Media Dissertation Topics: Research-Ready Titles on Streaming, Public Service Media, Games, Audio and AI

Which media dissertation topics are actually worth your time this year? The ones below are narrow, tied to a named law, report or dataset, and small enough to finish in one academic year. All topics, ideas and titles on this page are free to use.

Scope: this page covers screen, streaming, platforms, audio, games, advertising, children’s media and media theory. News production and press regulation sit on the journalism topics page, and defamation, privacy and broadcasting law sit on the media law topics page. Position correct as of October 2026.

Every title is a starting point. Pick one, then shape the question, sample and method with your supervisor. If you want a wider list across subjects first, the dissertation topic finder will narrow it for you.

How do I choose from these media dissertation topics?

Choose the topic where you can already name your data. A good media project has one object (a policy, a platform, a programme or an audience), one method and one source you can open this week. If you cannot say where the data comes from in one sentence, the topic is still too big. The guide on choosing a research topic walks through the same check.

Most UK universities mark on a clear question, a defensible method and honest limits, not on how fashionable the platform is. A modest study of a live regulatory change usually beats a broad essay on social media.

Public service media and the BBC Charter: which topics are timely?

The BBC Charter expires on 31 December 2027, and the review is still moving, so this area gives you live material. Policy documents, consultation responses and committee reports are free to read.

1. How do Charter submissions frame the BBC’s future? A discourse analysis of responses to the 2025 Green Paper.
Sample 20 published responses from civic groups, industry bodies and academics to the BBC Charter Green Paper consultation, which closed on 10 March 2026. Code how each frames funding, independence and universality. Suits a thematic or critical discourse method.

2. Does describing the £180 licence fee as a household levy change how fair people think it is? A vignette experiment.
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee report of 1 October 2026 favours a fee no longer tied to a TV set. Randomise two descriptions across about 150 respondents and compare fairness ratings. The fee was set at £180 from 1 April 2026, per the government announcement.

3. How do 18 to 34 year olds react to commercial income options for the BBC? Four focus groups.
Use short stimulus cards drawn from the Green Paper’s funding options. Compare reasoning across students and non-students. A small qualitative design that fits a 10,000-word undergraduate project.

4. How many clicks does it take to reach public service apps? A prominence audit of ten connected TV devices.
Screen-record each home screen, count the steps to each public service player and compare them. Link results to the Television Selection Services Regulations 2026, which designate 15 services and took effect on 1 July 2026.

5. What do rural, older viewers lose if terrestrial TV closes? Interviews with 12 Freeview-dependent households.
Digital terrestrial television is guaranteed until at least 31 December 2034, with switch-off options of 2034 or 2044. Ask about routines, fallback options and trust in the plan. Suits interpretive phenomenological analysis.

6. How does the Watch this Space Green Paper talk about switching off terrestrial TV? A documentary discourse analysis.
The DCMS paper was published on 23 June 2026 and the consultation closed on 31 August 2026. Compare how it describes risks to older people against how charity responses describe them.

7. Does Channel 4’s published commissioning policy match what it commissioned? A content analysis of one season.
Compare the Statement of Commissioning Policy, covered by Ofcom’s final guidance of 27 November 2025, with the slate’s regions, producers and genres. Report the match as a simple coded table.

8. Who wants what from prominence rules? A stakeholder analysis of consultation responses.
Ofcom’s consultation on the prominence code closed on 25 March 2026. Code responses from broadcasters, platforms and accessibility groups by position and argument, then map coalitions.

9. What counts as a nationally important sporting event online? A doctrinal analysis of the new listed events regime.
Examine the Listed Events (Coverage) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/751) and the revised Code, effective 1 January 2027, which reaches online services but limits the benefit to public service broadcasters. See Ofcom’s listed events consultation.

10. What does adequate live coverage mean for a multi-sport event? A case study of the Commonwealth Games 2026.
Read Ofcom’s approved applications for the Commonwealth Games 2026 against the new definition of adequate live coverage. Judge whether the approved plans meet it. Pairs well with the sports law topics.

11. What should public service media be for? A Q-methodology study with 30 statements.
Ask 20 participants to rank statements on universality, impartiality, regional voice and value for money. Factor analysis shows the viewpoints that exist, not just averages.

12. How does the UK’s approach to public service media independence compare with Article 5 of the European Media Freedom Act?
The EU rules have applied since 8 August 2025. Compare governance, funding and appointments in a structured comparative analysis, drawing on the Commission’s European Media Freedom Act overview.

