This module enables students to gain an understanding of the ways in which media events are constructed and grounded in a wide range of media environments. Students will develop an understanding of how communicative content is scripted, staged, and portrayed as 'media events' by interrogating the centrality of broadcast or digital media.
The module is organised in two major blocks focussed on: 1) the construction of media events through storytelling, headlines, hashtags, photojournalism, memes and media spectacles 2) the second part of the module departs from Dayan & Katz's definition of media events as scripted ceremonial events (of contest, conquest and coronation) with an integrative function. The students will examine this theory and challenge the centrality of mass (and broadcast media) by looking at alternative models of media events including: disruptive events (catastrophe, conflict, violence), media scandals, viral (new) media events, everyday life events (including tabloid, "trash" media, and confessional cultures).
Introduction and theoretical framework
Comparative analysis main stories and headlines broadcast and social media
Categories and patterns
The culture industries
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Lectures and workshops | 44 |
| Guided independent study | Reading, researching news stories, collating examples, answering reading questions | 256 |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 | |
The assessment strategy is designed to enable students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of contemporary media texts and events in their social, cultural and political contexts.
Creative Media Content: Podcast: In this assessment the students will select a topic related to integrative or disruptive events, apply its conceptual definitions to a current news story of their choice (covered in mass or new media during current year of study) and design/ organise up to 10 minute long debate in the form of a podcast. This assignment is worth 40%.
The second assessment: in-class group presentation 20%
The third assessment will take the form of an analysis of a current media event using concepts and approaches from the module of 2,000 words. This assessment is worth 40%.
Opportunities to practice and prepare these assessment and receive formative comments prior to submission.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of conceptual and practical tools to analyse media texts, practices and events within their social, cultural and political contexts. | Formatively through the class exercises and draft blogs. Summatively through the selected blog post |
| analyse the strategies and approaches used to create, construct and stage a media event by media producers, users and consumers, utilising appropriate critical and conceptual tools | Formatively through the class presentation and summatively through the case study |
| demonstrate up-to-date knowledge of current events and media stories in various media of communication | Formatively through the class presentation and draft blog posts and summatively through the selected blog blog and case study |
| utilise skills of research, presentation and evaluation in reflecting critically on the nature of current media texts, practices and events | Formatively through in-class activities and presentation. Summatively in both the blog and case study |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| PRC | Creative Media Content | 40 |
| PRC | In class presentation | 20 |
| Coursework | 2000 word essay | 40 |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.
Couldry, Nick (ed.) (2010) Media Events in a Global Age. Routledge.
Leavy, Patricia (2007) Iconic Events: Media, Politics and Power in Retelling History. Lexington Books.
Burns, Kelli S. (2009) Celeb 2.0. How Social Media Foster our Fascination with Popular Culture. Greenwood Publishing.
Chemack, Steven and Frankie Bailey (2007) Crimes and Trials of the Century: from the Black Sox Scandal to the Attica Prison Riot. ABC – Clio.
Couldry, Nick (2003) Media Rituals. A Critical Approach. Routledge.
Dayan, Daniel and Elihu Katz (19940 Media events: the live broadcasting of history. Harvard: Harvard UP.