media studies 1#MAC201robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk

MODULE OVERVIEWModule leader: Rob Jewitt• robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk• @rob_jewitt• 0191 515 3431• MC205

• Office hour: Wednesday 3pm• MAC201 assessment surgeries: Weeks 7 and 13 of term

CONTENT SYNOPSISMainstream media act as the dominant means by which the general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social world.

CONTENT SYNOPSISInternational, national, regional and local media serve a variety of different and often competing, interests as news organisations and publishers disseminate messages across a range of platforms in a bid for the public’s attention.

CONTENT SYNOPSISThe module will consider factual output encompassing news, current affairs, investigative reporting, documentaries and discussion shows. It will also examine the interplay between the media, its audiences and wider society.

CONTENT SYNOPSISA holistic approach to tackling the practices and policies that inform the production and consumption of factual media output will be central to this module. The roles played by media institutions, from the press and broadcasters through to media regulators, will be explored in order to examine the relationship between the public, politics and society.

2 x lectures per week1 x seminar per week1 x weekly drop-in tutorial (my office hour: weds. 3pm)

NOTE-TAKING

WEEKLY SCHEDULEWeek 1: Critical pedagogy 1 - Module overview and assessment preparation2 – News values, news frames and shifting debates

Week 2: News, governance and regulation 1 – Issues of objectivity, impartiality and balance2 – Regulation vs self-regulation

Week 3: Debates and public opinion 1 – The public sphere, public opinion and plurality2 – Constructing the public: platforms for public participation

Week 4: Online news and ‘engagement’ 1 – ‘Comment is free’: public opinion and ‘below the line’ feedback 2 – Journalism ethics and the reactionary response #gamergate

WEEKLY SCHEDULEWeek 5: Factual output and personalization 1 – Representing the public: the celebrity journalist2 – Are we being served? Dumbing down, infotainment and social media.

Week 6: Global media events 1 –Wikileaks: the age of transparency?2 – Social media revolutions: the arab spring

Week 7: Critical media discourses1 - The persistent case of ‘media effects’ research2 - Querying contemporary moral panics and media panics

Week 8: Assessment 1: due Wednesday 1 - Querying media effects: discourses of blame (high school killings) [TBC]2 - Critical approaches to documentary and investigative journalism

WEEKLY SCHEDULEWeek 9: Documenting facts? 1 – Representing race, religion and immigration across factual media2 – Are You for Real? The politics of reality TV and infotainment

Week 10: Populist media1 – When Will I be Famous? Cultures of Celebrity in reality TV2 – Reality TV and the ideologies of capitalism: neoliberalism and The Apprentice

Week 11: Entertainment or exploitation? 1 – The class-based politics of reality TV: reality or fiction in Benefits Street? 2 – ‘Poverty porn’, duty of care and media responsibility

Week 12: Gender, ideology and representation 1 – Lifestyle TV and social surveillance of classed and gendered bodies2 – Because I’m worth it: making over masculinity

RECOMMENDED BOOKS• Allan, S. (2010) News Culture 3rd Edition, Buckingham: Open

University Press • Albertazzi, D. and Cobley, P. eds (2009) The Media: An

Introduction 3rd Edition, Harlow, Pearson Education Limited. • Burton, G (2004) Media & Society: Critical Perspectives,

Maidenhead: Open University Press • Cushion, S (2012) Television Journalism, London: Sage • Hodkinson, P (2011) Media, Culture and Society: an introduction,

London: Sage • Lunt, P., & Livingstone, S. (2012) Media Regulation, London:

Sage • McNair, B. (2009) News and Journalism in the UK 5th Edition,

London: Routledge

RECOMMENDED JOURNALS• Media, Culture & Society • Journal of Media Practice • Journalism Studies • Journalism Practice • Digital Journalism • European Journal of Cultural Studies

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

ASSESSMENT 1 – SUBMIT ONLINE TIME CONSTRAINED TESTDeadline: Wednesday 22nd MarchVenue: SunspaceIn week 8 of term students will be expected to complete an online time-constrained test. This test will be worth 40% of the total module grade. It aims to assess student knowledge and comprehension of the material covered on the module to date.

ASSESSMENT 1 – TIME CONSTRAINED TESTThe format of the test will be as follows: • Should take no more than 2 hours to complete the test paper• students must answer 3 from a maximum of 10 questions• the test will be a ‘seen’ paper• the questions will be provided to students 1 week in advance of the test• the questions will be published in Sunspace and an email will be issued

to all students registered on the module.• students will be able to prepare responses offline and submit them online • responses should take the guise of extended answers (ie approx. 500

words in length)• each question will be equally weighted (ie worth 33.3% of this

assessment grade)• the grade will be calculated as an average of the individual response

grades

ASSESSMENT 1 – ONLINE TIME CONSTRAINED TESTAny students with SpLD should contact the module leader directly and in private so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Do this ASAP!

Students will need to ensure they have access to Sunspace for the duration of the test. If this is not possible, contact the module leader ASAP!

ASSESSMENT 2 - ANALYSING FACTUAL TEXTSWednesday 17th May 2017 by 3pm (physical and digital submission) This assignment requires students to assess and critically analyse one or two of the key issues, concepts, keywords or themes raised across the module in some detail. The assignment must address the above by paying specific reference to examples drawn from one of the following formats listed below. Students must apply a concept to a textual example: -  Broadcast news (eg The Channel 4 News, PM) -  Political discussion shows (eg Question Time, Any Questions) -  Current affairs (eg Newsnight, Today) -  The talk show (eg The Jeremy Kyle Show) -  Documentary (eg Dispatches, The Report) -  Reality television (eg The X-Factor) -  Lifestyle television (eg How to Look Good Naked)

NEXT…Thursday 11am PR009 – News values lecture

Seminars will proceed as standardStudents could read:Harcup, T. & O’Neill, D., 2001, ‘What is news? Galtung and Ruge revisited’, in Journalism Studies 2: 261-280. Link in module guide and on Sunspace under week 1 resources