your target audience. From this experience, you learn the nature and importance of surprise in basic storytelling and develop a vocabulary for narrative. In scheduled theme day events, such as Modern Cautionary Tales, you work in groups to challenge your quick-thinking skills in the invention, planning and presentation of a story.
While students accepted on the course should come with the technical skills necessary to fulfil their projects, access to the diverse workshops facilities – for example in bookbinding, letterpress, printmaking and photography – will be made available as appropriate to your project. There is also a substantial specialist library and a full range of computer facilities.
In order to bring together a variety of students and approaches, this course coexists with the Arts and Design by Independent Project MA. Both are based at our Grand Parade campus.
Stage 1
Stage 2
We arrange a programme of weekly lectures by a range of practitioners and academics to broaden your experience and understanding of professional issues and activity. Lecturers describe their practice and professional experience, sharing insights about their research methods and discoveries.
The programme is organised to relate to specific stages of the course and varies on a two-year cycle, so part-time students have access to a different set of events in each of their two years of study.
Because of the diversity of our students and the projects they create, their professional achievements are equally wide-ranging. Successful commercial enterprises have been established, research degrees undertaken, books published, collaborative design groups formed, and work exhibited in major galleries and institutions. Graduates have also participated in festivals and conferences around the world.
Recent graduates include:
Contemporary illustration practice has grown to encompass a broad range of ambitions and opportunities for image makers and storytellers. The growth of online digital cultures - and the impact of digital image creation on traditional image making - requires flexible and adaptable practitioners, and it provides unique opportunities for the entrepreneurial illustrator.
Our MA Illustration course offers you the chance to challenge the boundaries of illustration, both in its practice and its context, and is primarily concerned with the illustrated narrative. It offers you a creative and intellectual environment in which you can rigorously pursue a project of self-directed study, and produce a body of work on a topic of your interest within the field of illustration.
Our course enjoys a long tradition of original narrative and storytelling through images, reflecting staff expertise and practice in these areas. As a student here you'll get to explore narrative storytelling, authorship, self-publishing, book production and visual narratives through the development of a personal project.
This MA course supports you to develop your own independent voice and to identify an audience. You're encouraged to take a self-directed entrepreneurial approach, developing and exploring creative opportunities and options for your work. This entrepreneurial emphasis will be supported by access to specialist facilities such as digital media suites, photography, printmaking and bookmaking.
Our course also provides you with the opportunity for extended critical debate, a high degree of critical reflection and integration of theoretical and practical concerns as part of the realisation of an ambitious body of work. It will also promote in-depth, rigorously conducted research, to ensure you're able to contextualise your own work in relation to the leading edge practice in illustration.
Visiting lecturers and practitioners inform and cultivate professional development, encouraging you to question and debate. Recent visiting lecturers have included Graham Rawle, Olivier Kugler, Nick White, Luke Best, Mathew Richardson and Posy Simmonds.
Illustration at UCA Farnham has a long tradition of original narrative and storytelling through images, reflecting staff expertise and practice in these areas.
Students on MA Illustration also benefit from well-established industry connections.
Graduates from our MA Illustration course go on to establish careers in a diverse range of exciting areas, such as:
-Freelance illustration
-Self-publishing
-Artist practice
-Printmaking
-Curation
-Editing
-Animation
-Project management
-Education
-Design
-Digital imaging
-Web authoring
-Multi-media production.
Visit our Postgraduate Virtual Media Space to find out more about our courses, see what it's like to study at UCA and gain access to our campus virtual tours.
This course will enable you to develop film production skills with both digital and analogue equipment, as well as knowledge of the theories of contemporary cinema. The focus is placed firmly on developing clear and simple storytelling techniques that go beyond arbitrary formal categorisations of drama, documentary or genre. The course takes its inspiration from forms of cultural production that have challenged conformity, including the work of artists, musicians, painters and performers, and the movements of Italian neo-realism and the developing cinemas of Africa, Latin America, South Korea and Iran.
You will study the basic principles of filmmaking, develop an understanding of the nature and potential of visual storytelling, and discover the importance of sound, lighting and the screenplay. You will also gain a sound knowledge of theories and ideas that can help in the interpretation of your own work and that of other filmmakers. You will produce a portfolio of moving-image projects to illustrate your technical ability in cinematography, sound recording, editing and writing/direction.
You will be able to use high-definition digital video camcorders, DSLRs and Macs running Final Cut Pro and Adobe Creative Cloud to apply classical and independent principles with contemporary technology; 8mm, super8 and 16mm film cameras are also available to explore analogue forms of filmmaking (students who wish to use our analogue cameras will have to cover their own stock and processing costs).
Film production projects, critical journal, essays, and seminar presentations.
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, the work placement is covered by a student's tier 4 visa. Find out more about the postgraduate work placement.
The programme is designed to provide skills required by adaptable, critically aware, communications workers in the exciting modern communications environment, which requires fluency in the use of strategic storytelling, content production and visual design.
A one-year Master's programme of 60 credits, Strategic Communication is a programme designed for students with different subject backgrounds within the wide field of communication. Bringing together different skills, students develop a critical understanding of, and competence to implement, strategic communication. By strategic communication we mean professional communication aimed at satisfying long-term organisational and community goals.
Strategic Communication is designed to produce skills required in the modern communications environment, which demands flexible critical skills and a mastery of strategic storytelling, content production and visual design. It offers core skills that are transferable across the employment sector: sound research practice; clear and effective writing; critical thinking; a good understanding of design; deep understanding of how to use the web and social media for strategic purposes; and communicating with niche groups/markets.
