Module Identifier TF20420  
Module Title VISUAL EVIDENCE  
Academic Year 2003/2004  
Co-ordinator Ms Janet Jones  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Lecture   1 x 3 hour per week  
  Other   Seminars / Tutorials Seminars and viewings will be held weekly as part of the three hour teaching slot  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment 2 x 2500 word essays (50% each) For information on due dates for submission of assessed work, please refer to the departmental web pages at http://www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/duedates.shtml 100%

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Deconstruct the generic components of each text and identify the modes of production used to signify `reality? and question the concept of `objectivity? and `reality? in all factual output.

Analyse the spectrum of `indexical truthfulness? as defined by the relationship between the programme?s production and consumption

Problematise the boundaries between notions of consumers and producers.

Understand the significance of the shift in the emotional, technological and commercial direction of factually-based television media products.

Demonstrate an understanding of how technology drives content and vice versa and how new these technologies might impact on a new grammar of reception with the convergence of text and audience

Aims

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?s 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.

Brief description

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

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Background
Ellis, John (2000) Seeing Things, Television in the Age of Uncertainty IB Tauris
Bruzzi, S. (2000) New Documentary: A Critical Introduction London: Routledge
Dovey, J. (2000) Freakshow, First Person Media and Factual Television Pluto Press: London
Hill, A. (2003) Factual Entertainment forthcoming
Jones, J. Mathijs. E (Eds) (2003/04) Big Brother, Format, Critic and Publics Forthcoming, Wallflower Press
Nichols, B. (1993) Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary Bloomington Indiana Press
Paget, D. No Other Way to Tell It
Winston, B. (1995) Claiming the Real: The Griersonan Documentary and its legitimations London: BFI
Winston, B. (2000) Lies, Damn Lies and Documentaries London: BFI Publications

Journals
Andrejevic, M. (2002) 'The Kinder, Gentler Gaze of Big Brother' in New Media and Society (4) 2
Corner, J. (2002) 'Performing the Real, Television in a Post Documentary Culture' in Television and New Media
Jones, J. (2000) 'The Post Modern Guessing Game' in Journal of Media Practice, 2 (1)
Hill, A. (2002) 'Big Brother: The Real Audience' in Television and New Media, 3 (3)
Roscoe, J. (2001) 'Big Brother Australia, Performing the real 24/7' in International Journal of Culture Studies, 4 (4)
Van Zoonen, L. (2001) 'Desire and Resistance: Big Brother and the recognition of everyday life' in Media Culture and Society, 23 (1)

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5