American Studies Minor (Level 1)
American Studies Single Honours (Level 1)
Media, Communications and Culture Dual Honours (Level 1)
Media, Communications and Culture Minor (Level 1)
This module explores the different types of media in the United States, focusing on newspapers, TV, radio and the internet. Students will learn to analyse the structure and content of these media.
How does America differ from Britain? For a start, most people read local papers. Similarly, most people watch local, not national, news. Does local versus national matter?
One difference is a heavy emphasis upon crime and violence, prompting the saying "if it bleeds, it leads." Interestingly, while there is lots of violence, Americans are much more prudish about sex.
This course encourages you to analyse the form and content of the media to understand why it looks the way it does. The issues raised in the course will give you better insight into British, as well as American, media
Summarise the different roles that the media play in American and evaluate the extent to which different types of media fulfill those roles. will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
Analyse the political economy of the mass media in America and how that influences its content. will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
Demonstrate the use of IT to view different forms of the mass media in America. Evaluate the availability and accessibility of these media through the internet. will be achieved by assessments: 1
Analyse the presentation and content of examples from the mass media such as commercials, news broadcasts, or newspapers. will be achieved by assessments: 1
Evaluate the ways in which technology changes the content and audience reception of the mass media in America will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
Compare the reliability of different types of mass media as sources of information and demonstrate how to evaluate the reliability of an example, such as a newspaper article, television broadcast, or website. will be achieved by assessments: 1,2
11 hours workshops
34 hours completion of portfolio exercises
22 hours preparation for weekly workshops
72 hours study and revision
Set of exercises and projects consisting of the following: Compare issue content, story framing, complexity of writing, and graphics from stories in local, regional, and national newspapers Write a 200 word story in the style of a national newspaper and then write the same story as it might appear in a local newspaper. Listen to 30 minutes of commercial radio broadcasts from two different stations in the United States. Identify the content, likely audience, and commercials and find the actual audience size for each station. Compare the two stations and discuss how the content and commercials are related to audience size. Examine the list of the top 25 terrestrial television programmes in both the United States and United Kingdom. Compare the different genres, formats, characters, and content that tend to characterise the most popular shows in each country. What do these differences tell you about the respective audiences in each country. Choose a blog site and identify its owners, sponsors, style, and content. Analyse the likely audience for this information as well as how entertaining and reliable it is. Analyse a newspaper story for likely sources of bias. Watch a local news broadcast and identify the stories, length, content, style, and images of the reporting. Compare a local newspaper front page from the same day and location. Analyse the differences in topics, tone, and content. Design a 30 second political commercial for John McCain. Include a storyboard and script as well as the likely audience and intended impact of the ad. Compare foreign news stories and content from one edition of a British and American national newspaper.
This document is the definitive current source of information about this module and supersedes any other information.