Registry

Module Specifications

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

Module Title	Media Audiences and Consumption
Module Code	CM536
School	School of Communications
Online Module Resources
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Description

INACTIVE - This module addresses the importance of audience studies for media studies and for society, culture and politics more generally. It aims to familiarise students with a broad range of theories and methods used in the study of film and television audiences in both a historical and contemporary context. It does so by focusing on the relationship between media texts and audiences, the social and cultural contexts of reception, and the ways in which meanings are generated for, and by, audiences. Through an examination of these elements, the module addresses the issues of media effects, influences and pleasures.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate a detailed understanding of a range of key theoretical and empirical approaches to audiences.
2. Identify the range of relationships that exist between the media and their audiences.
3. Evaluate different theoretical and methodological approaches to the academic study of audiences.
4. Examine the role of a specific film or television audience through conducting an audience research project.
5. Apply abstract knowledge of media audiences to empirical contexts.

Workload	Full-time hours per semester
*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Lecture	24	Theories and methodologies of film and television audiences
Seminars	12	Discussion of class material and student research projects
Library	44	No Description
Directed learning	45	Selection and completion of an audience research project
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

Overview of debates and issues in audience studies Audiences, publics and imagined communities..
Power, Ideology and Meanings: Encoding/Decoding: The 'active audience': reading and resistance: The Pleasures of the Text: Women's Genres Fan cultures and identity construction Reading genres: television news/ public information Audiences, History and Cultural Memory Contexts of viewing: domesticity and home Contexts of viewing: crossing cultures : 'New Media' and the disappearing audience?.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Course Work Breakdown
Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Presentation	An oral presentation on the research proposal	30%	Once per semester
Report (s) (written / oral)	On research project	70%	Sem 2 End

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 1

Indicative Reading List

Gillespie, M (ed): 2005, Media Audiences, Open University Press,
Brooker, W. and D. Jermyn: 2003, The Audience Studies Reader, Routledge, London,
Abercrombie, N and B. Longhurst: 1998, Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination,
Ruddock, A.: 2001, Understanding Audiences: Theory and Method, Sage, London,
Staiger, J.: 2000, Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception, New York University Press,
Kuhn, A.: 2002, An Everyday Magic: Cinema and Cultural Memory, I.B. Tauris, London,
Askew, K. and R.R. Wilk: 2002, The Anthropology of Media: A Reader, Blackwell, Oxford,
Morley, D.: 1980, The 'Nationwide' Audience, British Film Institute, London,
Morley, D: 1986, Family Television: Cultural Power and Domestic Leisure, Comedia, London,
Kelly, M.J. and B O'Connor: 1997, Media Audiences in Ireland: Power and Cultural Identity, University College Dublin Press, Dublin,
Hay, J., L. Grossberg and E. Wartella: 1996, The Audience and its Landscape, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado,