Registry

Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2012 - 2013
Please note that this information is subject to change.

Module Title	Analysing Advertising
Module Code	CM212X
School	School of Communications
Online Module Resources
Module Teacher	Debbie Ging
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Description

This module explores contemporary advertising as it operates across a broad range of different media. Advertisements, the advertising industry and advertising audiences are examined from a variety of theoretical perspectives, with a view to encouraging a critical awareness of the social significance of living and working in an increasingly promotional media culture.

Learning Outcomes

1. Explain the historical development of the advertising industry in the context of key social and economic changes, including the birth of psychoanalysis
2. Critically analyse a broad range of advertising texts using a variety of methodological approaches, including content, semiotic, discourse, feminist and reception analysis
3. Assess the ideological and psychological impact of advertising in western societies with reference to the relevant theoretical material
4. Explain the concept of subvertising, identify examples and explain the strategies behind them
5. Design and produce an original subvertising campaign (in the form of a still image, video clip or short radio piece) and to explain its conception and intended effect in the context of the relevant literature

Workload	Full-time hours per semester
*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Lecture	125	No Description
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

The advertising industry: an historical overview.
The birth of promotional culture.

From products to brands, lifestyle advertising.
Advertising as communication.

Semiotic analysis.
The psychology of advertising.

Gender and sexuality in advertising.
Postfeminism, Raunch Culture and Lad Culture.

Cultural identity and ethnicity in advertising.
Postmodernity, postmodernism and advertising.

Public information campaigns.
Drink-driving, smoking, AIDS, condoms.

Subvertising.
Culture-jamming and Adbusters.

Creating your own subvertisement.
Guest lecture.

Q + A session with advertising creative.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Course Work Breakdown
Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Essay	n/a	70%	n/a
Group assignment	n/a	30%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; 1 = A resit is available for all components of the module 2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module 3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
This module is category

Indicative Reading List

Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter: 2006, The Rebel Sell: How the Counter Culture Became Consumer Culture, Capstone,
Eric Gorden and David Bogen: 2011, Attention, Please! Choreographing Attention with the Tools of Digital Distraction, Routledge,
Joseph Turow and Matthew P. McAllister: 2009, The Advertising and Consumer Culture Reader, Routledge,
Tom Reichert and Jacqueline Lambiase: 2005, Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing, Routledge,
Christina Spurgeon: 2007, Advertising and New Media, Routledge,
Anandi Ramamurthy: 2003, Imperial Persuaders: Images of Africa and Asia in British Advertising, Manchester University Press,
John O’Shaughnessy and Nicholas Jackson O’Shaughnessy: 2003, Persuasion in Advertising, Routledge,
Mica Nava et al.: 1996, Buy This Book: Studies in Advertising and Consumption, Routledge,
Celia Lury: 2004, Brands: the Logos of the Global Economy, Routledge,
Jon McDonough: 2002, The Advertising Age Encyclopaedia of Advertising, Fitzroy Dearborn,
Angela Goddard: 2002, The Language of Advertising: Written Texts, Routledge,
Naomi Klein: 2002, No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, Picador,
Anne Cronin: 2003, Advertising Myths: the Strange Half-Lives of Images and Commodities, Routledge,
Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: 2010, The Media Student's Book, 5th edition, Routledge,