Media Studies Diploma Level 3

Course Synopsis
This Ascentis Quality Assured Level 3 Diploma course will facilitate those students who wish to obtain a foundation in media studies and in particular those with an interest in journalism, advertising and global media considerations.

Media studies is an area of scholarly inquiry approached from both humanities and social science perspectives that considers the nature and effects of mass media upon individuals and society, as well as analysing actual media content and representations. A cross-disciplinary field, media studies uses techniques and theorists from sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, art theory, information theory, and economics.

In the UK, media studies emerged in the 1960s from the academic study of English, and from literary criticism more broadly. It tended to grow through colleges and polytechnics, rather than through established universities. Nevertheless, the Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), founded by Richard Hoggart at the University of Birmingham in 1964, was a notable exception.

Media studies can partially be understood as a response to the McCarthyist paranoia of the influences of the mass media. In the UK, Mary Whitehouse's right-wing National Viewers' and Listeners' Association was concerned at the growing 'permissiveness' of broadcasting, and in the US a number of pressure groups have campaigned against the supposed corrupting influence of popular media - in particular on children.

The course consists of ten modules and concludes with an online examination.

Course Contents
Module One - Media History
This unit considers the definitions of media. How the concept of media came into being and how it subsequently evolved into what we now term 'new media'. Has the philosophy really changed or has the technology just made original concepts smarter? The unit will examine the influences on media and how these have changed over the last 30 years. We will examine current trends and consider how media concepts will continue to evolve over the next 10 years.

Module Two - Media Ethics
Media ethics is that universe of ethics dealing with the particular ethical principles and standards of media worldwide. Media ethics includes, but is not limited to, ethical dilemmas and other such questions of mass media. One important subsection of media ethics is journalism ethics. Also of relevancy are questions with regard to print and electronic media content, community standards, media censorship, media bias (in the U.S., 'liberal' vs. 'conservative' bias), propaganda, and related issues as viewed from the standpoint of ethics. Media ethics also deals with the relationship of media and media economics where things such as -deregulation of media, concentration of media ownership, FCC regulations in the U.S., media trade unions and labour issues, and other such worldwide regulating bodies, citizen media (low power FM, community radio) - have ethical implications.

Module Three - Media and Television
Canadians under the age of twenty - the 'Echo Generation' as they are often called - make up a quarter (26%) of the country's population.

Not only is this generation strong in numbers, it also exerts enormous economic influence within the family - a fact not lost on the marketing and advertising industries. One an ignored demographic for advertisers, today's young people have become the most marketed-to generation in history, thanks to their spending power and their future clout as adult consumers. This unit explores the impact in other countries and how television is used to support media and corporate objectives.

Module Four - Audio Production
The audio visual production in media broadly covers the following classifications:

•Animation
•Commercials
•Computer games
•Corporate production
•Facilities (which includes post production)
•Film
•Interactive media
•Photo imaging
•Radio
•Television and animation
This unit examines the concept of audio production, the latest technology developments and the influences these have had in new media applications.

Module Five - Photography and Typography
Students in this course acquire a more sophisticated and refined understanding of and approach to typographic form and design. Projects deal with the design of letterforms, wordforms, and texts. Aspects of the history of letterforms, printing, and book design are examined. Typography is studied in the context of language communication. Concept generation, visualization and the design process. Systematic approaches to the design of complex information, including typographic, graphic and diagrammatic communication. Symbol creation and the design of visual identity systems. Photographic image creation and manipulation. Narrative concepts and the construction of meaning. Social marketing. Introduction to the computer as a tool for language and visual communication. Project research and management. Open exploration of non-applied visual communication design issues

Module Six - Mass Communication
The term "mass communication" is a term used in a variety of ways which, despite the potential for confusion, are usually clear from the context. These include (1) reference to the activities of the mass media as a group, (2) the use of criteria of a concept, "massiveness," to distinguish among media and their activities, and (3) the construction of questions about communication as applied to the activities of the mass media. Significantly only the third of these uses does not take the actual process of communication for granted.

"Mass communication" is often used loosely to refer to the distribution of entertainment, arts, information, and messages by television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, recorded music, and associated media. This general use of the term is only appropriate as designating the most commonly shared features of such otherwise disparate phenomena as broadcast television, cable, video playback, theater projection, recorded song, radio talk, advertising, and the front page, editorial page, sports section, and comics page of the newspaper. In this usage "mass communication" refers to the activities of the media as a whole and fail to distinguish among specific media, modes of communication, genres of text or artifact, production or reception situations, or any questions of actual communication. The only analytic purpose this use of the term serves is to distinguish mass communication from interpersonal, small-group, and other face-to-face communication situations. A second use of the term involves the various criteria of massiveness which can be brought to bear in analyses of media and mass communication situations. This unit examines the concepts in greater detail.

