Film, Television & Media Culture
MODULE CODE
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Module Aims
Aim 1
Inform students about the main approaches to studying film, media, television & culture at undergraduate level.
Aim 2
Enable students to approach a wide range of media forms in a social and cultural context.
Aim 3
Enhance student confidence in applying relevant theoretical and conceptual approaches to a range of media texts.
Aim 4
Encourage critical thinking regarding the concept of representation and its importance in the construction of concepts such as class, ethnicity, gender and identity.
Aim 5
Develop competence in the processes of communicating informed analyses of media texts in writing and orally.
Module Content
The module requires students to examine critically, a range of media forms including television, new media and film. As well as considering the core characteristics of these media, the module also introduces key frameworks to enable students to make sense of these media and the eco systems they are created and distributed in. Students are introduced to a variety of research methods including semiotics, discourse and content analysis and audience studies. The module examines different modes of representation and asks students to examine and critique their meaning.
Students will be given the opportunity to explore the ways in which media outputs construct and embody meaning, and how in mass media, the construction of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability and national identity codify meaning. The module encourages students to undertake close readings of a range of specific media texts to understand determinants they share, as well as the formal elements that make them distinctive.
The module will discuss the concepts of genres, movements and authorship and look at specific case studies. It will analyse specific genres within historical, institutional and cultural contexts, and introduce students to the concept of genre hybridisation.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, a student will be able to:
Teaching Methods
Students will complete this module through a combination of lectures and seminars, which outline essential information and directions for reading and discussion, primary material such as video and audio footage and other material, used to illustrate the lectures. The lectures introduce some key elements of a particular topic and to suggest further ways in which the topic can be explored, both in seminar discussion and through further reading.
Students will be asked to engage with a range of primary textual material through applying to them relevant theoretical perspectives and methods. They will discuss what they watched in the classroom in small groups and present their results to the whole class. They will compare material reflecting on one national culture with that pertaining to a different culture. They will be asked how this exercise can be used to develop their employability skills.
Assessment Methods
This module is assessed through one Essay and one Portfolio.
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Compulsory
Optional
