Writing for Broadcasting, Media and Performance
Writing for Broadcasting, Media and Performance is a discipline that takes the craft of writing specifically into the context of media that depend on it for their existence: television, radio, and live theatre. Each of these forms makes different demands of the writer. Television drama is built on scene structure, visual storytelling, and the management of subtext in dialogue.
Radio requires the writer to create the entire world of a piece through sound and voice alone. Theatre demands writing that is speakable, actable, and that holds an audience's attention in a shared space with no opportunity for replay. Learning to write effectively for all three develops a range of craft skills that translate across the full spectrum of professional writing.
At Aberystwyth University, this three-year full-time programme develops your practical writing skills across these three performance and broadcast contexts, grounded in a vibrant and supportive creative environment. Wales has its own distinctive broadcasting landscape through S4C and BBC Wales, and Aberystwyth's location in a bilingual region gives the programme a particular engagement with the creative and cultural contexts of broadcast writing in both English and Welsh. You will develop your voice as a writer through sustained practice and critique, learning to work to brief, to deadline, and to the specific demands of different formats and platforms.
Graduates of Writing for Broadcasting, Media and Performance programmes move into careers as scriptwriters, broadcast journalists, radio producers, theatre writers, and across the full range of roles in the creative and media industries where the ability to write compelling material for specific formats is valued. Many work as freelancers, developing portfolio careers that span television, radio, theatre, and digital content. Others move into script editing, dramaturgy, teaching creative writing, and arts administration.
The practical writing skills the degree develops are also valuable in communications, marketing, and journalism.