1. Topic Selection

Select a topic that is relevant for your studies. In the module SO881, you are encouraged to take a topic that is closely related to your master dissertation. However if a media analysis about this topic would to be to difficult, feel free to select any topic that is related to crime or its control. Let’s use here the following example: you want to study the way media reports about ‘mass shootings.‘

Preliminary research question: ‘How does the media report about mass shootings?’

2. Conceptual Framework

Decide on a conceptual framework. In the module SO881 we will be looking at the work of ‘media representation.‘ Some of the key works on representation can be found in the Bibliography of this blog. Especially Stuart Hall’s writings on Representation may be useful. His book ‘Representation. Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices’ is often used in media and cultural studies as a textbook. His chapter on the concept of representation -Chapter III – can be found here HERE. Don’t lose yourself in details when reading it and try to get a general sense about what this concept entails. This turns are preliminary research question in:

 ‘How are mass shootings represented in the media?’

3. Media Selection

These days the variety of media available us is almost indefinite. As such it is impossible to study ‘the media’ or ‘the mass media’ and even the ‘printed’ media  (magazines, journals, newspapers, books, comics, …). Moreover these days people often ‘transmediate’ (use a variety of platforms together) to look for information or explanations of the world (H. Jenkins has published a lot on transmedia storytelling, see also Bibliography.
As such we need to  narrow down our research question by selecting a media platform  > a medium (news, films, etc.) > a genre .

• What is a media genre?
  Media products can be categorisied in genres (French for ‘type’ or ‘class’). Media genres appear within a medium and in this module they refer to the catogeries fiction, faction (eg. reality-tv) or non-fiction. Be aware that within each genre different sub-genres are exist (eg. The genre ‘fiction’ has several subgenres such as thrillers, comedies, horror, drama). For the assignment of this module we focus on the genre ‘non-fiction’. This turns are preliminary research question in:

 ‘How are mass shootings represented in the non-fictional media?’

• What is a medium?
  The genre ‘non-fiction’ can still apply to many different forms of media, here: documentories, news, reporting, ethnographic films, etc. For the assignment of this module we focus on the medium ‘news’. This turns are preliminary research question in:

‘How are mass shootings represented in the news?’

• What is a media platform?
  The media landscape today is a nexus of different media platforms which are strongly interconnected. Within the module so881, we use the concept ‘media platform’ to refer to one of those platforms, which distribute media content to consumers that make up that nexus (television or weblogs or websites or newspapers, social media, …).  Each platform has their own characteristics that should be taken into consideration when performing a media analysis. For the assignment of the module SO881 we focus on the platform ‘newspapers’. Again be aware that these day many newspapers have online and paper copies. This turns are preliminary research question in:

‘How are mass shootings represented in newspapers?’

This research question still needs to be narrowed down to ensure the feasability of your media analysis (see STEP II).

Back to main menu