Author Archives: Mafalda Stasi

M87MC – Media Audiences (2015-16)

This module examines the nature of ‘the audience’ as it has been conceptualised historically, and explores the relationship between audiences and texts. The module will  position audience studies within the disciplines of media and cultural studies; critically examine theories and conceptualisations of ‘the audience’; understand how we can investigate audiences; understand how specific audiences engage with media texts.

Syllabus 

Date Topic
Mon 18 Jan Introduction
Mon 25 Jan What are “audiences”?
Mon 1 Feb Methodological approaches
Mon 8 Feb Identity and difference
Mon 15 Feb Adoring audiences
Mon 22 Feb Gendered audiences
Mon 29 Feb Classed audiences
Mon 7 Mar Racialised audiences
Mon 14 Mar Sexed audiences
Mon 21 Mar Recap
STUDY BREAK
Mon 18 Apr Tutorials
Mon 25 Apr Tutorials
Mon 2 May  Due Date

All sessions take place 6-8pm in room ET130 unless otherwise specified.

Click on the links for materials, instructions, and coursework. In general, please make sure you refer to all posted materials including lecture slides, bibliography, and various case study materials, and that you check the module blog weekly.

Module assessment 

A 3.000 words academic essay – due date  Mon 2 May

Identify a specific community or group of people and analyse in detail the ways they engage with  media texts, and how such relationships structure their community, their identity and their behaviour. Are these people an audience? What makes them into an audience, and in which specific ways? How do they make sense of their affective and relational identities?

You should refer to the examples of ethnographic studies discussed in class, and to the theories associated with them. You should also demonstrate awareness of your disciplinary and methodological approach.

Pass requirements: The module mark must be at least 40%. Students who hand in all the required coursework but who do not achieve a pass are entitled a resit. The resit mark is capped at 40%, but passing your resit is the only way to progress to the next year and gain your degree. It is important to remember that people who do not hand in their coursework will fail without the right to resit, which means they will not be able to complete their course and achieve their degree. Always hand something in! 

A resit brief will be made available after module marks are released.

Academic honesty statement

Resources

Select Bibliography

Indicative list of readings: more texts will be added in the course of the module.

  • Hall, S. (1980) “Encoding/decoding.” In Hall, S. et al., eds., Culture, Media, Language, London: Hutchinson. pp. 128–38.
  • Miller, T. (2001) “What it Is and What it Isn’t: Introducing… Cultural Studies.” in A Companion to Cultural Studies. Oxford: Blackwell. pp.1-19.

202MC bibliography: 2014-15

Ahmed, S. (2002) ‘Racialised Bodies,’ in M.Evans and E.Lee (eds) Real Bodies. London:  Palgrave.

Andreouli, E. (2013) “Identity and Acculturation: The Case of Naturalised Citizens in Britain.” Culture & Psychology 19 (20): 165-183.

Garner, S. (2012) “A Moral Economy of Whiteness: Behaviours, Belonging and Britishness.” Ethnicities 12 (4): 445-464.

Gilroy, P. (1987) There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. London: Routledge. (Introduction)

Gilroy, P. (1982) “The Myth of Black Criminality.” The Socialist Register pp.47-56. Hall, S. (2011) “The Neoliberal Revolution.” Cultural Studies 25(6): 705-728. Hall, S. (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. London: Macmillan. Haylett, C. (2001) “Illegitimate subjects? Abject whites, neoliberal modernisation, and middle-class multiculturalism.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 19 (3): 351-370. Hayward, K. and Yar, M. (2006) “The ‘chav’ phenomenon: Consumption, media and the construction of a new underclass.” Crime Media Culture 2 (1): 9-28.

Hussain, Y. and Bagguley, P. (2005) “Citizenship, Ethnicity and Identity: British Pakistanis after the 2001 ‘Riots’.” Sociology 9(3): 407–425.

Michael, L. (2009) “Securing civic relations in the multicultural city.” in Citizenship, Security and Democracy: Muslim Engagement with the West (W. Krause, ed.), pp. 164-186. London: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Moore, P. and Forkert, K. (2014) “Class and Panic in British Immigration.” Capital & Class 38 (3): 497-505.

Reay, D. et al. (2007) ” ‘A Darker Shade of Pale?’ Whiteness,the Middle Classes and Multi-Ethnic Inner City Schooling.”Sociology 41(6): 1041–1060.

Reay, D. and Lucey, H. (2000) ” ‘I really don’t like it here but I don’t want to be anywhere else’: children and inner city council estates.” Antipode 32 (4): 410-428.

Rose, N. (1999) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. New York: Free Associations Books.

Skeggs, B. (2005) “The Making of Class and Gender through Visualizing Moral Subject Formation.” Sociology 39: 965-982. Tyler, I. (2013) “The Abject Politics of British Citizenship.” In Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. London: Zed Books. pp.48-74.

Sketches of VE Day from 70 years ago – visual culture

The Queen, McQueen and pearly queens: 50 years of Britishness – in pictures

Tyler, I. (2013) “Britain and Its Poor.” In Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. London: Zed Books. pp.154-178.

Tyler, I. (2010) “Designed to fail: a biopolitics of British Citizenship.“ Citizenship Studies 14(1): 61-74.

Tyler, I. (2008) ” ‘Chav Mum, Chav Scum’: class disgust in contemporary Britain.” Feminist Media Studies 8 (1): 17-34.

Watts, P. and Stenson, K. (1998) ” ‘It’s a Bit Dodgy Around Here’: Safety, Danger, Ethnicity and Young People’s Usage of Public Spaces.” in Skelton, T. and Valentine, G. Eds. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge. pp. 249-267. Webster, C. (2003) “Race, Space and Fear: imagined geographies of racism, crime, violence and disorder in Northern England.” Capital & Class 80: 95-122. Yilmaz, F. (2012) “Right-wing Hegemony and Immigration: How the Populist Far-Right Achieved Hegemony through the Immigration Debate in Europe.” Current Sociology 60 (3): 368-381.

Other resources

202MC – 2013-14

Bibliography on Neoliberal citizenships:

Ahmed, S. (2002) ‘Racialised Bodies,’ in M.Evans and E.Lee (eds) Real Bodies. London:  Palgrave.

Dardot, P. and Laval, C. (2014) The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society. London: Verso.

Gilroy, P. (1987) There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack. London: Routledge.

Gilroy, P. (1982) “The Myth of Black Criminality.” The Socialist Register pp.47-56. Gulliver, K. (2013) “Thatcher’s legacy: her role in today’s housing crisis.” The Guardian 17 April 2013. Hall, S. (2011) “The Neoliberal Revolution.” Cultural Studies 25(6): 705-728. Hall, S. (1978) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. London: Macmillan. Harvey, D. (2007) “Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 610: 21-44. Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford UP. Haylett, C. (2001) “Illegitimate subjects? Abject whites, neoliberal modernisation, and middle-class multiculturalism.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 19 (3): 351-370. Hayward, K. and Yar, M. (2006) “The ‘chav’ phenomenon: Consumption, media and the construction of a new underclass.” Crime Media Culture 2 (1): 9-28.

Hussain, Y. and Bagguley, P.(2005) “Citizenship, Ethnicity and Identity: British Pakistanis after the 2001 ‘Riots’.” Sociology 9(3): 407–425.

Littler, J. (2013) “Meritocracy as Plutocracy: The Marketising of ‘Equality’ Under Neoliberalism.” New Formations 80: 52-72.

Michael, L. (2009) “Securing civic relations in the multicultural city.” in Citizenship, Security and Democracy: Muslim Engagement with the West (W. Krause, ed.), pp. 164-186. London: International Institute of Islamic Thought.

Reay, D. et al. (2007) ” ‘A Darker Shade of Pale?’ Whiteness,the Middle Classes and Multi-Ethnic Inner City Schooling.”Sociology 41(6): 1041–1060.

Reay, D. and Lucey, H. (2000) ” ‘I really don’t like it here but I don’t want to be anywhere else’: children and inner city council estates.” Antipode 32 (4): 410-428.

Rose, N. (2000) “Government and Control.” British Journal of Criminology 40(2): 321-339.

Rose, N. (1999) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. New York: Free Associations Books. Skeggs, B. (2005) “The Making of Class and Gender through Visualizing Moral Subject Formation.” Sociology 39: 965-982. Skeggs, B. (2005) “The Re-Branding of Class: Propertising Culture”, in F. Devine et al. (eds) Rethinking Class: Cultures, Identities and Lifestyles. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Skeggs, B. (1997) Formations of Class and Gender. London: Sage. Skelton, T. and Valentine, G. Eds. (1998) Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge. Tyler, I. (2013) “The Abject Politics of British Citizenship.” In Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. London: Zed Books. pp.48-74.

