Please choose one of the topics listed below and write an essay of 1,500 words.
(students may go over or under the limit by 10%).
1) Compare and contrast the concepts of ‘mediation’ and ‘mediatization’. Use examples to illustrate your answer.
2) Assess the proposition that the media frame social reality. Discuss this proposition in relation to one recent event reported by the press.
3) Examine the concepts of ‘performance’ and ‘ritual’ in relation to ONE current reality TV show of your choice.
4) ‘The Frankfurt School’s contention is that media and culture have been incorporated into an all-encompassing socio-economic system dominated by instrumentality, rationality and objectification’ (Hodkinson). Comment.
5) Examine the proposition that the media and communication research have found audiences to play an active role in distributing and decoding messages. Give examples to illustrate your answer.
6) How do audiences adapt, resist and oppose media output? Give examples to illustrate your answer.
7) Contrast Stuart Hall’s model of encoding/decoding to previous models of communication. Give examples that exemplify the differences.
8) Can we have a ‘value free’ press? Discuss this hypothesis with reference to gatekeeping, agenda setting, priming, and framing.
9) Critically examine that relationship between media and social anxieties. Give examples of how media can amplify social anxieties.
10) Discuss the representation of gender in the media. Focus either on advertising, film, television or on the political coverage.
Assessment Criteria
Essays will be assessed on a variety of criteria. These include:
• the extent to which the course aims and learning outcomes have been achieved;
• the use of evidence from the work of scholars to make clear arguments;
• critical engagement with the works of scholars covered on the course;
• the use of good referencing, reflected in citations, ideas, and arguments (which are correctly referenced and integrated into the text);
• the accuracy of the expression (it is important that all coursework is proofread several times before submission);
• imagination and originality (the extent to which you have been able to synthesize the works of others and develop your own view of their work).
Sample Solution