2000 words research assignment

profileyjtshim_12
AssessmentTask.rtf
Home>English homework help>2000 words research assignment

Task

You are required to write an essay of 1500 words responding to one of the questions in the following list. You are also required to write a separate 500 word episode or program summary (as indicated in the question), to be placed at the beginning of the assignment. Your essay and summary must be written in an academic format, and be referenced according to the Griffith Reference Guide, You must not use internet sites as sources of information for quoting or reference in your essay. You must use terms and concepts from specific tutorials indicated in each respective question. You can also draw from any of the material presented in the unit including all of the study guide, text book, set readings and articles and books in the reference lists, as well as any wider reading that you may wish to undertake, keeping in mind that references must always be to articles and books published in academic journals and by academic book publishers. In some questions you will be required to show evidence of wider reading. Please note that the internet should only be used as a tool to guide preliminary research and for gaining access to any scholarly material. DO NOT USE INTERNET MATERIAL IN YOUR ESSAY.

 

WORD LENGTH: the word length for this assignment is 2000 words. Please ensure that you stay within this limit and not go over it (10% leeway allowed either way).

 

PLEASE NOTE THE WORD LENGTH AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR ASSIGNMENT

 

Question 1

Select a television genre discussed in this unit. Select two television programs affiliated with this genre: one prior to 1980 and another at least 20 years later (e.g. a program commencing in 1959 and a program commencing 1979 or later). Employing the ideas and issues introduced in Tutorial 11 of the Study Guide and elsewhere throughout the unit, discuss similarities and differences between the programs, through some detailed analysis of their texts (e.g. comparing the narratives and/or characters of particular episodes). Note changes in ideological representation and how they suggest shifts in cultural meaning over time. Your essay should be guided by a key idea, as discussed in Tutorials 9 and 11, which must be stated in the introduction to your essay. You must make reference to and use at least 6 scholarly articles and/or books drawn from the unit and from wider reading. In particular you must use ideas, terms and concepts drawn from Tutorial 11 of the Study Guide. Two program summaries required (max. 500 words total).

 

Question 2

Select an episode from one of the television programs in the list below. Undertake an analysis of genre, narrative and character using terms and concepts drawn from Tutorials 5-8 of the Study Guide. You must analyse the episode in terms of the following: (i) genre codes, (ii) narrative as a transformational structure (iii) the function of characters in terms of genre and narrative structure. As an integral part of your analysis you must develop a model using Propp’s character functions, making modifications as you see fit (see Tutorials 7 and 8). In your essay you must also show how the narrative produces meanings in terms of ideological representation, noting instances of ideological normalisation and skewing. Your essay must use and make reference to at least 6 scholarly articles and/or books in the unit material. An episode summary is required (max. 500 words).

 

Sitcoms:

  • The Big Bang Theory
  • I Love Lucy
  • Modern Family
  • Roseanne
  • Seinfeld
  • Sex and the City
  • The Simpsons
  • Men Behaving Badly
  • Louie
  • Kath and Kim
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • Married With Children

 

Soap operas:

  • Desperate Housewives
  • Packed to the Rafters
  • Home and Away
  • Days of Our Lives
  • Heartbeat
  • Offspring
  • Downton Abbey
  • Doc Martin
  • Dallas
  • The Good Wife

Question 3

Select an episode of a television crime drama of your own choice from any historical period, past and present. Discuss this episode in terms of its representations of the law, justice and criminality. In your essay you should use terms and concepts from Tutorial 9 of the Study Guide. You must make reference to and use at least 3 scholarly articles and/or books drawn from wider reading, as well as articles and/or book chapters made available in the unit reading. There must be at least a total of six references to scholarly articles and/or books in your reference list. Your essay should be guided by a key idea as discussed in Tutorial 9 and Tutorial 11. Your key idea must be stated in the introduction to your essay. An episode summary is required (max. 500 words).

Suggested crime dramas are:

  • Sherlock Holmes, various adaptations (UK and US)
  • Prime Suspect (UK)
  • Dexter (US)
  • Cagney and Lacey (US)
  • Poirot (UK)
  • Miss Marple (UK)
  • Underbelly – Squizzy (AUS)
  • Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (AUS)
  • Colombo (US)
  • Boardwalk Emplire (US)
  • Killing Time (AUS)
  • The Wire (US)
  • Scott and Bailey (UK)
  • Hill Street Blues (US)
  • Dr. Blake Murder Mysteries (AUS)

 

(this is a suggested list only)

 

Question 4

Select a Reality TV program from the list below. Analyse the program in terms of the way it produces ‘reality’ through the mediation and construction of ‘real life’ situations, use of narrative and documentary techniques, and technological reflexivity. In your analysis, use terms and concepts drawn from Tutorial 10, such as documentary realism, simulation, simulacrum, the play of fact/fiction, hyperconsciousness, myth, tabloidization, celebrity, postmodernism. Other terms can be used as well. Your analysis must be informed by reference to a specific episode). You must make reference to and use at least 6 scholarly articles and/or books drawn from the unit and may be supplemented with wider reading. A program and episode summary is required (max. 500 words).

 

  • Masterchef Australia
  • Australia’s Got Talent
  • The Bachelor
  • Top Gear
  • The Force: behind the line
  • My Kitchen Rules
  • The Block
  • Border Security: Australia’s Front Line
  • Customs
  • Bondi Rescue
  • The Biggest Loser
  • Grand Designs
  • The Voice
  • Big Brother