MEST3 Pre-set topics overview (also in your booklet)

Unit 3 MEST3 Critical Perspectives

Pre-set topics overview

For this exam, you will produce an individual case study of your own choice for each pre-set topic as listed below. For each of your two case studies, you will examine the media issues and debates, theory and wider contexts relevant to your chosen case studies. You will need to apply your knowledge of the key media concepts, and be able to examine media texts in detail in terms of their meanings and their functions.

1.     The impact of new/digital media

You might study:

Ø  The interactive consumer

Ø  Social networking

Ø  Blogs

Ø  The internet and the world wide web

Ø  The role of media institutions

Ø  Media and democracy

Ø  New technologies and the audience

Ø  The changing role of the distributor and exhibitor (prosumer etc)

Ø  Values and ideology in the impact of new technology

1.    Identify case study title, and focus points/question within that:

For example, you might choose a specific new media area e.g Youtube.

-          Study a variety of new/digital technologies such as impact of smartphones and the changing modes of consumption of media products as a consequence, or the impact of social networking etc.

2.    Evaluate wider issues and debates related to your case study:

For example:

-          Impact of globalisation

-          Ownership and control

-          Developments in technology and their impact

-          Changing audience behaviours

-          Changes in the way media texts are produced, distributed and exhibited.

-          Decline of the ‘mass’ audience in the new interactive age, and how this mainly affects media institutions now and in the future.

3.    Consider relevant media theories:

Examine a variety of media theories to (for example):

-         Consider how new/digital media affects the construction of media products

-         Consider the political and social implications of the new technologies and the methods of their consumption

-         Consider the effects so far, and possible effects in the future, on media institutions

-         Consider the role of the interactive audience

-         Consider cross-cultural factors in, and the effects of globalisation on, the impact of new technology as appropriate.

For example, a case study of Youtube might look at a variety of issues all linked with the list above but would also examine the nature of the site, its content, the implications of a medium where we are all producers of media texts, the debate over whether a site such as Youtube is a part of the demoncratisation of the media or whether media institutions have forestalled the power of the audience by purchasing such sites. There are also considerable implications for all media producers (and audiences) in the sense that now, it can be argued, creators of media products can control the distribution and exhibition of their own products.

*Aim to cover at least 2 of the 3 media platforms in your study*

2.   Identities and the media

You might study:

Ø  The mainstream media’s role and influence in the construction of identities

Ø  Audiences and identities, including audience uses and responses, self-representation, role-playing, collective identities.

Ø  The impact of social media on identity and the role of the individual as producer

Ø  Debates about the power of the media and audiences, including the media’s influence, varieties of audience uses and responses etc.

Ø  Debates about dominant and marginalised identities

Ø  Identity politics, including diverse, fluid and multiple identities, alternative and queer identities.

Ø  Ideology, the ideas and values communicated by identities.

1.    Identify case study title, and focus points/question within that:

EXAMPLE: Construction of female teen identities (considering gender, age, class, ethnicity etc) in relation to celebrity culture and its links to ideology.

-          the way different aspects of the identity of a celebrity are produced and reinforced by mainstream media

-          fans own constructions in response to celebrity

-          the positioning of the audience through their associations with popular culture in a range of media products

-          The manufacturing of role models and their use by institutions and audiences

2.    Evaluate wider issues and debates related to your case study:

For example:

-          Blurring of borders between public and private space

-          The ideological function of identity

-          The limits of self-representation

3.    Consider relevant media theories:

Examine a variety of media theories to (for example):

-          Consider how identity is constructed across media forms and types of producers

-          Consider the role of technology in forming identity; technological determinism or social transformation

-          Consider the view of technology as threat in the construction of identities (particularly for younger age groups)

-          Consider the effect of identity politics on the media; how do marginalised groups claim identities and how are they received by dominant groups?

-          Consider the limitations of defining individuals and groups by identity characteristics

-          Consider the use of representation as a process in defining identity.

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Media theories you could investigate:

Media analysis:

-          Semiotics

-          Structuralism and post-structuralism

-          Postmodernism and its critiques

Politics and the media:

-          Gender and ethnicity

-          Marxism and hegemony

-          Liberal pluralism

-          Colonialism and post-colonialism

Consumption and production:

-          Audience theories

-          Genre theories