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AMAM7005A: TELEVISION AND REALITY General Information Credit Value: 20 Level: 7 Academic Year: 2016-17 Semester: Autumn Total Student Effort Hours: 200 Related Modules: none

Module Teaching Team Stephanie Clayton Brett Mills

Biography: Stephanie’s research and teaching Brett researches and teaches TV interests include contemporary British Studies, Media Studies, and television and surveillance society. contemporary popular culture.

Role: seminar tutor module convenor/seminar tutor Room: Registry 3.32 Registry 3.22 Email: [email protected] [email protected] Phone: tbc 01603 592094 Office Hours: Monday 11-12, 1-2 Wednesday 10-12

Timetable Seminar 1: Friday 9-11am LSB 0.113 Stephanie Clayton Seminar 2: Friday 11am-1pm TEC 1.03 Brett Mills

Module Description and Learning Outcomes Description This unit examines the particular ways in which television – as a technology, an institution, and a social phenomenon – records, responds to, and contributes towards our sense of reality.

Taking recent developments within television and society – such as the growth of surveillance, genre hybrids, and the availability of media technology – as its starting point, it will explore a range of genres – such as documentary, reality television, and comedy – from a predominantly British and public service broadcasting perspective.

The unit will explore how certain texts signal themselves as different from television ‘fiction’, and how convincingly that distinction can be maintained. It will also explore the role such factual television plays within society and for broadcasters, and how newer forms of factual television feed into these debates. These programmes will also be explored in terms of how they help construct our view of reality and the world around us, related to issues such as postmodernism, visual culture, the surveillance society, and the technology of record.

Learning Objectives The unit aims: x to introduce students to key theories of television analysis, in particular those relative to the

representational strategies of the medium, and the ways in which television constructs a sense of ‘reality’;

x to demonstrate ways of critically applying these theories to a range of relevant phenomena; x to encourage students to test the theories through empirical analysis, and to present that work in

a variety of forms; x to develop students’ oral and written skills in analysis, presentation, and debate.

Learning Outcomes Knowledge and Understanding By the end of the unit students should be able to: understand key issues concerning the role of television within modern societies, and the medium’s representational strategies; understand television in terms of the organisation of social life and understanding; understand key theoretical debates about television and contemporary society; undertake their own independent research of contemporary television.

Intellectual Skills By the end of the unit students should be able to: apply ideas and concepts in the discussion of television; construct coherent and independent arguments.

Professional Skills The unit will develop students' ability to: select, sift and synthesize information from a variety of primary and secondary materials; write accurately and grammatically and present written material using appropriate conventions.

Transferable Skills The unit will also develop students' ability to: manage a large and disparate body of information; use IT to word process their assessed essays; speak and write cogently about a chosen subject area.

Learning Activities and Indicative Student Effort Hours Learning Activity Total Effort Hours (module) Effort Hours per Week Seminars 20 2 Pre-class preparation 40 4 Formative assessments 30 Varies across weeks Feedback/forwards events 18 Varies across weeks Summative assessments 60 Varies across weeks Background reading 30 3 Tutorials 2 Varies across weeks Total 200

Useful Links The following links provide quick and easy access to key sources of information and sources of support within the University and important policies that you need to be aware of. x General Regulations x Attendance and Engagement & Progression (General Regulation 13) x Coursework Submission Process x Plagiarism and Collusion Policy x Extenuating Circumstances Policy x Senate Marking Scales (UG and PGT) x Support for Students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) x Learning Enhancement Team (DOS) x Link to Past Examination Papers x Other information, guidance and policies can be found in the LTS Document Library.

Attribute Development On this module you will develop knowledge, insights and attributes that are readily transferable into a wide range of current or future environments. The attributes are articulated below so you can understand how the module will help you thrive on your course and prepare you for whatever you plan to do after your studies (further study, work, etc). These attributes are also articulated within the UEA Award (see https://www.uea.ac.uk/careers/students-and-graduates/uea-award).

