A suggestion for structuring your case studies

I know there's an abundance of potentially conflicting information on these blogs, so I've tried to condense all the advice into one manageable list.

Some of you might choose to structure your case study in your own way; that's absolutely fine of course, you just need to make sure you cover the content below somehow to enable you to answer Section B convincingly. 

The approach for NDM and Identities is obviously going to be quite different, but here's what I would suggest:

MEST3 Section B: Case studies

New Digital Media:

Identify case study:

Once you’ve chosen your focus area, 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. Identify the texts you’ll focus on (you could focus on one specific event if, for example, you’re looking at news journalism).

Evaluate wider issues and debates:

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.

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 and ownership

-         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 democratisation 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.)

Identities and the Media:

Identify your case study focus and your chosen (4) texts.

Key questions to answer:

What representations and identities are present and how have they been created? Refer to specific media language

Are these dominant or marginalised identities?

How could the audience use this to construct or shape their own identities?

Is there evidence of encoded ideology within the product?

What theories could you apply to this text around the issue of identities?