Encountering Culture: Media, Art and Screen Experiences
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| CULT2032 | Cultural, Media and Visual Studies | 2 | 20 | Autumn UK |
- Code
- CULT2032
- School
- Cultural, Media and Visual Studies
- Level
- 2
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Autumn UK
Summary
This module explores the multiple roles (audience, viewer, user, player, participant, co-creator, visitor, reader, listener etc.) that individuals take on when they experience media, art and screen culture and the value they take from such experiences. It will explore how texts and experiences are embedded within the social, spatial and temporal structures of everyday life and filtered through varying forms of technology. Classes will explore the histories of and critical theories relating to cultural experiences and reception studies and address questions of interpretation and meaning-making as well as participatory and experiential activities.
Students will be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences (both individual and collective) and how they are shaped by the specific socio-cultural context in which they live. This will include exploring how experiences with media, art and screen culture are inherently embodied, shaped by factors such as race, gender, class, sexuality and disability, and how they can change over time. The module will also explore the research methods used within both academic and the cultural industries to gain better understanding of cultural and media experiences including (but not limited to) questionnaires, focus groups and virtual ethnography.
Target Students
Only available to students on BA History of Art, BA Film and Television Studies, BA International Media and Communication Studies and BA Liberal Arts.
Classes
- One 3-hour workshop each week for 10 weeks
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
Module activities may include (but not be limited to) lectures, workshops and seminars.
Assessment
- 40% Coursework 1: Essay 1,500 words
- 60% Coursework 2: Portfolio 2,000 words.
Assessed by end of autumn semester
Educational Aims
The module aims to:Provide students with knowledge of the different roles and positions that articulate how media, art and screen culture is experienced, received, used and interpretedUnderstood these positions as grounded in the lived experiences of individuals.Enable students to become self-reflexive about their own experiences with media, art and screen culture and consider how factors such as race, class, gender, sexuality and disability shape, limit and afford different kinds of experiences.Raise student awareness of both relevant theoretical models and practical methodologies.Give students skills in empirical audience research methods and in a range of analytical approaches to qualitative and quantitative data.Learning Outcomes
Recognise how historical, socio-cultural, political, economic and personal contexts shape the reception and experience of media, art and screen culture.
Step back from their own social and cultural perspective to consider the perspectives of others from a range of international backgrounds.
Identify similarities and differences across the reception of different types of media, art and screen culture.
Demonstrate appropriate competence of audience research methods.
Use appropriate theoretical frameworks.
Demonstrate skills in collaborative working.
Conveners
- Dr Jen Birks