Course syllabus

 

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RESEARCH SUPERVISORS

Margaret Henley (media sports space) m.henley@auckland.ac.nz

Laurence Simmons (disaster) l.simmons@auckland.ac.nz

Xuelin Zhou (youth) x.zhou@auckland.ac.nz

Nabeel Zuberi (race) n.zuberi@auckland.ac.nz (Course Director)

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a required 30-point independent research project for all students in the BA (Hons) programme and 240-point MA in Media, Film and Television. Students in the PGDip(Arts) and 120-point taught MA can also be enrolled in the course. Each student completes an individual research project of 10,000 words under the supervision of a member of staff. Supervisors guide students on research design, methods and approaches in the discipline, and support the development of each student’s chosen research project within a broad research area. The project should be appropriate in scope in order to plan, complete the research and writing in a semester. The research is broken up into its constituent steps (research proposal, literature review, presentation) with interim deadlines and feedback leading to the production of a 10,000-word research project. 

In Week 1 supervisors introduce the research areas in the discipline in which students will develop their own projects. Students also attend a library and database workshop. In Week 2 students rank their preferred research areas, and receive guidance on research design, methods and some prominent approaches to the study of media, film and television, including textual and discourse analysis, ethnography and ethics in digital media research. In Week 3 students focus on issues of writing, and receive guidance on the research proposal and the literature review. The semester involves weekly supervision meetings of individual research projects in progress, apart from students' research presentations to peers and staff in Weeks 8, 9 and 10.

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

 WEEK 1: FRIDAY 8 MARCH          RESEARCH AREAS & LIBRARY RESEARCH

(207-501, Pat Hanan Room, CLL Building/Arts 2)

 9:30-10:00           Introductions

10:00-10:30        Research Area 1: Media Sports Space (Margaret Henley)

Tomlinson, Alan, Andrei S. Markovits, and Christopher Young. “Introduction: Mapping Sports Space.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 46, no. 11, 2003, pp. 1463-75.

Henley, Margaret. “Netball, ‘Sport Space’ and Broadcasting in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” Forthcoming.

 

10:30-11:00        Research Area 2: Disaster (Laurence Simmons)

Wright, Alan. “Introduction: Film Theory as Seismic Research.” Film on the Fault Line, edited by Alan Wright, Intellect Press, 2015, pp. 1-19.

Simmons, Laurence. “Reasoning the Disaster.” Filozofski Vestnik, vol. 37, no. 2, 2016, pp. 213-34.

 

11:00-11:15        Tea/coffee break

 

11:15-11:45        Research Area 3: Youth (Xuelin Zhou)

Clarke, John, Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson, and Brian Roberts. “Subcultures, Cultures and Class.” Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Cultures in Post-War Britain, edited by Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, Routledge, 2006, pp. 3-59.

Zhou Xuelin, “Introduction: Young Rebels and Social Change.” Young Rebels in Chinese Cinema, Hong Kong University Press, 2007, pp. 1-14.

 

11:45-12:15        Research Area 4: Race (Nabeel Zuberi)

Saha, Anamik. “Race and the Cultural Industries.” Race and the Cultural Industries, Polity Press, 2018, pp. 13-32.

Zuberi, Nabeel. “Racialising Music’s Past and the Media Archive.” The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage, edited by Sarah Baker, Catherine Strong, Lauren Istvandity and Zelmarie Cantillon, Routledge, 2018, pp. 36-45.

                                   

12:15-1:00           Break

 

1:00-2:00              Library Database Workshop in Kate Edger Information Commons, 433

                                    Vera Li, Learning and Teaching Advisor

                                    Libraries and Learning Services

 

Message n.zuberi@auckland.ac.nz via Canvas BY WEDNESDAY 13 MARCH your top 3 preferred research topics (from Media Sports Space, Disaster, Youth, Race) and a working title or a few words about your possible research project. Use ‘MEDIA 781 Ranking’ as the message heading.

 

WEEK 2: FRIDAY 15 MARCH       RESEARCH WITH TEXTS, PEOPLE & DIGITAL MEDIA

(207-501, Pat Hanan Room, CLL Building/Arts 2)

 9:30-10:00           Research with texts I: Textual analysis (Laurence Simmons)

Corrigan, Timothy. “Film Terms and Topics for Film Analysis and Writing.” A Short Guide to Writing about Film (5th edition), Pearson Longman, 2004, pp. 35-78.

 

10:00-10:30        Research with texts II: Discourse analysis (Nabeel Zuberi)

Van Dijk, Teun A. “Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis.” Discourse & Society, vol. 4, no. 2, 1993, pp. 249-83.

 

10:30-10:45        Break                      

                                                     

10:45-11:15        Interviewing people (Margaret Henley)

Rakow, Lana F. “Commentary: Interviews and Focus Groups as Critical and Cultural Methods.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2, 2011, pp. 416-28.

Livingstone, Sonia. “Audiences in an Age of Datafication: Critical Questions for Media Research.” Television & New Media, vol. 20, no. 2, 2018, pp. 170-83. 

11:15-11:45        Research on- and off-line (Nabeel Zuberi)


Favaro, Laura, Rosalind Gill and Laura Harvey. “Making Media Data: An Introduction to Qualitative Media Research.” Collecting Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide to Textual, Media and Virtual Techniques, edited by Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke and Debra Gray, Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp. 119-40.

