Academic Writing

Scholarly writing in the context of Media Production and Analysis may well be different to other areas of study that you engage with, so read this page carefully.

Marking Key Definitions

The following definitions are used consistently in the marking keys.  Notice how each one supports and scaffolds the next.

Example: There are a maximum of 12 marks available if you write really well about the impact of constraints that shape style and content of media work. 

If you write limited or superficial comments about this criterion, you might get a mark or two, but if you identify some controls and constraints and how they shape style and content of work, you'll get 3 or 4 marks. Identifying some controls and constraints and how they shape style and content of work is a great way to start the body of your piece, and leads nicely into the next level.

Once you've identified some controls and constraints and how they shape style and content of media work in general, describe how controls and constraints shape style and content of work. Doing this will raise your mark to 5 or 6, and will set you up for the next level.

Now that you've identified some controls and constraints and how they shape style and content, and described how they shape style and content, you can explain in more detail.  Explaining will bring your writing up to a 7 or 8 and will prepare your reader for your analysis.

Once you've identified some ways controls and constraints shape style and content, and described and explained how that happens, you should analyse how controls and constraints shape style and content of work. This is now 9 or 10 mark material, but it might not be if you hadn't set it up with the previous paragraphs.

Finally, once you've identified, described, explained and analysed, you need to evaluate how controls and constraints shape style and content of work to get full marks.

IF you follow this process, you'll likely be providing evidence and justifying your position, which means you'll be getting high marks in the second criterion.  Make sure you use all appropriate media terminology and language (look at the glossaries and don't be too casual) and you're looking at a great mark.

Have a good look at Bloom's Taxonomy and see if you can see any similarities.

Here are two exemplars that take a slightly different approach but can also be used to achieve those top shelf grades.  Go through them and see if you can come up with a strategy that works best for you.

Written Analysis of Media Codes and Convention in Documentary.

Media Codes Analysis - Denotation and Connotation.

Credit to Rob Bygott for these great resources.

They Say, I Say

Successful academic writing involves presenting both your sources’ ideas and your own ideas fairly and effectively to your readers. According to Graff and Birkenstein, to do so, you should engage in “a conversation about ideas” in which you react critically to your sources (ix). Graff and Birkenstein’s templates may help you to have this conversation in a reader-­‐friendly fashion, so that your thesis, supporting evidence, opposing evidence, and conclusion are clear. 

While you don’t want to adopt these templates mindlessly, the templates do provide sensible language for engaging in academic conversations, and we all benefit from adopting good language for our own purposes. 

See the examples below, then download this PDF for a bunch more to power up your writing.

Introducing standard views:

· Americans today tend to believe that                    .

· Conventional wisdom claims that                    .

· My whole life I have heard people say that                    .

Introducing something implied or assumed:

·        Although X does not say so directly, she apparently assumes that  .

·        While they rarely admit as much,                    often take for granted that                                                      .

Disagreeing, with reasons:

· I think that X is mistaken because she overlooks                    .

· I disagree with X’s view that                    because, as recent research has shown,                                .

· X’s claim that                   rests upon the questionable assumption that                                   .

Communication Theories

An excellent document has become available with brief summaries of several communication theories.  Download it here. 

Chapter 6 - Mass Communication is most relevant, followed by Chapter 7 - Media, Culture and Society. You'll find there is overlap in several of the chapters, for example, Framing Theory is in both Chapters 2 and 6, Cultivation Theory is in Chapters 6 and 7 etc. If you familiarise yourself with these and are able to use them to support your arguments in future writing, it'll be a good thing.

Don't forget, you can use alternative theories to argue alternative points of view.  This will help demonstrate deeper understanding.

Agenda Setting Theory

Agenda-setting is the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media. The press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it; media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.

Priming

Offering the audience a prior context – a context that will be used to interpret subsequent communication.

Framing

How media and media gatekeepers organise and present events and issues, and the way audiences interpret what they are provided. ‘war on drugs’, ‘battle with cancer’, ‘cold war’.

Cultivation Theory

The combined effect of massive television exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes (cultivates) the perception of social reality for individuals and, ultimately, for our culture as a whole.

Hypodermic Needle Theory (or Magic Bullet Theory)

Mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.

Knowledge Gap

People of higher socioeconomic status have better communication skills, education, reading, comprehending and remembering information. Mass media is geared toward persons of higher socioeconomic status.

Medium Theory

A medium is not simply a newspaper, the Internet, a digital camera etc. Rather, it is the symbolic environment of a communicative act. Media, apart from whatever content is transmitted, impact individuals and society.

Spiral of Silence

How people tend to remain silent when they feel that their views are in the minority. They are reticent to express their views, primarily out of fear of being isolated.

Two Step Flow Theory

Information from the media moves in two distinct stages. Individuals (opinion leaders or influencers) pay close attention to the mass media and its messages then they pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.

Uses and Gratifications Approach

Audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs.