CK1S16 - Media, Culture and Creative Industries in Wales 06 Jul 2023 - 31 Aug 2026 | Version 1

Associated Module Information

Module Code: CK1S16
Module Title: Media, Culture and Creative Industries in Wales
Faculty: Faculty of Business and Creative Industries
Faculty Group: Film and TV
Faculty Sub Group: Film and TV
Module Leader: Rebecca Williams
Module Team: Daryl Perrins, James Rendell, Gwyneth Moore
First Intended Intake: SEP 2023 Final Year of Intake: 2025
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 20 Credit Level: 4
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes:
HECOS Code Weighting:

Document Version Information

Version 1
Valid From 06 Jul 2023
Valid To 31 Aug 2026

Module Aims

This module aims to enable students to develop a critical awareness of issues underlying the history and development of media, culture and creative industries in Wales.

It aims to enable students to develop knowledge and awareness of the problems involved in researching and analysing Welsh media, culture and creative industries.

The module aims to enable students to understand the factors influencing current developments within Welsh media, culture and creative industries.

Content Summary

This module looks in detail at the development and contemporary status of the media the creative industries in Wales.

The emphasis in the first half of the module is on introduction to the media in Wales, looking at the press, and film, with a core emphasis on issues such as language, colonial and post-colonial histories, and post-devolution politics. Later it focuses on television, and broader culture in Wales including theatre, museums and tourism and sport. The module examines how different kinds of identities have been ‘produced’ in Wales and how these feed into cultural and creative policy (and, increasingly, into economic policy) in Wales. It also focuses on sustainability of the creative industries in small nations, examining how Wales is viewed by the world, and how it can ensure the longevity of an environmentally- and economically- viable hub for media and creative economies.

This is a broad introductory survey of media, culture and creative industries in in Wales, but it offers scope for in-depth critical study of particular aspects or issues. The module will empower students to develop a critical and historical awareness of developments in Welsh media and culture, introduces some of the problems and debates surrounding the topic, and provides a critical focus on contemporary developments. Where appropriate it also examines global comparative case studies of other small nations and minority language contexts including those in Scandinavia, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, and Asia.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lecture 18
Seminar 18
Independent Study 92
Directed Study 72
Total Hours Selected 200

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Upon completion of this module, students will have developed a critical awareness of issues underlying the history and development of media, culture and the creative industries in Wales and in comparable small nations.
LO2 Upon completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of researching and analysing media, culture and creative industries within the context of small nations.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Project 1 One individual project, designing a campaign to increase engagement with a Welsh media or cultural object (e.g. S4C, Museum of Welsh Life). 0 2000 50 No 40
Asynchronous Assessment Essay 1 One 2,000 word essay responding to one set question from a choice of options 0 2000 50 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Project 1 ✔ ✔
Essay 1 ✔ ✔

Reading List

Barlow, D., P. Mitchel and T. O’Malley (2005) The Media in Wales: Voices of a Small Nation. Lampeter: University of Wales Press.

Blandford, S. (2012) ‘Wales and the question of the “creative industries”’, North American Journal of Welsh Studies, 7 http://welshstudiesjournal.org/article/view/23

Blandford, S. and S. Lacey (2011) ‘Screening Wales: Portrayal, Representation and Identity – a Case Study’, Critical Studies in Television, 6 (2).

Carr, P. (2014) ‘The Live Music Industry in Wales: The Sustainability and Working Practices of a Nation’, Civilizations (13).

Castelló, E., A. Dhoest and H. O’Donnell (eds.) (2009), The Nation on Screen: Discourses of the National on Global Television, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Cormack, M.J. and N. Hourigan (eds.) (2007) Minority Language Media: Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies, Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Cushion, S., J. Lewis and C. Groves (2009) ‘Reflecting the Four Nations’, Journalism Studies, 10 (5): 1-17.

Edwards, R. (2007) ‘'Everyday, When I Wake Up, I Thank the Lord I'm Welsh': Reading the Markers of Welsh Identity in 1990s Pop Music’, Contemporary Wales, 19(1): 142-160.

Harris, J. ‘The 2010 Ryder Cup, images of Wales and Tourism development’, European , Journal of Tourism Research, 5 (1): 38-52.

Hjort, M. and D. Petrie (2007), The Cinema of Small Nations, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Jones, H. (ed.) (2014)?The Media in Europe's Small Nations, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.?Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Lupu, R., M. Komorowski, J. Lewis, G. Mothersdale, and S. Pepper (2023) ‘Greening the Audiovisual Sector: Towards a New Understanding through Innovation Practices in Wales and Beyond’,?Sustainability, 15(4).

McElroy, R., J. Nielsen and C. Noonan (2018) ’Small is Beautiful? The salience of scale and power to three European cultures of production’, Critical Studies in Television 13(2), pp.169-187

McElroy, R?and C. Noonan, C. (2022), ''Rooting' the BBC: An interview with Rhodri Talfan Davies, Director of BBC nations: An Interview with Rhodri Talfan Davies, Director of Nations',?Critical Studies in Television, 17 (1): 32-45.

McElroy, R., C. Papagiannouli and H. Wiliam (2017) ‘Broadcasting after devolution: policy and critique in the Welsh media landscape 2008-2015’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 25 (3): 377-391.

Medhurst, J. (2010) A History of Independent Television in Wales, Lampeter: University of Wales Press.

Perrins, D. (2014) 'Barry Islands in the Stream: Class, Regionalism and?Hiraeth?in the Representation of Contemporary Wales in Television Comedy', in Wiseman S. (ed.)?Assembling Identities?pp. 71-83,?Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Perrins, D.? (2019) 'The Cinema Has Two Tongues: The Cinema Cultures of Wales', in Hill J. (ed.)?A Companion to British and Irish Cinema, pp.510-531, Wiley Blackwell.

Price, E.?(2022).?Broadcasting for Wales - The Early Years of S4C?University of Wales Press.

Pritchard, A. and N. Morgan (2001) ‘Culture, identity and tourism representation: Marketing Cymru or Wales?’ Tourism Management, 22: 167–179.

Verbeke, A., D. Van Den Bulcke and W. Yuan (ed.) (2009) Handbook on Small Nations in the Global Economy: The Contributions of Multinational Enterprises to National Economic Success, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Welsh Government Report on Media in Wales – Various documents online at http://senedd.assembly.wales/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=1787h

Williams, C. and J. Aaron (2008) Postcolonial Wales, Lampeter: University of Wales Press.

Woodward, K. (2012) ‘The Desert and the Dream: Film in Wales 2000-2010’, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 9(3):419-435.

Woodward, K.?(2019) ‘It’s not where you’re from…It’s where you’re between’: Exile, hybridity and Post-devolution Welsh Music Documentaries’. in?Welsh Documentary Film Cultures.?Documentary Film Cultures, Peter Lang.