Academic Excellence Critical Thinking and

Problem Solving Learning and Personal

Development Digital Literacy and IT

In-depth and extensive knowledge, understanding and skills in chosen discipline(s)

;

A capacity for independent, conceptual and creative thinking

;

A commitment to developing professional values, self-insight and capabilities

;

Confidently employ a range of digital technologies for academic and professional/ career development purposes

;

The ability to collect, collate, analyse and critically engage with a wide range of information sources, and evidence

;

A capacity for informed argument and logical reasoning ;

The ability to respond positively to constructive criticism and feedback from peers, tutors and colleagues

;

Use appropriate digital technologies and resources to locate diverse types of information for both academic and non- academic purposes

;

The ability to analyse and critically engage with a wide range of concepts and ideas

; A capacity for problem identification and problem-solving ;

Self-confidence and an ability to exercise own ‘voice’ ;

The ability to critically evaluate and engage with the information obtained

;

Self-management and Professionalism

Team-Working and Leadership

Communication Applied Numeracy and Technical Proficiency

A capacity for taking responsibilities and ownership of actions ;

An ability to co- operate and collaborate with others, including working to shared aims

;

An ability to communicate in written form for different purposes, audiences and contexts

;

An ability to perform routine calculations in daily tasks and in applied contexts

An ability to manage time effectively, including setting priorities, juggling competing demands and meeting deadlines

;

An ability to take other viewpoints, have empathy for other people’s position and give constructive feedback

;

An ability to communicate in person for different purposes, audiences and contexts

;

An ability to analyse and interpret data and evidence

;

An understanding of work cultures and practices, including work place professionalism

An ability to motivate and lead others, including taking the initiative and delegating when required

;

An ability to network effectively with others for specific purposes ;

Proficiency in skilled techniques used for academic and professional purposes

;

Career Management Commercial Awareness Innovation and

Enterprise Citizenship and

Stewardship

A capacity to reflect on and articulate qualities, strengths and attributes ;

A knowledge of the link between academic subjects and their commercial applications

The confidence to introduce and establish something new ;

An understanding of your place within local and global communities

;

The ability to research specific job and career areas

An understanding of business priorities and the needs of graduate employers

The potential to take an idea through to its practical application

An awareness of the need to manage shared and finite resources, including an appreciation of moral and ethical dimensions

;

An ability to present your experience and attributes positively to graduate employers

The ability to understand and prioritise customer needs

The potential to apply an enterprising mind- set to situations

An ability to improve the lives of others and lobby for positive change through community and/or political engagement

;

Formative Assessment Formative assessment is assessment for learning as opposed to summative assessment which is assessment of learning. Its key purpose is to enable you to practice and demonstrate the academic skills and knowledge that you will be required to apply in your subsequent summative work, and to receive early feedback from your tutor(s).

Formative Assessment 1 Assignment Deadline: Wednesday 19 October 2016 Method of Submission: Electronic (not via Hub) Method of Return: Electronic (not via Hub) Format and Purpose of Feed-Forwards: Preparation for formative assessment 2 Assignment detail: Essay proposal

Formative Assessment 2 Assignment Deadline: Wednesday 30 November 2016 Method of Submission: Electronic (not via Hub) Method of Return: Electronic (not via Hub) Format and Purpose of Feed-Forwards: Preparation for summative assessment Assignment detail: Essay outline and plan

Summative Assessment Summative assessment provides a measure of your performance in relation to a formal piece of assessed work – it is therefore often described as assessment of learning. Summative assessment may take many different forms (e.g. essays, projects, dissertations, portfolios, OSCEs, exams, course tests, poster presentations, oral presentations, lab reports).

Formative Assessment Assessment Type: Coursework (CW) % Weighting: 100% Assignment Deadline: Thursday 5 January 2017 Method of Submission: Electronic (via Hub) Return Date of Marked Work: 19 January 2017 Format of feedback: Written Word limit: 3000 words Method of Return: Hub Assignment Details: Full-length research essay

Mapping Assessment to Module Learning Outcomes All of the learning outcomes for this module will be assessed via the single summative assessment.

Module Enhancements Student feedback requested that worksheets be introduced in order to signal to students the key areas under discussion in class; these will be introduced for this year. The module has also been thoroughly updated in terms of screenings, readings and topics.

Seminar Programme

Week Date Topic Readings 1 w/c 26 Oct Transitions

Week n/a

2 w/c 3 Nov Opening Issues

n/a

3 w/c 10 Nov Liveness and Authenticity

Crisell, Andrew (2012) Liveness and Recording in the Media, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp1-17.

Dayan, Daniel, and Elihu Katz (1992) Media Events: the Live Broadcasting of History, Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, pp1-24.

4 w/c 17 Nov Witnessing and the Witness

Ellis, John (2000) Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty, London: IB Tauris, pp17-38.

Peters, John Durham (2009) ‘Witnessing’ in Paul Frosh and Amit Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing: Testimony in the Age of Mass Communication’, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp23- 41.

