Essay:

This is a new form of essay, which involves active and critical use of Internet sources as an integral part of the essay format. Students are required to use website references as well as the usual academic literature, documentary and other referenced sources. The essay will be assessed in accordance with the degree’s standard guidelines. All essays must include theoretical content. The usual standards of academic rigour, referencing, argument and synthesis apply. Students are expected to use a range of appropriate website sources. The ways in which they cite and discuss material from them should demonstrate their understanding of the different nature of these sources and critical awareness of the different types of information they contain and its status. The course content, lectures and seminar work will include guidance on this area of assessment.
So Hypertext means 1) that you are doing your research and literature review as usual and include a number of academic sources in your reference list (they can be paper articles and books, or the ones available online, e.g. an e-book via the library); 2) that you are also using credible and suitable online resources for your essay and also reference them correctly both in-text and at the end of the paper. You need also to provide enough info within the body of the essay rather than just placing a link in the essay (e.g. ‘As the recent statistic on gender division on social networking site indicates…’ and then provide the data in question and then the link). So, just to give you further several examples: it can be some up-to-date statistical data (which you cannot find in a book published some time ago), a video (but please make sure that you indicate the duration of the video which is relevant [e.g. 8:00-9:00 min], it should not be more than 2-3 minutes), a graph, a link to the forum discussion, etc.
Please use only those sources which support your argument and are necessary. Do not over do it!
Question:
3 Games: Review one example of how video games have been framed. What does this framing tell us about the role of video games in society, and about this new media form’s characteristics and relationship to its players?

Essay

Order Description

Question

a real-life situation such as attending a sporting event, local amateur theatre or other artistic performance, travelling to a foreign destination, attending a concert, playing a board game, etc.

Critically examine how your experience of that event or situation may be affected by your expectations of it, in comparison to expectations you would have of experiencing it in a mediated form, such as watching the sporting event on live TV, watching the theatrical production as a TV/film drama, instead of travelling, watching a TV travel show, watching a rock concert on TV, playing a video game, etc.

Analyse both types of experience of the event or situation in terms of TWO of the following:

? tolerance for boredom or inactivity

? expectations of perfection and high levels of performance

? possible misconceptions of physical and social events

? possibly limited contact with and a superficial views of one’s own environment.

(See Funkhauser & Shaw, 1990: Reading 1.2.)

Where possible, refer to the following concepts in your discussion, and consider the strong/weak/mixed effects paradigms:

? Mainstreaming

? Cultivation Theory

? Cultural Norms Theory

? Media Consonance

? Agenda Setting

? Priming

? Gatekeeping

? Framing

? British Cultural Studies

? Uses and Gratifications

? The Catalytic Hypothesis and

? The Construction of Social Reality.

In your examination of your topic in terms of two of the themes I would expect to see you consider elements such as:

– Who are the relevant gatekeepers in the development of the mediated form of your selected example? Are the gatekeepers in the non mediated one different? How have the gatekeepers altered your perceptions/misconceptions/experience/expectations etc

– What is the role of agenda setting in the mediated experience and what agenda appears to influence your example?

– How have your concepts of reality been influenced/altered/constructed by the mediated version?

– In the mediated example have there been interesting instances and occurrence of stereotyping or maintaining the status quo?

Essay

Order Description

Question

a real-life situation such as attending a sporting event, local amateur theatre or other artistic performance, travelling to a foreign destination, attending a concert, playing a board game, etc.

Critically examine how your experience of that event or situation may be affected by your expectations of it, in comparison to expectations you would have of experiencing it in a mediated form, such as watching the sporting event on live TV, watching the theatrical production as a TV/film drama, instead of travelling, watching a TV travel show, watching a rock concert on TV, playing a video game, etc.

Analyse both types of experience of the event or situation in terms of TWO of the following:

? tolerance for boredom or inactivity

? expectations of perfection and high levels of performance

? possible misconceptions of physical and social events

? possibly limited contact with and a superficial views of one’s own environment.

(See Funkhauser & Shaw, 1990: Reading 1.2.)

Where possible, refer to the following concepts in your discussion, and consider the strong/weak/mixed effects paradigms:

? Mainstreaming

? Cultivation Theory

? Cultural Norms Theory

? Media Consonance

? Agenda Setting

? Priming

? Gatekeeping

? Framing

? British Cultural Studies

? Uses and Gratifications

? The Catalytic Hypothesis and

? The Construction of Social Reality.

In your examination of your topic in terms of two of the themes I would expect to see you consider elements such as:

– Who are the relevant gatekeepers in the development of the mediated form of your selected example? Are the gatekeepers in the non mediated one different? How have the gatekeepers altered your perceptions/misconceptions/experience/expectations etc

– What is the role of agenda setting in the mediated experience and what agenda appears to influence your example?

– How have your concepts of reality been influenced/altered/constructed by the mediated version?

– In the mediated example have there been interesting instances and occurrence of stereotyping or maintaining the status quo?