Description1
MSc Media, Communications and
International Journalism
Researching Audiences and Media
Representations (SOCIO 5082)
2022-23
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Researching Audiences and Media Representations
This course will critically explore different ways of conceptualising and researching the
relationship between media and audiences, the dynamics of power and resistance and their
contextualisation in current social, cultural and political environments. It will examine
specifically the role of the media in representing cultural difference and in broader
processes of social change. It will then examine media theorists who attempt to
conceptualise the transformative impact of digital technologies and assess the question of
continuities and breaks with previous traditions developed in the ‘broadcast age’. For
example, we will examine claims that social media may act as facilitators of a more
participatory public sphere than traditional media, and conversely those that argue our
intensely individualised media is a manifestation of neoliberal consumerism and distorts
public resistance to it.
Through readings, seminars, discussions and practical exercises it will examine the following
questions:
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Is public opinion effectively managed for political and economic ends or are
audience members active and empowered navigators of content across multi-media
platforms?
In what ways might media amplify cultural difference? And is there an argument
that media might play a role in consolidating distinct communities of difference?
How might we analyse different forms of media content?
In what way has the relationship between audiences and media producers changed
in the digital world?
To what degree do social media such as Twitter and Facebook shape the parameters
of public debate?
Can violence in the media contribute to violence in society, and if we can’t identify a
causal link, should we dismiss any question of ‘effects’ at all?
When it comes to common global problems such as climate and inequality, how can
we communicate to different and diverse publics?
COVID-19 Implications
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect how we will be delivering all teaching this
academic year. You will be receiving a range of guidance around safe behaviours and
adapted systems from the University based on government advice. You can find the latest
updates and other useful links on the Coronavirus information page:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/news/coronavirus/
We have prepared our programme to meet these contact restrictions, and core courses
continue be delivered through a combination of pre-recorded lecture material and live face
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to face seminars. There is an expectation that students will be able to attend face to face
seminars and we cannot facilitate online seminars for students who are not in Glasgow
without good reason. If you are unable to be in Glasgow please contact the Programme
Convenor.
Course communications
Course Lecturers:
Dr Dominic Hinde (Course Convenor)
RM 314, Adam Smith Building
Office hours: Thursday mornings 0900-1100
Email: Dominic.Hinde@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Cairsti Russell
Email: cairistiona.russell@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Alison Eldridge
Email: Alison.Eldridge@glasgow.ac.uk
Post Grad Administrator: Elizabeth.Gray.2@glasgow.ac.uk
Postgraduate Administration Office
RM 208C, Adam Smith Building
Tel: 0141 3304317
Email: socpol-pgt-socio@glasgow.ac.uk
Noticeboard: All students will be expected to use the Moodle website for course
communication. This is an interactive website to be used by both students and staff.
Course Aims
The aims of the course are:
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To develop students’ knowledge and comprehension of the range of theoretical
approaches to understanding media audiences and to contextualise them in the
evolving digital culture.
To develop students’ critical skills in media research across a broad range of
methodologies.
To examine the appropriateness of a range of methods including content analysis,
audience reception, focus groups and data analysis journalism for tackling specific
areas of research.
Intended Learning Outcomes
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By the end of this course students will be able to:
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Identify and provide a critical assessment of the key academic literature in the area
of media audiences.
Evaluate the role of the media in the construction of public understanding, and its
impacts on social action including policy formation.
Apply appropriate theoretical and empirical methods to critically analyse media
production, content and reception.
Use a range of methods for identifying and measuring the consumption patterns and
responses of different audience groups.
Transferable Skills
Students will develop the following transferable/key skills:
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Use digital methods effectively to support research and analysis and the
presentation of work.
Communicate effectively across a range of media.
Make an identifiable contribution to creative group thinking.
Learn independently, demonstrating initiative, effective time- management and selforganisation.
Internet research
As media students there is an expectation that you browse widely across the range of news
and other outlets that are available. A quick scan of the range of global and national outlets
on any given day and in relation to any given news item is a very useful place to start in
terms of learning about the global news culture. There are also a wide range of helpful
online resources relating to media, communications and journalism studies that can be
accessed. Here is a recommended selection, though it’s always best to do some research
and find your own favourites!
https://www.cjr.org/
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/home
http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/work-in-broadcast
https://rsf.org/en
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https://www.niemanlab.org/
Any information obtained from a website should be referenced in your work and the full
website should be listed in your bibliography. Because websites change, you should also
include the date you visited the site.
Twitter can also be a useful resource, though information gained from Twitter should not be
relied on for accuracy or cited in academic work. These handles below can be useful if you
want to follow people interested in media policy.
@mediaguardian, Media Guardian
@brianstelter, Brian Stelter, media reporter, CNN
@BBCCollege, BBC Journalism
@NiemanLab, Journalism, Harvard University
@pinfnews, Public Interest News Foundation
@FullFact, Independent News Checking Service
@CodaStory, investigative news platform specialising in human rights and disinformation
Teaching and Structure of the Course
Teaching will be conducted through a combination of recorded content, online materials,
readings and weekly seminars. Seminars will take place on Zoom on Wednesdays. There
will be four seminar groups for this course, and you will be allocated a group before week
one. You should check Moodle regularly for updates about preparation for seminars.
Specific seminar information will usually be made visible the week beforehand.
For all topics, there will be ‘key readings’ (which you should read in preparation for the
seminars) and ‘additional readings’ (which you can read at your leisure). For some topics,
there may be a requirement to prepare other materials and/or oral presentations. The
course focuses on active and practical learning and, as such, it is very important that
students prepare in advance and are ready to actively contribute to class discussions.
Course Requirements and Assessment
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Regular attendance at seminars
Regular reading of all required texts/materials
Regular, informed participation in the seminars
Preparation for group or individual exercises and presentations
Essay: There is a formally assessed essay of 4000-words for this course which accounts for
100% of the marks. You will be asked to choose from a list of set questions, This
assignment provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their critical
understanding of current ideas, research and literature in relevant areas. The essay should
discuss analytical and theoretical issues relevant to the topic and, where appropriate,
support a coherent argument with primary and/or secondary material.
Submission: The essay should be uploaded to the course’s Moodle page by 14.00, Friday,
14 April 2023. Essays should be double spaced and in a font size no smaller than 12 point.
Formative assessment: In order to gain feedback for your essay, the course lecturers need
to see a one-page outline of your topic and main readings. This should be uploaded to the
course’s Moodle page by 14.00, Friday 16 March 2022. This component is not marked but
you MUST submit an essay plan to advance to the essay. You will be given feedback on your
work at the very latest two weeks before final essay deadline.
TURNITIN: The University Plagiarism Statement indicates that the University retains the
right to use electronic means (i.e. anti-plagiarism soft-ware) on student work. TURNITIN
software is now being used by the department and further information will be available on
Moodle.
Essay Return: Your essay will normally be returned to you with comments within three
weeks of the submission date. Please note that the mark you are given is provisional. Your
essay will need to be second marked and the mark needs to be agreed by the External
Examiner. All marks are finalised at our Examiners Meeting in June. This is when your course
results will be posted on MyCampus. Your overall degree results will not be posted until
after your dissertation or practical project is submitted and examined in Autumn 2020.
Referencing: Essays should make appropriate reference to recommended reading for the
specific topic and include a bibliography conforming either to the Harvard referencing
system. Further details on essay writing and referencing are contained in Appendix A.
Late Submission: There are penalties for the late submission of essays. The University
statement on this can be found in Appendix B.
Plagiarism
You are reminded of the importance of avoiding plagiarism in essay material. The
Department and the University enforce strict rules on plagiarism and take the gravest view
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of any incident of plagiarism. Please note that this includes the unacknowledged use of
material drawn from websites – such material is almost always easily recognised within the
body of an essay, and easily sourced through the use of search engines and plagiarism
checking programmes. The University’s statement on plagiarism is given as Appendix D.
Equality and Diversity
The University of Glasgow as a whole is committed to promoting equality in all its activities
and aims to provide a work, learning, research and teaching environment free from
discrimination and unfair treatment. Further information about the University’s Equality and
Diversity Unit, including information about who you should contact if you wish to discuss
anything in this respect, can be found at this address:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/equalitydiversity/
Problems
The University also offers a range of additional advice and help to its students which it may
be useful for you to know about. You can find information on these at:
www.gla.ac.uk/student/support.html
The Student Learning Service, provides support and advice designed to help you study more
efficiently and communicate more effectively. It also organises exam preparation classes,
and a varied series of workshops throughout year, as well as a regular ‘drop-in’ facility.
Details about the service can be found here: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/sls/
There is also an Adviser to Students with Special Needs, such as those which arise from
physical disability or dyslexia. The Student Disability Service can be found at 69 Southpark
Avenue. Further details about the services they provide can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/disability/
The Student Counselling and Advice Service can offer help and advice about many problems
students may encounter. Their website, which provides contact and other details, is here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/counselling/
The Student Hardship Fund and Access Fund may be able to offer limited assistance to
students who are facing major financial problems. You should ask your advisor about these
if you find yourself in extreme financial difficulties that are affecting your studies.
The school also has a dedicated employability officer, who can offer advice and support with
a view to future employment. Details about employability support can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/lbss/forstudents/employability/
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Course Texts and Library Provision
The following are recommended readings which provide a foundation for the range of ideas
that we will cover across the course. These are available in the library.
Barker, C. (2016) Cultural studies: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Available as an ebook.
Boyle, K. (2005) Media and violence: gendering the debates. London: Sage.
Curran, J., Fenton, N. and Freedman, D. (2016) Misunderstanding the Internet. 2nd Edition.
Oxon: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and Power. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London:
Longman.
Fuchs, C. (2017) Social Media: a critical introduction. 2nd Edition. London: Sage.
Hall, S. et al. (1980) Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972-79
(Cultural Studies Birmingham). London: Routledge.
Hartley, J. et al. (2013) (eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Oxford: WileyBlackwell.
Hodkinson, P. (2017) Media, Culture and Society: an introduction. 2nd Edition. London:
Sage. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide.
University Press.
New York
Jenkins, H., Ford, S. and Green, J. (2013) Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a
Networked Culture. New York University Press.
Livingstone, S. and Das, R. (2013) ‘The end of audiences? theoretical echoes of reception amid
the uncertainties of use’. In: Hartley, J., Burgess, J. and Bruns, A. (eds.) A Companion to New
Media Dynamics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mandiberg, M. (2012) The Social Media Reader. New York University Press.
Manning, P. (2001) News and News Sources: A Critical Introduction. SAGE Publications.
Merrin, W. (2014) Media Studies 2.0. London: Routledge.
Turkle, S. (2011) Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each
other. New York: Basic Books.
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van Dijk, T. A. (1988) News as Discourse. Hillside, NJ: Erbaum.
Waisbord, S. (ed.) (2014) Media Sociology: A Reappraisal. Polity.
Lecture and Seminar Programme
PLEASE NOTE THAT SEMINARS ARE ON THURSDAYS
Seminar Programme:
Quick Overview
WK
Topic & Date
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12 January Audience
Course intro and
Reception Theory
Dominic Hinde
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3
4
19 January Media and
Difference
Dominic Hinde
26 January Media
Violence and ‘Effects’
Dominic Hinde
2 February
Engaging Publics on
Climate Change
Dominic Hinde
5
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09 February
Beyond
Representation?
Dominic Hinde
16 February
Audience negotiations of
credibility and trust
Cairsti Russell
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23 February
Ethnography and deep
media research
Isaac Hoff
2 March
Large scale audience
research and policy
Dominic Hinde/Dr
Ealasaid Munro (Ofcom
Seminar 1
13:00-14:00
Seminar 2
14:00-15:00
Seminar 3
15:00-16:00
Seminar 4
16:00-17:00
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10
9 March
The Power of the
Image/Visual responses
16 March
Question & Answer
Session/Essay prep
Dominic Hinde
LECTURE PROGRAMME
WEEK 1: Audience Reception Theory
This lecture introduces the course, which focuses on the interpretative relationship
between audience and media. It will discuss the foundations of reception studies through
Stuart Hall’s ‘encoding and decoding’ model and the ethnographic turn which followed in
communications studies, as well as outlining other approaches to audience study within the
framework of the course. This includes an examination of how alternative interpretations
are transformed in the digital environment.
This will focus on the research traditions which emerged from Hall’s work, and the critiques
of these. It will explore the alternative cultural production of fan communities, the
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potential for resistance through such activity and the possibility of inclusive participation.
For the seminar you should read Stuart Hall’s text on encoding and decoding media and
Jean Seaton’s text on 1984. You should also come to the seminar with answers to the
following questions. Be prepared to have a conversation with your peers.
How much are you influenced by the media you consume, and to what extent are you aware
of the ideological content of the media you are subject to?
Think about the media today and the media ten or fifteen years ago when you were a
teenager. What differences do you see in the media landscape that might impact on
audience behaviour?
With regard to Jean Seaton’s article on George Orwell and resistant thought, how can the
idea of ‘doublethink’ help us to understand the way audiences resist media messaging?
Key Readings:
Hall, S. (1980). ‘Encoding and Decoding’. In Hall, S. et al. (eds.) Culture, Media and Language.
London: Hutchinson. This reading is on Moodle.
Seaton, J. (2018). ‘Why Orwell’s 1984 could be about now.’ BBC Culture. Available at
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180507-why-orwells-1984-could-be-about-now
Additional Readings:
Ang, I. (1985) Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. Methuen.
Available as an e-book.
Ang, I. (1991) Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Barker, C. (2016) Cultural studies: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Available as an ebook.
Curran, J. (1990). ‘The New Revisionism in `Mass Communication Research’. European
Journal of Communication 5(2-3), 135-164.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0267323190005002002
Das, R. and Ytre-Arne, B. (eds.) (2018) The Future of Audiences: A Foresight Analysis of
Interfaces and Engagement. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an e-book.
Fiske, J. (2011) Televison Culture, 2nd edition. Routledge: New York. Available as an e-book.
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Hall, S. (1973) Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Birmingham: Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies. Available on Moodle.
Hartley, J. et al. (2013) (eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Oxford: WileyBlackwell. Available as an e-book.
Happer et al. (2019) ‘Weaponizing reality: an introduction to Trump’s war on the media’, in
Trump’s Media War. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an e-book.
Hellekson, K. and Busse, K. (eds.) (2014) The Fan Fiction Studies Reader. University of Iowa
Press. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York
University Press. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2012) Fan studies. Oxford University Press. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2012) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. Taylor and
Francis. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. Ford, S. and Green., J. (2013) Spreadable media: creating value and meaning in a
networked culture, New York: New York University Press. Available as an e-book.
Jin, N. (2012 ) Active Audience: A New Materialistic Interpretation of a Key Concept of
Audience Studies. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Available as an e-book.
Livingstone, S. (1998) ‘Relationships Between Media and Audiences: Prospects For Audience
Reception Studies’. In Liebes, T and Curran, J. Media, Ritual and Identity: Essays in Honor of
Elihu Katz. London, UK : Routledge.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/1005/1/Relationships_between_media_and_audiences(LSERO).pdf
Livingstone, Sonia and Das, Ranjana (2013) The end of audiences?:theoretical echoes of
reception amid the uncertainties of use. In: Hartley, John, Burgess, Jean and Bruns, Axel,
(eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK, pp.104-121.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/1005/1/Relationships_between_media_and_audiences(LSERO).pdf
Livingstone, S. (2005). (ed.). Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for
the Public Sphere. Bristol, England: Intellect Press. Available as an e-book.
Livingstone, S. (2013) ‘The Participation Paradigm in Audience Research’. The
Communication Review. 16 (1-2): 21-30. https://www-tandfonlinecom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/10714421.2013.757174?needAccess=true&
Morley, D. (1980) The Nationwide Audience. BFI: London, Chapters l, 2 and 3. Available as an
e-book.
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Morley, D. (1992) Television, Audiences and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge. Available
as an e-book.
Nightingale, V. (2011) The Handbook of Media Audiences. John Wiley and Sons. Available as
an e-book.
Patriarche, G. et al. (2014) Audience Research Met odologies: Between Innovation and
Consolidation. New York: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Pierson, D. P. (2013) Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and
Reception of the Television Series. Lexington Books. Available as an e-book.
Radway, J. (1987) Reading the Romance. London: Verso. Available as an e-book.
Shaw A. Encoding and decoding affordances: Stuart Hall and interactive media technologies.
Media, Culture & Society. 2017;39(4):592-602. https://journals-sagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1177/0163443717692741?utm_source=summon&utm
_medium=discovery-provider&#articleCitationDownloadContainer
WEEK 2: Media and Difference
This lecture will examine the relationship between media, cultural difference and distinct
communities. We will look at debates around mass society, de-differentiation and the
illusion of ‘choice’ in the consumerist context. We will examine the populating of reality
television by people from the working class, and the way in which the media marginalize
particular communities (such as through ‘poverty porn’) viewed from a critical position of
‘normal society’ and those who opt out from it. Finally we’ll discuss the growing disconnect
between journalists and the audiences they represent, and the way in which this impacts on
how ‘difference’ is represented and understood.
For the seminar you should read the papers by Bev Skeggs and Gurminder K. Bhambra on
representations of the British working class. Make notes and in the seminar you should
reflect on your own experience of how your own life is reflected in the media. Be prepared
to talk and consider the following questions:
What class do you think you belong to? Do you think you are an average person? Is your life
well reflected in the media?