13. How do the Charter that began on 1 January 2017 and the Green Paper describe public purposes? A comparative document analysis.
Use the Terms of Reference for the current review as the anchor and track which purposes gain or lose emphasis. A clean, low-risk desk-based project.

14. Is viewing in Scotland different from the UK picture? A secondary analysis of the Media Nations Scotland report.
Compare the Scotland report with the UK report on broadcaster use, streaming and audio. Add a short interview round with two regional producers if time allows.

Streaming and the Media Act 2024: what can I research?

The Media Act 2024 became law on 24 May 2024, and Ofcom is now writing the detailed rules. That gives you regulation to read, audiences to survey and platforms to audit.

15. Will streamers be held to the Broadcasting Code in practice? A comparison of the draft Tier 1 Standards Code with the Code for linear TV.
Tier 1 services were designated by regulations in force on 1 April 2026, about 20 services. Ofcom’s Tier 1 Standards Code consultation ran from 14 May to 7 August 2026. Compare rule by rule.

16. How can due impartiality work across several programmes? A textual analysis of the draft code and three documentaries.
The draft allows impartiality across multiple programmes if appropriately signalled. Test what appropriate signalling could look like on screen.

17. Are the penalties large enough to change behaviour? An analysis of fines up to £250,000 or 5% of qualifying revenue.
Compare the Tier 1 maximum with penalty levels in other media regimes. A policy analysis that needs no fieldwork.

18. Where should the line fall? A critique of the Tier 1 threshold of more than 500,000 average monthly UK users.
Use the government’s designation statement as your source. Note that some commentary quotes a lower figure, so cite the regulations directly.

19. Can streamers meet the proposed access service quotas? An audit of subtitles and audio description on five services.
Ofcom’s draft accessibility code proposes 80% subtitles, 10% audio description and 5% signing four years after start, with interim quotas of 20%, 2.5% and 1% at the first anniversary. Sample 30 titles per service.

20. What do deaf and hard of hearing viewers need beyond the quota? Twelve semi-structured interviews.
Ask about subtitle quality, speed and placement. Compare responses with what the quota measures.

21. Who regulates the advert on a streaming service? A mapping of overlapping ad rules.
Chart which bodies cover programme content, advert content and video-sharing features on three services. Present as a regulatory map and a short critique.

22. Do streaming services protect under-18s consistently? A feature audit of parental controls on four services.
Record profile setup, PIN options and content labels. Score each against a checklist you justify from Ofcom guidance.

23. Is the BBC really a streaming rival? Interrogating the Netflix 26%, BBC 25% and ITV 15% first-choice figures.
These figures come from the Media Nations 2026 report. Examine how the question was asked and what a first choice means for decisions about funding.

24. Has subscription streaming peaked in the UK? A secondary analysis of the 70% take-up plateau.
Start with the reported plateau in subscriptions and Ofcom’s data. Test whether churn, price or bundling explains it.

25. How does Barb-style measurement miss YouTube and short video? A methods critique.
Read the Media Nations methodology annex and set out what each source counts. Propose a fairer way to compare services.

26. Should streamers pay a levy for UK production? A policy comparison of the UK, France and Denmark.
A 5% levy was proposed by the Committee and rejected by the government in July 2025, and was still ruled out in July 2026. France requires 20% and Denmark uses 5%. See this report on the government’s position.

27. How does one streaming interface steer choice? A walkthrough analysis of a service’s home screen.
Apply the walkthrough method from Light, Burgess and Duguay (New Media and Society, 2018) to onboarding, recommendations and cancellation.

28. What is lost in dubbing? A comparative reading of subtitles and dubbed audio for one non-English series.
Compare ten scenes across both tracks for tone, idiom and cultural reference. Suits a translation and audience studies angle.

29. How clear are subscription cancellation routes? A usability audit of five UK streaming services.
Count steps, screens and prompts to cancel. Relate the findings to consumer protection rules, checking the current commencement position before you cite it.

Film, television and representation: how do I study who gets seen?

Representation projects work best when they use a published dataset and a clear coding scheme. They are also easy to scale down.

30. Is disability representation improving in UK television? A critical reading of the Diamond data.
The CDN Diamond 2025 report drew on about 65,000 forms. Disabled people off screen rose from 8.9% to 10.9% and on screen from 9.3% to 11.3%. See the Pact summary of the latest Diamond data.

