Module Identifier TF34720  
Module Title VISUAL EVIDENCE  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
Co-ordinator Mr Dafydd G Sills-Jones  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Lecture   1 x 3 hour Lecture/Viewing per week  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Essay 2 - 2,500 words  50%
Semester Assessment Essay 1 - 2,500 words 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 50%

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'r 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'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.

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
Baker, Maxine. (c2006) Documentary in the digital age /Maxine Baker. Elsevier/Focal Press 0240516885
Bruzzi, Stella (2006.) New documentary :a critical introduction /Stella Bruzzi. Routledge 0415385253
Corner, John (1996.) The art of record :a critical introduction to documentary /John Corner. Manchester University Press 0719046866
Dovey, Jon. (2000.) Freakshowfirst person media and factual television /Jon Dovey. http://www.theacademiclibrary.com/login_cat.asp?filename=0745314554&libcode=PLC Pluto Press 0745314554
Kilborn, R. W. (1997.) An introduction to television documentary :confronting reality /Richard Kilborn and John Izod. Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin's Press 0719048923
Nichols, Bill. (1991.) Representing reality :issues and concepts in documentary /Bill Nichols. Indiana University Press 0253340608
Winston, Brian. (1995) Claiming the real :the Griersonian documentary and its legitimations /Brian Winston. British Film Institute 0851704638
Winston, Brian. (2000 (various p) Lies, damn lies and documentaries /Brian Winston. BFI Pub. 0851707963
(1998.) Documenting the documentary :close readings of documentary film and video /edited by Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski. Wayne State University Press 0814326382

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6