How much of your view of people from different regions, racial groups or economic
backgrounds is influenced by media portrayals? How does this relate to the two key
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readings?
Key Reading:
Skeggs, B. (2011) Imagining personhood differently: person value and autonomist working‐
class value practices, The Sociological Review, 59, 3, (496-513). This reading is on Moodle.
Bhambra, G. K. (2017). Brexit, Trump, and ‘methodological whiteness’: On the misrecognition of race
and class. The British journal of sociology, 68, S214-S232.
Additional Readings:
Adorno, T. (1991) The Culture Industry: Selected Essays On Mass Culture. London:
Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Babe, R. (2016) ‘Theodor Adorno and Dallas Smythe: Culture Industry/Consciousness
Industry and the Political Economy of Media and Communication.’ In Babe, R. (ed.)
Revisiting the Frankfurt School: Essays on Culture, Media and Theory. Ashgate Publishing.
Available as an e-book.
Benedtictis, S. D, Allen, K. and Jensen, T. (2017) ‘Portraying Poverty: The Economics and
Ethics of Factual Welfare Television’. Cultural Sociology, 11 (3), 1749-9755.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1749975517712132?journalCode=cusa
Biressi A, Nunn H (2008) ‘Bad citizens: The class politics of lifestyle television’. In: Palmer G
(ed.) Exposing Lifestyle Television: The Big Reveal. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 15–23.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265271989_Bad_Citizens_The_Class_Politics_of
_Lifestyle_Television/link/542fd8a20cf29bbc1272951e/download
Cook, D. (2001) ‘Adorno on Mass Societies’, Journal of social philosophy, 32, Issue 1.
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5
c79b4a4-0bab-481d-94b5-0c3b6c827f02%40pdc-v-sessmgr03
Philo, G, Briant, E. and Donald P. (2013) Bad News for Refugees. Pluto Press. Available as an
e-book.
Hodkinson, P. (2017) Media, Culture and Society: an introduction. 2nd Edition. London:
Sage. Available as an e-book.
Jenson, T. (2014) ‘Welfare Common Sense, Poverty Porn and Doxography’, Sociological
Research Online, 19 (3).
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.5153/sro.3441?journalCode=sroa
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Jenson, T. and Tyler, I. (2015) ‘Benefits broods: the cultural and political crafting of antiwelfare commonsense’, Critical Social Policy, 4 (35), 470-491.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0261018315600835
Kendall, D.E. (2011) Framing class: media representations of wealth and poverty in America.
Rowman & Littlefield. Available as an e-book.
Savage, M. (2012015) Social Class in the 21st Century. Penguin UK. Available as an e-book.
Skeggs, B. (2009) ‘The moral economy of person production: the class relations of selfperformance on “reality” television’. Sociological Review, 57 (4).
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467954X.2009.01865.x?journalCode=sora
Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. (2011) ‘Turning it on is a class act: immediated object relations with
television’, Media, Culture & Society, 33(6) 941–951.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443711412298
Snow, J. (2017, 23 Aug) ‘The Best and Worst of Times’: the MacTaggart Lecture at Edinburgh
TV Festival 2017’. https://www.channel4.com/news/by/jon-snow/blogs/mactaggartlecture-edinburgh-2017
Stiernstedt, Fredrik, and Peter Jakobsson (2017) ‘Watching Reality from a Distance: Class,
Genre and Reality Television’. Media, Culture & Society, 39 (5): 697–714.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443716663643?journalCode=mcsa
Tyler, I. (2020) Stigma: the machinery of inequality. Zed Books. Available as an e-book.
Tyler, I. (2013) Revolting subjects: social abjection and resistance in neoliberal Britain. Zed
Books. Available as an e-book.
Williams, R. (1983) Writing in Society. Verso. Chapter 5. Available as an e-book.
WEEK 3: Media Violence and ‘Effects’
This lecture examines sociological perspectives on ‘media effects’ debate in relation to the
impacts of violent content in the media. It will look at the way in which applications of the
moral panic model to questions of media violence have often led to a simplistic dismissal of
any question of impacts, and ask how we can understand media effects more accurately. It
will argue for a more nuanced approach which addresses the broader role of media in
normalising cultural values and behaviours.
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We will be looking in particular at the idea of sexual violence and sexualisation in the media,
and how this is manifested through examination of the #MeToo movement and the way in
which counter collectives online can seek to resist social media narratives as in the case of
#Himtoo. We will also look at the idea of ‘symbolic’ violence and how this differs to
straightforward media effects through the prism of new right politics.
For the seminar you should read both key readings and come prepared to answer the
following questions:
Why does media regulation and politics seek to assert moral boundaries for media content?
How should we understand the concept of normalisation and radicalisation in relation to
media content?
Is there an appropriate line to be drawn for media content? How might we go about
measuring and policing media in a way that balances genuine harms with freedom of
expression?
Key Readings:
DeCook, J. R. (2018). Memes and symbolic violence:# proudboys and the use of memes for
propaganda and the construction of collective identity. Learning, Media and
Technology, 43(4), 485-504.
Sophie Hindes & Bianca Fileborn (2020) “Girl power gone wrong”: #MeToo, Aziz Ansari, and
media reporting of (grey area) sexual violence, Feminist Media Studies, 20:5, 639-656.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2019.1606843 This reading is on
Moodle.
Additional Readings:
Barker, M. and Petley, J. (eds.). (2001) Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate. London:
Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Bartlett, A, Clarke, K. and Cover, R. (2019) Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating
Intimacy. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an e-book.
Buckingham, D. (2000) After the death of childhood: growing up in the age of electronic
media. Polity Press. Available as an e-book.
Bourdieu, P. (2001). Masculine domination. Stanford University Press.
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boyd, d. (2014) It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Yale University Press.
Chapter 4. Available as an e-book.
Boyle, K. (2005) Media and Violence: Gendering the Debates. London: Sage. Available as an
e-book.
Boyle, K. (2019) #MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an ebook.
Boyle, K. and Rathnayake C. (2019) ‘#HimToo and the Networking of Misogyny in the Age of
#MeToo’, Feminist Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1661868
Boyle, K. (2019) ‘What’s in a Name? Theorising the Inter-Relationships of Gender and
Violence’, Feminist Theory 20:(1) 19-36.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464700118754957
Buckingham, D. (2012) Beyond “Media Panics”, Journal of children and media, 6 (4), pp.
413- 429. https://www-tandfonlinecom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/17482798.2012.740415?needAccess=true
Burawoy, M. (2019). Symbolic violence: conversations with Bourdieu. Duke University Press.
Clarke, J. (2008) Still Policing the Crisis?, Crime, Media, Culture, 4 (1). https://journalssagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659007087278
Cohen, S. (2011) Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers.
London and New York: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Cree, V. E. (ed.) (2015) Revisiting Moral Panics. Policy Press. Available as an e-book.
Ferreday, D. (2015) ‘Game of Thrones, rape culture and feminist fandom’, Australian
Feminist Studies. 30 (83): 21-36.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08164649.2014.998453?journalCode=cafs2
0
Gauntlett, D. (1998) ‘’Ten Things Wrong with the “Effects Model’’. In Dickinson, R.,
Harindranath, R. & Linné, O. (eds.) Approaches to Audiences – A Reader. London: Arnold.
http://davidgauntlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Ten-Things-Wrong-2006version.pdf
Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J., & Roberts, B. (1978). Policing the Crisis:
Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. London: Macmillan. Ordered digital copy.
Hasinoff, A. A. (2015) Sexting Panic: Rethinking Criminalization, Privacy, and Consent.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Available as an e-book.
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Hasinoff A.A. (2013) Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and sexuality.
New Media & Society.15(4):449-465. https://journals-sagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1177/1461444812459171?utm_source=summon&utm
_medium=discovery-provider
Hier, S. (2011) ‘Tightening the Focus: Moral Panic, Moral Regulation and Liberal
Government’. The British Journal of Sociology, 62(3): 523-541.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01377.x
Ingraham, C. and Reeves, J. (2016) ‘New media, new panics.’, Critical Studies in Media
Communication, 33(5): 455-467. Available on Moodle.
Krinsky, C. (2013)The Ashgate research companion to moral panics. Taylor and Francis.
Available as an e-book.
Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., and Gorzig, A. (2012) (eds.) Children, Risk and Safety Online:
Research and Policy Challenges in Comparative Perspective. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Available as an e-book.
McGlynn, C., Rackley, E. and Houghton, R. (2017) ‘Beyond “Revenge Porn”: The Continuum
of Image-Based Sexual Abuse’. Feminist Legal Studies. 25(1): 25-46.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10691-017-9343-2
Millwood Hargrave, A. and Livingstone, S. (2013) Harm and Offence in Media Content: a
Review of the Evidence. 2nd Revised edition, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/49000/1/Livingstone_Harm_offence_media_2009.pdf
Newson, E. (1994). Video Violence and the Protection of Children. University of Nottingham:
Child Development Research Unit, March. Available on Moodle.
Ortiz S. M. (2020) Trolling as a Collective Form of Harassment: An Inductive Study of How
Online Users Understand Trolling. Social Media + Society. Online only.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305120928512#articleCitationDownloa
dContainer
Phillips, N. (2017, July 27). Violence, Media Effects, and Criminology. Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of Criminology.
https://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefo
re-9780190264079-e-189.
Philo, G. and Miller, D. (1998) ‘The Effective Media’. In Philo, G. (ed.). Message Received:
Glasgow Media Group research, 1993-1998. Harlow: Longman. Available as an e-book.
Ringrose, J, Gill, R. Livingstone, S and Harvey, L. (2012) ‘A Qualitative Study of Children,
Young People and ‘Sexting’: A report Prepared for the NSPCC.
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https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/qualitative-studychildren-young-people-sexting-report.pdf
Wright Monod, S. (2017) Making Sense of Moral Panics: A Framework for Research.
Springer Publishing. Available as an e-book.
WEEK 4: Engaging Publics on Climate Change
This lecture explores the range of challenges facing journalists reporting on climate change
in respect of public engagement. It will address the role of media and communications in
inhibiting the development of a public consensus on action exploring the inter-actions of
sceptical and low priority reporting, as well as the challenges of engaging audiences
emotionally on what is seen as a remote issue. It will examine the shift in momentum in the
last few years in the UK which relates variously to the work of activists and factions of the
media shifting the language of climate to one of crisis, emergency and catastrophe.
We will then explore the question on the way in which engagement with climate change is
polarised along different faultlines and the role of social media in exacerbating divisions. To
do this the lecture will address three inter-linked areas: youth protest, the way in which
climate activism might be seen as exclusionary to certain groups and political and cultural
polarisation online. For the seminar you should do the following:
Read the key reading by Moser and Dilling. Look at how climate change is impacting on your
home town, city or region and consider where interventions might be made. How would you
argue for climate positive interventions that would engage people?
Come to class prepared to pitch ideas on climate persuasion and communication in your
local context.
Key Reading:
Moser S.C. and Dilling L. (2010) ‘Communicating Climate Change: Opportunities and
Challenges for Closing the Science-Action Gap’. In: Norgaard R., Schlosberg D. and Dryzek J.
(eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
pp. 161–174. This reading is on Moodle.
Additional Readings:
TV: BBC, Climate Change: The Facts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9WyLPgyuqo
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Boykoff, M.T., and Boykoff, J.M. (2004), “Balance as Bias: Global Warming and the US
Prestige Press”, Global Environmental Change, (14): 125–136.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378003000669
Boykoff, M. T., and Boykoff, J. M. (2007), “Climate change and journalistic norms: A casestudy of US mass-media coverage”, Geoforum, (38):1190–1204.
https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/publications/downloads/boykoff07-geoforum.pdf
Boykoff, M. T. (2011) Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on
Climate Change. Cambridge University Press. Available as an e-book.
Carrington, D. (2019) ‘Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the
environment’, The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changingthe-language-it-uses-about-the-environment
Corner, A. and Clark, J. (2017) Talking Climate: From Research to Practice in Public
Engagement. Springer Publishing. Available as an e-book.
Crawford, L., Breheny, M., Mansvelt, J. & Hill, S. (2019) ‘Broad consensus across the
divide’: rhetorical constructions of climate change in mainstream news media, Kōtuitui: New
Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1177083X.2018.1503605
Doyle, J. et al Mediating Climate Change. Taylor and Francis. Available as an e-book.
Dryzek, J. S. et al (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford
University Press. Available as an e-book.
Elliott, R. (2018) The Sociology of Climate Change as a Sociology of Loss, European journal of
sociology. 59 (3), pp. 301-337. https://www-cambridgeorg.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/core/services/aop-cambridgecore/content/view/B16D58EC8D7F9AEE3227A35F4A9A5E20/S0003975618000152a.pdf/divclass-title-the-sociology-of-climate-change-as-a-sociology-of-loss-div.pdf
Happer, C. (2017) ‘Belief in Change: The role of Media and Communications in Driving Action
on Climate Change’. In: Elliott, A., Cullis, J. and Damodaran, V. (eds.) Climate Change and the
Humanities: Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary
Environmental Crisis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 177-197. Available as an e-book.
Happer, C. and Philo, G. (2016) ‘New approaches to Understanding the Role of the News
Media in the Formation of Public Attitudes and Behaviours on Climate Change’. European
Journal of Communication, 31(2): 136-151. https://journals-sagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1177/0267323115612213?utm_source=summon&utm
_medium=discovery-provider
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Hickman, L. (2012) ‘Big Energy Users get Seven Times More Treasury Meetings Than Green
Sector’, The Guardian, 24th July 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/23/green-companies-treasury-meetingsenergy
Miller, D. and Dinan, W. (2015) ‘Resisting Meaningful Action on Climate Change: Think
Tanks, ‘Merchants of Doubt’ and the ‘Corporate Capture’ of Sustainable Sevelopment’, in:
Hansen, A. and Cox, R., (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication.
London: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Nisbet M.C., and Kotcher J.E. (2009) A Two-Step Flow of Influence?: Opinion-Leader
Campaigns on Climate Change. Science Communication, 30(3):328-354. https://journalssagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1177/1075547008328797#articleCitationDownloadCo
ntainer
Oreskes, N. and Conway, E. M. (2010) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists
Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. London: Bloomsbury
Press. Ordered
Painter, J. (2013) Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Risk and Uncertainty. Reuters
Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Ordered.
Painter, J. et al. How ‘Digital-born’ media cover climate change in comparison to legacy
media: A case study of the COP 21 summit in Paris, Global Environmental Change, 48, pp. 110.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378017301437?via%3Dihub
Schäfer M and Painter J (2020) Climate journalism in a changing media ecosystem: Assessing
the production of climate change‐related news around the world. WIREs,
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.675
Shapiro, J. M. (2016) Special interests and the media: Theory and an application to climate
change, Journal of Public Economics, 144, pp. 91-108. https://www-sciencedirectcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0047272716301505?via%3Dihub
Whitmarsh,L. E.., and Corner, A. Tools for a new climate conversation: A mixed-methods
study of language for public engagement across the political spectrum, Global
Environmental Change, 42, pp. 122-135.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378016306318?via%3Dihub
WEEK 5: Beyond Representation
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This lecture covers what is generally called non-representational theory, or approaches to
studying the relationship between news and publics which seek to move beyond
representation and reconsider the basics of what is actually happening versuss what the
media portray as happening. This is important because in sociology we are interested in the
real effects if representation, and unlike some of our friends in political science do not just
assume that what is broadcast or written down translates into reality.
We will look at the notion of what constitutes reality in media representation and how
different scholars have tried to move away from a focus on representation to give deeper
accounts of how audiences experience the mix of reality and media portrayals of it.
This lecture also examines the notion of truth in journalism and the epistemological status
of news. It is essential that you read both key readings and consider the task. For the
seminar you should do the following:
Choose a news event from the last week. Consider how this event has been reported. Is this
reporting an accurate version of what is going on? If not, why not? What elements of the
story rendered invisible by the reporting would you bring out? What is actually happening
behind the media framing?
Key Readings:
Bengtsson, S., & Johansson, S. (2021). A phenomenology of news: Understanding news in digital
culture. Journalism, 22(11), 2873-2889.
Parks, P. (2021). Non-representational news: An intervention into pseudo-events. Journalism, 22(1),
122-138.
Additional Readings:
Barnes, R. (2014). The “ecology of participation” A study of audience engagement on alternative
journalism websites. Digital journalism, 2(4), 542-557.
Berlant, L., & Greenwald, J. (2012). Affect in the end times: A conversation with Lauren Berlant. Qui
Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, 20(2), 71-89.
Cavalcante, A. (2018). Affect, emotion, and media audiences: The case of resilient reception. Media,
Culture & Society, 40(8), 1186-1201.
Gibbs, A. (2011). Affect theory and audience. The Handbook of media audiences, 251-266.
Hinde, D. (2021). “Have Car, Can Travel”: Journalistic Practice, Oil Entanglements and Climate
Reportage in Aberdeen, Scotland. GeoHumanities, 1-10.
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Lorimer, H. (2008). Cultural geography: non-representational conditions and concerns. Progress in
human geography, 32(4), 551-559.
Thrift, N. (2008). Non-representational theory: Space, politics, affect. Routledge.
Vannini, P. (Ed.). (2015). Non-representational methodologies: Re-envisioning research. Routledge.
Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is what happens to news: On journalism, fake news, and posttruth. Journalism studies, 19(13), 1866-1878.