Tyler, I. (2013) “Britain and Its Poor.” In Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. London: Zed Books. pp.154-178.

Tyler, I. (2010) “Designed to fail: a biopolitics of British Citizenship.“ Citizenship Studies 14(1): 61-74.

Tyler, I. (2008) ” ‘Chav Mum, Chav Scum’: class disgust in contemporary Britain.” Feminist Media Studies 8 (1): 17-34.

Watts, P. and Stenson, K. (1998) ” ‘It’s a Bit Dodgy Around Here’: Safety, Danger, Ethnicity and Young People’s Usage of Public Spaces.” in Skelton, T. and Valentine, G. Eds. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge. pp. 249-267. Webster, C. (2003) “Race, Space and Fear: imagined geographies of racism, crime, violence and disorder in Northern England.” Capital & Class 80: 95-122.

Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet

Links forthcoming

Coppa, F. (2006a). “A brief history of media fandom.” In K. Hellekson & K. Busse, Eds., Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet.Jefferson, NC: McFarland. (pp. 41-59).

Derecho, A. (2006) “Archontic literature: A definition, a history, and several theories of fan fiction.” In K. Hellekson & K. Busse, Eds., Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. (pp. 61–78).

Stasi, M. (2006) “The Toy Soldiers from Leeds.” In K. Hellekson & K. Busse, Eds., Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. (pp.  115-133).

Woledge, E. (2006) “Intimatopia: Genre Intersections between Slash and the Mainstream.” In K. Hellekson & K. Busse, Eds., Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. (pp.  115-133).

________________________________________

Cicioni, M. (1998) “Male pair-bonds and female desire in fan slash writing.” In: Harris C, Alexander  A (Eds) Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 153-177.

205MC – Introduction

Today’s lecture introduced the module’s structure and provided an overview of its contents. It also outlined the module’s learning objectives, and explained the final assessment in detail. The seminar gave an overview of the available resources, and assigned a task for next week. Students were also divided into smaller working groups.

Task for next week. What is Film Noir? Each group to come prepared next week with:

  • A definition of what the genre is (its history and origin, etc.)
  • A list of key stylistic and narrative features that define it (eg lighting techniques, character types, storylines, etc)
  • At least two clips from films described as noir and to be able to identify the features in each clip that make the films noir.

As a reminder, we will focus on a series of media texts on the overall theme of crime. The following are the main texts we will discuss: if possible, you should familiarise yourself with them.

Office Hours

By apppointment The best way to see me is by appointment: email me and I will set aside time for you. Come prepared: bring any work you want to discuss, and prepare your questions in advance. Please note that I will not feedback on material sent via email: you need to come see me in person if you want to discuss your work.

For the months of March and April (off term) I will receive by appointment only

Drop-in During term time, I have weekly office hours set aside where you can drop in. Please make sure you only drop in during the time slots indicated: my other teaching and research commitments mean I cannot be in the office at all times.  Also please keep in mind that if you do not email me to book a slot, you might have to queue.

M84MC – Visual Structures

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This lecture performs a visual analysis of the 2012 advertising campaign for the Lady Gaga Fame perfume. The lecture draws on a variety of semiotics concepts to explore the ad’s connotations and denotations, its iconography, symbolic and inter-textual codes; it finally discusses the advantages and the limitations of a classic structuralist perspective.

Lecture slides: visual structures

Readings:

  • Barthes, R. (1977) “The Rhetoric of the Image” in Image Music Text. London: Fontana. pp.32-51.
  • Lister, M. and Wells, L. (2001) “Seeing beyond belief: Cultural Studies as an approach to analysing the visual.” in Van Leeuwen, T. and Wells, L. eds. Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage. pp.61-91.
  • Ott, B. and Mack, L. (2010) “Rhetorical Analysis” in Critical Media Studies. Wiley-Blackwell.  pp. 99-122.
  • Prieto-arranz, J. (2012) “The Semiotics of Performance and Success in Madonna.” The Journal of Popular Culture 45 (1): 173-196.
  • Van Leeuwen, T. (2001) “Semiotics and iconography.”  in Van Leeuwen, T. and Wells, L. eds. Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage. pp.92-118.
  • Ways of Seeing (BBC Documentary on visual analysis)

Activity for next week:

Watch these two videos. Perform a compared visual semiotic analysis. These are some of the questions you may want to consider: What connotations can you identify? Which symbolic meanings? Which iconic signs? How does the advert use these elements to convey its message? Write down a summary of your findings and post it here as a comment to this entry.

