slides - updated to fix the dodgy date

1. media
studies 1
#MAC201
robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk

2. MODULE OVERVIEW
Module leader: Rob Jewitt
• robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk
• @rob_jewitt
• 0191 515 3431
• MC205
• Office hour: Weds 3-4pm
• MAC201 assessment surgeries: Weds 4-5pm

3. CONTENT SYNOPSIS
Mainstream media act as the dominant means by which the
general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social
world. International, 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. The 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. A 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.

4. CONTENT SYNOPSIS
Mainstream media act as the dominant means by which the
general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social
world. International, 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. The 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. A 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.

5. CONTENT SYNOPSIS
Mainstream media act as the dominant means by which the
general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social
world. International, 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. The 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. A 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.

6. CONTENT SYNOPSIS
Mainstream media act as the dominant means by which the
general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social
world. International, 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. The 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. A 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.

7. CONTENT SYNOPSIS
Mainstream media act as the dominant means by which the
general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social
world. International, 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. The 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. A 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.

8. CONTENT SYNOPSIS
Mainstream media act as the dominant means by which the
general public encounter and makes sense of the wider social
world. International, 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. The 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. A 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.

9. 2 x lectures per week
1 x seminar per week
1 x weekly drop-in tutorial

10. NOTE-TAKING

11. WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1: Critical pedagogy
1 - Module overview and assessment preparation
2 – News values, news frames and shifting debates
Week 2: News, governance and regulation
1 – Issues of objectivity, impartiality and balance
2 – Regulation vs self-regulation
Week 3: Debates and public opinion
1 – The public sphere, public opinion and plurality
2 – 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 – Data journalism, visualization and infographics

12. WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 5: Factual output and personalization
1 – Representing the public: the celebrity journalist
2 – 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: Test and moral panics
1 – Class-based test
2 – Querying contemporary moral panics and media panics
Week 8: Critical media discourses
1 - Querying media effects: discourses of blame (high school killings)
2 - Critical approaches to documentary and investigative journalism

13. WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 9: Documenting facts?
1 – Representing race, religion and immigration across factual media
2 – Are You for Real? The politics of reality TV and infotainment.
Week 10: Agenda setting media
1 – When Will I be Famous? Cultures of Celebrity in reality TV
2 – 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 bodies
2 – Because I’m worth it: making over masculinity

14. 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

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

16. RECOMMENDED
LISTENING

17. ASSESSMENT 1 – TIME
CONSTRAINED TEST
Wednesday 11th of March Prospect PR009 at 11am
In week 7 of term students will be expected to complete a
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.

18. ASSESSMENT 1 – TIME
CONSTRAINED TEST
The format of the test will be as follows:
- 2 hour test paper
- students must answer 4 from a maximum of 10 questions
- each question will be equally weighted (ie worth 25% of this
assessment grade or
10% of the overall module grade)
- the test will be a ‘seen’ paper
- the questions will be provided to students 7 days in advance of the
test
- the questions will be published on Sunspace and an email will be
issued to all
students registered on the module.
- the test will not be an ‘open book’ paper (ie no books can be
brought into the test room)

19. ASSESSMENT 1 – TIME
CONSTRAINED TEST
Students will not be required to recite lengthy quotes
Responses are not expected to be longer than 500 words per
answer (eg up to 3 paragraphs)
Students can answer any of the questions
Any students with SpLD should contact the module leader
directly and in private so that appropriate arrangements can
be made (asap!)

20. ASSESSMENT 2 -
ANALYSING FACTUAL
TEXTS
Wednesday 27th May 2015 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)

21. NEXT…
Thursday 11am PR009 – News values lecture
Seminars will proceed as standard
Students 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