Williams, N. (2020) Non Representational Theory. International Encylopedia of Human Geography
421-427. Elsevier
WEEK 6: Audience Negotiations of Credibility and Trust
Audience trust is a hot topic in media and communications at present. With institutional
reconfiguration, an explosion of freely available platforms online and debates around ‘fake
news’ and social media, politicians and media scholars alike have lamented the supposed
breakdown in trust between publics and media producers.
In this lecture we will look at examples from coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the
Middle East by the BBC and Al Jazeera, investigating how audiences respond to the outlets.
This lecture is intended to get you thinking more critically about the complexities of
covering controversial issues and the interplay between audiences and broadcasters. Based
on extensive research, the case study is an opportunity to engage closely with the question
of how we do audience research to investigate such issues.
Key Readings:
Barkho, L. (2010) News from the BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera: How the three broadcasters
cover the Middle East, New Jersey: Hampton Press.
Philo, G. and Berry, M. (2011) More Bad News from Israel, London: Pluto Press.
Additional Readings:
Ahmad, F. (2006) ‘British Muslim Perceptions and Opinions on News Coverage of September
11’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32:6, pp961-982
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Dubois, E. & Blank, G. (2018) ‘The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of
political interest and diverse media’, Information, Communication & Society, 21:5, pp729745
Edgerly S, Mourão RR, Thorson E, Tham SM. (2020), When Do Audiences Verify? How
Perceptions About Message and Source Influence Audience Verification of News Headlines.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97:1, pp52-71.
Flew, T. (2019) ‘Digital communication, the crisis of trust, and the post-global’,
Communication Research and Practice, 5:1, pp4-22.
Fletcher, R., & Park, S., (2017) ‘The Impact of Trust in the News Media on Online News
Consumption and Participation’, Digital Journalism, 5:10, pp1281-1299.
Freedman, D. (2019) “Public Service” and the Journalism Crisis: Is the BBC the Answer?
Television & New Media, 20, pp203-218.
Hall, Stuart (1973) Encoding and decoding in the television discourse, Birmingham: Centre
for Contemporary cultural studies.
Harb, Z., Bessaiso, E., (2006) ‘British Arab Muslilm Audiences and Television after September
11’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32:6, pp1063-1076.
Martin, N. (2017). Journalism, the pressures of verification and notions of post-truth in civil
society. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 9. 41.
McNair, Brian (2018) Fake News, Falsehood, Fabrication and Fantasy in Journalism, London:
Routledge
Miladi, N. (2006) ‘Satellite TV News and the Arab Diaspora in Britian: Comparing Al Jazeera,
the BBC and CNN’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32:6, pp947-960.
Miladi, N. (2008) ‘Mediating wars and conflict: North African TV audiences in the UK and the
changing security landscape’, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, Vol 1 No 3
pp245-257.
Morley, D. & Brunsdon, C. (1999) The Nationwide Television Studies, London: Routledge.
Philo, G. (2010) ‘News Audiences and the Construction of Public Knowledge’ in Allan, S. (ed)
The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism, London: Routledge, pp407-416.
Poole, E (2014)‘Muslim Media’ and the politics of Representation Media and Cultural
Responses to Diversity Issues in Britain,’ Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication,
7, pp101-118.
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Ross, K. & Nightingale, V. (2003) Media and Audiences: New Perspectives, Maidenhead:
Open University Press.
Song, H., Jung, J., Kim, Y., (2017), ‘ Perceived News Overload and Its Cognitive and
Attitudinal Consequences for News Usage in South Korea’, Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly, 94.
Sterrett, D., Malato, D., Benz, J., Kantor, L., Tompson, T., Rosenstiel, T., Sonderman, J.,
Loker., L (2019) ‘Who Shared It?: Deciding What News to Trust on Social Media’, Digital
Journalism, 7:6, pp783-801.
Tandoc EC., Ling R., Westlund O., Duffy A., Goh, D., Zheng, W. (2018), ‘Audiences’ acts of
authentication in the age of fake news: A conceptual framework’. New Media & Society,
20:8, pp2745-2763.
Turcotte, J., York, C., Irving, J., Scholl, R.M. and Pingree, R.J. (2015), ‘News
Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders: Effects on Media Trust and
Information Seeking’. Comput‐Mediat Comm, 20 pp520-535.
WEEK 7: Ethnography, Deep Research, Audiences and the
Media: Making, Locating and Analysing Meaning
In this lecture, we will be discussing how ethnography and other forms of
qualitative research can be used to understand the meanings audiences constitute
in their interactions with a range of media environments including: reality
television, journalism and youth culture. We will unpack how the dynamic between
text and audience, as well as the ways we analyse this mediate and circulate values
embedded within the broader social, cultural and economic context the research
sits within allowing us to critically interrogate how class, gender and race (amongst
other forms of identity) are weaved into the fabric of the social in highly mundane,
everyday ways. Finally, we will discuss some of the ethical issues that can arise from
doing ethnography, particularly in relation to the insider/outsider dynamic and
issues of representation.
Key Readings:
Skeggs. B, Thumim. N and Wood. H (2008) ‘Oh Goodness, I am Watching Reality
TV’: How Audiences Make Class in Audience Research, European Journal of
Cultural Studies, 11(1), 5 – 24
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Additional Readings:
Skeggs and Wood. H (2012) Reacting to Reality Television: Performance, Audience
and Value, Routledge: London (Chapter Four)
Mabweazara, H. M. (2011). Between the newsroom and the pub: The mobile
phone in the dynamics of everyday mainstream journalism practice in Zimbabwe.
Journalism, 12(6), 692-707.
Murphy, P. D. (2011). Locating media ethnography. The handbook of media
audiences, 380-401.
Brewer. J (2000) Ethnography, Open University Press: Buckingham
Thurairajah. K (2019) Uncloaking the Researcher: Boundaries in Qualitative
Research, Qualitative Sociology Review, 15(11), 132 – 147
Gay y Blasco. P (2017) Doubts, Compromises, and Ideals: Attempting a Reciprocal
Life Story, Anthropology and Humanism, 42(1), 91 – 108
Hodkinson. P (2005) ‘Insider Research’ in the Study of Youth Cultures, Journal of
Youth Studies, 8(2), 131 – 149
Sharp. M (2020) ‘Insighters’: The Complexity of Qualitative Methods in Youth
Music Research, Journal of Youth Studies, Online First, 1 – 16
Taylor. J (2011) The Intimate Insider: Negotiating the Ethics of Friendship When
Doing Insider Research, Qualitative Research, 11(1), 3 – 22
Van Maanen. J (1995) Representation in Ethnography, Sage: London
WEEK 8: Guest Lecture – Audiences and online media work
This week’s lecture features a guest presentation from Dr Ealasaid Munro of Ofcom, the UK
media regulator. Our guest speaker will be discussing how audience research work helps to
inform media policy, as well as how good audience research is crucial to the ethic of public
service journalism.
In the seminars we will be looking more specifically at large scale audience research and its
impact on policy. You should read ALL the seminar readings in good time so that you can
contribute to the discussion. For the seminar you should:
Read the key readings on audience study in the digital sphere and the Ofcom report on BBC
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audiences. You will be divided into groups and each group will be asked to consider one
question from the following list:
Why is it important that broadcasters and other media outlets understand the needs of the
public as well as their existing viewing patterns?
What kind of methodologies should we use to get a full picture of the needs of audiences?
Consider large scale surveys, focus groups, ethnographies and other forms of monitoring and
make judgements on the role they might play.
Is there a role for giving audiences what they SHOULD watch instead of what they want to
watch? Think about the role of education and information vs entertainment and ratings.
What kind of issues can you envisage in coverage that is entirely led by audience data,
especially with regard to ‘big’ data and live audience metrics?
Key Readings:
Heikkilä, H., & Ahva, L. (2015). The relevance of journalism: Studying news audiences in a digital
era. Journalism Practice, 9(1), 50-64.
Ofcom (2022). Exploration into audience expectations of the BBC in the current media environment..
Available at:https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/239179/2-Exploration-
into-audience-expectations-of-the-BBC-in-the-current-media-environment.pdf
Additional Readings:
Carlson, M. (2018). Confronting measurable journalism. Digital Journalism, 6(4), 406-417.
Fürst, S. (2020). In the service of good journalism and audience interests? How audience metrics
affect news quality. Media and Communication, 8(3), 270-280.
Gibbons, T. (2022). Impartiality in United Kingdom broadcasting. Journal of Media Law, 14(1), 11-19.
Linden, T. C. G. (2017). Algorithms for journalism: The future of news work. The journal of media
innovations.
MacGregor, P. (2007). Tracking the online audience: Metric data start a subtle revolution. Journalism
studies, 8(2), 280-298.
Peters, C. (2015). Introduction: The places and spaces of news audiences. Journalism Studies, 16(1),
1-11.
Petre, K (2021) “Everything clicks for a different reason”. Columbia Journalism Review, 9 December
2021 (online). Accessible at https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/interpreting-journalismanalytics.php
Vos, T. P. (2015). Revisiting gatekeeping theory during a time of transition. In Gatekeeping in
transition (pp. 17-38). Routledge.
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WEEK 9: The Power of the Image
Much ink has been spilled in the literature that surrounds photojournalism: as bearing
witness; as revictimizing; as voyeurism; as complicit with the machinery of war by being part
of its apparatus, and in some cases, as being nothing more than the aestheticization of
suffering. It has been argued that the proliferation of images of carnage and suffering have
led directly to what has been termed ‘compassion fatigue’ – this is to say that audiences
have become weary through over-exposure, diminishing their capacity to respond
empathetically to the pain of others.
What effects do photographs have? What can we bear to see as much as never see?
Raymond Williams, in noting the positive contribution that sociology has made towards
understanding media power and effects put it that:
At the same time, in non-sociological cultural studies, as in much general writing,
the question of effect is commonly raised but without much evidence and often by
simple and casual assertion.
(Williams, R. (1981) Culture; Fontana Paperbacks: p20)
This section aims to think critically about the power of the image and the charge of ‘visual
determinacy’. We will explore the idea of the news photograph as an object that denotes
and connotes alongside the emergence of the photojournalist and the relationship between
words and images. Finally, the complex role of the viewer in the completion of photographic
meaning will be examined.
Key Readings:
Berger, J (2009) edited and with introduction by Geoff Dyer: Understanding a
Photograph: Penguin Books pp 30-33
Berger, J, (1988) Ways of seeing: BBC and Penguin Books (available as e-book)
Additional Readings:
Azoulay, A. (2010), ‘What is a photograph? What is photography?’, Philosophy of
Photography 1: 1, pp. 9–13.
https://monoskop.org/images/7/71/Azoulay_Ariella_2010_What_is_a_photograph.pdf
Batchen, G. Gidley, M. Miller, N. K. and Prosser, J (eds) (2012) Picturing Atrocity; Reaktion
Books Ltd.
Becker, H (2007) Telling about society; University of Chicago Press
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Becker, H (1995) ‘Visual sociology, documentary photography, and photojournalism: It’s
(almost) all a matter of context’, Visual Studies, 10: 1, 5 — 14 To link to this Article: DOI:
10.1080/14725869508583745 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725869508583745
Berger, J (2013) Understanding a Photograph (edited and introduced by Dyer, G) Penguin
Berger, J and Mohr, J (1982) Another way of telling: Writers and Readers Co-operative
Publishing Society Ltd
Boltanski, L (1999/2004) Distant suffering: Morality, media and politics; Cambridge
University Press (available as e-book see also 2001 review by Jean Seaton below)
Campbell, D. (2003) ‘Cultural governance and pictorial resistance: reflections on the imaging
of war.’, Review of international studies., 29 (Supplement 1). pp. 57-73.
https://dro.dur.ac.uk/1221/1/1221.pdf
Chouliaraki, L (2008) The media as moral education: mediation and action; Media, Culture
and Society; Vol 30 Issue 6, November 2008
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443708096096
Dearden, L (2015) The fake refugee images that are being used to distort public opinion on
asylum seekers https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/fake-refugee-imagesare-being-used-distort-public-opinion-asylum-seekers-10503703.html
Eldridge, J, Kitzinger, J and Williams, K (1997) The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain,
Oxford university Press (see especially chapter 6 on photojournalism)
Good, J and Lowe P (2017) Understanding Photojournalism; Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Gabbert, E. “Is compassion fatigue inevitable in an age of 24 hour news?” available at
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/02/is-compassion-fatigue-inevitable-in-anage-of-24-hour-news
Gursel, Z D (2016) Image Brokers: Visualising the world news in an age of digital circulation;
University of California Press (available as e-book)
Hill, J and Schwartz, V (eds) (2015) Getting the Picture: The visual culture of the news;
London Bloomsbury
Ibraham, Y (2016) The Un-sacred and the Spectacularised: Alan Kurdi and the Migrant Body
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118803884
Johnson, J (2011) The arithmetic of compassion: British Journal of Political Science , Volume
41 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 621 – 643 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britishjournal-of-political-science/article/arithmetic-of-compassion-rethinking-the-politics-ofphotography/9C358EBA8B83F229AC07EFA87A0D1B42
30
Kennedy, L (2016) After Images: Photography and US Foreign Policy; University of Chicago
Press (available as e-book)
Kennedy, L and Patrick, C (2014) The Violence of The Image; L B Tauris, London and New
York. See especially chapter 5: Campbell, D; The Myth of Compassion Fatigue (pp97-124)
Kingsley, K (2016) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/01/alan-kurdi-death-oneyear-on-compassion-towards-refugees-fades
Kyriakidou, M (2015) Media witnessing: exploring the audience of distant suffering; in
Media, Culture & Society 2015, Vol. 37(2) 215–231
Kozol, W (2004) Domesticating NATOs war in Kosovo/a: (in)visible bodies and the dilemma
of photojournalism: Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism Vol. 4, Issue 2
Lucaites, J and Hariman, R: Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture;
Rhetoric Review, Vol. 20, No. 1/2 (Spring, 2001), pp. 37-42
Media, War & Conflict Special Issue: ‘Images of War’, April 2010: 3(1):
http://mwc.sagepub.com/content/3/1.toc
Midberry, J (2020) Compassionate horror or compassion fatigue? International Journal of
Communication 14(2020), 4406–4427
Mielczarek, N and Perlmutter D (2014) Big Pictures and Visual Propaganda: The lessons of
research on the ‘effects’ of photojournalistic icons; available at
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep12132.12.pdf
Moeller, S (1999) Compassion Fatigue: How the media sell disease, famine and death; Taylor
and Francis Group (available as e-book)
Möller, F (2009) The looking/not looking dilemma; Review of International Studies Vol. 35, No. 4
(October 2009), pp. 781-794
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40588074?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents
Möller, F (2013) Visual Peace: Images, Spectatorship and the politics of violence; Palgrave
Press (available as e-book)
Möller, F (2017) From Aftermath to Peace: Reflections on a Photography of Peace, Global
Society, 31:3, pp 315-335
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600826.2016.1220926
Mortensen, T M and Gade, P J (2018) Does Photojournalism Matter? News Image Content
and Presentation in the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record Before and After Layoffs of
the Photojournalism Staff; Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol 95; issue 4;
2018
31
Mortensen, M., & Trenz, H.-J. (2016). Media morality and visual icons in the age of social
media: Alan Kurdi and the emergence of an impromptu public of moral spectatorship.
Javnost—The Public, Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture, 23(4),
343–362.
Philo. G and Berry, M (2004) Bad News from Israel; London Pluto
Ritchen, F (2009) After Photography; W. W. Norton and Company
Robbins, B (2016) Looking at Atrocities with John Berger
Seaton, J (2001) Watching the World: Seeing, Feeling—Understanding? The Political
Quarterly, Vol 72 Issue 4, October 2001
*note that Seaton refers to a DIFD document from GUMG research, “Viewing the world”
which you can access here:
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090121175748/http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs
/files/viewworldfull.pdf
Seaton, J (2005) Carnage and the Media: Allen Lane Penguin Books
Sontag, S (1977) On Photography; Penguin Books
Sontag, S (2003) Regarding the Pain of Others; Penguin Books
Weikman, T and Powell T (2019) The Distant Sufferer: Measuring spectatorship of
Photojournalism; International Journal of Communications 13; 2019; pp2899-2920
Williams, K “The Light at The End of The Tunnel” in Eldridge, J (ed) (1993); Getting the
Message: News, Truth and Power; London Routledge p305
Web sources and photography blogs
https://rebeccawoodallphotography.wordpress.com/category/350mc-photography-incontext/photojournalism-now-roles-and-responsibilities/
https://www.nocaptionneeded.com/ an excellent blog on photojournalism as a public art
https://www.david-campbell.org/photography-introduction – good commentary, reviews
and articles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNDrUzaY6OE Photographer Santi Palacio gives a Ted
Talk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE9Tb6Ch3n4 Photographer Lynsey Addario gives
reflections on her career.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/index.html Gilles PeressBosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace – an interesting and interactive photo essay.
