Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

To provide students with the opportunity to critically engage in anl analysis of the new factual and factually-based programmes that have dominated our television screens over the past decade. (1990'r and on)
To introduce students to current bodies of theoretical work surrounding the future place of the documentary in a media climate dominated by convergence and globalisation.
To look at the way technology is changing the relationship between producer and consumer of television products by drawing on examples of media products that have re-shaped the grammatical norms and conventions that formerly defined our factual media.
To provide tools whereby students can successfully deconstruct the form, content and social expression and critically analyse the generic origins and production components of each text.

It is hard to avoid reality television nowadays. Television factuality has taken on a distinctly non-traditional feel over the last decade. First with docu-soaps and the early versions of US emergency TV, and more recently with the textually innovative, yet, universally derided, Big Brother. The module will look at the way technology is changing the relationship between producer and consumer of factually-based television products by drawing on examples of media products that have re-shaped the grammatical norms and conventions that formerly defined our factual media. Reflective Issues and broader themes will include a study of convergence, globalisation, issues of audience agency, first person media, reality television and the proliferation of intergeneric hybids.

Indicative sessions might include:
1. Deconstructing the form 2. Founding Fathers ? an historical overview
3. Docu-drama and Faction 4. Me TV- democratization of the airwaves
5. Policing the airwaves 6. Reality TV ? whose life are we living anyway?
7. E-docs and I-docs. 8. Political economy of contemporary television
9. Case-study ? mockumentary 10. Summary of the issues