So now we're exposed!!

We reckon about 15% of current popular media output in the UK emanates from our courses in Media and Design down here in Falmouth. With our extensive placement, internship and graduate trainee commitments as well - it may well be that over a quarter of UK cultural production is simply down to our educational process. 

The only surprise is that we were able to keep it from Greg for so long...

Jeremy Tridgell
Communication Design
University College Falmouth


-----Original Message-----
From: Aspects of academic research & teaching within Media on behalf of Greg Philo
Sent: Wed 29/10/2008 1:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: Teaching Exercise
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Philo [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 29 October 2008 10:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Teaching Exercise



Teaching Project - Utilising Media Access


You might find this useful as an idea for teaching in Media/Communications
or English courses. I used it with a group of 40 students at Glasgow
University and was surprised at how well it worked. Essentially it involved
asking the students to utilise any available media access, such as letters
pages, phone-ins or  emails to programmes, over a period of two weeks. They
worked in groups of five and  were advised  to use any knowledge they had
accumulated in, for example, communications, sociology, politics or
economics, to inform public debate. A secondary aim was for them to take
part directly in the construction of one part of the media - instead of just
studying it, they would be it.

In practice the students made interventions in live programming, but the
most sustained activity went into letter writing. They were very successful
in this - on a single day they put four letters into one edition of the
Daily Express and on another day, three into Metro and three in the Daily
Mail. They covered the walls of the Media Unit with their output and they
won cash, and free flights to Dublin and other exotic locations
(Bournmouth).
The exercise really gripped the students and they turned up religiously at
7-30 in the morning to write the letters in time for a 3 pm copy deadline.
The also came in on days when they were not supposed to, just to read the
papers and put in more letters. They wrote about alcohol, drugs, parenting,
education policy, media influence, the economic crisis, Karl Marx (in The
Times), crime, violence, eating disorders, the US elections and much more.
And if ever you've seen a terrible letter in the Sun, asking if Posh and
Becks 'will ever truly find peace' and wondered if it was a sociology
student taking the peace, then yes it was.

The project also had a great bonding effect on the class as a whole. The
process of sitting in groups, reading the papers, discussing the day's news
and possible themes to pursue was a very good teaching and learning
experience. Many did not normally read the papers and had never written
letters to them. The students also began to notice patterns in coverage and
the routine supply of the same stories from news agencies. They talked about
news values and how they could adapt the presentation of their own knowledge
and views to the house styles of different papers. It was also a good
exercise in pressing them to be concise and to develop writing skills which
were different from those in the long essays which they normally produced.
At the end they gave presentations discussing these issues and possible
trends in the publishing or exclusion of different types of letters.

Overall, the exercise touched many buttons in contemporary education,
including basic skills in self expression and others such as citizenship,
concern with public events, use of media and participation. If any of you
try it, I'd be very interested to hear any feedback on how it goes.


Greg Philo
29.10.08



Glasgow University Media Group
0044 (0)141 330 5983

http://www.gla.ac.uk/centres/mediagroup/