5 w/c 24 Nov Issues of Realism

Fiske, John and John Hartley (2003) Reading Television, 2nd ed, London: Routledge, pp127-37.

Jordan, Marion (1981) ‘Realism and Convention’ in Richard Dyer et al (eds) Coronation Street, London: British Film Institute, pp27-39.

6 w/c 31 Oct The Surveillance Society

Lyon, David (2007) Surveillance Studies: An Overview, Cambridge: Polity, pp139-58.

Meyrowitz, Joshua (2009) ‘We Liked to Watch: Television as Progenitor of the Surveillance Society’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 625 (1): pp32-48.

7 w/c 7 Nov Tutorials n/a 8 w/c 14 Nov Documentary Corner, John (1996) The Art of Record: A Critical Introduction to

Documentary, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp9- 30.

Kilborn, Richard and John Izod (1997) An Introduction to Television Documentary, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp3- 26.

9 w/c 21 Nov Docudrama/ Drama- Documentary

Corner, John (1999) ‘British TV Dramadocumentary: Origins and Developments’ in Alan Rosenthal (ed) Why Docudrama? Fact- Fiction on Film and TV, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, pp35-46.

Paget, Derek (2011) No Other Way to Tell It: Docudrama on Film and Television, 2nd ed, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp131-70.

10 w/c 28 Nov Mock- Documentary

Hight, Craig (2010) Television Mockumentary: Reflexivity, Satire and a Call to Play, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp1-12.

Mast, Jelle (2009) ‘New Directions in Hybrid Popular Television: A Reassessment of Television Mock-Documentary’, Media, Culture and Society, 31 (2): pp231-50.

11 w/c 5 Dec Comedy and Documentary

Middleton, Jason (2014) Documentary’s Awkward Turn: Cringe Comedy and Media Spectatorship, New York and London: Routledge, pp140-70.

Thompson, Ethan (2007) ‘Comedy Verité? The Observational Documentary Meets the Televisual Sitcom’, The Velvet Light Trap, 60 (1): pp63-72.

12 w/c 12 Dec Tutorials n/a

Learning Support Materials There is no set text for this unit. Instead, readings will be made online via Blackboard. Two readings are allocated each week, and associated questions and tasks will be distributed in the screening. Seminars will assume you’ve carried this work out; attendance without completing the required preparation will hinder learning for everyone.

In addition, it’s likely that you’ll be called on to prepare work – either individually or as part of a small group – for the seminar. Help will be given as much as possible, but the intention will be for you to explore the unit’s themes in a way you see appropriate. Such work could draw on material relevant to your proposed essay, and therefore will make a useful contribution to your research and thinking for the assignment. Work in the classroom is not assessed, and is not taken into account when your assignment is marked.

Listed below are books on the key issues relevant to this module, as well as books on Television Studies more generally, and related books on Film (though, remember, Television Studies has significantly different approaches and traditions compared to Film Studies, and therefore such literature cannot be unproblematically transferred to this module’s material). Recommended books are marked with an asterisk.

Television, Reality, and Documentary Armstrong, Richard (2005) Understanding Realism, London: British Film Institute.

Beattie, Keith (2004) Documentary Screens, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bignell, Jonathan (2005) Big Brother: Reality TV in the 21st Century, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Biressi, Anita, and Heather Nunn (2005) Reality TV: Realism and Revelation, London: Wallflower.

*Bruzzi, Stella (2000) New Documentary: A Critical Introduction, London: Routledge.

*Corner, John (1996) The Art of Record: A Critical Introduction to Documentary, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Dovey, Jon (2000) Freakshow: First Person Media and Factual Television, London: Pluto.

Ellis, John (2012) Documentary: Witness and Self-Revelation, London: Routledge.

Escoffery, David S. (ed) (2006) Essays in Truth and Representation: How Real is Reality TV?, Jefferson: McFarland and Company.

*Friedman, James (ed) (2002) Reality Squared: Televisual Discourse on the Real, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press.

Hartley, John (1996) Popular Reality: Audiences and Popular Factual Television, London: Routledge.

*Hill, Annette (2005) Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television, London: Routledge.

Hill, Annette (2007) Restyling Factual TV: Audiences, News, Documentary, and Reality Genres, London: Routledge.

*Holmes, Su, and Deborah Jermyn (eds) (2004) Understanding Reality Television, London: Routledge.

Izod, John, Richard Kilborn, and Matthew Hibberd (eds) (2000) From Grierson to the Docu-Soap: Breaking the Boundaries, Luton: University of Luton Press.

