Module Information
Course Delivery
Assessment
Due to Covid-19 students should refer to the module Blackboard pages for assessment details
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Exam | 2 Hours Written unseen exam | 50% |
| Semester Assessment | Written assignment (2,500 words) | 50% |
| Supplementary Exam | 2 Hours Written unseen exam | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Written assignment (2,500 words) | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1.Understand what constitutes ‘media’ and how these forms create the crime-media nexus
2. Understand and be able to critically apply different theories for understanding and analyzing a range of media output
3. Understand and critically evaluate the influence of media on its consumers, and how those consumers also influence the media they use
4 Critically analyse, using specific analytical tools, a wide range media output for underlying theories, assumptions and bias
5. Critically explore media output for problematic representations of specific people-groups, understanding how this affects society.
Brief description
This module seeks to explore aspects not currently covered elsewhere, based on the crime-media nexus, looking at both news media and crime as entertainment. Critical models of analysis will be explored to develop students’ ability to be critical consumers of such media, alongside addressing such issues as the mediated representation of certain groups (for example, women, ethnic minorities, young people), analyzing and understanding the two-way influence of media with consumers, and exploring such resultant concepts as moral panics.
Content
Media-crime nexus
Crime in the news
CJ Framing/framing theory
Influence of media on crime
Influence of media on public opinion
Moral panics
Crime as entertainment (documentaries, crime appeal, fiction)
Analysis of visual media (TV and film)
Mediated representation
Aims
Crime and the media are very closely linked, with the influence of the media becoming ever more important, given the rise of social media. Students are now more than ever before connected to media, and therefore highly influenced by it, but also acting as influencers when they contribute to such activities as online fora. There is also an increasing level of both crime drama and true-crime depictions in cinemas and on television and radio (Broadcast media), reflecting the public’s apparently insatiable appetite for such content. However little academic time is given to questioning the underpinning theories within these depictions (which are therefore unconsciously persuasive in influencing people’s opinion of crime and its potential solutions), so this module looks to address this in order to develop a more critical approach for students when consuming such output.
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | |
| Communication | Students have to write an assignment to a high level of academic prowess, demonstrating excellent academic writing and referencing skills. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | Students will need to be able to develop different ways of approaching the media they naturally consume everyday. As media is so much a part of everyone’s lives, this will be what students bring with them to the module; but it will also be challenged by the content, and reapplied in a more informed way |
| Information Technology | Much of the media available is online, so accessing such media will be a pivotal part of the course. Students will also be required to find reading material sources (both from Aspire and identified through the lectures), which will require them to be able to access sources restricted to university use, rather than universally available |
| Personal Development and Career planning | Students will be encouraged and challenged to reflect on the media they are consuming throughout the module, both as part of it and in their everyday lives. There will be opportunity to share reflections during seminars. |
| Problem solving | Students will be required to project-manage their own investigation into a piece of media output, which will involve making a good choice of output to use, and applying specific tools of analysis. |
| Research skills | The assignment will be critical in nature, as part of the point will be to critically analyse media output which is often consumed in an uncritical way. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Students will be developing specific skills of analysis which they will be required to demonstrate in the assessments |
| Team work | Students will be required to work with others during the seminars in this module |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6