SE1108: Introduction to Media Communication

School Language and Communication
Department Code ENCAP
Module Code SE1108
External Subject Code Q310
Number of Credits 20
Level L4
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Virpi Ylanne-Thomas
Semester Spring Semester
Academic Year 2013/4

Outline Description of Module

This double module develops basic approaches to the study of media communication, relevant to a wide range of media - from TV programmes to magazine advertisements and social networking sites.. What is distinctive about particular media forms and genres? We look at how news gets produced, and analyse news stories and advertisements using methods of discourse analysis. We also look at broadcast conversation, as well as at the new forms of communication in electronic mail and the world wide web.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

On completion of the module a student should be familiar with the most fundamental scholarly approaches to media communication and be able to analyse media texts in their specific social and political context.

How the module will be delivered

Lectures (20) and seminars (10). Assignments and guided reading (130 hours).

Skills that will be practised and developed

On completion of the module a student should be able to read academic texts of different levels of complexity; assess the value of key concepts in media communication; express an argument clearly; research and write an academic essay.

How the module will be assessed

Coursework (50%); and Written Examination (50%)

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Exam - Spring Semester 50 Introduction To Media Communication 1
Written Assessment 50 Coursework N/A

Syllabus content

The media world: functions, processes and effects

Making news: news production, news values; structure and organisation of news stories

News as story and news as ideology: a critical approach to the construction of reality, attitudes and beliefs

Broadcast talk: as institutional discourse, or conversation in radio and TV

Advertising: aesthetics; the use of narrative; social and cultural meanings and ideologies

New media: new technologies for communication; computer-mediated discourse; online identities and communities

Essential Reading and Resource List

Crystal, D. (2001) Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Macdonald, M. (2003) Exploring Media Discourse London: Arnold

Marshall, J. and Werndly, A. (2002) The Language of Television. London: Routledge.

O’Keefe A. (2006) Investigating Media Discourse. London: Routledge.

Richardson, J. (2007) Analysing Newspapers Basingstoke: Palgrave.

 

A Course Reader will be available for this module from Blackwell’s bookshop from the start of semester 2.


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