Futures of Audio Storytelling

This Research & Knowledge Exchange Doctoral Project brief summarises our priority areas of research interest under the heading of: Futures of Audio Storytelling.

We welcome all research degree applications aligned with and in response to this brief.

Audio storytelling attracts huge audiences, and the production of radio, podcasting and narrative audio installations (e.g. in galleries or museums) is a large and growing sector internationally. Radio, podcasting, audio and voice are also vibrant areas of research internationally and Falmouth is at the cutting edge of this work and part of international networks of researchers and media organisations in this field.  

We are looking for researchers who want to join us to explore production, texts or audiences in the area of factual/non-fiction narrative audio, with a view to helping shape its future place in the world.  

We welcome traditional and practice-based doctoral projects and we are open to historical studies, textual analysis, design, sociological, data-based and other approaches within the arts, social sciences and humanities. 

Key challenges you could consider are  

• The critical, creative vocabulary to discuss audio media is very under-developed, compared with TV, film and books. How should we address this? 
• How we might understand the possibilities and the challenges presented by smart speakers, wearable media, spatial and object-based audio, social audio, platformisation, the use of video in podcasting, and other developments. What could they mean for producers’ place in the world and their relationships with audiences?  
• Geolocated and mobile media are still not fully explored as media for place-based, immersive and participatory audio journalism – how could we experiment with these? 
• How are people finding and engaging with broadcast radio in the on-demand age?  
• How can new audio technologies serve or under-serve diverse audiences?  
• Who works in these industries and what are the conditions they work under?  
• How do professional cultures interact with technological change?  
• How do we educate or train audio producers? 

Projects deriving from this brief are expected to sit within the Research & Knowledge Exchange strategy and the following department.

All successful research degree project proposals must emphasise a clear alignment between the project idea and our Research & Knowledge Exchange strategy.