31. What do the Diamond figures hide about Black representation? An intersectional secondary analysis.
Look at roles, genres and seniority, not just totals. Note that the new Diamond platform went live on 30 September 2026, with reporting from 2027/8.

32. Who counts as a person in diversity data? A critique of self-reported monitoring forms.
Study the questions, categories and response rates. Interview two production coordinators about how forms are handed out.

33. How is Britain staged in heritage film? A visual analysis of ten recent costume dramas.
Code settings, class and ethnicity of leads, and the objects used to signal the past. Link to the history topics if you want a historiography angle.

34. When does reality TV feel authentic? A reception study with 40 viewers.
Show two clips and ask what felt staged. Use a short survey plus three follow-up interviews.

35. Do women get less screen dialogue? A script-corpus analysis of 20 UK dramas.
Count words by character gender and episode. A small corpus is enough if the method is clear, and it connects to feminism dissertation topics.

36. Whose films reach UK festival programmes? A lineup analysis of three festivals over five years.
Record director gender, funding source and country. Compare the festivals’ stated aims with their lineups.

37. Does AI in scripted drama change how audiences judge authenticity? A split-sample experiment.
Describe a scene as human-written or AI-assisted and compare ratings. Keep stimuli identical across groups.

38. What do runners and assistants actually do on a UK set? A short ethnography of one production.
Negotiate access early. Field notes across eight days, with a consent form and a plan for anonymity.

39. How do UK film funders justify their choices? A policy analysis of published funding criteria.
Compare stated aims such as regional spread with the projects funded across two years.

Social platforms and political communication: what is feasible with limited data?

Platform access is the hard part of this area. Choose a question you can answer with public posts, official transparency data or a small interview sample.

40. Is YouTube now a TV channel? A measurement comparison of audience reach.
Ofcom’s Online Nation reports YouTube at 51 minutes a day within 4h30 spent online daily. Compare that with broadcast reach figures and discuss what is comparable.

41. Do age checks change what teenagers do online? A diary study with 15 participants.
The children’s codes under the Online Safety Act 2023 took effect on 25 July 2025. Ask about workarounds, annoyance and trust. Mind ethics approval, see the guide on getting ethics approval.

42. Which services are categorised, and why? An analysis of Ofcom’s published register.
The register of categorised services was published on 10 July 2026. See this legal summary of the register and test how the criteria sort platforms.

43. Which route to platform data works best for a student? A comparison of researcher access options.
Compare the DSA Article 40 data access delegated act, the Meta Content Library through ICPSR and the TikTok Research API. A methods paper on documented API limits gives you a source.

44. What would the AoIR guidelines require of my study? An applied ethics review.
Take your own planned project and walk it through the AoIR Internet Research Ethics 3.0 questions, approved in October 2019. Submit the result with your ethics form.

45. How do fan communities police each other? A netnography of one public forum.
Follow one forum for six weeks, log norms and sanctions, and quote only with a defensible ethical basis.

46. Why do regional creators choose short video? Ten interviews with local creators.
Ask about income, audience and platform rules. A strong fit for sociology and media crossover degrees.

47. What do users believe the algorithm wants? A folk theories study.
Run a short survey then six interviews. Code beliefs about reach, timing and format.

48. How do memes carry political argument? A visual content analysis of 200 images.
Define your sampling window and hashtag list. Test intercoder agreement on a 20% subsample.

49. What did parties post in the 2026 Scottish and Welsh elections? A content analysis of short video.
Sample official accounts for the four weeks before polling. Code tone, topic and negative framing. See also political science topics.

50. Are digital imprints actually visible? An audit of campaign posts against Part 6 of the Elections Act 2022.
The imprint rules took effect on 1 November 2023 and are enforced by the Electoral Commission and the police. Audit 100 posts for clear, readable imprints.

51. Does the video essay count as scholarship? A practice-led study with a written critique.
Make a 10-minute video essay and defend its method in writing. Check your department allows this format first.

AI, synthetic media and copyright: what is new enough to research?

This is the fastest moving area on the page, so date every source and say which version of a rule you used.

52. Will Article 50 labels work? A legal analysis of the EU AI transparency duty.
Article 50 applies from 2 August 2026. The Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, in force since 27 July 2026, allows a grace period to 2 December 2026 for systems already on the market.

53. What does a good AI label look like? A design experiment with 100 participants.
Test three label designs on the same synthetic clip. Measure recall and trust. Relate results to the Commission’s Code of Practice on transparency of AI-generated content, published in June 2026.