Other Resources

This blog contains a variety of materials which are crucial to your success: however, you should also consider a variety of supplementary resources the University puts at your disposal.

The Library

While it’s tempting to just ‘google for stuff,’ this approach is not going to provide you with the necessary academic quality for your work. Even searching online intelligently through Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com)–which filters the subset of the Web tagged as academic materials–is not enough to necessarily find appropriate quality sources for your work. You probably already know, at this point in your studies, that books and academic articles contain rigorously researched scholarship, validated for quality and relevance by the academic community; as opposed to random Internet information whose value is difficult to assess and which often does not provide appropriate depth or even accuracy. You should also by now master the necessary research and critical skills; to this end, the Library is one of the most precious resources the University puts at your disposal, and it is in your best interest to use it. The Library catalogue is available online (http://locate.coventry.ac.uk/). The library also puts at your disposal a variety of resources to help your research skills, through this dedicated page within the student portal https://students.coventry.ac.uk/Library/

The Centre for Academic Writing (CAW) http://www.coventry.ac.uk/caw/

If you need help with your essays you can come see me by booking an appointment via e-mail, or during my weekly office hours. You can also visit the Centre for Academic Writing (CAW): they offer individual tutorials on essay writing skills. Book early with them, there is always a queque at the end of term!

CASP-Coventry Academic Skills Programme  https://students.coventry.ac.uk/CASP/ 

The CASP program offers support for a wide range of academic skills centred on the Library, including using references, writing your dissertation, finding e-books and e-journals, writing and critical thinking. You have to book into a workshop through the link provided.

The Harvard Reference System 

http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/caw/cuhrs/Pages/CUHarvardReferenceStyle.aspx At University level, you are expected to write according to academic standards. This means you should properly format your bibliographical references. Failure to do so will impact your marks. Proper referencing is not simply an arbitrary set of cosmetic conventions: it’s a system designed to make your references clear in a standard way, and to show you performed your work according to proper professional standards. Think of it as spelling: yes, it may be just rules you memorise–but if you don’t spell correctly your work looks sloppy and you give the impression of not caring or knowing, which mars your work and negatively influences your results. Would you go to a work interview with your clothes dirty or in disarray? 

Moodle

http://cumoodle.coventry.ac.uk/ I generally use Moodle as a depository to hand coursework in, and to provide you feedback on it. You should always read your feedback carefully, and use it in your future work. We provide extensive and constructive advice, which is key to your success.

Academic Dishonesty

Want to make extra sure everything’s right? Take the Good Academic Practice Quiz on Moodle.

Academic dishonesty covers any attempt by a student to gain unfair advantage (e.g. extra marks) for her/himself, or for another student, by unauthorised means. Examples of such dishonesty include collusion falsification, deceit, plagiarism and cheating in examinations.

Collusion includes the conscious collaboration, without official approval, between two or more students, or between a student(s) and another person, in the preparation and production of work which is then submitted as individual work. In cases where one (or more) student has copied from another, both (all) students involved may be penalised. The boundary between legitimate co-operation and unacceptable collusion varies according to the type of work involved. Staff setting the assessment exercise will issue clear guidance on how much co-operation is acceptable.

Falsification includes the presentation of fictitious or deliberately distorted data in, for example, laboratory work, surveys or projects. This also includes citing references that do not exist.

Deceit includes misrepresentation or non-disclosure of relevant information, including the failure to disclose any cases of work being submitted for assessment which has been or will be used for other academic purposes.

Plagiarism is the act of using other people’s words, images etc. as if they were your own. In order to make clear to readers the distinction between your words, images etc. and the work of others, it is essential that you reference your work accurately, thereby avoiding a charge of plagiarism. It is always obvious when a student has copied words from a text without referencing, as there is a change of writing style each time. If you do not reference your work correctly, it will come across as if you had ‘stolen’ words or ideas from other sources.

Re-presentation is the submission of work presented previously or simultaneously for summative assessment at this Institution.

Cheating is defined as any attempt to gain an unfair advantage in an assessment (including examinations), or assisting another student to do so. It includes: taking unauthorised materials into examinations, copying from other candidates, collusion, impersonation, plagiarism, and unauthorised access to unseen examination papers. In the event of an allegation of cheating you are advised to contact the Student Union Advice Centre immediately after the incident.

