Lecture 1: Introduction
The unit
Contemporary society as a media society
1. How do the media represent the social
world?
2. How are media texts produced?
3. How are the media consumed and what are their effects on consumers?
. 2 seminar groups
Key readings to be done BEFORE the lecture/seminar Term 1
23rd Sept
NO TEACHING THIS WEEK
30th Sept
Introduction
AM
7th Oct
Women’s magazines
KM
14th Oct
Men’s magazines
AM
21st Oct
Reality TV
KM
28th Oct
Makeover TV
AM
4th Nov
11th Nov
18th Nov
25th Nov
2nd Dec
9th Dec
EMPLOYABILITY WEEK
Advertising
Film
Methods 1
Methods 2
Media project case study: film screening Media project preparation
KM
AM
AM
AM
16th Dec
Term 2
13th Jan Frankfurt school
20th Jan Screening: The Power of Nightmares.
Adam Curtis (Dir)
27th Jan Media and Social change 1: Globalisation
3rd Feb Media and Social Change 2: Celebrity
Culture
10th
Media effects 1: mass media audiences
Feb
17th
EMPLOYABILITY WEEK
Feb
24th
Media effects 2: new media consumers
Feb
3rd Mar Media and Identity 1: Popular music
10th
Media and Identity2: New Media
Mar
17th
Employability 1: Media and Creative
Mar
Industries in the UK today
KM
KM
KM
KM
AM AM
KM
AM
KM
Assessments
Assignment 1: Media project (50%)
Critically analysis of a media text.
2500 words.
deadline is 7thFebruary 2014.
Assignment 2: Essay (50%)
One essay question from a list of titles.
2500 words.
deadline is 30th April 2014.
Seminar Group 1: Monday 3-4 (GM
231)
Ahmad, Maimoonah
Ahmed, Ayesha
Ali Fadhil, Seham
Atwal, Kieranjit
Begum, Rupa
Farghaly, Darryl
Green, Rebecca Louise
Hornby, Fiona Adele
Ismail, Nazneen
Jackson, Ben
Javed, Sana
Kabadeh, Asma
Lane, Hannah
Lechareas, Anezoula
Liscombe, Rebecca
Maxwell, Reiss
Mcshane, Kelly-Ann
Mermagen, Tom
O'Malley, Liam
O'Reilly, Evie
Ssali, Florence
Steel, Bethany
Walker, Benjamin Mark
Seminar Group 2: Monday 4-5 (GM
231)
Ahmed, Amina
Ahmed, Ansir
Ali, Bana
Alikhan, Naziya Alina
Challenger, Liam
Clark, Daniel
Dewan, Rosina
Disley, Lewis David
Fayle, George
Iftikhar, Farhana
Iqbal, Iffat
Islam, Nasrin
Jamil, Iram
Kerfoot, Nathanial
Mart, Joshua
Mistry, Asha
Morgan, Thomas James
O'Hanlon, Layla
Ranger, Yinka
Richardson, Robert
Spencer, Sophie Jeanne Marie
Tufail, Khafia
Zaman, Anisah
The media
(Croteau and Hoynes 2003)
The media as institutions and
industries
The media as producers of media
texts:
Media texts are symbolic pieces
signifying meaning
Wide meaning of ‘text’ in media and cultural studies
Key question: power of the media
in society
Social construction of reality
(Hall 1997; Webb 2009)
‘Reality’ as a socially constructed picture of the world
Physical reality has no inherent meaning but is made to
mean
Social construction is active process of meaning attribution
Key role of media in the process
Achieved through representations:
discourses and ideologies
e.g. language choices: benefit recipient vs welfare scrounger
e.g. media trials: Amanda Knox trial; disappearance of
Madeleine McCann
Mediated nature of reality in 21st C
Media ideologies
Ideologies as sets of ideas and beliefs
Marxist definition of ideology (Abercrombie et al
1980):
1. Dominance:
Produced by the dominant groups in society
Work in the interest of the dominant groups
Dominant ways of thinking in society
2. Distortion
Misrepresent reality; inaccurate
. False consciousness
The media and the dominant ideology (Abercrombie 1990)
Media endorse and promote dominant
word views
Media owned and controlled by elites
Media promote ideologies which
misrepresent reality
Media have power to ideologically
indoctrinate the masses
Example: Osborne’s announcement
29/09/2013: ‘Help-to-work’ scheme
Crackdown: Chancellor George Osborne insisted this 'no option of doing nothing for your benefits'
Dominant ideology of the unemployed:
as lazy and idle
to blame
don’t try very hard