Kilborn, Richard (2003) Staging the Real: Factual TV Programming in the Age of Big Brother, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

*Kilborn, Richard, and John Izod (1997) An Introduction to Television Documentary: Confronting Reality, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

King, Geoff (ed) (2005) The Spectacle of the Real: From Hollywood to Reality TV and Beyond, Bristol: Intellect.

Mathijs, Ernest, and Janet Jones (eds) (2004) Big Brother International: Formats, Critics, and Publics, London and New York: Wallflower.

Murray, Susan, and Laurie Ouellette (eds) (2004) Reality TV: Re-Making Television Culture, New York: New York University Press.

Paget, Derek (1998) No Other Way to Tell It: Dramadoc/Docudrama on Television, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

*Roscoe, Jane, and Craig Hight (2001) Faking It: Mock-Documentary and the Subversion of Factuality, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Rosenthal, Alan (ed) (1999) Why Docudrama? Fact-Fiction on Film and TV, Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press

Thirkell, Robert (2010) C.O.N.F.L.I.C.T.: An Insider’s Guide to Storytelling in Factual/Reality TV and Film, London: Methuen.

Turner, Graeme (2004) Understanding Celebrity, London: Sage.

*Ward, Paul (2005) Documentary: the Margins of Reality, London Wallflower.

Winston, Brian (2000) Lies, Damn Lies, and Documentaries, London: British Film Institute.

Television Studies Allen, Robert C. (ed) (1992) Channels of Discourse, Reassembled, London: Routledge.

*Allen, Robert C., and Annette Hill (eds) (2004) The Television Studies Reader, London: Routledge.

Ang, Ien (1996) Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World, London: Routledge.

Bignell, Jonathan (2004) An Introduction to Television Studies, London: Routledge.

Boyd-Barrett, and Chris Newbold (eds) (1995) Approaches to Media: A Reader, London: Arnold.

Burton, Graeme (2000) Talking Television: An Introduction to the Study of Television, London: Arnold.

Buscombe, Edward (ed) (2000) British Television: A Reader, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Calvert, Ben, Bernadette Casey, Justin Lewis, Liam French, and Neil Casey (2008) Television Studies: The Key Concepts, 2nd edition, London and New York: Routledge.

*Ellis, John (1982) Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video, London: Routledge.

Geraghty, Christine, and David Lusted (eds) (1997) The Television Studies Book, London: Arnold.

Hartley, John (1999) Uses of Television, London: Routledge.

Laughey, Dan (2007) Key Themes in Media Theory, Maidenhead: Open University Press.

*Lury, Karen (2005) Interpreting Television, London: Hodder Arnold.

Miller, Toby (ed) (2002) Television Studies, London: British Film Institute.

Morley, David (1992) Television, Audiences, and Cultural Studies, London: Routledge.

*Newcomb, Horace (ed) (2000) Television: the Critical View, 6th Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Williams, Raymond (2003 [1974]) Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London: Routledge.

Film and Reality Black, Joel (2002) The Reality Effect: Film Culture and the Graphic Imperative, London and New York:

Routledge.

Juhasz, Alexandra, and Jess Larner (eds) (2006) F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth’s Undoing, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Lay, Samantha (2002) British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit-Grit, London: Wallflower.

*Nichols, Bill (1991) Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Nichols, Bill (1994) Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Plantinga, Carl (1997) Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film, Cambridge: CUP.

Rollyson, Carl (2004) Documentary Film: A Primer, New York: Universe.

Rosenstone, Robert A. (1995) Visions of the Past: the Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

*Rosenthal, Alan (ed) (1988) New Challenges for Documentary, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Singer, Irving (1998) Reality Transformed: Film as Meaning and Technique, Cambridge and London: MIT Press.

Winston, Brian (1995) Claiming the Real: The Griersonian Documentary and its Legitimations, London: British Film Institute.

Useful Websites Box of Broadcasts https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/

Broadcast http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/

Critical Studies in Television http://www.criticalstudiesintelevision.com/

International Documentary Association http://www.documentary.org/

M/C http://www.media-culture.org.au/

MediaGuardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/media

ScreenOnline http://www.screenoline.org.uk/

Screensite http://www.screensite.org/

Surveillance and Society http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/

Useful Podcasts/Audio The Media Podcast http://themediapodcast.com/

The Media Show http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dv9hq

Media Masters http://www.mediafocus.org.uk/

On the Media http://www.wnyc.org/shows/otm