【COM153】Audiences and Media Users

Assignment Brief:

The final project assessment of COM153 invites you to individually conduct a small-scale audience research project regarding a topic of your own choice. It must address at least one of the weekly topics covered by the module while at the same time utilizing one of the common research methods of media audience studies—namely, survey, in-depth interviewing, media autobiography, (controlled) experiment and participant observation. You are required to finish a written report of 1700 words.

The major aim of this assessment is to evaluate students’ reflection on the power relations between audiences and media industries, as well as your ability to recognize, explain and apply relevant concepts and theories of media audience studies to analysing a recent audience phenomenon with the help of appropriate research method(s). What this assessment expects from you is a preliminary audience research project which can be further expanded at a later stage. This means choosing to do one (or at most two) of the following types of preliminary fieldwork:

• Conducting two to three in-depth interviews
• Collecting 20 to 30 survey questionnaires
• Doing participant observation with one group of research subjects
• Recruiting five participants for media audio-biography
• Carrying out one pair of controlled experiments

Your written report should be structured in the following manner:

Introduction: please first give some background information about your research topic and question. Here, you can also mention how this audience phenomenon

1. has been discussed by media commentators and publics as well. Then provide an overview of your research: what kind of theories and concepts do you engage with? What research method did you utilize? (around 250 words)
2. A brief theoretical discussion: use this section to elaborate on the theories and concepts that you find useful to analyse the audience phenomenon of your choice. Try to relate your theoretical discussion with your research topic. A brief literature review is welcomed, but not necessary (around 300 words)
3. Methodology: what kind of research method did you choose and how did you implement it? Also briefly explain why you chose that method. (around 150 words)
4. Findings and discussions: report your findings based on the preliminary fieldwork. Try to connect your findings to the the relevant concepts and theories you mentioned in section 2. For instance, how your findings confirm, enrich or challenge them. (around 750 words)
5. Conclusion and reflection: in this final section, please first summarize the main points you would like to make for your research project. Then briefly reflect on how your project could be further expanded or improved in terms of its research design. (around 250 words)

Other requirements:

1. Do proper referencing and follow the APA system.
2. You should at least refer to two module reading as academic sources. On that basis, you could consider referring to extra-curricular academic sources. The minimum number of references for this coursework is five in total.
3. Feel free to include visual elements (diagrams, tables, figures, etc.) in your report. Pay attention to citing them properly following the APA system as well.   
4. Give your report a title.
5. Insert page numbers to facilitate the feedback process.
6. Save your written report in PDF file and name it as COM153_final project_ student number.
7. Attach coursework cover sheet as the first page.
8. Submit it to the dropbox “COM153 final project submission” before 12 at noon, Dec. 27th, 2023

What are you expected to demonstrate?

1. Choosing a suitable audience research topic (10%)
2. Ability to recognize and explain key theories, concepts and methods of media audience studies (30%)
3. Applying theories and concepts of media audience studies to analyse a recent audience phenomenon (30%)
4. A critical understanding of and reflection on the power relations between audiences and media industries, and/or among different social groups of media users (20%)
5. Clear language and good referencing (10%)