32
https://autograph.org.uk/ The Association of Black Photographers established by, amongst
others, Stuart Hall.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/28/gutted-photographers-who-didnt-help –
Interviews with photojournalists: warning, contains graphic images
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jun/18/war-photographers-special-report interviews with photojournalists: warning, contains graphic images.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/24/five-conflict-photographers-on-some-ofthe-hardest-images-theyve-taken interviews with photojournalists: warning, contains
graphic images.
https://www3.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture?arc404=true – photography archive.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/photography -photography archives at the
Guardian
https://time.com/5844377/george-floyd-protests-minneapolis-photos/ warning: contains
graphic images
https://ijnet.org/en/story/photojournalists-share-experience-frontlines-pandemic Photographing Covid_19
https://time.com/author/fred-ritchin/ – further articles by Fred Ritchin
https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/ -link to Associated Press and worth
exploring
https://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/goffs/135%20photojournalism/associated%20press%20ethic
s%20code.pdf – code of ethics for photojournalists
https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/tag/associated-press-ap -more from AP on ethical
journalism
WEEK 10: Question and Answer Session
This session is an opportunity to discuss key issues with course staff and to ask any final
questions before the end of the semester. There will be no seminar this week.
Essay Questions
NB – essay questions do not necessarily relate directly to the topic covered in any one class
and you are encouraged to draw on literature and debates from across the course in your
essay. You must answer the specific essay questions and MUST NOT chose your own title or
theme.
1. To what degree do audiences interpret media messages the way in which the producer
intends? And what might influence alternative interpretations? Make reference to
theorists and ideas you have studied on the course.
33
2. The degree to which action on climate change will be prioritised should be seen as the
product of a constant and evolving struggle between different forces. What role have
media and communications played in this struggle and what challenges do climate
communicators face?
3. ‘There is little doubt that media representations of violence do not only reflect real life,
but also shape the way we understand and make sense of violence in the contexts of our
own lives.’ (Karen Boyle). Discuss.
4. Does the conceptualization of distinct ‘audiences’ still have analytical usefulness in the
digital age? What alternative approaches might we use?
5. The media is a key site of social control. Discuss in relation to representations of class,
race, gender, or environmental degradation and show explicitly how media dictates the
boundaries of our social behaviour.
6. It has been argued that a proliferation of images of suffering from war and natural
disaster have resulted in audience overload and a reduction in empathy. To what extent
can claims for ‘compassion fatigue’ be substantiated?
7. Choose a divisive global issue such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Russian invasion of
Ukraine, or tensions over Taiwan’s democratic status. Discuss how questions of audience
may influence its portrayal by different media organisations. Make sure that you
reference both theory and real-world case studies in giving your answer.
8. How can understanding the needs of audiences help us to serve the public and
democracy? Make reference to the role of audience research in policymaking.
9. Ethnography of audience groups or individual media consumers can be a useful tool in
understanding the motivations and experiences of the public. Discuss the challenges of
ethnographic practice and speculate on how audience ethnography might be applied to
a contemporary social issue.
10. Drawing on the discussions of form audience engagement from across the lecture series,
what challenges can a journalist expect to face in communicating an important and
complex issue to their audience and how could they overcome them? Cite AT LEAST ONE
case study or likely scenario.
34
Appendix A: Referencing and Writing a Bibliography
At this stage in your academic career, you should know how to reference work and write a
good bibliography. Marks will be deducted if you fail to reference your work and compose
an effective bibliography. Please note that other disciplines, such as history, use a different
type of referencing system from that used in the Social Sciences. See below for details of the
most commonly used system in the Social Sciences.
•
Referencing: It is essential to include references to the authors you use in your essay.
It allows the marker to see where your ideas came from and it also backs up the claims that
you are making. If you fail to reference your ideas, you may be accused of plagiarism. You
will find that there are a number of different referencing systems. For all Social Science
topics, you are recommended to use the Harvard system. In this system, references are
given in the text, not in footnotes. All references need the author’s surname, the year of
the publication, and the page number (e.g.Hall 1980: 63-5). Only if you are referring to
more than one author with the same surname will it be necessary to add initials. If an
author has more than one publication with the same year, a distinguishing letter is added:
(hall 1980a: 107; Hall 1980b: 44). These names and years refer the reader to entries in your
bibliography. Please note: if you are referring to a chapter in an edited collection of
chapters, you refer to the actual author of the chapter in the body of the essay and not the
editor of the book. In the bibliography, you then indicate which book this chapter came
from and the editor of the book. See bibliography for details.
•
Bibliography: Every work that you have referred to in your essay must be listed in
the bibliography. If you have read a book, but not used it in the essay, do not put it in the
bibliography. The bibliography must be in alphabetical order by the surname of the author,
or the first author if there is more than one. Each entry must show surnames and initials,
year corresponding with the text references (which should be the year of first publication,
not the date of the particular printing you have used), the title of the original article or book,
and where it was published.(Book and journal titles should be italicised) On the next page
are examples of bibliography entries for the main types of reading you will encounter in this
course.
•
Single-authored book
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York
University Press: New York and London.
•
Edited book
Holborn, M. (ed.) (2015) Contemporary Sociology. Polity Press: Cambridge
•
Journal Article
35
Berry, M. (2013) ‘The ‘Today’ Programme and the Banking crisis’ Journalism 14(2): 253-270.
•
Chapter in Edited Book
Miller, D. (2015) ‘Neoliberalism, politics and institutional corruption: against the
“institutional malaise” hypothesis’. In: Whyte, D. (ed.) How Corrupt is Britain? London, U. K.:
Pluto Press.
Appendix B: University of Glasgow Common Code of Assessment
The University has a common code of assessment where letter grades are awarded (e.g. (A,
B, C). The descriptors of the letter grades are below. Each letter grade is further subdivided
into bands (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1). Each letter band is also assigned a numerical value out
of 22.
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
22
21
20
19
18
B1
B2
17
16
Grade A: Exemplary range and depth of attainment of intended learning
outcomes, secured by discriminating command of a comprehensive range of
relevant materials and analyses, and by deployment of considered judgement
relating to key issues, concepts and procedures
An excellent performance is likely to be characterised by several of the
following:
• questions are answered clearly, comprehensively and with appropriate
focus
• excellent organisation and structure of answers
• reasoned arguments developing logical conclusions
• insight, imagination, originality and creativity
• integration of new information
• sound critical thinking
• independence of judgement
• explanation of relevant theory
• citation of relevant evidence
• evidence of wide, relevant reading
• application of learning to new situations and problem solving
• accuracy and absence of errors
Considered as 1st (first) class.
36
B3
15
Grade B: Conclusive attainment of virtually all intended learning outcomes,
clearly grounded on a close familiarity with a wide range of supporting
evidence, constructively utilised to reveal appreciable depth of understanding
A very good performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
questions are answered clearly and fully
good organisation and structure of answers
reasoned arguments developing logical conclusions
very good understanding of the subject
clear evidence of relevant reading or research
explanation of relevant theory
citation of relevant evidence
inclusion of highly relevant ideas
use of relevant examples
application of learning to new situations and problem solving
accuracy and absence of significant errors
although, distinguishing it from an excellent performance, it might be faulted
on grounds of:
•
•
•
•
•
demonstrating less insight, imagination, originality or creativity
including a less comprehensive presentation, solution or answer
integrating information less successfully
exhibiting less critical thinking
exhibiting less independence of thought
Considered: 2.1 (upper second) class
C1
C2
14
13
37
C2
12
Grade C: Clear attainment of most of the intended learning outcomes, some
more securely grasped than others, resting on a circumscribed range of
evidence and displaying a variable depth of understanding
A good performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
attempts made to answer questions set
ability to solve some of the problems set
basic to good understanding of the subject
evidence of some relevant reading or research
inclusion of some relevant ideas
inclusion of some relevant examples
although, distinguishing it from a very good performance, it might be faulted
on grounds of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
lacking sufficiently well-structured argument
not offering sufficient evidence to justify assertions
not including sufficient relevant examples
lacking insight, imagination, originality and creativity
offering less in its presentation, solutions or answers
containing some errors
Considered: 2.2 (lower second) class
D1
D2
11
10
38
D3
9
Grade D: Acceptable attainment of intended learning outcomes, displaying a
qualified familiarity with a minimally sufficient range of relevant materials, and
a grasp of the analytical issues and concepts which is generally reasonable,
albeit insecure
A satisfactory performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of
the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
attempts made to answer questions set
ability to solve some of the problems set
modest evidence of understanding of the subject
modest evidence of relevant reading or research
inclusion of a few relevant ideas
inclusion of a few relevant examples
and, distinguishing it from a good performance, it might:
• contain more errors of judgement, fact or application
• present arguments which are less well structured
• offer less evidence in support of assertions
• offer fewer relevant examples
• contain more errors
Considered: 3rd (third) class
E1
E2
E3
8
7
6
Grade E: Attainment deficient in respect of specific intended learning
outcomes, with mixed evidence as to the depth of knowledge and weak
deployment of arguments or deficient manipulations
A weak performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
failure to answer the question set though an answer to a similar
question may be offered
partial solutions to problems set
little evidence of understanding of the subject
little evidence of relevant reading or research
inclusion of very few relevant ideas
absence of structured argument
little evidence to justify assertions
few relevant examples
several significant errors
Considered: Fail
F1
5
39
F2
F3
4
3
Grade F: Attainment of intended learning outcomes appreciably deficient in
critical respects, lacking secure basis in relevant factual and analytical
dimensions
A poor performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
failure to answer the question set though an answer to a question
within the same topic area may be offered
very little evidence of understanding of the subject
very little evidence of relevant reading or research
inclusion of ideas relevant only in a wider consideration of the topic
absence of structured argument
very little evidence to justify assertions
very few relevant examples
many significant errors
Considered: Fail
G1
G2
2
1
Grade G: Attainment of intended learning outcomes markedly deficient in
respect of nearly all intended learning outcomes, with irrelevant use of
materials and incomplete and flawed explanation.
A very poor performance is likely to be characterised by some of the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
failure to answer the question set
no evidence of understanding of the subject
no evidence of relevant reading or research
absence of relevant ideas
absence of structured argument
absence of evidence to justify assertions
absence of relevant examples
many significant errors
Considered: Fail
H
0
No convincing evidence of attainment of intended learning outcomes, such
treatment of the subject as is in evidence being directionless and fragmentary
• Absence of positive qualities.
Considered: Fail
Appendix C: Penalties for late submission of essays
40
Information on late submission, plagiarism, etc can be found in the programme booklet on
Moodle. Please ensure that you have read these regulations carefully.
Appendix D: Plagiarism
Please note that the Teaching and Learning Service has info on plagiarism on their website:
www.gla.ac.uk/services/sls/plagiarism/
The following is an excerpt from the University Calendar. This can be consulted at:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_165329_en.pdf
Introduction
31.1 The University’s degrees and other academic awards are given in recognition of a
student’s personal achievement. All work submitted by students for assessment is accepted
on the understanding that it is the student’s own effort.
31.2 Plagiarism is defined as the submission or presentation of work, in any form, which is
not one’s own, without acknowledgement of the sources. Plagiarism includes inappropriate
collaboration with others. Special cases of plagiarism can arise from a student using his or
her own previous work (termed auto-plagiarism or self-plagiarism). Auto-plagiarism includes
using work that has already been submitted for assessment at this University or for any
other academic award.
1.3 The incorporation of material without formal and proper acknowledgement (even with
no deliberate intent to cheat) can constitute plagiarism. Work may be considered to be
plagiarised if it consists of:
a direct quotation;
a close paraphrase;
an unacknowledged summary of a source;
direct copying or transcription.
With regard to essays, reports and dissertations, the rule is: if information or ideas are
obtained from any source, that source must be acknowledged according to the appropriate
convention in that discipline; and any direct quotation must be placed in quotation marks
and the source cited immediately. Any failure to acknowledge adequately or to cite properly
other sources in submitted work is plagiarism. Under examination conditions, material
learnt by rote or close paraphrase will be expected to follow the usual rules of reference
citation otherwise it will be considered as plagiarism. Schools should provide guidance on
other appropriate use of references in examination conditions.
41
31.4 Plagiarism is considered to be an act of fraudulence and an offence against University
discipline. Alleged plagiarism, at whatever stage of a student’s studies, whether before or
after graduation, will be investigated and dealt with appropriately by the University.
31.5 The University reserves the right to use plagiarism detection systems, which may be
externally based, in the interests of improving academic standards when assessing student
work.
40 If a student suspects a fellow student of plagiarism then he or she should speak to a
member of staff in the School concerned. The identity of the student making the report shall
remain confidential.
41 Where the Head of School has a potential conflict of interest (e.g. teaches or examines
on the course concerned) then he or she should pass the case to another senior member of
academic staff in the School. In the case of small Schools, where it may not be possible to
pass the case to another senior member of academic staff, the case should be passed to the
Head of a cognate School.
Referral
31.6 Where a student is suspected of plagiarism (40) the member of staff shall refer the case
to the Head of School (41) or his or her nominee (hereinafter referred to as Head of School)
along with all appropriate documentary evidence (the piece of work in question duly
marked-up, a copy of the original source of the plagiarism, information on the contribution
of the piece of work to the overall assessment, etc). Any further consideration of that piece
of work by the School shall be held in abeyance until the procedures set out below have
been completed. The student shall be informed in writing that his or her marks have been
withheld pending an investigation of suspected plagiarism. As part of any such investigation
the University may review previously assessed material and rescind published marks or
grades if necessary.
31.7 The Head of School shall assess the extent of the suspected plagiarism and, if
necessary, consult with the Senior Senate Assessor for Student Conduct. The Head of School
will deal with suspected cases that are first offences and not considered to be severe. The
Head of School will refer all suspected second offences and cases of severe plagiarism
directly to the Clerk of Senate or to the Director of the Senate Office for investigation under
the provisions of the Code of Student Conduct.
31.8 Whilst there is no definitive list, examples of cases which would be regarded as severe
plagiarism include:
i) any case of serious and or blatant plagiarism when considered in relation to the student’s
level of study and length of exposure to the procedures, practices and regulations of the
University;
42
ii) a first offence where a reduction in marks would put at risk the student’s degree or direct
progression;
iii) any case, regardless of extent, where it is inappropriate to deal with it within a School.
Procedure before the Head of School
31.9 At all times the principles of natural justice shall be observed.
31.10 With respect to cases that are first offences and not considered to be severe, the
Head of School shall interview the student concerned. He or she can also interview any
students who have allegedly allowed their work to be copied. As soon as practicable, the
student will be informed in writing of the alleged offence and of the requirement to attend
for interview. The student will also be provided with a copy of the marked-up piece of work
in advance of the interview.
31.11 The student shall have the right to be accompanied, assisted or represented at the
interview by one of the following: a parent or guardian; a fellow student or other friend; an
Officer of the Students’ Representative Council; a member of University staff, or any other
representative. At the beginning of the interview, the Head of School will ascertain who is to
be the spokesperson for the student (the student or a representative). The foregoing not
withstanding, the Head of School shall have the right to question the student directly, where
necessary.
31.12 The Head of School shall have a member of support staff present to keep a record of
the meeting.
31.13 At the interview, the student will be shown a copy of his or her work, duly marked-up
and be given a clear explanation of what he or she has allegedly done. The student will be
given the opportunity to justify the work and be invited to admit or deny responsibility.
31.14 If the Head of School is satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that an offence has
occurred he or she may impose an academic penalty, which will take account of the extent
of the plagiarism. The Head of School may reduce the marks or results up to the point where
the academic rating for the piece of work in question is reduced to Grade H. Consideration
will also be given to resubmission opportunities; the maximum mark that can be awarded to
any resubmission is the pass mark appropriate to the degree programme being followed.
The student shall be given instruction about plagiarism and the necessity of properly
acknowledging and referencing sources.
If it is judged that the case is of a more serious nature than first believed, the Head of School
may refer the case onwards for consideration by the Senate Assessors for Student Conduct.
31.15 If the Head of School is not satisfied that an offence has occurred but considers that
the student has engaged in poor academic practice then the student should receive a
43
warning, instruction about plagiarism and the necessity of properly acknowledging and
referencing sources.
31.16 The student will be notified in writing of the outcome by the School. The School will
send a copy of this letter to the Senate Office to be kept on record. The existence of a
record for a particular student will be made known to any other School seeking to assess the
seriousness of other issues (see §31.6 and §31.7).
31.17 If it is judged that there is no case for the student to answer, the student will be
informed in writing and the piece of work in question will be marked in accordance with
normal arrangements, without penalty. The Senate Office does not need to be notified of
such instances. Code of Student Conduct Gen.51
31.18 The Head of School shall inform the Board of Examiners of any reduction in marks.
The Board of Examiners shall not have the authority to revisit or alter academic penalties
imposed by this process.
Right of Appeal
31.19 The student shall have the right of appeal to the Senate Assessors for Student
Conduct in respect of any penalty imposed by the Head of School. A student who wishes to
appeal must do so in writing to the Director of the Senate Office within 14 days of the date
of the issue of the written decision of the Head of School.
31.20 The Senate Assessors for Student Conduct will consider an appeal against the penalty
imposed by a Head of School only on the grounds that:
i) new evidence has emerged which could not reasonably have been produced to the Head
of School;
ii) there has been defective procedure at the Head of School level;
iii) the penalty imposed by the Head of School was clearly unreasonable.
The letter of appeal must clearly specify the details of any new evidence, the manner in
which the procedures were defective or in what respects he or she believes the Head of
School has erred or been mistaken in imposing a penalty. The letter should also specify the
remedy that the student seeks.
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
![Description1
MSc Media, Communications and
International Journalism
Researching Audiences and Media
Representations (SOCIO 5082)
2022-23
2
Researching Audiences and Media Representations
This course will critically explore different ways of conceptualising and researching the
relationship between media and audiences, the dynamics of power and resistance and their
contextualisation in current social, cultural and political environments. It will examine
specifically the role of the media in representing cultural difference and in broader
processes of social change. It will then examine media theorists who attempt to
conceptualise the transformative impact of digital technologies and assess the question of
continuities and breaks with previous traditions developed in the ‘broadcast age’. For
example, we will examine claims that social media may act as facilitators of a more
participatory public sphere than traditional media, and conversely those that argue our
intensely individualised media is a manifestation of neoliberal consumerism and distorts
public resistance to it.
Through readings, seminars, discussions and practical exercises it will examine the following
questions:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Is public opinion effectively managed for political and economic ends or are
audience members active and empowered navigators of content across multi-media
platforms?
In what ways might media amplify cultural difference? And is there an argument
that media might play a role in consolidating distinct communities of difference?
How might we analyse different forms of media content?
In what way has the relationship between audiences and media producers changed
in the digital world?
To what degree do social media such as Twitter and Facebook shape the parameters
of public debate?
Can violence in the media contribute to violence in society, and if we can’t identify a
causal link, should we dismiss any question of ‘effects’ at all?
When it comes to common global problems such as climate and inequality, how can
we communicate to different and diverse publics?
COVID-19 Implications
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect how we will be delivering all teaching this
academic year. You will be receiving a range of guidance around safe behaviours and
adapted systems from the University based on government advice. You can find the latest
updates and other useful links on the Coronavirus information page:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/news/coronavirus/
We have prepared our programme to meet these contact restrictions, and core courses
continue be delivered through a combination of pre-recorded lecture material and live face
3
to face seminars. There is an expectation that students will be able to attend face to face
seminars and we cannot facilitate online seminars for students who are not in Glasgow
without good reason. If you are unable to be in Glasgow please contact the Programme
Convenor.
Course communications
Course Lecturers:
Dr Dominic Hinde (Course Convenor)
RM 314, Adam Smith Building
Office hours: Thursday mornings 0900-1100
Email: Dominic.Hinde@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Cairsti Russell
Email: cairistiona.russell@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Alison Eldridge
Email: Alison.Eldridge@glasgow.ac.uk
Post Grad Administrator: Elizabeth.Gray.2@glasgow.ac.uk
Postgraduate Administration Office
RM 208C, Adam Smith Building
Tel: 0141 3304317
Email: socpol-pgt-socio@glasgow.ac.uk
Noticeboard: All students will be expected to use the Moodle website for course
communication. This is an interactive website to be used by both students and staff.
Course Aims
The aims of the course are:
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•
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To develop students’ knowledge and comprehension of the range of theoretical
approaches to understanding media audiences and to contextualise them in the
evolving digital culture.
To develop students’ critical skills in media research across a broad range of
methodologies.
To examine the appropriateness of a range of methods including content analysis,
audience reception, focus groups and data analysis journalism for tackling specific
areas of research.
Intended Learning Outcomes
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By the end of this course students will be able to:
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•
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Identify and provide a critical assessment of the key academic literature in the area
of media audiences.
Evaluate the role of the media in the construction of public understanding, and its
impacts on social action including policy formation.
Apply appropriate theoretical and empirical methods to critically analyse media
production, content and reception.
Use a range of methods for identifying and measuring the consumption patterns and
responses of different audience groups.
Transferable Skills
Students will develop the following transferable/key skills:
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Use digital methods effectively to support research and analysis and the
presentation of work.
Communicate effectively across a range of media.
Make an identifiable contribution to creative group thinking.
Learn independently, demonstrating initiative, effective time- management and selforganisation.
Internet research
As media students there is an expectation that you browse widely across the range of news
and other outlets that are available. A quick scan of the range of global and national outlets
on any given day and in relation to any given news item is a very useful place to start in
terms of learning about the global news culture. There are also a wide range of helpful
online resources relating to media, communications and journalism studies that can be
accessed. Here is a recommended selection, though it’s always best to do some research
and find your own favourites!
https://www.cjr.org/
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/home
Home
Home [NPR]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/work-in-broadcast
Home
https://rsf.org/en
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https://www.niemanlab.org/
Any information obtained from a website should be referenced in your work and the full
website should be listed in your bibliography. Because websites change, you should also
include the date you visited the site.
Twitter can also be a useful resource, though information gained from Twitter should not be
relied on for accuracy or cited in academic work. These handles below can be useful if you
want to follow people interested in media policy.
@mediaguardian, Media Guardian
@brianstelter, Brian Stelter, media reporter, CNN
@BBCCollege, BBC Journalism
@NiemanLab, Journalism, Harvard University
@pinfnews, Public Interest News Foundation
@FullFact, Independent News Checking Service
@CodaStory, investigative news platform specialising in human rights and disinformation
Teaching and Structure of the Course
Teaching will be conducted through a combination of recorded content, online materials,
readings and weekly seminars. Seminars will take place on Zoom on Wednesdays. There
will be four seminar groups for this course, and you will be allocated a group before week
one. You should check Moodle regularly for updates about preparation for seminars.
Specific seminar information will usually be made visible the week beforehand.
For all topics, there will be ‘key readings’ (which you should read in preparation for the
seminars) and ‘additional readings’ (which you can read at your leisure). For some topics,
there may be a requirement to prepare other materials and/or oral presentations. The
course focuses on active and practical learning and, as such, it is very important that
students prepare in advance and are ready to actively contribute to class discussions.
Course Requirements and Assessment
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•
•
•
•
Regular attendance at seminars
Regular reading of all required texts/materials
Regular, informed participation in the seminars
Preparation for group or individual exercises and presentations
Essay: There is a formally assessed essay of 4000-words for this course which accounts for
100% of the marks. You will be asked to choose from a list of set questions, This
assignment provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their critical
understanding of current ideas, research and literature in relevant areas. The essay should
discuss analytical and theoretical issues relevant to the topic and, where appropriate,
support a coherent argument with primary and/or secondary material.
Submission: The essay should be uploaded to the course’s Moodle page by 14.00, Friday,
14 April 2023. Essays should be double spaced and in a font size no smaller than 12 point.
Formative assessment: In order to gain feedback for your essay, the course lecturers need
to see a one-page outline of your topic and main readings. This should be uploaded to the
course’s Moodle page by 14.00, Friday 16 March 2022. This component is not marked but
you MUST submit an essay plan to advance to the essay. You will be given feedback on your
work at the very latest two weeks before final essay deadline.
TURNITIN: The University Plagiarism Statement indicates that the University retains the
right to use electronic means (i.e. anti-plagiarism soft-ware) on student work. TURNITIN
software is now being used by the department and further information will be available on
Moodle.
Essay Return: Your essay will normally be returned to you with comments within three
weeks of the submission date. Please note that the mark you are given is provisional. Your
essay will need to be second marked and the mark needs to be agreed by the External
Examiner. All marks are finalised at our Examiners Meeting in June. This is when your course
results will be posted on MyCampus. Your overall degree results will not be posted until
after your dissertation or practical project is submitted and examined in Autumn 2020.
Referencing: Essays should make appropriate reference to recommended reading for the
specific topic and include a bibliography conforming either to the Harvard referencing
system. Further details on essay writing and referencing are contained in Appendix A.
Late Submission: There are penalties for the late submission of essays. The University
statement on this can be found in Appendix B.
Plagiarism
You are reminded of the importance of avoiding plagiarism in essay material. The
Department and the University enforce strict rules on plagiarism and take the gravest view
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of any incident of plagiarism. Please note that this includes the unacknowledged use of
material drawn from websites – such material is almost always easily recognised within the
body of an essay, and easily sourced through the use of search engines and plagiarism
checking programmes. The University’s statement on plagiarism is given as Appendix D.
Equality and Diversity
The University of Glasgow as a whole is committed to promoting equality in all its activities
and aims to provide a work, learning, research and teaching environment free from
discrimination and unfair treatment. Further information about the University’s Equality and
Diversity Unit, including information about who you should contact if you wish to discuss
anything in this respect, can be found at this address:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/equalitydiversity/
Problems
The University also offers a range of additional advice and help to its students which it may
be useful for you to know about. You can find information on these at:
www.gla.ac.uk/student/support.html
The Student Learning Service, provides support and advice designed to help you study more
efficiently and communicate more effectively. It also organises exam preparation classes,
and a varied series of workshops throughout year, as well as a regular ‘drop-in’ facility.
Details about the service can be found here: http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/sls/
There is also an Adviser to Students with Special Needs, such as those which arise from
physical disability or dyslexia. The Student Disability Service can be found at 69 Southpark
Avenue. Further details about the services they provide can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/disability/
The Student Counselling and Advice Service can offer help and advice about many problems
students may encounter. Their website, which provides contact and other details, is here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/counselling/
The Student Hardship Fund and Access Fund may be able to offer limited assistance to
students who are facing major financial problems. You should ask your advisor about these
if you find yourself in extreme financial difficulties that are affecting your studies.
The school also has a dedicated employability officer, who can offer advice and support with
a view to future employment. Details about employability support can be found here:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/lbss/forstudents/employability/
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Course Texts and Library Provision
The following are recommended readings which provide a foundation for the range of ideas
that we will cover across the course. These are available in the library.
Barker, C. (2016) Cultural studies: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Available as an ebook.
Boyle, K. (2005) Media and violence: gendering the debates. London: Sage.
Curran, J., Fenton, N. and Freedman, D. (2016) Misunderstanding the Internet. 2nd Edition.
Oxon: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and Power. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London:
Longman.
Fuchs, C. (2017) Social Media: a critical introduction. 2nd Edition. London: Sage.
Hall, S. et al. (1980) Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972-79
(Cultural Studies Birmingham). London: Routledge.
Hartley, J. et al. (2013) (eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Oxford: WileyBlackwell.
Hodkinson, P. (2017) Media, Culture and Society: an introduction. 2nd Edition. London:
Sage. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide.
University Press.
New York
Jenkins, H., Ford, S. and Green, J. (2013) Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a
Networked Culture. New York University Press.
Livingstone, S. and Das, R. (2013) ‘The end of audiences? theoretical echoes of reception amid
the uncertainties of use’. In: Hartley, J., Burgess, J. and Bruns, A. (eds.) A Companion to New
Media Dynamics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mandiberg, M. (2012) The Social Media Reader. New York University Press.
Manning, P. (2001) News and News Sources: A Critical Introduction. SAGE Publications.
Merrin, W. (2014) Media Studies 2.0. London: Routledge.
Turkle, S. (2011) Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each
other. New York: Basic Books.
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van Dijk, T. A. (1988) News as Discourse. Hillside, NJ: Erbaum.
Waisbord, S. (ed.) (2014) Media Sociology: A Reappraisal. Polity.
Lecture and Seminar Programme
PLEASE NOTE THAT SEMINARS ARE ON THURSDAYS
Seminar Programme:
Quick Overview
WK
Topic & Date
1
12 January Audience
Course intro and
Reception Theory
Dominic Hinde
2
3
4
19 January Media and
Difference
Dominic Hinde
26 January Media
Violence and ‘Effects’
Dominic Hinde
2 February
Engaging Publics on
Climate Change
Dominic Hinde
5
6
09 February
Beyond
Representation?
Dominic Hinde
16 February
Audience negotiations of
credibility and trust
Cairsti Russell
7
8
23 February
Ethnography and deep
media research
Isaac Hoff
2 March
Large scale audience
research and policy
Dominic Hinde/Dr
Ealasaid Munro (Ofcom
Seminar 1
13:00-14:00
Seminar 2
14:00-15:00
Seminar 3
15:00-16:00
Seminar 4
16:00-17:00
10
9
10
9 March
The Power of the
Image/Visual responses
16 March
Question & Answer
Session/Essay prep
Dominic Hinde
LECTURE PROGRAMME
WEEK 1: Audience Reception Theory
This lecture introduces the course, which focuses on the interpretative relationship
between audience and media. It will discuss the foundations of reception studies through
Stuart Hall’s ‘encoding and decoding’ model and the ethnographic turn which followed in
communications studies, as well as outlining other approaches to audience study within the
framework of the course. This includes an examination of how alternative interpretations
are transformed in the digital environment.
This will focus on the research traditions which emerged from Hall’s work, and the critiques
of these. It will explore the alternative cultural production of fan communities, the
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potential for resistance through such activity and the possibility of inclusive participation.
For the seminar you should read Stuart Hall’s text on encoding and decoding media and
Jean Seaton’s text on 1984. You should also come to the seminar with answers to the
following questions. Be prepared to have a conversation with your peers.
How much are you influenced by the media you consume, and to what extent are you aware
of the ideological content of the media you are subject to?
Think about the media today and the media ten or fifteen years ago when you were a
teenager. What differences do you see in the media landscape that might impact on
audience behaviour?
With regard to Jean Seaton’s article on George Orwell and resistant thought, how can the
idea of ‘doublethink’ help us to understand the way audiences resist media messaging?
Key Readings:
Hall, S. (1980). ‘Encoding and Decoding’. In Hall, S. et al. (eds.) Culture, Media and Language.
London: Hutchinson. This reading is on Moodle.
Seaton, J. (2018). ‘Why Orwell’s 1984 could be about now.’ BBC Culture. Available at
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180507-why-orwells-1984-could-be-about-now
Additional Readings:
Ang, I. (1985) Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. Methuen.
Available as an e-book.
Ang, I. (1991) Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Barker, C. (2016) Cultural studies: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Available as an ebook.
Curran, J. (1990). ‘The New Revisionism in `Mass Communication Research’. European
Journal of Communication 5(2-3), 135-164.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0267323190005002002
Das, R. and Ytre-Arne, B. (eds.) (2018) The Future of Audiences: A Foresight Analysis of
Interfaces and Engagement. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an e-book.
Fiske, J. (2011) Televison Culture, 2nd edition. Routledge: New York. Available as an e-book.
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Hall, S. (1973) Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Birmingham: Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies. Available on Moodle.
Hartley, J. et al. (2013) (eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Oxford: WileyBlackwell. Available as an e-book.
Happer et al. (2019) ‘Weaponizing reality: an introduction to Trump’s war on the media’, in
Trump’s Media War. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an e-book.
Hellekson, K. and Busse, K. (eds.) (2014) The Fan Fiction Studies Reader. University of Iowa
Press. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York
University Press. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2012) Fan studies. Oxford University Press. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. (2012) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. Taylor and
Francis. Available as an e-book.
Jenkins, H. Ford, S. and Green., J. (2013) Spreadable media: creating value and meaning in a
networked culture, New York: New York University Press. Available as an e-book.
Jin, N. (2012 ) Active Audience: A New Materialistic Interpretation of a Key Concept of
Audience Studies. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. Available as an e-book.
Livingstone, S. (1998) ‘Relationships Between Media and Audiences: Prospects For Audience
Reception Studies’. In Liebes, T and Curran, J. Media, Ritual and Identity: Essays in Honor of
Elihu Katz. London, UK : Routledge.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/1005/1/Relationships_between_media_and_audiences(LSERO).pdf
Livingstone, Sonia and Das, Ranjana (2013) The end of audiences?:theoretical echoes of
reception amid the uncertainties of use. In: Hartley, John, Burgess, Jean and Bruns, Axel,
(eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK, pp.104-121.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/1005/1/Relationships_between_media_and_audiences(LSERO).pdf
Livingstone, S. (2005). (ed.). Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for
the Public Sphere. Bristol, England: Intellect Press. Available as an e-book.
Livingstone, S. (2013) ‘The Participation Paradigm in Audience Research’. The
Communication Review. 16 (1-2): 21-30. https://www-tandfonlinecom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/10714421.2013.757174?needAccess=true&
Morley, D. (1980) The Nationwide Audience. BFI: London, Chapters l, 2 and 3. Available as an
e-book.
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Morley, D. (1992) Television, Audiences and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge. Available
as an e-book.
Nightingale, V. (2011) The Handbook of Media Audiences. John Wiley and Sons. Available as
an e-book.
Patriarche, G. et al. (2014) Audience Research Met odologies: Between Innovation and
Consolidation. New York: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Pierson, D. P. (2013) Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and
Reception of the Television Series. Lexington Books. Available as an e-book.
Radway, J. (1987) Reading the Romance. London: Verso. Available as an e-book.
Shaw A. Encoding and decoding affordances: Stuart Hall and interactive media technologies.
Media, Culture & Society. 2017;39(4):592-602. https://journals-sagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1177/0163443717692741?utm_source=summon&utm
_medium=discovery-provider&#articleCitationDownloadContainer
WEEK 2: Media and Difference
This lecture will examine the relationship between media, cultural difference and distinct
communities. We will look at debates around mass society, de-differentiation and the
illusion of ‘choice’ in the consumerist context. We will examine the populating of reality
television by people from the working class, and the way in which the media marginalize
particular communities (such as through ‘poverty porn’) viewed from a critical position of
‘normal society’ and those who opt out from it. Finally we’ll discuss the growing disconnect
between journalists and the audiences they represent, and the way in which this impacts on
how ‘difference’ is represented and understood.
For the seminar you should read the papers by Bev Skeggs and Gurminder K. Bhambra on
representations of the British working class. Make notes and in the seminar you should
reflect on your own experience of how your own life is reflected in the media. Be prepared
to talk and consider the following questions:
What class do you think you belong to? Do you think you are an average person? Is your life
well reflected in the media?
How much of your view of people from different regions, racial groups or economic
backgrounds is influenced by media portrayals? How does this relate to the two key
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readings?
