This module examines the media audience in its historic and emerging contexts. Enquiry into the nature of ‘the audience’ and the relationship between media texts and audiences has been a key concern of media studies since the early 20th century. The concerns of audience studies are underpinned by a range of (often conflicting) assumptions about the varied ‘effects’ of media on its consumers; by extension these debates impact on understandings about culture and society. More recent concerns attend to the role that the contemporary media landscape plays in re-shaping our understanding of media audiences, who now constitute both consumers and, potentially, creators of media forms and texts. Through a chronological overview, the module situates media audiences within their wider socio-cultural context and addresses key issues, conceptual and methodological concerns of the field.
• Perspectives on mass culture, society and audiences.
• Trajectories from emphases on ‘effects’ to ‘interpretations’.
• The ‘ethnographic turn’ and methodological implications.
• The active audience approach: issues of resistance and subversion.
• The pleasures of the text: women’s genres and fan cultures.
• The immaterial labour of the ‘new media’ audience.
• New media audiences: issues of interactivity and fragmentation.
Indicative syllabus as follows:
Indicative Syllabus• Perspectives on mass culture, society and audiences.• Trajectories from emphases on ‘effects’ to ‘interpretations’.• The ‘ethnographic turn’ and methodological implications.• The active audience approach: issues of resistance and subversion.• The pleasures of the text: women’s genres and fan cultures.• The immaterial labour of the ‘new media’ audience.• New media audiences: issues of interactivity and fragmentation
Teaching methods include lectures, screenings, key clips and detailed references to key readings. Students are expected to attend and engage meaningfully in lectures. They will work periodically in small groups and be given practice in listening to each other’s contributions, offering constructive criticism, and in reporting discussion to the class. Students are expected to engage in self-directed learning including reading and assessment preparation. In addition to guided reading, students are expected to read and to use variety of sources (primary and secondary) and to raise issues, questions during class-time.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Other Assessment(s) | 100 |