7/01/2003 - 10/06/2003
Please also refer to your handbooks but please note that this web page is the more up todate version of the course outline.
In addition to the core readings listed in the handbook, the University of Aberystwyth has an excellent set of resources with a range of articles and essays on-line at the following web site: Media and Communications Web Site David Gauntlett also has a useful site called Theory.Org Please use these resources!
The readings set here are required for each week please read a
minimum of two of the set readings for each seminar. Click on each weeks' title for details of seminar questions to be covered. It is also expected
that you will have read as widely as possible around the topic through
your own research. The reading list in your handbook, the library(especially the library web site) and the resources room all provide further
materials in relation to these topics. Please come prepared to discuss
both the academic criticism and the examples of media texts for each seminar.
07/01/03 Course outline/ Theoretical approaches to the media.
Semiotics, Marxism, Feminism, Postmodernism.
Readings from Marris and Thornham:
Chapter 2 'The Culture Industry Reconsidered'
Chapter 6 'The Power of the Image'
Chapter 9 'The Massess: The Implosion of the Social in the Media'
14/01/03 The Press: History, ownership, economics, circulation.
Try and identify current circulation figures through the Internet.
Questions to consider:
How did the current press emerge? What has had the greatest influence
on the development of the press and what has the press influenced?
What are the functions of local and national newspapers? Who owns
the newspapers? How have the newspapers been thought of at different
times?
Reading:
Murdock, Graham, 'Concentration and Ownership in the Era of Privatisation' Chapter 12
in Marris and Thornham.
Part One of Curran and Seaton. 1997. Power Without Responsibility.
21/01/03 Textual analysis: News.
Please bring a copy of a news item from this week to discuss
in this session.
Reading:
Golding and Elliot 'News Values and News Production' Chapter 50 in Marris and Thornham.
Hall, Stuart 'Encoding/Decoding' Chapter 5 in Marris and Thornham.
Hall, Stuart et al. 'The Social Production of News' in Chapter 51 in Marris and Thornham.
Kuhn, Annette 'The Power of the Image' in Marris and Thornham.
28/01/03 Textual analysis: 'Women and men's' magazines. (FHM )
Please bring either a copy of Loaded or FHM (men's magazine's) or an
equivalent 'women's' publication.
Reading:
Gauntlett, David. 2002. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. London: Routledge. (chapters 8 and 9)
Geraghty, Christine 'Representation and Popular Culture' in Curran
and Gurevitch. (Copy in resources folder)
Curran, James 'The Impact of Advertising on the British Mass Media'
in Chapter 57 Marris and Thornham.
Winship, Janice, 'Handling Sex'. Chapter 59 in Marris and Thornham.
04/02/03 ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
Alternative Media: an overview of conceptual issues and discussion of the status of 'zines'
Readings:
These readings are available as a pack for you to borrow, photocopy and return in the CCE Resource Room:
Atton, Chris (2002) Alternative Media. London: Sage (Chapter 1)
Duncombe, Stephen (1997) Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture. London: Verso (Chapters 1 and 2)
Habermas, Jurgen 'The Public Sphere' (p.92-97) in Marris, Paul & Thornham, Sue (1996) Media Studies: a reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Questions:
Think about the following questions as you read the chapters above. We will discuss them further in the seminar:
What does the word 'alternative' mean to you?
Atton discusses at length the problems there have been in defining 'alternative media': what are the main themes that these problems centre around?
How might 'zines' be discussed in relation to the idea of a public sphere in Habermas?
How is it that zines can be viewed as democratising? (think about this in terms of production, circulation and ownership)
Is it the case that there is a realm of 'the alternative' which exists completely separately to the realm of 'the mainstream' or 'the dominant'? Or are the two realms in some way mutually dependent and defining?
