MEDIA STUDIES - LEVEL 3 COURSE

This course includes the following units:-

Unit 1 - Introduction – What is media?

The following topics are covered: Why study the media?; Control and Regulation; Denotation and connotation; Audience reception theory; Textual Analysis – including Narrative, Genre, Media Institutions, Media Values and; Ideology, and Media Audiences and Media language.

Unit 2 - Advertising

The following topics are covered: Criticism of Advertising; Audience theories – Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the hypodermic needle theory, uses and gratifications theory; Charity campaigning; Product placement; and Guerilla marketing.

Unit 3 - Broadcast TV

The following topics are covered: Background on institutions; Sitcoms; Intertextuality; and Audiences.

Unit 4 - Film

The following topics are covered: Narrative theory; Media texts; The cause-and-effect chain; Modern theories: Narrative in cinema; The Field theory plot; Goal-oriented plots; Auteur theory; and Post modernism.

Unit 5 - Practical production piece

The following topics are covered: Media technology; Key concepts; Planning and pre-production; Advertising; Identifying the target audience; The brief; and Website pre-production.

Unit 6 - Representation: A theoretical perspective

The following topics are covered: What are Mediation Texts?; and Case Studies.

Unit 7 - Genre: An institutional and theoretical perspective

The following topics are covered: Hybrids; Mars Attacks! 1996; How do genres adapt to changing social economic and political contexts?; and Case Studies.

Unit 8: News

The following topics are covered: Newspapers; Broadsheet versus tabloid; News institutions; and An industrial process.

Unit 9: New Media

The following topics are covered: The Internet; The impact of new media; The audience as a producer; The entertainment industry and the Copyright; Social networking and privacy; New media institutions; Successful use of the internet and new media by TV; and Games.

Unit 10: Extended essay

The following topics are covered: Essay stages; Preparing to begin; 10 steps to a top-flight essay; Conducting independent research; The 7 sins of flawed research; and Writing a bibliography.