Overview
Important: the Compass does not save your answers; copy the draft from Step 6 before you close or refresh the page.
Who it is for: researchers and postgraduate students in Film and Television Studies formulating a qualitative or mixed-methods research problem.
What you get:
- A one-paragraph problem statement following the model Context → Issue and gap → Significance → Purpose.
- A purpose statement following Creswell & Creswell (2018).
- Research questions aligned with the design you choose.
- Automatic feedback on your draft, and a quality checker with twelve criteria.
Have ready before you start: the phenomenon you want to study, its context and sample, and two or three references showing what earlier studies found and what they missed.
Moving around: Next and Previous, or the step names at the top. The draft in Step 6 updates as you type; square brackets [ ] mark what you have not completed yet.
Example used in this guide: a qualitative study of how working women are represented in Saudi drama on streaming platforms (2019–2025) and how female viewers interpret them.
Accessing the tool
Open the tool from the Teaching Experience page (Digital Learning Resources) or directly at: Research Problem Compass.
↑ Back to contentsLearning outcomes
After completing the tool’s steps you will be able to:
- Identify the research site where the meaning you study is produced.
- Distinguish the type of research gap and document it against what earlier studies focused on.
- Formulate a problem statement, purpose statement and research questions aligned with the design.
- Question the assumptions of the literature and assess the statement against twelve criteria.
Problem Statement Builder: the six steps
Step 1 — Identify your research site
Click one card that answers: where is the meaning you study produced? Your choice shapes the central question and the name of the sample field.
| Site | Choose it when you study | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Film and television text | Narrative, image, sound and representation in works | How are working women represented in contemporary Saudi drama? |
| Audiences and reception | How viewers interpret works | How do young people receive Saudi films screened at festivals? |
| Production and production culture | Practitioners’ practices and writers’ rooms | How do female screenwriters negotiate self-censorship? |
| Practice-based research | A film or screenplay you make as research | What does making a short film reveal about local memory? |
| Industry, policy and education | Institutions, platforms, policy and teaching | Using artificial intelligence in filmmaking education |
Step 2 — Phenomenon and context
Focus on a single central phenomenon.
| Field | What to enter | Correct example |
|---|---|---|
| Central phenomenon | A short name, as it will appear in the title | the representation of working women |
| Setting (place / period / platform) | The temporal, spatial and media boundaries | Saudi drama on streaming platforms, 2019–2025 |
| Sample (works or participants) | The intended sample; the label changes with the site you chose | eight drama series broadcast on Shahid — or: 20 female viewers |
| Theoretical or conceptual framework (optional) | The theory with its reference | the encoding/decoding model (Hall, 1980) |
| What is currently known? (Context) | One or two sentences on the topic’s importance and what the literature found, with citations | Saudi drama has changed rapidly with streaming, and content analyses report more working women on screen (Author, Year). |
Step 3 — The gap and the issue
First click the gap type. The nine types: evidence gap (contradictory findings), knowledge gap (an unstudied topic), practical-knowledge gap, methodological gap (one dominant method), empirical gap, theoretical gap, population gap (an under-represented group), contextual gap (a new context), new-frontier gap (an emerging phenomenon).
| Field | What to enter | Correct example |
|---|---|---|
| What have previous studies focused on? | The material and methods that dominate the literature | traditional Gulf television drama, using quantitative content analysis |
| What is still missing or poorly understood? | The gap your study will fill | how female viewers themselves interpret these images amid current social change |
Step 4 — Significance and consequences
| Field | What to enter | Correct example |
|---|---|---|
| Problem type | Theoretical (extends knowledge) or Applied (seeks a practical solution) | Theoretical problem |
| Consequences of the gap | What follows if the gap persists | understanding of reception remains based on critical assumptions never tested with local audiences |
| Beneficiaries | Who benefits from your findings | audience studies researchers, screenwriters and cultural policymakers |
Step 5 — Methodology and design
- Choose the approach: qualitative or mixed methods.
- Choose the design. Qualitative: case study, ethnography and production studies, phenomenology, grounded theory, textual and semiotic analysis, critical discourse analysis, thematic analysis, practice-based research. Mixed: convergent, explanatory sequential, exploratory sequential.
- Each card says when the design fits; read it before choosing. Correct example for our study: qualitative approach + case study. Choose mixed methods only if one type of data cannot answer the problem.
Step 6 — Your research statement
The tool shows how complete your inputs are, then three editable drafts: the problem statement, the purpose statement and the research questions, followed by “Automatic feedback on your draft”.
- Complete any square brackets [ ] by going back to the missing step.
- Click “Copy full draft” and paste it into a Word file straight away; this is the only way to keep your work.
- “Start over” clears all inputs.
Example of a completed problem statement: Since 2019, Saudi drama on streaming platforms has shown working women more often. However, studies have focused on traditional drama and quantitative methods, and have not examined how female viewers interpret these images. Understanding of reception therefore rests on untested assumptions, so this study aims to explore Saudi female viewers’ readings of the representation of working women.
↑ Back to contentsReading the feedback
- Completion: shown in Step 6; it reflects how many inputs you have completed.
- Square brackets [ ]: mark in the draft what you have not completed yet; go back to that step to finish it.
- Automatic feedback: flags what the draft is missing, such as consequences or the sample.
- Quality checker: a score out of 12 with a level and a “Start by improving” suggestion.
Other sections and tools
Problematization Lab (Interactive tool 2)
Helps you question an assumption behind the literature, not only spot a gap (Alvesson & Sandberg, 2011). Choose the assumption type (in-house, root metaphor, paradigmatic, ideological, field), then fill in:
| Field | Correct example |
|---|---|
| Domain of literature | studies of the gaze and spectatorship |
| Prevailing assumption | the female spectator inevitably identifies with the male gaze |
| Proposed alternative assumption | female viewers engage in negotiated and oppositional readings |
The tool generates “Suggested problematization questions”; use the best one when wording the gap in Step 3.
Research Problem Quality Checker (Interactive tool 3)
Tick each of the twelve criteria your statement meets: specific and concise; clear context; documented gap; consequences stated; interesting; novel; feasible; ethical; relevant; aligned with purpose and questions; open, non-leading questions; clear methodological rationale. The score out of 12 comes with a level (from “Initial idea” to “Rigorous and ready”) and a “Start by improving” suggestion.
Reference sections
- Conceptual foundations: the research problem versus the problem statement, and its four elements (context, issue, relevance, objectives). Read before you start.
- Nine types of research gap: cards with film and television examples.
- How did the attached studies formulate their problems? Published cases with the lesson from each.
- References (APA 7): the tool’s sources, for citation.
Saving and privacy
- No automatic saving: your answers are lost when you close or refresh the page. Copy the draft from Step 6 and keep it in your own file.
- Privacy: no data is sent to a server; everything runs in your browser.
- Switching language: the other language version starts empty, so copy your work before switching.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
| Mistake | Weak example | Instead |
|---|---|---|
| More than one central phenomenon | Representation, reception and production in drama | One phenomenon: the representation of working women |
| Undocumented gap | No one has studied this topic | State what studies focused on, with references |
| Missing consequences | Leaving the consequences field empty | Say what happens if the gap persists and who is affected |
| Closed or leading questions in qualitative research | Does drama negatively affect female viewers? | How do female viewers interpret …? |
| Method before problem | Choosing mixed methods without need | The method follows the problem |
Note: the drafts are built from transparent programmed templates, not artificial intelligence. They are a starting point that needs your review and your supervisor’s.
↑ Back to contentsFrequently asked questions and troubleshooting
- Does the Compass save my answers?
- No. Your answers are lost when you close or refresh the page; copy the draft from Step 6 and keep it in your own file.
- Why are there square brackets in the draft?
- Some fields have not been filled in yet. The brackets are replaced automatically when you complete the fields.
- Do I have to choose mixed methods?
- No. Choose it only if one type of data cannot answer the problem; the method follows the problem.
- What is the Problematization Lab for?
- It helps you formulate a problem that questions a prevailing assumption in the literature, not only an unstudied topic, which makes the study more original.
- Does the Compass use artificial intelligence?
- No. The drafts are built from transparent programmed templates; they are a starting point that needs your review and your supervisor’s.
Ready to start? Open the tool and follow the steps alongside this guide.
Open the tool