Six guided steps take you from your research site (text, audience, production, practice) to a rigorous problem statement, with a purpose and questions aligned with a qualitative or mixed methods approach, grounded in peer-reviewed, highly cited methodological literature.
The research problem is the core issue a study sets out to examine; technically, it identifies the gap the study will fill. It directly shapes the research aims, questions and methodology, so a vague problem produces unfocused and even conflicting aims and questions.
The research problem is the issue itself, together with its consequences and your response to it, and it may span several paragraphs. The problem statement is a concise, explicit summary, usually no longer than one paragraph, that states what the problem is and how the study will address it.
Source: the video tutorial “What is a research problem” (in the attached file)A theoretical problem starts from a shortcoming in a field of knowledge and seeks to extend it, such as rethinking the “male gaze” (Mulvey, 1975; Smelik, 2016). An applied problem seeks a practical solution to an issue within an institution or industry, such as using artificial intelligence in filmmaking education (Daou, 2025).
Source: the attached file; Ellis & Levy (2008)Rose (2016) proposes that visual meaning is made at three sites: production, the image/text itself, and audiencing. Our field adds two further sites: practice-based creative research (Batty & Kerrigan, 2018), and industry, policy and education. Identifying the site is the first decision in formulating the problem.
This classification combines the seven gap types identified by Miles (2017), which closely parallel the framework of Müller-Bloch & Kranz (2015), with the “new context” and “new frontier” scenarios described in the attached file.
Answer each step briefly; the statement is assembled automatically following the model Context → Issue and gap → Significance → Purpose, and then questions aligned with your design are generated.
Where is the meaning you want to study produced? This choice shapes the wording of the central question later on.
In qualitative research, focus on a single central phenomenon, and specify where, with whom or on what you will study it.
Choose the type of gap, then describe what previous studies have focused on and what is still missing.
What follows if this gap persists? And who benefits from closing it?
Choose the approach, then the design best suited to the nature of the problem; the method follows the problem, not the other way around.
An editable first draft; square brackets mark what you have not yet completed.
Following the methodology of Alvesson & Sandberg (2011): identify a domain of literature, extract an assumption it rests on, evaluate it, then formulate an alternative assumption that generates a more original question.
Review your statement against twelve criteria drawn from the FINER criteria (Hulley et al., 2013), the guidance of Creswell & Creswell (2018), Ellis & Levy (2008) and Agee (2009).
The references are grouped into those from the attached file, additional peer-reviewed and highly cited methodological literature, and film and television studies references.