Module Seven – Journalism
Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting information regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists. News-oriented journalism is sometimes described as the "first rough draft of history" (attributed to Phil Graham), because journalists often record important events, producing news articles on short deadlines. While under pressure to be first with their stories, news media organizations usually edit and proofread their reports prior to publication, adhering to each organization's standards of accuracy, quality and style. Many news organizations claim proud traditions of holding government officials and institutions accountable to the public, while media critics have raised questions about holding the press itself.

Module Eight - New Media Development
New Media is a relatively new field of study that has developed around cultural practices with the computer playing a central role as the medium for production, storage and distribution. New Media studies reflect on the social and ideological impact of the personal computer, computer networks, digital mobile devices, ubiquitous computing and virtual reality. The study includes researchers and propagators of new forms of artistic practices such as interactive installations, net art, software art, new interfaces for musical expression, the subsets of interaction, interface design and the concepts of interactivity, multimedia and remediation. 'Media' (the plural of medium) refer to technologies used to communicate messages and include mass media (newspapers, TV, radio), popular media (film, books) and digital media (computer games, the World Wide Web, virtual reality) and others.

'New' in this context means:

•the relative novelty of digital computing
•the unprecedented speed of evolution and mutation of devices and technologies
•undeveloped, imperfect and experimental environments
•subjective novelty, most of the artists and theoreticians currently studying digital culture have migratedfrom different disciplines
New media are also the common denominator of such disciplines as (new) media art (from Nam June Paik to net.art), (new) media activism, (new) media studies (from Marshall McLuhan to Lev Manovich) and journalistic media criticism (from Neil Postman to Howard Rheingold). This unit explores the advances in new media and considers developments in new technology.

Module Nine - Media and Web Design
A website is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a website is defined as the arrangement and creation of web pages that in turn make up a website. A web page consists of information for which the website is developed. On a different perspective, a webpage can be compared to a page in a book and a website is to a book. So, these are the main aspects involved in web design. Moving to each in detail, the web page consists of text and images. It can also be said as that a web page is similar to a file which has all the data. To support the data or information the images are added to the web page.

To be more technical the first page of a website is known as Home Page. Each and every page in a website is a HTML file which has its own web address. Web design involves some aspects or points to be remembered which will take the website to the people. This unit examines the importance of website development and the use of websites in media development.

Module Ten - Global Media
Globalisation is one of the most potent concepts informing academic debates across many disciplines on the threshold of the 21st century. Issues of communication, culture and media lie close to the heart of this contested concept which variously refers to the collapse of time and space as obstacles to human activity, to processes of economic and cultural expansion, to the undermining of the nation state as a critical building block for any transnational activity, to parallel tendencies towards both uniformity and fragmentation. Note: This module recommends supplementary reading : Media in Global Context Annabelle Sreberny, Dwayne Winseck, Jim McKenna, Oliver Boyd-Barrett

Supporting Textbooks:
The course will be supported by the following textbooks. These are optional but highly recommended in order to improve the depth of coverage.

Media, Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences
By David Croteau, William Hoynes

Media/Impact with Infotrac: An Introduction to Mass Media (with CD-ROM and Infotrac)
By Shirley Biagi

Entry Requirements
All students must per 16 years of age and above.

Study Hours
Approximately 40 hours per unit

Assessment Method
Final online multiple choice examination.

Please note that you can enrol on this course at anytime.

Award
Level 3 Diploma in Media Studies

This course is Quality Assured by Ascentis
 
Additional Information
This is a dual certification course. You will receive a certificate from both the College and also the National Awarding body Ascentis. Fees for both are included in the course fee.

The course can be enrolled upon by students Internationally. There are no deadlines for enrolments.

What's Included
All study materials to enable the student to successfully complete the Diploma. Support is provided by the tutor department. Examination board certification upon completion. All examination fees.

Course Fee
£445.00

Further Information
Please note that this is an online course and your materials are delivered within the College web site in PDF format.

You will require to have one of the following packages to access your course online:

•Windows: Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista - Acrobat Reader 4.0 and above
•Macintosh: Mac OS X, Mac OS 9.2 - Acrobat Reader 4.0 and above
In the student 'Common Room' you are also able to receive the latest course updates, extra materials and information. You will also be able to take part in the student chat room and forums as part of our online student community.

After enrolling online you will receive your username and password to access your materials within 5 working days. You will also receive your personal Oxford student number via email.

Courses in paper/file format are available at an additional fee of £45.00 and you should select the paper option below if available. This service is available to all students both in the UK and Internationally. All students receive the online format as standard. Courier fees are free of charge within the UK, and there is a courier charge for packages sent outside of the UK. Packages sent within the EU £42.00, Packages to rest of world £52.00.