Option 1
Either
a. Evaluate the respective contributions of ‘agenda-setting’ and ‘social problems’ research to the ‘media effects’ tradition.
or
b. Evaluate the respective contributions of ‘cultivation analysis’ and ‘uses and gratification’s’ to the ‘media effects’ tradition.
Advice for Students
These options relate to Chapters 3, 6, 10 and 13 of Reader Four, Approaches to Audiences, requiring a more in-depth consideration of the media effects tradition than that which you first encountered in Module 1 (refer to Unit 3). You should also read or re-read Section 3 of Approaches to Media, and Chapters 17-19 of McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory. Note that these approaches are generally more sophisticated than earlier phases of media effects research. Your answer should deal with the ways in which these approaches formulate their research questions, their underlying premises or theories, the strengths and weaknesses of their methodologies, and how they compare with alternative approaches.
Option 2
To what extent has research delivered useful answers to the question of whether media violence is harmful?
Advice for Students The question invites a broad ranging critique of this area of research, in terms of the ways in
which it has framed its questions, and in its methodological applications. It relates mainly to Unit 46 (Cumberbatch) and its associated readings. The question contains premises you may wish to challenge. A good answer is likely to establish connections with other units in this Module, notably with Units 43 and 45. The question may usefully be contextualized within a broader panorama of effects research as discussed in Unit 3, and Chapters 17-19 of
McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory.
Option 3
With reference to any one or two specific examples familiar to you, develop a critique of commercial or public service media campaigns Advice for Students Atkin, in Unit 47, discusses a wide range of variables encompassing, amongst other things, campaign objectives, target audiences, target response, types of message (awareness, instruction, and persuasion), message qualities (credibility, engaging, relevance, clarity), stages of response (exposure, processing), incentive appeals, and source presenter. Your evaluation is likely to encompass some or all these aspects, but would probably go further to include aspects of Halloran’s critiques of administrative research in Unit 2, aspects of
quantitative and qualitative analysis of content and of audience in Module 5. You should include sample campaign documents as evidence in an appendix to your assignment.