It is in the best interests of all students for the University to maintain the good reputation of its awards. Your co-operation is expected in actively protecting the integrity of the assessment process. It is the duty of all students to observe high personal standards of academic honesty in their studies and to report any instances of malpractice of which they become aware.

The minimum penalty for a proven case of academic dishonesty is usually a mark of zero in that module, with the maximum being exclusion from the University

205MC – Conclusions

ANNOUNCEMENT: Media Departmental Seminars: the Department offers a series of seminars where external speakers present on a variety of key topics crossing over between media studies, photography, media production and journalism. Next dates:

  • Wed 13th November 1-2.30 ET130  – WYBIDIBD: When You Break It Down It Breaks Down – analysing social media as a progressive form of comics
  • Wed 11th December 1-2.30 ET130 –  How long is a piece of string? On the practice, scope and value of videographic film and moving image studies

205MC – Genre

IMPORTANT: PREPARATION FOR 28 OCTOBER LECTURE – MUST WATCH FILM IN ADVANCE

Essential Readings

Other Resources

Lunch Task 

Drawing on the material from last week’s seminars and what we have discussed here trace the possible connections between filmic Scandinavian noir and the social context of the drama. Why should this genre emerge in Scandinavia in the 1980s and beyond? How is this relationship represented visually and stylistically, in its narrative structures, in its plots and storylines and themes? How do the central characters mirror this context?

205MC – Narrative

Essential Readings

Other Resources

Lunch Task 

Different media (for example fictional film, documentary film, news reports, newspaper columns, advertisements, fictional literature, music video etc) and different genres within each of these media (eg within fictional film – film noir, the gangster, chick flick, rom com etc) have different codes, conventions and rules for their narrative forms, even though the subject may be identical. In your groups, and using the research you did on Film Noir prepare a 5 -10 min informal presentation on the representation of crime in Film Noir, eg, what type of people tend to be the central protagonists, how are they portrayed, how does the stylistic, musical and visual presentation of the narrative help to produce the particular representation of crime in Noir? The following is a useful resource: http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/home.html

205MC – Representation

Essential Readings

  • Fowler, R. (1991) Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. London: Routledge.
  • Hall, S. (1996) “Who Needs Identity.” inHall, S. Du Gay, P. (Eds) Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage.
  • Hall, S. (1997) Representations: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London, Sage.
  • Heidensohn, F. (1985) Women and Crime. New York: NYUP.

Lunch Task 

1. Select a certain group of women from one of these: women as victims of crime, women as perpetrators of crime, mothers who kill their children or battered women who kill their partners/husbands. Look at different representations of this topic/phenomenon in magazines, film, TV, newspapers, literature.   Films you can consider looking at may include but are not limited to:

2. Note patterns in these representations in terms of stereotyping or essentializing categories noting how class, race, sexuality etc may further affect the representation of the women in question.

3. Note value assumptions in terms of who has power, who solves problems, how problems are solved.

Disclaimer

The views expressed and materials presented represent the personal views of the author and should not be taken to represent the opinions, policy, or views of the Department of Media, or of Coventry University, nor any of its employees or other students

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202MC – 2012-13

Bibliography on urban spaces:

Atkinson, R. (2003) “Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space? Control and Empowerment in the Management of Public Spaces.” Urban Studies 40 (9): 1829–1843.

Beaumont, M. and Dart, G., eds. (2010) Restless Cities. London: Verso.

Binnie, J. and Skeggs, B. (2004) “Cosmpolitan Knowledge and the Production and Consumption of Sexualized Space: Manchester’s Gay Village” The Sociological Review 52(1):  39-61.

Conlon, D. (2004). “Productive Bodies, Performative Spaces: Everyday life in Christopher Park.” Sexualities 7: 462-479. [part of a special issue on politics, identities and space]

Coverley, M. (2006) Psychogeography. Harpenden: Pocket essentials.

Cresswell, T. (2004) Place: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

De Certeau, M. (1984) “Spatial Practices” in The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: U of California P. pp.91-114.

Evans, A., Riley, S. and Shankar, A. (2010) “Postfeminist Heterotopias : Negotiating ‘Safe’ and ‘Seedy’ in the British Sex Shop Space.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 17: 211-229.

Hetherington, K. (2007) “Manchester’s Urbis: Urban Regeneration, Museums and Symbolic Economies”  Cultural Studies  21 (4-5): 630-649.

Hetherington, K. (2005) “Memories of Capitalism:  Cities, Phantasmagoria and Arcades”  International Journal of Urban and Regional Research  29(1): 187-200.

Hetherington, K. and Munro, R. eds. (1997) Ideas of Difference: Social Spaces and the Labour of Division. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hook, D. and Vrdoljak, M. (2002) “Gated Communities, Heterotopia and a ‘‘Rights’’ of Privilege: a ‘Heterotopology’ of the South African Security-park.” Geoforum 33: 195–219.

Kofman, E. and Lebab, E., eds. (1996)  Henri Lefebvre Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell.

Lee, M. (1997). ” Geography, the Specificity of Space and the City Habitus” in Cultural Methodologies  McGuigan, J. ed. London: Sage. pp. 126-141. [In the library Main Collection Floor 2 (306.01 CUL )]

Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell.

Low, S.M. (2011) “The Edge and the Center: Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear.” American Anthopologist 103 (1): 45-58.

Masset, D. (2007) World City. London: Polity.

McDonough, T., ed. (2009) The Situationists and the City. London: Verso.

Pløger, J.(2004) ” Strife: Urban Planning and Agonism.” Planning Theory 3: 71-23.

Reader, J. (2005) Cities. London: Vintage.

Shome, R. (2003). “Space matters: The power and production of space”. Communication Theory, 13, 39-56.

Soja, E. (1996). Thirdspace. Oxford: Blackwell.

Other resources

M84MC – Applied Communication

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This module will perform a theoretically informed critical analysis of a contemporary applied communication case study. The analysis will examine the communication strategies employed by two successful PR organisation:  Madonna and Lady Gaga. To do so, the module will utilise four different perspectives based on relevant theoretical approaches:
  • communication as structure
  • communication as ritual
  • communication as performance
  • communication as a discourse
For each approach, the module will ask the following questions:
  1. How the chosen organisations use communication strategies and techniques
  2. What type of structures underlie said communication
  3. How the chosen organisations use the media
  4. How the chosen organisations influence and are influenced by contemporary culture

Lectures

01. Introduction

Final Assessment

Coursework  1

(Group presentation) 50%
As a group, choose two celebrities. Compare and contrast their communication strategies.

Coursework 2

(2.000 words essay) 50%
Pick one celebrity of your choice. Choose one of the four theoretical approaches covered in class. Using these theories, perform an analysis of your celebrity’s communication strategy.

Resources

Announcements

Coventry University Open Media Research Seminars

When: 12:15-1:15pm on selected Tuesdays in October and November

Where: ET 130 (Ellen Terry Building)

 October 23rd: Nathaniel Tkacz (University of Warwick) – ‘From Flame Wars to Frame Wars: The Structure of Conflict in Networks’ (Read More) 

November 13th: Matt Johnston (Coventry University) – ‘Online/Offline: How Digital Media Facilitates and Encourages the Generative Experience’ (Read More)

 November 20th: Caroline Bassett (University of Sussex) – ‘Silence, Delirium, Lies: An Uncoded Response to Social Media’ (Read More)

 November 27th: Eva Weinmayr and Lynn Harris (AND) – ‘Men Meets Machine’ (Read More)

M84MC (2012-13) Lecture Nine: Communication as Discourse- part 2

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This is the second of two lectures focusing on specific discourses pertaining to celebrity. This lecture briefly examines the discourse of celebrity activism. As this is the final lecture in the module, it will include a recap of the main topics touched throughout the term.
PLEASE REMEMBER: NEXT WEEK DEC 5 YOU WILL PRESENT YOUR WORK (cw1, 50% of your total mark).
CHECK OUT TIMES!
group 1: 1-1.30 pm
group 2: 1.30-2 pm
group 3: 2-2.30 pm
DO NOT FORGET YOUR COVER SHEET, OR YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A MARK!

Lecture slides:   M84MC.09 28 Nov 2012

 Readings:  Ambassador Mom

M84MC (2012-13) Lecture Eight: Communication as Discourse- part 1

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This is the first of two lectures focusing on specific discourses pertaining to celebrity. This lecture examines the discourse of aging surrounding Madonna today.

Lecture slides:  M84MC.08 21 Nov 2012

Homework – due 28 Nov 2012

1. Work on your final assignment (presentation)

2. Readings

Featherstone, M. and Wernick, A. (2005) Images of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life. London: Routledge.
(Read intro plus one chapter of your choice)
Available in the library