54. Should the UK require AI disclosure in media? A comparison with the EU approach.
The UK copyright and AI report of 18 March 2026 did not propose a mandatory disclosure regime. Read the government report against Article 50. See also AI topics.

55. Why was the text and data mining exception dropped? A policy-process analysis.
The broad exception with opt-out was abandoned in the report under sections 135 and 136 of the Data (Use and Access) Act. Trace who argued what. Link to intellectual property topics.

56. Can a Creative Content Exchange work? A feasibility study using interviews with rights holders.
The report proposed an exchange for licensing creative content. Ask four to six rights holders what would make them join.

57. Are voice assistants radio gatekeepers? An analysis of the proposal to designate Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri.
Ofcom recommended designating the three as radio selection services. Test what prominence would mean in a spoken interface.

58. What do AI clauses in creator contracts say? A document analysis of publicly shared templates.
Code ownership, consent and payment terms. Keep to publicly available examples.

59. Do audiences accept an AI presenter? A matched-guise experiment.
Show the same script read by a human and a synthetic voice. Compare credibility ratings.

60. What does an AI image tool show when asked for a doctor? A stereotype audit of 300 outputs.
Fix prompts in advance, log tool and version, and code gender, age and ethnicity. Report error margins.

61. Who owns an AI-assisted song? A doctrinal and interview study on human authorship.
Combine statutory reading with interviews of three working musicians on how they use tools.

62. Does provenance metadata help or hinder trust? A technical and audience review of C2PA content credentials.
Read the specification, check which tools attach credentials, then test viewer understanding on a small sample.

Games and interactive media: how do I research play?

Games dissertations succeed when they treat a game as a regulated product, a workplace or a culture, not just a text.

63. How do games companies apply the Ukie loot box principles? A compliance audit of 20 titles.
Ukie published 11 principles in July 2023. Check each title’s disclosure of odds and parental controls against them.

64. What did the Belgian ban teach us? A comparative analysis of the Gaming Commission’s April 2018 report and UK practice.
Compare what each regime defined as gambling and how it was enforced.

65. Did enforcement of loot box rules follow the law? A critical reading of the 2022 Queen Mary University of London study.
Summarise the study’s design, test its limits and propose a follow-up sample.

66. Who benefits from public support for games? A policy analysis of the Video Games Expenditure Credit and the UK Games Fund.
Read official guidance, then interview two studio founders on how support shapes decisions.

67. How do streamers build trust with viewers? A parasocial relationship survey of 150 viewers.
Use an established scale and report reliability. Add a small open question for quotes.

68. Does a game’s accessibility menu match its marketing? A feature audit of ten releases.
Create a checklist, test each game for 30 minutes, and compare with promotional claims.

69. How do modding communities share credit? A document and interview study.
Track credit lines in release notes and ask four modders about disputes.

70. How are games treated under online safety rules? A regulatory mapping of user-to-user features.
Identify which game features create duties and which do not. Connect to cyber law topics.

Audio, radio and podcasting: what can I measure?

Audio research is under-used by students, which makes it a safe place to be original.

71. Is live radio really still dominant? A secondary analysis of 93% weekly audio and 87% weekly live radio listening.
Use the Media Nations 2026 audio figures and the Ofcom audio listening report of May 2026. Break results down by age.

72. What makes a podcast feel local? A content analysis of ten regional shows.
Code place references, accents and guest sourcing across five episodes each.

73. How do commercial radio stations talk to young listeners? A discourse study of 30 on-air links.
Record, transcribe and code references to age, lifestyle and brand.

74. Who sets the agenda on community radio? A case study with volunteer interviews.
Interview eight volunteers about editorial choices and funding.

75. How do listeners find new music? A diary study of 20 smart speaker owners.
Log voice requests for two weeks and compare with the stated recommendations.

76. Why do people prefer audio for news? A uses and gratifications survey.
Draw on the Ofcom News Consumption 2026 report, published on 15 September 2026, for background and sampling frames.

77. Does a true crime podcast cause harm? An ethics review of five series.
Assess consent, naming practices and right of reply against a clear framework.

Advertising and media economics: where does money change content?

Money shapes what media gets made. These topics suit students who prefer numbers or policy texts. They sit next to marketing topics but focus on media systems.

78. Did the junk food advertising rules change how brands advertise? A before and after content analysis.
Restrictions began on 5 January 2026: TV and on-demand between 5.30am and 9pm, a ban on paid online ads at all times and brand-only ads allowed. Sample ads from two comparable weeks.

