Students will produce two 1250w analyses of media texts using tools and concepts introduced in the first block of the unit. Students will pick two examples from a selection provided. The analyses should contextualise the tools and concepts employed, with reference to academic literature.

Guidance.
In media studies, the word ‘text’ is used as a general term for media content: there can be film texts, televisual texts, image texts, game texts and so on. The idea is that we can learn to ‘read’ these texts critically, uncovering their obvious and less obvious meanings, and that there are general tools that can be applied to media content regardless of the specific form it takes. We can use these tools to ground our interpretation of the meaning of media texts with reference to established concepts and evidence within the texts themselves – rather than just relying on our instincts.

Choosing your media texts.
See the section titles “Coursework Assignment 1 sample media”

Print media texts will be made available as photocopies in the seminar in Week 2. If you are absent for this seminar, you will find some to pick up outside the FMS Office (CH307) in the niche in the wall (email Sam if these have gone).

If you wish, you may propose your own sample text for one of your two analyses. If you decide to do this, you need to negotiate it with your seminar tutor. Also, you need make sure your markers have access to the text.

Getting started with analysing your texts.
Over the course of the first block of this unit, you have met tools for thinking about texts in terms of:

Semiotics: Language. signs, codes and conventions (week 2).
Underlying narrative structures and genre as a classificatory system (week 3).
The notion of representation (week 4).
You should use the readings provided each week to contextualise and support how you are analysing your chosen media texts. You may want to use tools from the three broad approaches (semiotics; narrative; representation) in combination, depending on the nature of the text and its contents.

Structuring your analyses.
Introduce and describe the text under discussion: you will probably also find it helpful to supply context (background) for your text. This can involve thinking about things like its form and genre, the intentions of its producers, the reasons why it appeared where and when it did.
Introduce and contextualise the analytical tools you are using. All the concepts covered in this block of the unit have a history, and you need to show you are aware of it. When were these tools developed? Which individuals and schools of thought are they associated with? How have they been used in the study of media texts? You should be able to research much of this from textbooks on the General reading list, as well as the set and further readings for weeks 2-4.
The main body of your analysis should take the tools introduced in the previous section and apply it to the media text in question. It would be good to end with a short conclusion statement summarising your analysis.
N.B. your submission should not be more than 10% above or below the stated word count.

Wherever you refer to sources you should use academic referencing procedures. Use the Harvard referencing system.