4MEST001W Introduction to Contemporary Media Practice 2022-23 ASSESSMENT 1: Written Essay Deadline: Thursday 15th December 2022 1pm Submit through the link via Blackboard. Normal lateness penalties apply The Written Essay will be assessed on the extent to which you have demonstrated: Appropriate interpretation of the essay question Critical evaluation of the topic using appropriate theoretical methods Clarity of communication in written form and coherence of essay structure Please select one of the questions or topics below and write a 2000-word essay (+/- 10%). You are expected to include reference to underlying theories and it should be fully referenced throughout. You may choose to include illustrations, although this is not a requirement. 1. Photography purports to represent truth and reality. When does it not support these illustrate with three examples. 2. According to Lev Manovich, “we are in the middle of a new media revolution – the shift of all culture to computer-mediated forms of production, distribution and communication”. Discuss some key implications of digital technologies for media production and consumption. 3. According to Henry Jenkins, “the entertainment industry… has integrated notions of audience engagement and fan participation more deeply into its logics and practices”. To what extent do social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter enhance participation in the entertainment industry 4. For Bartmanski and Woodward, the continued relevance of the vinyl record as an “auratic cultural icon… sums up an important aspect of late modernity – the search for authenticity and meaning through the heavily mediated, digitalised and commodified world” (2015: 19). With reference to the continued relevance of one analogue format, platform or medium, discuss the meaning of authenticity in the age of digital reproduction. 5. Benjamin bemoaned the loss of the aura as art became widely reproduced. What of the work of art in the era of digital reproduction Discuss using Benjamin’s ideas applied to the current situation. 6. Jean Baudrillard argues that the image “bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum” . With reference to specific examples, consider the role of simulation in contemporary media practice. 7. Ideology is referred to as ‘a way that we represent the world to ourselves’, discuss. Choose three examples of ideological representation. 2 8. According to Ritzer and Jurgensen, users of Web 2.0 and new media “are the producers, but the profit… still belongs to corporations” . Discuss this view with reference to debates about the role of prosumption in contemporary capitalism. 9. How has postmodernism changed our relationship with the truth of photography Use three examples. 10. Lev Manovich in Language of New Media describes a theory of Cultural Interfaces in terms of how interfaces of new media objects are shaped by three cultural traditions: print, cinema and human-computer interface. Discuss, and provide three examples. Please ensure that the Written Essay for this module is: Submitted as single softcopy through the Blackboard Turnitin submission link in the assessment folder for 4MEST001W; Typed; 1.5 or double-spaced for body text; single-spaced and indented for longer quotations (c. >30 words); Fully and correctly referenced, using the Harvard referencing system and including captions and copyright information for any figures or illustrations (if used) Carefully checked before submission for errors of content and presentation, with visual examples as appropriate, and your essay must; Identified by module code on EVERY page, either at the top or bottom. Anonymised, i.e. please do not include your name anywhere on the essay as it is going to be marked anonymously as per assessment regulations The moderation process for the Written Essay involves an internal moderator looking at a sample of essays in terms of marks and feedback drawn from the entire range of marks. You are expected to undertake relevant reading and research appropriate to your topic. As well as the reading list provided on the module handbook, the following references have been used for some of the questions above: Bartmanski, D. and Woodward, I., The Vinyl: The Analogue Medium in the Age of Digital Reproduction. Journal of Consumer Culture 2015, Vol. 15(1) 3–27 SAGE Baudrillard, J, Simulations. New York: Semiotexte/Smart Art, 1983 Benjamin, W, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 1935.Can be downloaded from https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm Manovich, L., The Language of New Media, MIT Press, 2001 Ritzer, G. and Jurgensen, N. (2010) ‘Production, Consumption, Prosumption: the nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer”, in The Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol. 10(1), pp.13-36
