NEW! MISBOURNE MEDIA ISSUES AND DEBATES RESEARCH BLOG

- Section A: Broadcasting
- Section B: Film
- Section C: Print

For examination in 2007 topics will be:

Section A: Broadcasting
• Music Programmes on TV
• Broadcast News and Current Affairs
• Contemporary British Broadcasting(WE ARE NOT DOING THIS TOPIC)

Section B: Film
- Contemporary British Cinema
- The Concept of Genre in Film
- Censorship and Film (WE ARE NOT DOING THIS TOPIC)

Section C: Print
- The magazine industry
- Local Newspapers
- Freedom, Regulation and Control in the British Press (WE ARE NOT DOING THIS TOPIC)

SECTION A: BROADCASTING

1. Music programmes on TV

A study of the production and consumption of music programmes broadcast on UK television.
To include live, recorded music, genres from classical to popular and alternative styles.
Media Languages, Forms and Conventions: music genre channels, music video channels,
programme formats and styles, music competition/reality contest, chart shows, documentary
and arts programmes.

Media Institutions: television links with music industry, scheduling, context of contemporary TV
broadcasting, relationship with other media, marketing of music.
Media Audiences: music culture, audience targeting and reception, mass and niche
audiences.

Media Representations: presenters, performers, audiences, ethnicity, gender.

ESSENTIAL READING: History of music television!

Broadcast News and Current Affairs

A study of contemporary news and current affairs programmes broadcast in the UK.
[terrestrial, cable/satellite/digital news received in the UK].

Media Languages, Forms and Conventions: processes of newsgathering, construction and representations of news and current affairs, functions of presenters comparisons of form and style across different channels, media and scheduled times, technical codes, function of opening sequence; mise-en-scene of sets/studios, location and live packages, running order, music, construction of narratives.

Media Institutions: institutional context of contemporary broadcasting issues and practices; methods of delivery, production personnel, gate keeping, editorial input, effect of new technologies, scheduling; ratings wars, comparison with USA news or news from other nations.

Media Audiences: audience as mass/niche; constituency; theories of the active audience. Media Representations: agenda-setting, news vales; “news as infotainment”, dumbing down, dominant and subordinate ideologies and discourses, construction of ideological codes, bias and balance, representation of social groups.

ESSENTIAL READING: Richard Armstrong's article on the TV News coverage of the Iraq War A Window and a Weapon

Reach for the Sky:The Sky News Media Studies Pack Work through the units!

The Delimar Vera Story: Daily News Followup

SECTION B: FILM

3. Contemporary British Cinema

An examination of the main creative, economic and institutional issues in contemporary British cinema.

Media Languages, Forms and Conventions: generic codes and conventions, codes of realism, styles and movements, relationship with Hollywood and European styles.

Media Institutions: historical context of British film industry, auteur theories, stars, contextualising specific films within the historical, social and economic background, financing of British cinema, production, distribution and exhibition, regional film theatres, British Film Commission Funding, relationship with Hollywood/multinationals, independents, British Screen/BFI, Film Four; international film festival.

Media Audiences: constituency, mass/niche, British/international, art-house, home video and television viewing, notions of ‘British audience´.

Media Representations: dominant and oppositional ideologies, stereotypes and archetypes, representations of gender/sexuality and social groups, representations of Britain and regions, relationship to Northern Ireland (and Eire) Scotland and Wales, ‘selling Britain´ overseas.

4. The Concept of Genre in Film
An examination of the main debates surrounding the functions and purposes of genre in film, including how, and why, definitions of particular genres change according to the contexts of their production.
[Texts may be chosen from any genre from any national cinema, with reference to contemporary mainstream or alternative and “classic” texts]

Media Forms and Conventions: Codes and conventions of different genres; historical origins and
development over time; construction of realism and other codes, strengths and weaknesses of genre theory.
Media Institutions: film industries; Hollywood studios´ production line approach to genre; associated with specific studios; pre-/post production, distribution, exhibition; genre as marketing tool.
Media Audiences: pleasures, expectations; audience identification; fans; cults, genre as ‘contract´.
Media Representations: character types – stereotypes and archetypes; representation of gender, race, nationality, age, sexuality etc; ideological dominant values, typecasting and genre as a ‘reading´ device.

ESSENTIAL READING: Daniel Chandler's An Introduction to Genre Theory.)

SECTION B: PRINT

5. The Magazine Industry
An examination of the various debates involved in the representation of gender in magazines, the commercial and ideological factors that affect these representations and the relationship between the magazines and their readers.
[National lifestyle and leisure/hobby magazines for men and/or women]
Media Forms and Conventions: Detailed study of content and style; generic conventions; house styles; historical origins and development of specific titles, ‘gendered´ layout and imagery.
Media Institutions: Ownership; marketing and promotion; relationship between publisher and readership, relationship between editor, publisher, advertiser and reader.
Media Audiences: Theories of the active audience – education, information and pleasure; advertising and consumerism; continuity of readership; aspirations, the ‘ironic´ reader, post-modern views of audience and gender / sexuality.

ESSENTIAL READING:

1. Read the following: Northalleton Copllege: Magazines and Gender Summary

2. Now read:Men's magazines: lad's mags I, II and III Pretty much everything you need to revise on men's mags is here.

3. OK. If you really want more, read this: Lucy Brown's discussion on Men's Magazines: Are magazines for young men likely to reinforce stereotypical, 'macho' and sexist attitudes in their readers?, at Theory Org.
Media Representations: Representation of gender and sexuality; stereotypes and archetypes; dominant ideologies, representations of public /private issues.

6.Local Newspapers
A consideration of the role of institutional and local contexts of local newspapers.
[Texts could include ‘regional´ newspapers but not newspapers with a national circulation, even though they might have a regional variation such as the Northern edition of the Daily Telegraph.]
Media Forms and Conventions: Variations in content and style including news, features and advertising.
Media Institutions: Ownership; relationship with the community; circulation; target readership; competition; marketing and promotion.
Media Audiences: Theories of audience including active and passive readership, reader and community, uses of the local press, pleasure and function.
Media Representations: News values; representation of community; dominant ideologies; stereotypes; representation of gender, social groups, events, places, self-recognition of
community, locality and nation.


Media Sample Questions - Section A

Television and Radio (Answer one question in this section.)

Question 1
Music on TV Discuss how far the music industry needs TV

Question 2
Broadcast News and Current Affairs

“It is naïve to believe that television and/or radio news is ‘a window on the world´. It is as much a result of selection and construction as a work of fiction.”
Referring to specific examples, show the extent to which this statement is justified. [30]

Film(Answer one question in this section.)

Question 3
With reference to at least three films, discuss the diversity of contemporary British films. [30]
Question 4
Do film genres change over time? Answer with reference to two or more genres you have
studied in the context of the concept of film genre. [30]

Print(Answer one question in this section.)

Question 5
Account for the success of the magazine industry in recent years