79. What did the ASA decide in July 2026? A case analysis of six rulings.
Review the Mars and Morley’s decisions and the Domino’s reprimand. Extract the tests the ASA applied.

80. Did advertisers move to outdoor sites? An analysis of the reported 28% rise in out-of-home spending.
Marketing Week reported the increase before the rules took effect. Compare with a second source and discuss causation carefully.

81. Who pays for sport on TV? A rights economics case study.
Trace one rights package from sale to broadcast and ask who benefits.

82. Are women’s sport commentators described differently? A corpus analysis of 20 matches.
Transcribe commentary and compare adjectives for men’s and women’s games.

83. Do influencers disclose clearly? A content audit of 150 posts against ASA guidance.
Score each post for label placement and clarity. See also digital marketing topics.

84. How visible is product placement in streaming drama? A frame-by-frame count in six episodes.
Define placements in advance and report counts per hour.

85. Do ad-supported tiers change viewing habits? A mixed methods study.
Survey 100 users then interview ten about tolerance for ads.

86. Why do people accept ads in return for free content? A behavioural experiment.
Offer participants a trade-off task. Draw on behavioural economics topics for design ideas.

Children, young people and media literacy: what is safe and practical to study?

Working with under-18s needs careful ethics. Many strong projects use published datasets or adult views on children’s media.

87. How do 8 to 18 year olds describe their own media use? A longitudinal reading of Children’s Media Lives.
The study has followed 21 children since 2014 and the 2026 edition was published on 21 May 2026. See Ofcom’s children’s media habits hub. Code themes across years.

88. Do parents and children agree on screen rules? A secondary analysis of the 2026 attitudes report.
Compare parent and child answers on supervision, trust and rules.

89. How far do the children’s codes change what platforms show teenagers? A policy study.
Compare platform announcements with the Online Safety Act codes in force since 25 July 2025.

90. What should a media literacy plan include? A critical review of the Media Literacy Action Plan in the DCMS Green Paper.
Judge it against published literacy frameworks. Suits childhood studies topics.

91. How do teachers teach spotting fake news? A document analysis of lesson resources.
Gather ten free resources and code the skills they teach.

92. Where do young people get news? A survey of 100 sixth formers.
Use Ofcom’s published question wording so you can compare results.

93. How do children talk about advertising? A creative methods study with drawing tasks.
Needs full ethics approval and gatekeeper consent, so allow extra time.

Media theory, history and culture: which classic ideas still work?

Theory-led projects need an object. Pair each idea with a real text, policy or audience so the argument has something to stand on.

94. Do audiences read news the way Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding model predicts? A reception study.
Show one report to three audience groups and code dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings.

95. Is there still a public sphere? A Habermasian critique of one online forum.
Choose a forum with clear rules and analyse a month of threads.

96. Can Bourdieu explain taste in streaming? A survey of cultural capital and viewing choices.
Measure education and viewing breadth. Test with a simple regression, see the statistical test selector.

97. How did the BBC sound during wartime? A historical analysis of archived broadcasts.
Use the Learning on Screen Box of Broadcasts service, UK only under the ERA licence, plus the TRILT index for pre-2007 BBC listings.

98. What does a Strava feed say about the self? A study inspired by LSE MSc dissertation No 332.
See the LSE MSc dissertation series for scope and structure. Run a small thematic analysis of public posts.

99. How do users use Xiaohongshu to share lifestyle ideas? A cross-cultural comparison with Instagram, following LSE No 331.
Compare ten accounts on each platform for themes and ideals of the good life.

100. How did the BBC Charter appear in student research? A reading of LSE MSc dissertation No 338.
Use it as a model of framing analysis, then apply the same method to the 2026 Committee report.

101. What makes a news story go viral? A framing analysis of 50 shared posts.
Use a coding sheet with agreed frame categories and report agreement scores.

102. How does media shape national identity? A semiotic analysis of three national day broadcasts.
Choose three programmes and set out your unit of analysis in advance.

103. What do stand-up specials say about class? A discourse analysis of ten shows.
Transcribe key segments and code references to money, work and place.

104. How did newspapers and television cover one election? A comparative content analysis.
Define dates and outlets first. For press ethics and ownership, see mass communications topics.

105. What does a brand’s crisis post reveal? A study of tone in 20 public statements.
Pair with public relations topics for theory on image repair.

What do finished media dissertation questions look like?