Key Reading:
Skeggs, B. (2011) Imagining personhood differently: person value and autonomist working‐
class value practices, The Sociological Review, 59, 3, (496-513). This reading is on Moodle.
Bhambra, G. K. (2017). Brexit, Trump, and ‘methodological whiteness’: On the misrecognition of race
and class. The British journal of sociology, 68, S214-S232.
Additional Readings:
Adorno, T. (1991) The Culture Industry: Selected Essays On Mass Culture. London:
Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Babe, R. (2016) ‘Theodor Adorno and Dallas Smythe: Culture Industry/Consciousness
Industry and the Political Economy of Media and Communication.’ In Babe, R. (ed.)
Revisiting the Frankfurt School: Essays on Culture, Media and Theory. Ashgate Publishing.
Available as an e-book.
Benedtictis, S. D, Allen, K. and Jensen, T. (2017) ‘Portraying Poverty: The Economics and
Ethics of Factual Welfare Television’. Cultural Sociology, 11 (3), 1749-9755.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1749975517712132?journalCode=cusa
Biressi A, Nunn H (2008) ‘Bad citizens: The class politics of lifestyle television’. In: Palmer G
(ed.) Exposing Lifestyle Television: The Big Reveal. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 15–23.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265271989_Bad_Citizens_The_Class_Politics_of
_Lifestyle_Television/link/542fd8a20cf29bbc1272951e/download
Cook, D. (2001) ‘Adorno on Mass Societies’, Journal of social philosophy, 32, Issue 1.
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5
c79b4a4-0bab-481d-94b5-0c3b6c827f02%40pdc-v-sessmgr03
Philo, G, Briant, E. and Donald P. (2013) Bad News for Refugees. Pluto Press. Available as an
e-book.
Hodkinson, P. (2017) Media, Culture and Society: an introduction. 2nd Edition. London:
Sage. Available as an e-book.
Jenson, T. (2014) ‘Welfare Common Sense, Poverty Porn and Doxography’, Sociological
Research Online, 19 (3).
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.5153/sro.3441?journalCode=sroa
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Jenson, T. and Tyler, I. (2015) ‘Benefits broods: the cultural and political crafting of antiwelfare commonsense’, Critical Social Policy, 4 (35), 470-491.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0261018315600835
Kendall, D.E. (2011) Framing class: media representations of wealth and poverty in America.
Rowman & Littlefield. Available as an e-book.
Savage, M. (2012015) Social Class in the 21st Century. Penguin UK. Available as an e-book.
Skeggs, B. (2009) ‘The moral economy of person production: the class relations of selfperformance on “reality” television’. Sociological Review, 57 (4).
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467954X.2009.01865.x?journalCode=sora
Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. (2011) ‘Turning it on is a class act: immediated object relations with
television’, Media, Culture & Society, 33(6) 941–951.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443711412298
Snow, J. (2017, 23 Aug) ‘The Best and Worst of Times’: the MacTaggart Lecture at Edinburgh
TV Festival 2017’. https://www.channel4.com/news/by/jon-snow/blogs/mactaggartlecture-edinburgh-2017
Stiernstedt, Fredrik, and Peter Jakobsson (2017) ‘Watching Reality from a Distance: Class,
Genre and Reality Television’. Media, Culture & Society, 39 (5): 697–714.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443716663643?journalCode=mcsa
Tyler, I. (2020) Stigma: the machinery of inequality. Zed Books. Available as an e-book.
Tyler, I. (2013) Revolting subjects: social abjection and resistance in neoliberal Britain. Zed
Books. Available as an e-book.
Williams, R. (1983) Writing in Society. Verso. Chapter 5. Available as an e-book.
WEEK 3: Media Violence and ‘Effects’
This lecture examines sociological perspectives on ‘media effects’ debate in relation to the
impacts of violent content in the media. It will look at the way in which applications of the
moral panic model to questions of media violence have often led to a simplistic dismissal of
any question of impacts, and ask how we can understand media effects more accurately. It
will argue for a more nuanced approach which addresses the broader role of media in
normalising cultural values and behaviours.
16
We will be looking in particular at the idea of sexual violence and sexualisation in the media,
and how this is manifested through examination of the #MeToo movement and the way in
which counter collectives online can seek to resist social media narratives as in the case of
#Himtoo. We will also look at the idea of ‘symbolic’ violence and how this differs to
straightforward media effects through the prism of new right politics.
For the seminar you should read both key readings and come prepared to answer the
following questions:
Why does media regulation and politics seek to assert moral boundaries for media content?
How should we understand the concept of normalisation and radicalisation in relation to
media content?
Is there an appropriate line to be drawn for media content? How might we go about
measuring and policing media in a way that balances genuine harms with freedom of
expression?
Key Readings:
DeCook, J. R. (2018). Memes and symbolic violence:# proudboys and the use of memes for
propaganda and the construction of collective identity. Learning, Media and
Technology, 43(4), 485-504.
Sophie Hindes & Bianca Fileborn (2020) “Girl power gone wrong”: #MeToo, Aziz Ansari, and
media reporting of (grey area) sexual violence, Feminist Media Studies, 20:5, 639-656.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2019.1606843 This reading is on
Moodle.
Additional Readings:
Barker, M. and Petley, J. (eds.). (2001) Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate. London:
Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Bartlett, A, Clarke, K. and Cover, R. (2019) Flirting in the Era of #MeToo: Negotiating
Intimacy. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an e-book.
Buckingham, D. (2000) After the death of childhood: growing up in the age of electronic
media. Polity Press. Available as an e-book.
Bourdieu, P. (2001). Masculine domination. Stanford University Press.
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boyd, d. (2014) It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Yale University Press.
Chapter 4. Available as an e-book.
Boyle, K. (2005) Media and Violence: Gendering the Debates. London: Sage. Available as an
e-book.
Boyle, K. (2019) #MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism. Palgrave Macmillan. Available as an ebook.
Boyle, K. and Rathnayake C. (2019) ‘#HimToo and the Networking of Misogyny in the Age of
#MeToo’, Feminist Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1661868
Boyle, K. (2019) ‘What’s in a Name? Theorising the Inter-Relationships of Gender and
Violence’, Feminist Theory 20:(1) 19-36.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464700118754957
Buckingham, D. (2012) Beyond “Media Panics”, Journal of children and media, 6 (4), pp.
413- 429. https://www-tandfonlinecom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/17482798.2012.740415?needAccess=true
Burawoy, M. (2019). Symbolic violence: conversations with Bourdieu. Duke University Press.
Clarke, J. (2008) Still Policing the Crisis?, Crime, Media, Culture, 4 (1). https://journalssagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659007087278
Cohen, S. (2011) Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers.
London and New York: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Cree, V. E. (ed.) (2015) Revisiting Moral Panics. Policy Press. Available as an e-book.
Ferreday, D. (2015) ‘Game of Thrones, rape culture and feminist fandom’, Australian
Feminist Studies. 30 (83): 21-36.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08164649.2014.998453?journalCode=cafs2
0
Gauntlett, D. (1998) ‘’Ten Things Wrong with the “Effects Model’’. In Dickinson, R.,
Harindranath, R. & Linné, O. (eds.) Approaches to Audiences – A Reader. London: Arnold.
http://davidgauntlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Ten-Things-Wrong-2006version.pdf
Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J., & Roberts, B. (1978). Policing the Crisis:
Mugging, the State, and Law and Order. London: Macmillan. Ordered digital copy.
Hasinoff, A. A. (2015) Sexting Panic: Rethinking Criminalization, Privacy, and Consent.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Available as an e-book.
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Hasinoff A.A. (2013) Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and sexuality.
New Media & Society.15(4):449-465. https://journals-sagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1177/1461444812459171?utm_source=summon&utm
_medium=discovery-provider
Hier, S. (2011) ‘Tightening the Focus: Moral Panic, Moral Regulation and Liberal
Government’. The British Journal of Sociology, 62(3): 523-541.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01377.x
Ingraham, C. and Reeves, J. (2016) ‘New media, new panics.’, Critical Studies in Media
Communication, 33(5): 455-467. Available on Moodle.
Krinsky, C. (2013)The Ashgate research companion to moral panics. Taylor and Francis.
Available as an e-book.
Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., and Gorzig, A. (2012) (eds.) Children, Risk and Safety Online:
Research and Policy Challenges in Comparative Perspective. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Available as an e-book.
McGlynn, C., Rackley, E. and Houghton, R. (2017) ‘Beyond “Revenge Porn”: The Continuum
of Image-Based Sexual Abuse’. Feminist Legal Studies. 25(1): 25-46.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10691-017-9343-2
Millwood Hargrave, A. and Livingstone, S. (2013) Harm and Offence in Media Content: a
Review of the Evidence. 2nd Revised edition, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK.
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/49000/1/Livingstone_Harm_offence_media_2009.pdf
Newson, E. (1994). Video Violence and the Protection of Children. University of Nottingham:
Child Development Research Unit, March. Available on Moodle.
Ortiz S. M. (2020) Trolling as a Collective Form of Harassment: An Inductive Study of How
Online Users Understand Trolling. Social Media + Society. Online only.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305120928512#articleCitationDownloa
dContainer
Phillips, N. (2017, July 27). Violence, Media Effects, and Criminology. Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of Criminology.
https://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefo
re-9780190264079-e-189.
Philo, G. and Miller, D. (1998) ‘The Effective Media’. In Philo, G. (ed.). Message Received:
Glasgow Media Group research, 1993-1998. Harlow: Longman. Available as an e-book.
Ringrose, J, Gill, R. Livingstone, S and Harvey, L. (2012) ‘A Qualitative Study of Children,
Young People and ‘Sexting’: A report Prepared for the NSPCC.
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https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/qualitative-studychildren-young-people-sexting-report.pdf
Wright Monod, S. (2017) Making Sense of Moral Panics: A Framework for Research.
Springer Publishing. Available as an e-book.
WEEK 4: Engaging Publics on Climate Change
This lecture explores the range of challenges facing journalists reporting on climate change
in respect of public engagement. It will address the role of media and communications in
inhibiting the development of a public consensus on action exploring the inter-actions of
sceptical and low priority reporting, as well as the challenges of engaging audiences
emotionally on what is seen as a remote issue. It will examine the shift in momentum in the
last few years in the UK which relates variously to the work of activists and factions of the
media shifting the language of climate to one of crisis, emergency and catastrophe.
We will then explore the question on the way in which engagement with climate change is
polarised along different faultlines and the role of social media in exacerbating divisions. To
do this the lecture will address three inter-linked areas: youth protest, the way in which
climate activism might be seen as exclusionary to certain groups and political and cultural
polarisation online. For the seminar you should do the following:
Read the key reading by Moser and Dilling. Look at how climate change is impacting on your
home town, city or region and consider where interventions might be made. How would you
argue for climate positive interventions that would engage people?
Come to class prepared to pitch ideas on climate persuasion and communication in your
local context.
Key Reading:
Moser S.C. and Dilling L. (2010) ‘Communicating Climate Change: Opportunities and
Challenges for Closing the Science-Action Gap’. In: Norgaard R., Schlosberg D. and Dryzek J.
(eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
pp. 161–174. This reading is on Moodle.
Additional Readings:
TV: BBC, Climate Change: The Facts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9WyLPgyuqo
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Boykoff, M.T., and Boykoff, J.M. (2004), “Balance as Bias: Global Warming and the US
Prestige Press”, Global Environmental Change, (14): 125–136.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378003000669
Boykoff, M. T., and Boykoff, J. M. (2007), “Climate change and journalistic norms: A casestudy of US mass-media coverage”, Geoforum, (38):1190–1204.
https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/publications/downloads/boykoff07-geoforum.pdf
Boykoff, M. T. (2011) Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on
Climate Change. Cambridge University Press. Available as an e-book.
Carrington, D. (2019) ‘Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the
environment’, The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changingthe-language-it-uses-about-the-environment
Corner, A. and Clark, J. (2017) Talking Climate: From Research to Practice in Public
Engagement. Springer Publishing. Available as an e-book.
Crawford, L., Breheny, M., Mansvelt, J. & Hill, S. (2019) ‘Broad consensus across the
divide’: rhetorical constructions of climate change in mainstream news media, Kōtuitui: New
Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1177083X.2018.1503605
Doyle, J. et al Mediating Climate Change. Taylor and Francis. Available as an e-book.
Dryzek, J. S. et al (2011) The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford
University Press. Available as an e-book.
Elliott, R. (2018) The Sociology of Climate Change as a Sociology of Loss, European journal of
sociology. 59 (3), pp. 301-337. https://www-cambridgeorg.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/core/services/aop-cambridgecore/content/view/B16D58EC8D7F9AEE3227A35F4A9A5E20/S0003975618000152a.pdf/divclass-title-the-sociology-of-climate-change-as-a-sociology-of-loss-div.pdf
Happer, C. (2017) ‘Belief in Change: The role of Media and Communications in Driving Action
on Climate Change’. In: Elliott, A., Cullis, J. and Damodaran, V. (eds.) Climate Change and the
Humanities: Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary
Environmental Crisis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 177-197. Available as an e-book.
Happer, C. and Philo, G. (2016) ‘New approaches to Understanding the Role of the News
Media in the Formation of Public Attitudes and Behaviours on Climate Change’. European
Journal of Communication, 31(2): 136-151. https://journals-sagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1177/0267323115612213?utm_source=summon&utm
_medium=discovery-provider
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Hickman, L. (2012) ‘Big Energy Users get Seven Times More Treasury Meetings Than Green
Sector’, The Guardian, 24th July 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/23/green-companies-treasury-meetingsenergy
Miller, D. and Dinan, W. (2015) ‘Resisting Meaningful Action on Climate Change: Think
Tanks, ‘Merchants of Doubt’ and the ‘Corporate Capture’ of Sustainable Sevelopment’, in:
Hansen, A. and Cox, R., (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication.
London: Routledge. Available as an e-book.
Nisbet M.C., and Kotcher J.E. (2009) A Two-Step Flow of Influence?: Opinion-Leader
Campaigns on Climate Change. Science Communication, 30(3):328-354. https://journalssagepubcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1177/1075547008328797#articleCitationDownloadCo
ntainer
Oreskes, N. and Conway, E. M. (2010) Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists
Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. London: Bloomsbury
Press. Ordered
Painter, J. (2013) Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Risk and Uncertainty. Reuters
Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Ordered.
Painter, J. et al. How ‘Digital-born’ media cover climate change in comparison to legacy
media: A case study of the COP 21 summit in Paris, Global Environmental Change, 48, pp. 110.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378017301437?via%3Dihub
Schäfer M and Painter J (2020) Climate journalism in a changing media ecosystem: Assessing
the production of climate change‐related news around the world. WIREs,
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.675
Shapiro, J. M. (2016) Special interests and the media: Theory and an application to climate
change, Journal of Public Economics, 144, pp. 91-108. https://www-sciencedirectcom.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0047272716301505?via%3Dihub
Whitmarsh,L. E.., and Corner, A. Tools for a new climate conversation: A mixed-methods
study of language for public engagement across the political spectrum, Global
Environmental Change, 42, pp. 122-135.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378016306318?via%3Dihub
WEEK 5: Beyond Representation
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This lecture covers what is generally called non-representational theory, or approaches to
studying the relationship between news and publics which seek to move beyond
representation and reconsider the basics of what is actually happening versuss what the
media portray as happening. This is important because in sociology we are interested in the
real effects if representation, and unlike some of our friends in political science do not just
assume that what is broadcast or written down translates into reality.
We will look at the notion of what constitutes reality in media representation and how
different scholars have tried to move away from a focus on representation to give deeper
accounts of how audiences experience the mix of reality and media portrayals of it.
This lecture also examines the notion of truth in journalism and the epistemological status
of news. It is essential that you read both key readings and consider the task. For the
seminar you should do the following:
Choose a news event from the last week. Consider how this event has been reported. Is this
reporting an accurate version of what is going on? If not, why not? What elements of the
story rendered invisible by the reporting would you bring out? What is actually happening
behind the media framing?
Key Readings:
Bengtsson, S., & Johansson, S. (2021). A phenomenology of news: Understanding news in digital
culture. Journalism, 22(11), 2873-2889.
Parks, P. (2021). Non-representational news: An intervention into pseudo-events. Journalism, 22(1),
122-138.
Additional Readings:
Barnes, R. (2014). The “ecology of participation” A study of audience engagement on alternative
journalism websites. Digital journalism, 2(4), 542-557.
Berlant, L., & Greenwald, J. (2012). Affect in the end times: A conversation with Lauren Berlant. Qui
Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, 20(2), 71-89.
Cavalcante, A. (2018). Affect, emotion, and media audiences: The case of resilient reception. Media,
Culture & Society, 40(8), 1186-1201.
Gibbs, A. (2011). Affect theory and audience. The Handbook of media audiences, 251-266.
Hinde, D. (2021). “Have Car, Can Travel”: Journalistic Practice, Oil Entanglements and Climate
Reportage in Aberdeen, Scotland. GeoHumanities, 1-10.
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Lorimer, H. (2008). Cultural geography: non-representational conditions and concerns. Progress in
human geography, 32(4), 551-559.
Thrift, N. (2008). Non-representational theory: Space, politics, affect. Routledge.
Vannini, P. (Ed.). (2015). Non-representational methodologies: Re-envisioning research. Routledge.
Waisbord, S. (2018). Truth is what happens to news: On journalism, fake news, and posttruth. Journalism studies, 19(13), 1866-1878.
