Media History and Technologies 2023-24
You should ensure that you understand the general requirements for submitting assignments to
ELAL modules, including requirements for word counts, referencing style, etc. See the ELAL UG
Handbook, available via the UG Canvas Hub for more information.
For any assignment requiring you to collect your own data, you have general ethical approval as long
as you have completed an online ethics declaration for the academic year 2023-24. This covers you
for any data collected without the involvement of participants (e.g. online or offline texts or
recordings), and any data collected from human participants, provided that: a) they are over 18; b)
they are not vulnerable/unable to provide informed consent; c) they are fully informed of your data
collection (i.e. you are not undertaking covert observation without participant knowledge); d) they
provide affirmative consent to take part. For anything else, you must consult with your module
convenor before undertaking any data collection.
Where an assessment does not explicitly ask you to undertake primary research activity (i.e. your
own data collection), you should not collect any data without speaking to the module convenor and
completing a separate application for ethics review.
It is your responsibility to exercise appropriate judgment here, and to read the guidance available via
the UG Hub (Research Ethics section).
There are two elements of assessment for this module: A 2000-word written essay (60%) and 1000-
word reflective written essay (40%)
The assignments will enable students to meet the following learning outcomes:
Demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of media practices in the past
century
Apply critical concepts and terminology to a wide range of media practices
Conceptualise a self-reflexive understanding of media, and be able to challenge their own
preconceptions
Demonstrate an ability to connect the emergence of media technologies to social, cultural and
psychological change
Assignment 1: 2000-word written essay (60% of overall mark)
An individual academic essay of 2000-words (60% of the overall module grade)
This assignment assesses students’ understanding of core concepts and themes covered throughout
the module. Students will demonstrate engagement with key writings and academic scholarship
relating to media histories and technologies and showcase their ability to extract information from a
variety of high-quality sources in order to build arguments.
Students are advised to discuss their ideas for the essay with their module tutor well in advance of
the submission deadline.
Please choose one of the essay questions listed below (NOTE: please state the essay question
chosen at the top of your submission):
1. What is the role of books in the age of digitally mediated communication Your answer
should draw upon relevant theories on the history of
books as a tool of mass
communication. You should draw on relevant academic texts from the module to help
develop your argument.
2. To what extent do you agree with the claim that “podcasting as an audio medium […] is
distinct from but institutionally connected to radio” (Berry 2020) Your answer should
show an understanding of the evolution of both radio and podcasting, from inception to the
present day. You should draw on relevant academic texts from the module to help develop
your argument.
3. How is digital TV transforming and how is it maintaining TV consumption patterns Your
answer should draw on the history of TV discussed on the module, including any changes to
television audiences following the increased capacity of the internet for the distribution and
consumption of audio-visual media. You should draw on relevant academic texts from the
module to help develop your argument.
4. To what extent can news be said to be an ‘objective’ account of important (or
‘newsworthy’) events Discuss with reference to the history of newspapers and news values
as discussed on the module. You should draw on relevant academic texts and theories from
the module to help develop your argument.
5. In what ways is the internet a social and cultural force Your answer should draw on the
history of the internet and personal computing as unpacked on the module. You should
show an understanding these technologies designed with personal expressiveness,
autonomy, and freedom in mind. You should draw on relevant academic texts from the
module to help develop your argument.
6. “For all its ubiquity, the smartphone is not a simple thing” (Greenfield 2018) Discuss this
statement in the light of the role or roles that the smartphone plays in everyday life. Your
answer should draw on the history of the smartphone and its impact on our everyday life
and social practices as discussed on the module. It will help your thinking if you first focus on
Greenfield’s book Radical technologies: the design of everyday life (see Resource List for
week 8). You should draw on other relevant academic texts from the module to help
develop your argument.
This element of the assignment helps students to meet the following learning outcomes of this
module. Students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the historical development of media practices in the
past century
2. Apply critical concepts and terminology to a wide range of media practices
3. Demonstrate an ability to connect the emergence of media technologies to social, cultural
and psychological change
This assignment assesses student knowledge of the history and theory of media and how different
technologies relate to social, political and communicative changes.
This assignment assesses student knowledge of the history and theory of media and how different
technologies relate to social, political and communicative changes.