11/02/03 ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
Different Visions and Political Agendas: alternatives to dominant 'truths'
Readings:
These readings are available as a pack for you to borrow, photocopy and return in the CCE Resource Room:
Atton, Chris (2002) Alternative Media. London: Sage (Chapter 6)
Downing, John (2001) Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements. London: Sage (Chapter 3)
Hall, Stuart 'Encoding/Decoding' (p.51-61) in Marris, Paul & Thornham, Sue (1996) Media Studies: a reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Lax, Stephen 'The Internet and Democracy' in Gauntlett, David (2000) Web Studies:rewiring media studies for the digital age. London: Arnold
Research:
Look at the web sites of:
Schnews: http://www.indymedia.org
IndyMedia.Org: http://www.indymedia.org
Association for Progressive Communication: http://www.apc.org
Undercurrents: http://www.undercurrents.org/index.htm
Questions:
Think about the following questions as you read the chapters above and view the web sites. We will discuss them further in the seminar:
In what ways do online publications differ from printed publications in terms of content, circulation, ownership and reading practices?
What problems may a social movement encounter in trying to get its message across to new audiences in (a) printed media and (b) online media?
How might the Internet have changed the way that minority groups can communicate?
Bearing in mind Hall's concepts of 'negotiated' and 'oppositional' readings of texts, to what extent does the production of alternative and mainstream media forms determine the meanings that readers will take from them?
As far as the Internet is concerned, is it the case that its communicative potentials are necessarily liberating and democratic? How may it be used to work against these ideals?
Day School Electronic publishing and the Web.
15/02/03 10am-4pm
18/02/03 Broadcasting, (Radio and Television) BBC and the publicservice ethos.
Reading;
Briggs, Asa 'The BBC and the 1956 Suez Crisis' in Marris and Thornham (First Edition) or
Paddy Scannell: Public Service Broadcasting 'The History of a Concept' Chpater 10 in Marris and Thornham.
Curran, James and Seaton, Jean. 1997. Power Without Responsibility:
The Press and Broadcasting in Britain. (Chapter 17: Broadcasting and
the theory of Public Service).
Naylor, Richard et al 'The BBC goes Online: Public Service broadcasting
in the New Media Age' in Gauntlett. Web Studies.
Tunstall, Jeremy 'Producers in British Television' Chapter 13 in Marris and Thornham.
Further Reading
Williams, Raymond. 1974. Television: Technology and Cultural Form.
McDonnell, James. 1991. Public Service Broadcasting: A Reader.
25/02/03 Radio
Please listen to a variety of different radio stations for this session
- even if you do not usually use radio you must be able to draw on some
examples.
Crisell, Andrew. 'Radio Signs' Chapter 16 in Marris and Thornham.
Crisell, Andrew. 1994. Understanding Radio.
11/03/03 Essay Session
Easter
First Essay due date: 28/04/03
29/04/03 Television
Fiske, John 'The Codes of Television' in Chapter 17 Marris and Thornham.
Williams, Raymond. 'Programming as Sequence or Flow' Chapter 18 in Marris and
Thornham.
Williams, Raymond. 1974. Television: Technology and Cultural Form.
06/05/03 Television Genres: Soaps
Section 5 of Marris and Thornham: Chapters 45-49.
Geraghty, Christine. 1991. Women and Soap Opera.
Day Schools - 10/11 May,
13/05/03 Television Genres: News
Section 6 of Marris and Thornham: Chapters 50-55.
20/05/03 Television since the 1980s: new technologies.
Gurevitch, Micheal 'The Globalisation of Electronic Journalism' in
Curran and Gurevitch.
Marris and Thornahm Chapter 14 'New Patterns in Global Television.'
Sreberny-Mohammadi, Annabelle 'The Global and the local in International
Communications' in Curran and Gurevitch
Darley, Andrew. 2001. Visual Digital Culture: Surface play and Spectacle
in New Media Cultures. (Chapters 4 and 5)
27/05/03 New Media
Marris and Thornahm, Section 8, New Media: Chapters 62-65.
Darley, Andrew. 2001. Visual Digital Culture: Surface play and Spectacle
in New Media Cultures. (Part One)
Gauntlett, David 'The Web Goes to the Pictures' in Gauntlett, D. 2000.
Web Studies
03/06/02 The Internet
Marris and Thornahm Section 8: New Media.
Gauntlett, David. 2000. Web Studies
10/06/03 Course conclusion and essay session.
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