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Media, Communications & Culture

What you can do before you arrive

In the time remaining before you arrive, you might do some preparatory reading, to gain an idea of what is in store during the first half of the coming academic year. Listed below are the two core modules you will be taking in the Autumn and Spring Semesters, together with some suggested reading, which you can sample:


Core Programme Modules

AUTUMN SEMESTER

MDS-10008 Mediated World

Mediated World aims to introduce students to some of the main theories and debates found in contemporary media, communication and cultural studies. In this course we examine how the mass media has come to dominate our everyday life – from the spaces we inhabit, to the beliefs we hold and values we share – while analyzing our individual and collective role in this complex relationship. By looking at how and why the tools developed by societies – from the first printing press to today’s high speed internet – have been used for mass communication, we will probe how power is constructed in media messages and ask whether the consumers of such messages can ever wrest back control over meaning.

Reading List (these are some useful texts to look at before you arrive):

  • Graeme Burton, Media and Society: Critical Perspectives (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005)
  • James Lull, Media, Communication and Culture: A Global Approach (Cambridge: Polity, 2000)
  • Cairan McCullagh, Media Power: A Sociological Introduction (London: Palgrave, 2002)
  • Denis McQuail, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, Fifth Edition (London: Sage, 2005)

 

SPRING SEMESTER

MDS-10011 The Photographic Message: Notions of Cultural Identity

Start using a critical eye to look at both moving and still imagery how does it mean what it does? Look at the way images again both moving and still are constructed.

Try reading:

  • John Tagg, ‘Introduction’, in The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
  • Susan Sontag, On Photography (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002).
  • John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990).
  • Roland Barthes, ‘The Photographic Message’, in Image-Music-Text, trans. by Stephen Heath (London: Fontana Press, 1993), pp. 1–15.

Programme Electives

Alongside the two core modules you will be taking in MCC, you will also choose to take two elective modules that are either run by the MCC programme or are run by other programmes and approved by MCC. You will choose one elected module in each semester.

The following two electives are the modules that are run by MCC and which you are advised to consider first in making your choice of elective modules. Indeed, if you have no previous experience of video production or editing we strongly recommend you take the Digital Video module as an elective to ensure you have the necessary filmmaking skills for future practical work in Level 2. We should also stress that if you want to take these modules you should sign up for them early, as places are limited.

There is again some suggested preparatory reading for these modules.

 

AUTUMN SEMESTER

MDS-10009 Digital Video

Have you ever considered in detail what you find so appealing about some of your favourite films? Is it the quality of performance, the dramtic lighting, the stylistic framing and colouring or the realistic portrayal of the events? Try watching movies and consider what qualities you would emulate as a film maker and develop a more analytical understanding of what, in your opinion, makes a good film.

For reading on practical filmmaking techniques and terminology, try:

  • Jones, C & Jolliffe, G. (2006) The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook, Continuum.
  • Bordwell, D and Thompson, K (2007) Film Art: An Introduction, 8th Edition, New York/London: McGraw-Hill
  • Ascher, S. (2007) The filmmaker's handbook; a comprehensive guide for the digital age, New York: Plume.
  • The Online Media College: http://www.mediacollege.com
  • Learn video equipment, setup, operation, & production: http://videoexpert.home.att.net/index.htm

 

SPRING SEMESTER

MDS-10010 Understanding Culture

Look at the following texts:

  • Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, edited by Margaret Cardwell and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 2008)
  • William Shakespeare, Othello (Arden Shakespeare edition) edited by E.A.J. Honigmann (London: Thomson, 1996)
  • Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (London: Faber and Faber, 1991)
  • Film: Great Expectations (1946), directed by David Lean
  • Film: 'O' (2001), directed by Tim Blake Nelson