The programme is comprised of two interrelated strands which run over the two semesters, one oriented to research and critical thinking, the other to building a portfolio of flexible interlocking practical skills. Much of the teaching is based on a flipped classroom method using video lectures, project-based work, individual preparation and tutoring tailored for each student's knowledge and experience.
During the first semester, you will develop an understanding of concepts in strategic communication such as PR, corporate communication, brand management, and political communication. The communications industry is changing in such a way that marketing and PR are increasingly integrated, the use of digital storytelling and moving images grows, and new roles are introduced. The changes require new kinds of thinking and brings at the same time exciting possibilities for those equipped with the knowledge to take advantage.
You will also develop skills in content production. During the first half of the semester, we develop efficient use of language, images, and design. During the second half of the semester we continue with audio and video production along with scriptwriting. In the second semester, students carry out a larger research project that concerns the communication of one or several organisations. There will be classes on research methods and how these should be applied as well as one-to-one supervision for individual projects. During this semester, practical skill development moves on to web-design and online layout, and several skills and modes of communication are integrated in a project.
Throughout the programme, students work individually, in pairs, as well as part of a team both when carrying out research and when doing content production. All skills are assessed formally although important principles for this programme include creative learning through "trial and error", independence and responsibility.
The language of instruction is English and applicants need to be proficient in the English language to be eligible for admission.
Today’s journalists need to know how to report and produce news across all platforms—whether print, broadcast, or multimedia—and be as comfortable using words as they are using audio, video, and web. Emerson’s accelerated 13-month Master of Arts in Journalism emphasizes a convergent, multimedia approach to storytelling and news reporting, giving you the professional edge you need. Here you will learn how to tell stories that increase public understanding of complex news events while gaining the skills necessary to adapt to—and shape—this evolving field.
You will have the chance to:
This program’s hybrid format allows you to begin and end your courses online, getting you out of the classroom and into the field that much sooner. Courses start online mid-summer, followed by two semesters on campus, culminating with a final 12-week summer capstone course online and an internship.
There's no more challenging and exciting a time in journalism than now. At Emerson, you will learn the core values of a profession that’s crucial to democracy even as you learn to meet the demands of professional multimedia storytelling. And there’s no better way to learn than to do. From the very beginning of the program, you will hit the streets and report, producing stories in text, audio and video.
Jump start your career with our 13-month, skills-oriented curriculum. With four of the ten courses (40 credits total) required for the degree online, you will have more flexibility in your busy schedule to complete your course work when and where it is convenient for you.
Courses start online in mid-summer, followed by two semesters on campus. The program culminates with a final 12-week summer capstone course online, and with an internship.
Throughout your program, you will collaborate with your peers on digital storytelling. Working in a state-of-the-art newsroom and production facility, you will gain hands-on experience with industry-standard tools.
During your two semesters on campus in Boston, you will never be at a loss for ideas. Boston is where it all started! A plaque at City Hall commemorates Boston as the birthplace of American journalism. Emerson is located in the city center, within blocks of the Massachusetts State House, City Hall, and the international financial district.
Our alumni are covering the news—from local and national television and radio stations to print and online journalism organizations. Through intensive coursework, internships in the country’s largest media markets, and Boston’s ideal location for news, you will be prepared for a professional career in journalism.
Learn more about our industry connections »
Drawing on a wealth of professional experiences and ongoing research, our distinguished faculty members offer you the encouragement and professional insight to point you to a successful career in a demanding field.
Full-time faculty members have worked for local Boston television affiliates and area newspapers, as well as CNN, CBS, NBC, CNBC, NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Christian Science Monitor.
This culminating experience in your final semester consists of projects that demonstrate your ability to do professional work in reporting, writing, editing, and producing. It is designed to allow you to complete your professional portfolio of cross-media journalistic work. And it's online, giving you freedom to do your own time management.
In your last semester, you will take an internship at a professional news organization anywhere in the country. Emerson students are known for their high-quality work, and are sought after by news organizations, from the Boston Globe to network news affiliates. Alumni, faculty and the Office of Career Services will help you find an internship to suit your professional goals.
A theoretical grounding in topics such as narrative and storytelling underpins technical training in the latest software and hardware, which will give you the tools to turn your ideas into reality. You will also be encouraged to develop critical perspectives on the changing media industry and to challenge current practice, developing the analytical skills required to reflect, learn and grow as a successful editor.
This course builds towards a final production project. This showreel will be your calling card for the industry; it will allow you to explore and develop ideas beyond industry expectations, and produce evidence of your editorial approach, style and storytelling. As an alternative, you can choose a research-based option to present at a final exhibition of work. Working in your own postgraduate base room, you will have your own cutting-edge technology at your fingertips.
You are required to have your own Apple laptop with Avid Media Composer 6.5 or above. The Faculty of Media & Communication provides further technical tools to aid your development, including extensive network support and two Avid Media Composer Finishing Suites, where you will build your realworld skills through role-play scenarios of industry practice. We’re also proud to announce our Learning Partnership with AVID, a collaboration that will ensure graduates of this course carry even greater relevance and credibility when it comes to finding employment.
You may have an undergraduate qualification in a related subject or may be able to show your suitability for this programme of study through associated work-experience or evidence of and outputs from other related activities.
Create your own story at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative Arts!