Light, Ben, Jean Burgess, and Stefanie Duguay. “The walkthrough method: An approach to the study of apps.” New Media & Society, vol. 20, no. 3, 2018, pp. 881-900.

 

11:45-12:00        Questions and discussion             

 

 

WEEK 3: FRIDAY 22 MARCH
       WRITING THE PROPOSAL, LITERATURE REVIEW & PAPER


(207-501, Pat Hanan Room, CLL Building/Arts 2)

9:30-10:00           The Research Proposal (Nabeel Zuberi)

Walliman, Nicholas. “Writing a research proposal.” Social Research Methods, Sage, 2006, pp. 186-93.

                 

10:00-10:30        The Literature Review (Xuelin Zhou)


Card, Noel A. “Literature Review.” Encyclopedia of Research Design, edited by Neil J. Salkind, Sage, 2010, pp. 726-29.

Greener, Ian. “Writing up reviews and putting together proposals.” Designing Social Research: A Guide for the Bewildered, Sage, 2011, pp. 174-91.

 

10:30-11:00        Break    

                 

11:00-12:00        Writing the Research Paper

                                    (Margaret Henley, Laurence Simmons, Xuelin Zhou, Nabeel Zuberi)

Becker, Harold. “One Right Way.” Writing for Social Scientists, University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp. 43-67.

Bonnett, Alistair. (2001). “Structuring your Argument.” How to Argue, Pearson Education, 2011, Pearson Education, pp. 41-54.

                 

 

WEEK 4: FRIDAY 29 MARCH       GROUP SUPERVISION

The venue and time for these meetings is to be arranged with your supervisor.

By 9 am on Thursday 28 March, you must email a draft of your research proposal to your supervisor, who will forward it to other members of your study group. The proposal should indicate the aims and significance of the project. You should come to the meeting prepared to talk about the topic and approach of your research project, give constructive feedback on your peers’ projects, be open to feedback from your peers and supervisor, and respond constructively to the proposals of the other members of your 
group 


 

WEEK 5: FRIDAY 5 APRIL              INDIVIDUAL SUPERVISION

The venue and time for individual supervision meetings is to be arranged with your supervisor. Email your draft research proposal to your supervisor well in advance of your meeting. This is your last opportunity to discuss your research proposal before submission. In this meeting you will also discuss your research plan for your literature review, collection of research materials, and your analysis.

Research Proposals must be uploaded on Canvas before the end of MONDAY 8 APRIL

 

WEEK 6: FRIDAY 12 APRIL           INDIVIDUAL SUPERVISION

The venue and time for individual supervision meetings is to be arranged with your supervisor. We will discuss your research proposal and progress on your literature review and data collection/analysis. Your research project should be well underway by this stage and your literature review making good progress.

 

MID-SEMESTER BREAK

 

WEEK 7: FRIDAY 3 MAY                  INDIVIDUAL SUPERVISION

The venue and time for individual supervision meetings is to be arranged with your supervisor. You should email your supervisor any draft literature review well in advance of the meeting. We will focus on connecting the literature review to the larger project and preparing for your presentation, including its format and content.

Literature reviews must be uploaded on Canvas before the end of MONDAY 6 MAY

 

WEEK 8: FRIDAY 10 MAY               PEER PRESENTATIONS

(207-501, Pat Hanan Room, CLL Building/Arts 2)

9:30-12:30

Students give 10-minute oral presentations on their research in progress, followed by 5-minutes for questions and answers. The presentation and feedback will help you hone the argument of your research. More details about the format and schedule of presentations will be given nearer the time. Attendance for all presentations is compulsory.

 

WEEK 9: FRIDAY 17 MAY               PEER PRESENTATIONS

(207-501, Pat Hanan Room, CLL Building/Arts 2)

9:30-12:30

Students give 10-minute oral presentations on their research in progress, followed by 5-minutes for questions and answers. The presentation and feedback will help you hone the argument of your research. More details about the format and schedule of presentations will be given nearer the time. Attendance for all presentations is compulsory.

 

WEEK 10: FRIDAY 24 MAY            PEER PRESENTATIONS

(207-501, Pat Hanan Room, CLL Building/Arts 2)

9:30-12:30  

Students give 10-minute oral presentations on their research in progress, followed by 5-minutes for questions and answers. The presentation and feedback will help you hone the argument of your research. More details about the format and schedule of presentations will be given nearer the time. Attendance for all presentations is compulsory.

 

WEEK 11: FRIDAY 31 MAY            INDIVIDUAL SUPERVISION

The venue and time for individual (or group) supervision meetings is to be arranged with your supervisor. Please ensure that you email any work relevant to the meeting beforehand. This session is intended to help you complete your analysis and incorporate feedback from the presentations into your final paper. NB. While your supervisor will be able to respond to specific areas of the draft they will not be able to read a full draft. You will need to decide which areas of your work you would like to focus on in these meetings.

 

WEEK 12: FRIDAY 7 JUNE            OPTIONAL SUPERVISION

To be arranged with your supervisor. Note: if you wish to consult your supervisor during the final week of the teaching semester, you will need to contact them in plenty of time (before the end of Week 11) to make arrangements. Consultations in this final week can only realistically be geared towards polishing specific parts of your final draft. Please note that supervisors will not proof-read or copy edit your work prior to submission.

 

Research Paper must be uploaded on Canvas before the end of MONDAY 10 JUNE