Here are four worked examples showing how a topic becomes an aim and objectives. Adapt the wording, and check it against the guide to aims, objectives and research questions.

Example 1: streaming access

• Aim: to assess whether subtitle and audio description provision on five streaming services is close to Ofcom’s draft quotas.
• Objective 1: sample 30 titles per service.
• Objective 2: record subtitle and audio description coverage.
• Objective 3: compare findings with the 20%, 2.5% and 1% interim quotas.

Example 2: public service media

• Aim: to explore how Charter Green Paper responses frame the licence fee.
• Objective 1: sample 20 responses from three sectors.
• Objective 2: code funding and fairness arguments.
• Objective 3: compare frames across sectors.

Example 3: AI labels

• Aim: to test whether label design changes trust in synthetic video.
• Objective 1: create three label designs.
• Objective 2: run a split-sample online experiment with 100 participants.
• Objective 3: compare trust scores.

Example 4: audio

• Aim: to examine how regional podcasts signal local identity.
• Objective 1: select ten shows.
• Objective 2: code five episodes each.
• Objective 3: interpret patterns against local identity theory.

Not sure your wording is tight enough? The aims and objectives generator and the research question generator give you a draft to edit.

How do I turn a media topic into a research question?

• Name the object: one policy, platform, programme or audience.
• Add a boundary: a year, a service, a sample size.
• Choose a verb that matches your method (compare, audit, explain, test).
• Check the data exists before you commit.
• Write the question in one sentence and show it to your supervisor.

If you are still deciding on design, read how to choose a research methodology and the difference between primary and secondary research.

Which research methods suit a media dissertation?

• Content analysis: counting and coding texts or images. Suits representation and advertising projects.
• Discourse or documentary analysis: reading policy and press language closely. Suits Charter and regulation projects.
• Interviews and focus groups: for audience and industry views, which are easy to run within one term.
• Surveys and experiments: for effects, trust and attitudes. Use the sample size calculator to justify numbers.
• Walkthrough and audit methods: for apps and interfaces.
• Thematic analysis: for interviews and open answers, see how to do thematic analysis.

Where can I find data for media dissertation topics?

• Ofcom’s Media Act implementation hub for rules and consultations.
• Osborne Clarke’s briefing on the Tier 1 codes for a legal reading.
• ITV’s report on the Committee’s Charter recommendations for news framing, with the Committee’s own page for the primary source.
• New Media and Society for method papers and platform studies.
• Ofcom’s annual reports on media use, news and children, linked in the topics above.

Can I submit a practice-based media dissertation?

Sometimes. The SOAS dissertation in media studies offers a 10,000-word essay, or 8,000 words plus up to 30 minutes of video or audio, or 100 images. LSE’s MC499 course guide sets out an ethics review, a literature review and a plan. Northumbria uses 8,000 to 10,000 words with a 2,000-word ungraded plan. Always confirm your own handbook.

Plan time for editing and a written critique. A short timeline from the dissertation timeline planner helps.

What mistakes sink media dissertations?

• Choosing a whole platform instead of one feature, season or policy.
• Quoting a headline figure without checking the survey question behind it.
• Using a regulation that was only a draft as if it were in force.
• Skipping ethics for social media data.
• Describing content without testing an argument.

Media dissertation topics: your questions answered

What are some good topics for media research?

Good topics tie one medium to one rule, report or dataset. Examples include Tier 1 streaming standards, Diamond diversity data, AI labels under Article 50 and licence fee fairness.

How do I pick my dissertation topic?

Start with something you can already access, such as a public report or a platform you use. Then narrow it to one place, period and method, and check your supervisor agrees.

What topics are covered in media studies?

Audiences, representation, regulation, platforms, advertising, games, audio, film, television and media theory. Journalism and law have their own pages.

Are these topics really free to use?

Yes. Use any title, change the wording and make it yours. Your supervisor must still approve the final question.

Do I need ethics approval for a media project?

Interviews, surveys, experiments and some social media studies do. Document analysis of public records often needs less, but ask your department.

Can I use social media data?

Often yes, but check platform terms and the AoIR guidance, and keep quotes minimal. Official data access routes exist for some platforms.

What if my topic changes while I research?

Narrowing is normal. Record why you changed it and keep your aim and objectives matched to the new question.

What should I do next?

Pick three titles, check the data for each and bring your best one to your supervisor. If you want a second pair of eyes on a proposal, our research proposal support is there. For full project help, see media dissertation support.