Williams, N. (2020) Non Representational Theory. International Encylopedia of Human Geography
421-427. Elsevier
WEEK 6: Audience Negotiations of Credibility and Trust
Audience trust is a hot topic in media and communications at present. With institutional
reconfiguration, an explosion of freely available platforms online and debates around ‘fake
news’ and social media, politicians and media scholars alike have lamented the supposed
breakdown in trust between publics and media producers.
In this lecture we will look at examples from coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the
Middle East by the BBC and Al Jazeera, investigating how audiences respond to the outlets.
This lecture is intended to get you thinking more critically about the complexities of
covering controversial issues and the interplay between audiences and broadcasters. Based
on extensive research, the case study is an opportunity to engage closely with the question
of how we do audience research to investigate such issues.
Key Readings:
Barkho, L. (2010) News from the BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera: How the three broadcasters
cover the Middle East, New Jersey: Hampton Press.
Philo, G. and Berry, M. (2011) More Bad News from Israel, London: Pluto Press.
Additional Readings:
Ahmad, F. (2006) ‘British Muslim Perceptions and Opinions on News Coverage of September
11’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32:6, pp961-982
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Dubois, E. & Blank, G. (2018) ‘The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of
political interest and diverse media’, Information, Communication & Society, 21:5, pp729745
Edgerly S, Mourão RR, Thorson E, Tham SM. (2020), When Do Audiences Verify? How
Perceptions About Message and Source Influence Audience Verification of News Headlines.
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97:1, pp52-71.
Flew, T. (2019) ‘Digital communication, the crisis of trust, and the post-global’,
Communication Research and Practice, 5:1, pp4-22.
Fletcher, R., & Park, S., (2017) ‘The Impact of Trust in the News Media on Online News
Consumption and Participation’, Digital Journalism, 5:10, pp1281-1299.
Freedman, D. (2019) “Public Service” and the Journalism Crisis: Is the BBC the Answer?
Television & New Media, 20, pp203-218.
Hall, Stuart (1973) Encoding and decoding in the television discourse, Birmingham: Centre
for Contemporary cultural studies.
Harb, Z., Bessaiso, E., (2006) ‘British Arab Muslilm Audiences and Television after September
11’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32:6, pp1063-1076.
Martin, N. (2017). Journalism, the pressures of verification and notions of post-truth in civil
society. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 9. 41.
McNair, Brian (2018) Fake News, Falsehood, Fabrication and Fantasy in Journalism, London:
Routledge
Miladi, N. (2006) ‘Satellite TV News and the Arab Diaspora in Britian: Comparing Al Jazeera,
the BBC and CNN’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32:6, pp947-960.
Miladi, N. (2008) ‘Mediating wars and conflict: North African TV audiences in the UK and the
changing security landscape’, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, Vol 1 No 3
pp245-257.
Morley, D. & Brunsdon, C. (1999) The Nationwide Television Studies, London: Routledge.
Philo, G. (2010) ‘News Audiences and the Construction of Public Knowledge’ in Allan, S. (ed)
The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism, London: Routledge, pp407-416.
Poole, E (2014)‘Muslim Media’ and the politics of Representation Media and Cultural
Responses to Diversity Issues in Britain,’ Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication,
7, pp101-118.
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Ross, K. & Nightingale, V. (2003) Media and Audiences: New Perspectives, Maidenhead:
Open University Press.
Song, H., Jung, J., Kim, Y., (2017), ‘ Perceived News Overload and Its Cognitive and
Attitudinal Consequences for News Usage in South Korea’, Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly, 94.
Sterrett, D., Malato, D., Benz, J., Kantor, L., Tompson, T., Rosenstiel, T., Sonderman, J.,
Loker., L (2019) ‘Who Shared It?: Deciding What News to Trust on Social Media’, Digital
Journalism, 7:6, pp783-801.
Tandoc EC., Ling R., Westlund O., Duffy A., Goh, D., Zheng, W. (2018), ‘Audiences’ acts of
authentication in the age of fake news: A conceptual framework’. New Media & Society,
20:8, pp2745-2763.
Turcotte, J., York, C., Irving, J., Scholl, R.M. and Pingree, R.J. (2015), ‘News
Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders: Effects on Media Trust and
Information Seeking’. Comput‐Mediat Comm, 20 pp520-535.
WEEK 7: Ethnography, Deep Research, Audiences and the
Media: Making, Locating and Analysing Meaning
In this lecture, we will be discussing how ethnography and other forms of
qualitative research can be used to understand the meanings audiences constitute
in their interactions with a range of media environments including: reality
television, journalism and youth culture. We will unpack how the dynamic between
text and audience, as well as the ways we analyse this mediate and circulate values
embedded within the broader social, cultural and economic context the research
sits within allowing us to critically interrogate how class, gender and race (amongst
other forms of identity) are weaved into the fabric of the social in highly mundane,
everyday ways. Finally, we will discuss some of the ethical issues that can arise from
doing ethnography, particularly in relation to the insider/outsider dynamic and
issues of representation.
Key Readings:
Skeggs. B, Thumim. N and Wood. H (2008) ‘Oh Goodness, I am Watching Reality
TV’: How Audiences Make Class in Audience Research, European Journal of
Cultural Studies, 11(1), 5 – 24
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Additional Readings:
Skeggs and Wood. H (2012) Reacting to Reality Television: Performance, Audience
and Value, Routledge: London (Chapter Four)
Mabweazara, H. M. (2011). Between the newsroom and the pub: The mobile
phone in the dynamics of everyday mainstream journalism practice in Zimbabwe.
Journalism, 12(6), 692-707.
Murphy, P. D. (2011). Locating media ethnography. The handbook of media
audiences, 380-401.
Brewer. J (2000) Ethnography, Open University Press: Buckingham
Thurairajah. K (2019) Uncloaking the Researcher: Boundaries in Qualitative
Research, Qualitative Sociology Review, 15(11), 132 – 147
Gay y Blasco. P (2017) Doubts, Compromises, and Ideals: Attempting a Reciprocal
Life Story, Anthropology and Humanism, 42(1), 91 – 108
Hodkinson. P (2005) ‘Insider Research’ in the Study of Youth Cultures, Journal of
Youth Studies, 8(2), 131 – 149
Sharp. M (2020) ‘Insighters’: The Complexity of Qualitative Methods in Youth
Music Research, Journal of Youth Studies, Online First, 1 – 16
Taylor. J (2011) The Intimate Insider: Negotiating the Ethics of Friendship When
Doing Insider Research, Qualitative Research, 11(1), 3 – 22
Van Maanen. J (1995) Representation in Ethnography, Sage: London
WEEK 8: Guest Lecture – Audiences and online media work
This week’s lecture features a guest presentation from Dr Ealasaid Munro of Ofcom, the UK
media regulator. Our guest speaker will be discussing how audience research work helps to
inform media policy, as well as how good audience research is crucial to the ethic of public
service journalism.
In the seminars we will be looking more specifically at large scale audience research and its
impact on policy. You should read ALL the seminar readings in good time so that you can
contribute to the discussion. For the seminar you should:
Read the key readings on audience study in the digital sphere and the Ofcom report on BBC
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audiences. You will be divided into groups and each group will be asked to consider one
question from the following list:
Why is it important that broadcasters and other media outlets understand the needs of the
public as well as their existing viewing patterns?
What kind of methodologies should we use to get a full picture of the needs of audiences?
Consider large scale surveys, focus groups, ethnographies and other forms of monitoring and
make judgements on the role they might play.
Is there a role for giving audiences what they SHOULD watch instead of what they want to
watch? Think about the role of education and information vs entertainment and ratings.
What kind of issues can you envisage in coverage that is entirely led by audience data,
especially with regard to ‘big’ data and live audience metrics?
Key Readings:
Heikkilä, H., & Ahva, L. (2015). The relevance of journalism: Studying news audiences in a digital
era. Journalism Practice, 9(1), 50-64.
Ofcom (2022). Exploration into audience expectations of the BBC in the current media environment..
Available at:https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/239179/2-Exploration-
into-audience-expectations-of-the-BBC-in-the-current-media-environment.pdf
Additional Readings:
Carlson, M. (2018). Confronting measurable journalism. Digital Journalism, 6(4), 406-417.
Fürst, S. (2020). In the service of good journalism and audience interests? How audience metrics
affect news quality. Media and Communication, 8(3), 270-280.
Gibbons, T. (2022). Impartiality in United Kingdom broadcasting. Journal of Media Law, 14(1), 11-19.
Linden, T. C. G. (2017). Algorithms for journalism: The future of news work. The journal of media
innovations.
MacGregor, P. (2007). Tracking the online audience: Metric data start a subtle revolution. Journalism
studies, 8(2), 280-298.
Peters, C. (2015). Introduction: The places and spaces of news audiences. Journalism Studies, 16(1),
1-11.
Petre, K (2021) “Everything clicks for a different reason”. Columbia Journalism Review, 9 December
2021 (online). Accessible at https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/interpreting-journalismanalytics.php
Vos, T. P. (2015). Revisiting gatekeeping theory during a time of transition. In Gatekeeping in
transition (pp. 17-38). Routledge.
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WEEK 9: The Power of the Image
Much ink has been spilled in the literature that surrounds photojournalism: as bearing
witness; as revictimizing; as voyeurism; as complicit with the machinery of war by being part
of its apparatus, and in some cases, as being nothing more than the aestheticization of
suffering. It has been argued that the proliferation of images of carnage and suffering have
led directly to what has been termed ‘compassion fatigue’ – this is to say that audiences
have become weary through over-exposure, diminishing their capacity to respond
empathetically to the pain of others.
What effects do photographs have? What can we bear to see as much as never see?
Raymond Williams, in noting the positive contribution that sociology has made towards
understanding media power and effects put it that:
At the same time, in non-sociological cultural studies, as in much general writing,
the question of effect is commonly raised but without much evidence and often by
simple and casual assertion.
(Williams, R. (1981) Culture; Fontana Paperbacks: p20)
This section aims to think critically about the power of the image and the charge of ‘visual
determinacy’. We will explore the idea of the news photograph as an object that denotes
and connotes alongside the emergence of the photojournalist and the relationship between
words and images. Finally, the complex role of the viewer in the completion of photographic
meaning will be examined.
Key Readings:
Berger, J (2009) edited and with introduction by Geoff Dyer: Understanding a
Photograph: Penguin Books pp 30-33
Berger, J, (1988) Ways of seeing: BBC and Penguin Books (available as e-book)
Additional Readings:
Azoulay, A. (2010), ‘What is a photograph? What is photography?’, Philosophy of
Photography 1: 1, pp. 9–13.
https://monoskop.org/images/7/71/Azoulay_Ariella_2010_What_is_a_photograph.pdf
Batchen, G. Gidley, M. Miller, N. K. and Prosser, J (eds) (2012) Picturing Atrocity; Reaktion
Books Ltd.
Becker, H (2007) Telling about society; University of Chicago Press
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Becker, H (1995) ‘Visual sociology, documentary photography, and photojournalism: It’s
(almost) all a matter of context’, Visual Studies, 10: 1, 5 — 14 To link to this Article: DOI:
10.1080/14725869508583745 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725869508583745
Berger, J (2013) Understanding a Photograph (edited and introduced by Dyer, G) Penguin
Berger, J and Mohr, J (1982) Another way of telling: Writers and Readers Co-operative
Publishing Society Ltd
Boltanski, L (1999/2004) Distant suffering: Morality, media and politics; Cambridge
University Press (available as e-book see also 2001 review by Jean Seaton below)
Campbell, D. (2003) ‘Cultural governance and pictorial resistance: reflections on the imaging
of war.’, Review of international studies., 29 (Supplement 1). pp. 57-73.
https://dro.dur.ac.uk/1221/1/1221.pdf
Chouliaraki, L (2008) The media as moral education: mediation and action; Media, Culture
and Society; Vol 30 Issue 6, November 2008
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0163443708096096
Dearden, L (2015) The fake refugee images that are being used to distort public opinion on
asylum seekers https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/fake-refugee-imagesare-being-used-distort-public-opinion-asylum-seekers-10503703.html
Eldridge, J, Kitzinger, J and Williams, K (1997) The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain,
Oxford university Press (see especially chapter 6 on photojournalism)
Good, J and Lowe P (2017) Understanding Photojournalism; Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Gabbert, E. “Is compassion fatigue inevitable in an age of 24 hour news?” available at
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/02/is-compassion-fatigue-inevitable-in-anage-of-24-hour-news
Gursel, Z D (2016) Image Brokers: Visualising the world news in an age of digital circulation;
University of California Press (available as e-book)
Hill, J and Schwartz, V (eds) (2015) Getting the Picture: The visual culture of the news;
London Bloomsbury
Ibraham, Y (2016) The Un-sacred and the Spectacularised: Alan Kurdi and the Migrant Body
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118803884
Johnson, J (2011) The arithmetic of compassion: British Journal of Political Science , Volume
41 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 621 – 643 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/britishjournal-of-political-science/article/arithmetic-of-compassion-rethinking-the-politics-ofphotography/9C358EBA8B83F229AC07EFA87A0D1B42
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Kennedy, L (2016) After Images: Photography and US Foreign Policy; University of Chicago
Press (available as e-book)
Kennedy, L and Patrick, C (2014) The Violence of The Image; L B Tauris, London and New
York. See especially chapter 5: Campbell, D; The Myth of Compassion Fatigue (pp97-124)
Kingsley, K (2016) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/01/alan-kurdi-death-oneyear-on-compassion-towards-refugees-fades
Kyriakidou, M (2015) Media witnessing: exploring the audience of distant suffering; in
Media, Culture & Society 2015, Vol. 37(2) 215–231
Kozol, W (2004) Domesticating NATOs war in Kosovo/a: (in)visible bodies and the dilemma
of photojournalism: Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism Vol. 4, Issue 2
Lucaites, J and Hariman, R: Visual Rhetoric, Photojournalism, and Democratic Public Culture;
Rhetoric Review, Vol. 20, No. 1/2 (Spring, 2001), pp. 37-42
Media, War & Conflict Special Issue: ‘Images of War’, April 2010: 3(1):
http://mwc.sagepub.com/content/3/1.toc
Midberry, J (2020) Compassionate horror or compassion fatigue? International Journal of
Communication 14(2020), 4406–4427
Mielczarek, N and Perlmutter D (2014) Big Pictures and Visual Propaganda: The lessons of
research on the ‘effects’ of photojournalistic icons; available at
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep12132.12.pdf
Moeller, S (1999) Compassion Fatigue: How the media sell disease, famine and death; Taylor
and Francis Group (available as e-book)
Möller, F (2009) The looking/not looking dilemma; Review of International Studies Vol. 35, No. 4
(October 2009), pp. 781-794
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40588074?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents
Möller, F (2013) Visual Peace: Images, Spectatorship and the politics of violence; Palgrave
Press (available as e-book)
Möller, F (2017) From Aftermath to Peace: Reflections on a Photography of Peace, Global
Society, 31:3, pp 315-335
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600826.2016.1220926
Mortensen, T M and Gade, P J (2018) Does Photojournalism Matter? News Image Content
and Presentation in the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record Before and After Layoffs of
the Photojournalism Staff; Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol 95; issue 4;
2018
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Mortensen, M., & Trenz, H.-J. (2016). Media morality and visual icons in the age of social
media: Alan Kurdi and the emergence of an impromptu public of moral spectatorship.
Javnost—The Public, Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture, 23(4),
343–362.
Philo. G and Berry, M (2004) Bad News from Israel; London Pluto
Ritchen, F (2009) After Photography; W. W. Norton and Company
Robbins, B (2016) Looking at Atrocities with John Berger
Looking at Atrocities with John Berger
Seaton, J (2001) Watching the World: Seeing, Feeling—Understanding? The Political
Quarterly, Vol 72 Issue 4, October 2001
*note that Seaton refers to a DIFD document from GUMG research, “Viewing the world”
which you can access here:
https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090121175748/http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs
/files/viewworldfull.pdf
Seaton, J (2005) Carnage and the Media: Allen Lane Penguin Books
Sontag, S (1977) On Photography; Penguin Books
Sontag, S (2003) Regarding the Pain of Others; Penguin Books
Weikman, T and Powell T (2019) The Distant Sufferer: Measuring spectatorship of
Photojournalism; International Journal of Communications 13; 2019; pp2899-2920
Williams, K “The Light at The End of The Tunnel” in Eldridge, J (ed) (1993); Getting the
Message: News, Truth and Power; London Routledge p305
Web sources and photography blogs
https://rebeccawoodallphotography.wordpress.com/category/350mc-photography-incontext/photojournalism-now-roles-and-responsibilities/
https://www.nocaptionneeded.com/ an excellent blog on photojournalism as a public art
https://www.david-campbell.org/photography-introduction – good commentary, reviews
and articles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNDrUzaY6OE Photographer Santi Palacio gives a Ted
Talk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE9Tb6Ch3n4 Photographer Lynsey Addario gives
reflections on her career.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/specials/bosnia/index.html Gilles PeressBosnia: Uncertain Paths to Peace – an interesting and interactive photo essay.
