module specification

This module explores the intersection of identity, gender, and the body within the world of media. It examines the complex ways media representations and communication shape and reflect individual and collective identities. By analysing various media outputs, ranging from traditional to digital, the module explores how media informs cultural and societal perceptions constructing and deconstructing gender and body conventions while also providing opportunities for resistance.

The module will look at social media, advertising, and diverse media forms including film, TV series, music videos and comics among others. It encourages engagement with conceptual theoretical frameworks like poststructuralism, gender theory, feminist media theory, masculinity studies, body studies and ‘crip’ theory. This facilitates an understanding of how gendered discourses and the cultural meanings assigned to bodies operate in different spheres with specific attention given to the production and reception of media representations of masculinities, femininities and dis/abled bodies.

This module aims to:
• Encourage students to actively discuss and rethink contemporary debates on identity, gender, and the body in media communications, challenging preconceptions for deeper understanding.
• Provide diverse critical and theoretical approaches to analyse the relationship between gendered and body identities and media practices.
• Facilitate a supportive environment to enhance students’ communication and research skills in media practices.

Genders, Identities and Challenges
• Conceptualising genders and bodies: historical and contemporary debates
• Feminism and men/masculinities perspectives
• Woke capitalism
• Locating critical masculinities theory
• Celebrity feminisms and post-feminist cultures
• Feminine/Masculine and representations
• Notions of beauty, fashion and body images

Bodies and technology
• Understanding and theorising bodies: social and cultural perspectives
• Discipline and punishment: the body as a subjective experience of resistance
• Disability and embodiment
• Cyber-feminism and reconfigurations of body space
• Posthumanism, cyborg bodies and selves
• ‘Crip’ theory: disability and ‘enfreakment’; non-normative bodies and monstrosity; ageing and the body

Teaching methods include formal lectures, seminar discussion, screenings, library sessions and tutorials.  Students are expected to attend lectures and seminars: in the seminars they will at times work in small groups and be given practice in listening to each other’s contributions and offering constructive criticism, and in chairing and reporting discussion to the plenary seminar group. The teaching and learning strategy aims to encourage an inclusive and supportive learning environment that respects and values the contributions of individual students and provides opportunities for individual intellectual development through a variety of learning opportunities.

The module booklet will be available online, as will lecture outlines and some readings. Weblearn or its equivalent will also be used for communication with students individually and as a cohort. In addition to guided reading, students are expected to read and to use variety of sources (primary and secondary) and use seminars and tutorials to raise issues, questions and seek feedback.

A blended learning strategy will be employed to enhance the learning experience, facilitate communication between students and tutors and develop collaboration among students. The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be used as a platform to support online activities including on-line discussions, evaluation of online resources, and access to electronic reading packs. The VLE will also be used to facilitate formative assessment and related feedback, as well as a tool to integrate useful online learning materials provided by research institutions, academic publications, professional organisations and other relevant sources.

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and a critical understanding of genders, bodies and identities in their intersection with media.
2. Critically evaluate media perspectives on femininity, masculinity, and gendered and dis/abled bodies.
3. Analyse the significance of media representations in the formation and negotiation of gender identities and societal body norms.
4. Display enhanced skills in academic writing and oral presentation.
5. Demonstrate the application of specific theories and concepts in the evaluation of media representations of gendered and body identities.

Reading list:
https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/04EF4EFA-5544-BB6C-8AAE-B8BA75CE0288.html?lang=en