Week 12
Vehicle Strand: Celebrity Gossip
In this first part of the final class of the module we discuss celebrities
and the pleasures we derive from gossiping about them. We consult an issue
of Heat magazine,
focusing particularly on the stories about Jennifer
Aniston's divorce from Brad
Pitt, and the fractious Desperate
Housewives photoshot for Vanity
Fair. We consider Joke Hermes' suggestion that celebrity gossip provides
us with an 'extended family' and also with the titilating pleasures of a
traditional 'melodrama'.
Required Reading: Branston and Stafford
(2010), pp. 323-27 on celebrities.
Environment Strand: Classroom or Cave?
In this second part of the class we engage with McLuhan's ideas about the
importance of new media for education. We consider his suggestion that today
most learning takes place outside the classroom, and that books and literacy
have receded in importance. We close with his claim that studying new media
is important both because "whatever pleases teaches more effectively",
and because an understanding of the impact of new technologies is important
in its own right. We conclude the class with a look at the United Nations'
World Food Programme game Food
Force, and an evaluation of the module as a whole.
Required Reading: Starkey, 1995.
Optional Reading: McLuhan and Fiore, 1967,
pp. pp. 9-10, 18, 68, 100-03, 114, 126.
Module Forum
Topics under discussion in the Module Forum this week
include the pleasures of celebrity gossip, the privacy of media personalities,
electronic education resources, the relevance of Media Studies, and David
Starkey's prejudices.
Case Study
If you choose to write a Case Study using the concepts drawn from this week's
vehicle strand you will need to concentrate on some aspect of stars and
celebrity.
Useful Reading: Branston and Stafford,
2010, pp. 323-27; O'Sullivan, Dutton and
Rayner, 2003, Ch. 3; Dyer and McDonald, 1998;
Dyer, 2004.
If you would rather make use of McLuhan's ideas about the importance of
media education, or the use of new media for education, you may wish
to select a particular medium and consider what, or how, it teaches us.
Useful Reading: McLuhan, 1960; McLuhan,
Hutchon and McLuhan, 1980.
Whatever you choose, you will probably want to arrange a tutorial with the
Module Tutor. For more information on the Case
Study see the section on Assessment in the Module Handbook.
For Next Week You Need To...
(1) Complete your Case Study (see the Module Handbook for details of this
assignment).
If you're stuck or confused, post your problem on the Module Forum or .