Module Identifier TF32620  
Module Title INVESTIGATING AUDIENCES  
Academic Year 2004/2005  
Co-ordinator Professor Martin J Barker  
Semester Semester 1  
Pre-Requisite TF10220 , TF10420  
Course delivery Lecture   10 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours Seminar.  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Group preparation, conduct and analysis of two interviews 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 60%
Semester Assessment Critical evaluation of empirical studies  40%

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Learning Outcomes:

Typically, upon completion of this module, students will be able to:
- demonstrate knowledge of range of recent qualitative audience researches;
- critically evaluate these researches from the point of view of their methods of research, their generalisability, and their implicit or explicit models of the relations of text to audience;
- demonstrate awareness of the different purposes of research (for production planning, for policy-purposes, and for critical academic understanding);
- think critically about the differences between quantitative and qualitative research;
- conduct in a group a small piece of research, and begin the process of designing a piece of their own research.

Content

This module will combine a critical examination a range of qualitative researches carried out since 1980 into the ways audiences use and make sense of different media, a consideration of the implications of these researches for our commonsense understandings of audiences, for methodologies of research, and for policy, with designing, carrying out and evaluating of a test piece of research.

Aims

- to give students the opportunity of studying the ways audiences receive, respond to and use their experience of the media;
- to provide an introduction to contemporary research into media audiences, with particular reference to film and television;
- to consider the relevance of the findings of such research for production and programming, and policy-debates;
- to provide a platform of understanding of qualitative methods of research from which students could plan dissertations.

Reading Lists

Books
** Essential Reading
Hill, Annette (1997) Shocking Entertainment: Viewer Response to Violent Movies University of Luton Press
Morley, David (1980) The Nationwide Audience: Structure and Decoding BFI
Ruddock, Andy (2000) Understanding Audiences Sage
Schlesinger, Philip et al (1992) Women Viewing Violence BFI
Schlesinger, Philip et al (1998) Men Viewing Violence Broadcasting Standards Council
Stacey, Jackie (1993) Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship Routledge
Staiger, Janet (1992) Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Film Princeton University Press
Stokes, Melvyn & Richard Maltby (eds) (1999) Identifying Hollywood?s Audiences: Cultural Identity and the Movies BFI
Barker, Martin & Kate Brooks (1998) Knowing Audiences: Judge Dredd, its Friends, Fans & Foes University of Luton
Kuhn, Annette (2002) An Everyday Magic: Cinema and Cultural Memory London: IB Tauris
Buckingham, David (1985) Public Secrets: East Enders and its Audience BFI
Buckingham, David (1996) Moving Images: Understanding Children?s Emotional responses to Television Manchester University Press
Corner, John, Natalie Fenton & Kay Richardson (1989) Nuclear Reactions John Libbey

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6