32
https://autograph.org.uk/ The Association of Black Photographers established by, amongst
others, Stuart Hall.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/28/gutted-photographers-who-didnt-help –
Interviews with photojournalists: warning, contains graphic images
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jun/18/war-photographers-special-report interviews with photojournalists: warning, contains graphic images.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/24/five-conflict-photographers-on-some-ofthe-hardest-images-theyve-taken interviews with photojournalists: warning, contains
graphic images.
https://www3.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture?arc404=true – photography archive.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/photography -photography archives at the
Guardian
https://time.com/5844377/george-floyd-protests-minneapolis-photos/ warning: contains
graphic images
https://ijnet.org/en/story/photojournalists-share-experience-frontlines-pandemic Photographing Covid_19
https://time.com/author/fred-ritchin/ – further articles by Fred Ritchin
https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/ -link to Associated Press and worth
exploring
https://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/goffs/135%20photojournalism/associated%20press%20ethic
s%20code.pdf – code of ethics for photojournalists
https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/tag/associated-press-ap -more from AP on ethical
journalism
WEEK 10: Question and Answer Session
This session is an opportunity to discuss key issues with course staff and to ask any final
questions before the end of the semester. There will be no seminar this week.
Essay Questions
NB – essay questions do not necessarily relate directly to the topic covered in any one class
and you are encouraged to draw on literature and debates from across the course in your
essay. You must answer the specific essay questions and MUST NOT chose your own title or
theme.
1. To what degree do audiences interpret media messages the way in which the producer
intends? And what might influence alternative interpretations? Make reference to
theorists and ideas you have studied on the course.
33
2. The degree to which action on climate change will be prioritised should be seen as the
product of a constant and evolving struggle between different forces. What role have
media and communications played in this struggle and what challenges do climate
communicators face?
3. ‘There is little doubt that media representations of violence do not only reflect real life,
but also shape the way we understand and make sense of violence in the contexts of our
own lives.’ (Karen Boyle). Discuss.
4. Does the conceptualization of distinct ‘audiences’ still have analytical usefulness in the
digital age? What alternative approaches might we use?
5. The media is a key site of social control. Discuss in relation to representations of class,
race, gender, or environmental degradation and show explicitly how media dictates the
boundaries of our social behaviour.
6. It has been argued that a proliferation of images of suffering from war and natural
disaster have resulted in audience overload and a reduction in empathy. To what extent
can claims for ‘compassion fatigue’ be substantiated?
7. Choose a divisive global issue such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Russian invasion of
Ukraine, or tensions over Taiwan’s democratic status. Discuss how questions of audience
may influence its portrayal by different media organisations. Make sure that you
reference both theory and real-world case studies in giving your answer.
8. How can understanding the needs of audiences help us to serve the public and
democracy? Make reference to the role of audience research in policymaking.
9. Ethnography of audience groups or individual media consumers can be a useful tool in
understanding the motivations and experiences of the public. Discuss the challenges of
ethnographic practice and speculate on how audience ethnography might be applied to
a contemporary social issue.
10. Drawing on the discussions of form audience engagement from across the lecture series,
what challenges can a journalist expect to face in communicating an important and
complex issue to their audience and how could they overcome them? Cite AT LEAST ONE
case study or likely scenario.
34
Appendix A: Referencing and Writing a Bibliography
At this stage in your academic career, you should know how to reference work and write a
good bibliography. Marks will be deducted if you fail to reference your work and compose
an effective bibliography. Please note that other disciplines, such as history, use a different
type of referencing system from that used in the Social Sciences. See below for details of the
most commonly used system in the Social Sciences.
•
Referencing: It is essential to include references to the authors you use in your essay.
It allows the marker to see where your ideas came from and it also backs up the claims that
you are making. If you fail to reference your ideas, you may be accused of plagiarism. You
will find that there are a number of different referencing systems. For all Social Science
topics, you are recommended to use the Harvard system. In this system, references are
given in the text, not in footnotes. All references need the author’s surname, the year of
the publication, and the page number (e.g.Hall 1980: 63-5). Only if you are referring to
more than one author with the same surname will it be necessary to add initials. If an
author has more than one publication with the same year, a distinguishing letter is added:
(hall 1980a: 107; Hall 1980b: 44). These names and years refer the reader to entries in your
bibliography. Please note: if you are referring to a chapter in an edited collection of
chapters, you refer to the actual author of the chapter in the body of the essay and not the
editor of the book. In the bibliography, you then indicate which book this chapter came
from and the editor of the book. See bibliography for details.
•
Bibliography: Every work that you have referred to in your essay must be listed in
the bibliography. If you have read a book, but not used it in the essay, do not put it in the
bibliography. The bibliography must be in alphabetical order by the surname of the author,
or the first author if there is more than one. Each entry must show surnames and initials,
year corresponding with the text references (which should be the year of first publication,
not the date of the particular printing you have used), the title of the original article or book,
and where it was published.(Book and journal titles should be italicised) On the next page
are examples of bibliography entries for the main types of reading you will encounter in this
course.
•
Single-authored book
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York
University Press: New York and London.
•
Edited book
Holborn, M. (ed.) (2015) Contemporary Sociology. Polity Press: Cambridge
•
Journal Article
35
Berry, M. (2013) ‘The ‘Today’ Programme and the Banking crisis’ Journalism 14(2): 253-270.
•
Chapter in Edited Book
Miller, D. (2015) ‘Neoliberalism, politics and institutional corruption: against the
“institutional malaise” hypothesis’. In: Whyte, D. (ed.) How Corrupt is Britain? London, U. K.:
Pluto Press.
Appendix B: University of Glasgow Common Code of Assessment
The University has a common code of assessment where letter grades are awarded (e.g. (A,
B, C). The descriptors of the letter grades are below. Each letter grade is further subdivided
into bands (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1). Each letter band is also assigned a numerical value out
of 22.
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
22
21
20
19
18
B1
B2
17
16
Grade A: Exemplary range and depth of attainment of intended learning
outcomes, secured by discriminating command of a comprehensive range of
relevant materials and analyses, and by deployment of considered judgement
relating to key issues, concepts and procedures
An excellent performance is likely to be characterised by several of the
following:
• questions are answered clearly, comprehensively and with appropriate
focus
• excellent organisation and structure of answers
• reasoned arguments developing logical conclusions
• insight, imagination, originality and creativity
• integration of new information
• sound critical thinking
• independence of judgement
• explanation of relevant theory
• citation of relevant evidence
• evidence of wide, relevant reading
• application of learning to new situations and problem solving
• accuracy and absence of errors
Considered as 1st (first) class.
36
B3
15
Grade B: Conclusive attainment of virtually all intended learning outcomes,
clearly grounded on a close familiarity with a wide range of supporting
evidence, constructively utilised to reveal appreciable depth of understanding
A very good performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
questions are answered clearly and fully
good organisation and structure of answers
reasoned arguments developing logical conclusions
very good understanding of the subject
clear evidence of relevant reading or research
explanation of relevant theory
citation of relevant evidence
inclusion of highly relevant ideas
use of relevant examples
application of learning to new situations and problem solving
accuracy and absence of significant errors
although, distinguishing it from an excellent performance, it might be faulted
on grounds of:
•
•
•
•
•
demonstrating less insight, imagination, originality or creativity
including a less comprehensive presentation, solution or answer
integrating information less successfully
exhibiting less critical thinking
exhibiting less independence of thought
Considered: 2.1 (upper second) class
C1
C2
14
13
37
C2
12
Grade C: Clear attainment of most of the intended learning outcomes, some
more securely grasped than others, resting on a circumscribed range of
evidence and displaying a variable depth of understanding
A good performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
attempts made to answer questions set
ability to solve some of the problems set
basic to good understanding of the subject
evidence of some relevant reading or research
inclusion of some relevant ideas
inclusion of some relevant examples
although, distinguishing it from a very good performance, it might be faulted
on grounds of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
lacking sufficiently well-structured argument
not offering sufficient evidence to justify assertions
not including sufficient relevant examples
lacking insight, imagination, originality and creativity
offering less in its presentation, solutions or answers
containing some errors
Considered: 2.2 (lower second) class
D1
D2
11
10
38
D3
9
Grade D: Acceptable attainment of intended learning outcomes, displaying a
qualified familiarity with a minimally sufficient range of relevant materials, and
a grasp of the analytical issues and concepts which is generally reasonable,
albeit insecure
A satisfactory performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of
the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
attempts made to answer questions set
ability to solve some of the problems set
modest evidence of understanding of the subject
modest evidence of relevant reading or research
inclusion of a few relevant ideas
inclusion of a few relevant examples
and, distinguishing it from a good performance, it might:
• contain more errors of judgement, fact or application
• present arguments which are less well structured
• offer less evidence in support of assertions
• offer fewer relevant examples
• contain more errors
Considered: 3rd (third) class
E1
E2
E3
8
7
6
Grade E: Attainment deficient in respect of specific intended learning
outcomes, with mixed evidence as to the depth of knowledge and weak
deployment of arguments or deficient manipulations
A weak performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
failure to answer the question set though an answer to a similar
question may be offered
partial solutions to problems set
little evidence of understanding of the subject
little evidence of relevant reading or research
inclusion of very few relevant ideas
absence of structured argument
little evidence to justify assertions
few relevant examples
several significant errors
Considered: Fail
F1
5
39
F2
F3
4
3
Grade F: Attainment of intended learning outcomes appreciably deficient in
critical respects, lacking secure basis in relevant factual and analytical
dimensions
A poor performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the
following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
failure to answer the question set though an answer to a question
within the same topic area may be offered
very little evidence of understanding of the subject
very little evidence of relevant reading or research
inclusion of ideas relevant only in a wider consideration of the topic
absence of structured argument
very little evidence to justify assertions
very few relevant examples
many significant errors
Considered: Fail
G1
G2
2
1
Grade G: Attainment of intended learning outcomes markedly deficient in
respect of nearly all intended learning outcomes, with irrelevant use of
materials and incomplete and flawed explanation.
A very poor performance is likely to be characterised by some of the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
failure to answer the question set
no evidence of understanding of the subject
no evidence of relevant reading or research
absence of relevant ideas
absence of structured argument
absence of evidence to justify assertions
absence of relevant examples
many significant errors
Considered: Fail
H
0
No convincing evidence of attainment of intended learning outcomes, such
treatment of the subject as is in evidence being directionless and fragmentary
• Absence of positive qualities.
Considered: Fail
Appendix C: Penalties for late submission of essays
40
Information on late submission, plagiarism, etc can be found in the programme booklet on
Moodle. Please ensure that you have read these regulations carefully.
Appendix D: Plagiarism
Please note that the Teaching and Learning Service has info on plagiarism on their website:
www.gla.ac.uk/services/sls/plagiarism/
The following is an excerpt from the University Calendar. This can be consulted at:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_165329_en.pdf
Introduction
31.1 The University’s degrees and other academic awards are given in recognition of a
student’s personal achievement. All work submitted by students for assessment is accepted
on the understanding that it is the student’s own effort.
31.2 Plagiarism is defined as the submission or presentation of work, in any form, which is
not one’s own, without acknowledgement of the sources. Plagiarism includes inappropriate
collaboration with others. Special cases of plagiarism can arise from a student using his or
her own previous work (termed auto-plagiarism or self-plagiarism). Auto-plagiarism includes
using work that has already been submitted for assessment at this University or for any
other academic award.
1.3 The incorporation of material without formal and proper acknowledgement (even with
no deliberate intent to cheat) can constitute plagiarism. Work may be considered to be
plagiarised if it consists of:
a direct quotation;
a close paraphrase;
an unacknowledged summary of a source;
direct copying or transcription.
With regard to essays, reports and dissertations, the rule is: if information or ideas are
obtained from any source, that source must be acknowledged according to the appropriate
convention in that discipline; and any direct quotation must be placed in quotation marks
and the source cited immediately. Any failure to acknowledge adequately or to cite properly
other sources in submitted work is plagiarism. Under examination conditions, material
learnt by rote or close paraphrase will be expected to follow the usual rules of reference
citation otherwise it will be considered as plagiarism. Schools should provide guidance on
other appropriate use of references in examination conditions.
41
31.4 Plagiarism is considered to be an act of fraudulence and an offence against University
discipline. Alleged plagiarism, at whatever stage of a student’s studies, whether before or
after graduation, will be investigated and dealt with appropriately by the University.
31.5 The University reserves the right to use plagiarism detection systems, which may be
externally based, in the interests of improving academic standards when assessing student
work.
40 If a student suspects a fellow student of plagiarism then he or she should speak to a
member of staff in the School concerned. The identity of the student making the report shall
remain confidential.
41 Where the Head of School has a potential conflict of interest (e.g. teaches or examines
on the course concerned) then he or she should pass the case to another senior member of
academic staff in the School. In the case of small Schools, where it may not be possible to
pass the case to another senior member of academic staff, the case should be passed to the
Head of a cognate School.
Referral
31.6 Where a student is suspected of plagiarism (40) the member of staff shall refer the case
to the Head of School (41) or his or her nominee (hereinafter referred to as Head of School)
along with all appropriate documentary evidence (the piece of work in question duly
marked-up, a copy of the original source of the plagiarism, information on the contribution
of the piece of work to the overall assessment, etc). Any further consideration of that piece
of work by the School shall be held in abeyance until the procedures set out below have
been completed. The student shall be informed in writing that his or her marks have been
withheld pending an investigation of suspected plagiarism. As part of any such investigation
the University may review previously assessed material and rescind published marks or
grades if necessary.
31.7 The Head of School shall assess the extent of the suspected plagiarism and, if
necessary, consult with the Senior Senate Assessor for Student Conduct. The Head of School
will deal with suspected cases that are first offences and not considered to be severe. The
Head of School will refer all suspected second offences and cases of severe plagiarism
directly to the Clerk of Senate or to the Director of the Senate Office for investigation under
the provisions of the Code of Student Conduct.
31.8 Whilst there is no definitive list, examples of cases which would be regarded as severe
plagiarism include:
i) any case of serious and or blatant plagiarism when considered in relation to the student’s
level of study and length of exposure to the procedures, practices and regulations of the
University;
42
ii) a first offence where a reduction in marks would put at risk the student’s degree or direct
progression;
iii) any case, regardless of extent, where it is inappropriate to deal with it within a School.
Procedure before the Head of School
31.9 At all times the principles of natural justice shall be observed.
31.10 With respect to cases that are first offences and not considered to be severe, the
Head of School shall interview the student concerned. He or she can also interview any
students who have allegedly allowed their work to be copied. As soon as practicable, the
student will be informed in writing of the alleged offence and of the requirement to attend
for interview. The student will also be provided with a copy of the marked-up piece of work
in advance of the interview.
31.11 The student shall have the right to be accompanied, assisted or represented at the
interview by one of the following: a parent or guardian; a fellow student or other friend; an
Officer of the Students’ Representative Council; a member of University staff, or any other
representative. At the beginning of the interview, the Head of School will ascertain who is to
be the spokesperson for the student (the student or a representative). The foregoing not
withstanding, the Head of School shall have the right to question the student directly, where
necessary.
31.12 The Head of School shall have a member of support staff present to keep a record of
the meeting.
31.13 At the interview, the student will be shown a copy of his or her work, duly marked-up
and be given a clear explanation of what he or she has allegedly done. The student will be
given the opportunity to justify the work and be invited to admit or deny responsibility.
31.14 If the Head of School is satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that an offence has
occurred he or she may impose an academic penalty, which will take account of the extent
of the plagiarism. The Head of School may reduce the marks or results up to the point where
the academic rating for the piece of work in question is reduced to Grade H. Consideration
will also be given to resubmission opportunities; the maximum mark that can be awarded to
any resubmission is the pass mark appropriate to the degree programme being followed.
The student shall be given instruction about plagiarism and the necessity of properly
acknowledging and referencing sources.
If it is judged that the case is of a more serious nature than first believed, the Head of School
may refer the case onwards for consideration by the Senate Assessors for Student Conduct.
31.15 If the Head of School is not satisfied that an offence has occurred but considers that
the student has engaged in poor academic practice then the student should receive a
43
warning, instruction about plagiarism and the necessity of properly acknowledging and
referencing sources.
31.16 The student will be notified in writing of the outcome by the School. The School will
send a copy of this letter to the Senate Office to be kept on record. The existence of a
record for a particular student will be made known to any other School seeking to assess the
seriousness of other issues (see §31.6 and §31.7).
31.17 If it is judged that there is no case for the student to answer, the student will be
informed in writing and the piece of work in question will be marked in accordance with
normal arrangements, without penalty. The Senate Office does not need to be notified of
such instances. Code of Student Conduct Gen.51
31.18 The Head of School shall inform the Board of Examiners of any reduction in marks.
The Board of Examiners shall not have the authority to revisit or alter academic penalties
imposed by this process.
Right of Appeal
31.19 The student shall have the right of appeal to the Senate Assessors for Student
Conduct in respect of any penalty imposed by the Head of School. A student who wishes to
appeal must do so in writing to the Director of the Senate Office within 14 days of the date
of the issue of the written decision of the Head of School.
31.20 The Senate Assessors for Student Conduct will consider an appeal against the penalty
imposed by a Head of School only on the grounds that:
i) new evidence has emerged which could not reasonably have been produced to the Head
of School;
ii) there has been defective procedure at the Head of School level;
iii) the penalty imposed by the Head of School was clearly unreasonable.
The letter of appeal must clearly specify the details of any new evidence, the manner in
which the procedures were defective or in what respects he or she believes the Head of
School has erred or been mistaken in imposing a penalty. The letter should also specify the
remedy that the student seeks.
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)
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