The Media and Communications Study Skills Student Guide

Front matter

The Media and Communications Study Skills Student Guide

Doug Specht

University of Westminster Press www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk

Contents

. Introduction: studying for a Masters degree

. Why we study and setting goals Managing your time Procrastination

Other study tips

Index

Contents v

169 171 173

CHAPTER |

Introduction: studying for a Masters degree

If you've picked up this book, it probably means you are just starting a degree in Media and Communications or one of the many sub-disciplines in the field, be that Journalism, Public Relations, Media Management, or Media and Campaigning, to name just a few. Firstly, welcome to a hugely exciting field. There was a time when people looked at media studies as not being a proper subject (boo!), but those days are long gone. Media and Communications courses are becoming ever more in demand, and ever more demanding. From late night editing sessions, placements in industry, lectures on theory from the Frankfurt School to Marxism, to the ethics of digital technology, and practical sessions on campaigning, sound engineering, marketing, and more, these courses are perhaps some of the most intensive around. Studying Media and Communications is far more than watching films and reading newspapers, it is about research, critical thinking, understanding the industry and the economics of media. It is about understanding and learning about people, society, interactions and how the world works, and who it works for, and who are excluded. As Professor Philip Thickett, former head of Birmingham City University’s School of Media has said, ‘media gives the people a voice or the skill to actually change peoples views or lives [...] that is why media matters?! And he isn't alone in thinking that media and communications is important, former Channel 4 chief executive Michael Jackson, Sunday Times editor John Witherow, and hundreds of others have started their careers on Media and Communications courses. And with the second highest employment rate in the UK, why shouldnt you want to also be part of this exciting and diverse field that seeks to break down the barriers of incomprehension and mistrust? In a world of fake news, spin and

See Quin-Jarvis (2014) for other quote sources and wider discussion.

Specht, D. 2019. The Media And Communications Study Skills Student Guide. Pp. 1-3. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book42.a. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 populism, one group of media professors made the argument (in the words of the article’s strapline) that the subject has not only come of age but had ‘finally found its place in the zeitgeist’? It is also a degree which, as its name suggests, is hugely sociable, with a focus on talking to other people, studying other people, writing about people, interviewing people, meeting people. There are people everywhere. So, it is also a great way to make connections and friends around the world, creating your own global village as Marshall McLuhan might have said.

Balancing all of these elements above, along with the exciting social life that a Media and Communications course affords can be difficult. You will need to maintain your studies, and focus, through a degree that is very challenging. Your insitution will also want you to be both intellectually stimulated and to experience the pressures that you will encounter when you take up jobs within the media. You are going to be learning a whole heap of new skills and practice throughout your studies, and for the most part that is what your course, lectures, seminars and workshops are for. But there are two other elements that are common to all Media and Communications courses, that perhaps your standard modules won't help you with quite as much. These are, according to Professor James Curran, co-director of Goldsmiths Media Research Centre, ‘the ability to write really well, a skill that most people don’t have but makes a lot of media students highly employable; and in the words of Philip Thickett, ‘the unspoken [requirement] of being on a pressurized course that reflects what people face in the industry’ These two skills, writing, and time management, form the backbone of what this book is all about. And if you have started this book by reading this introduction then you are already on the right path to great Media and Communication study skills. Even better, perhaps you read the blurb on the back first, skimmed through the contents pages and then thought, ‘yes Pm going to read this. These are some of the kinds of reading and study tactics that will be discussed through this book. We are getting ahead of ourselves though. Why should you keep reading this book? How will it help you in your studies?

There are hundreds of books out there that say they will help you in your studies, and thousands of pieces of advice. These range from the reasonably sound, such as Alexandre Dumas’ system of using colour coded paper for writing in different genres, to the outright dangerous — French novelist Honoré de Balzac would drink 50 cups of coffee a day, a habit he shared with Voltaire — and in some cases just plain bizarre, such as Victor Hugos idea that it is better to write in the nude (perhaps we should steer clear of French novelists and their advice). How do you know which is the right advice or whose to follow? How do you know what will work for you or your course? All difficult questions, and ones

2 See Brabazon, T. et al. (2019).

Introduction: studying fora Masters degree 3 that students around the world ask, regardless of their experience - and many of your lecturers might be asking these questions too, but theyd never tell you that.

This book isn’t seeking to make the author his millions (it’s free to download after all), and unlike other study skills books this one is designed as a daily companion to keep in your bag, to use as a reference guide in class, while writing essays, to help you negotiate group work, to give presentations and to get everything you can out of your studies. The book itself is filled with useful tips, quick methods, and plenty of places to practise the skills discussed. We also have a range of downloadable supplementary templates to help you organized and plan your studies and writing. This isn’t just a book to read, it is a book that we will write together.

The book really covers two main themes, the first being about writing, and the second being more about general skills that will help you to navigate all kinds of other assessments and teaching techniques. Both are illustrated with templates, cheat sheets, activities, advice and links to other resources that might help you in your work. All these tips and resources have been collected together from many years of teaching. The author has also struggled with many of these things, and had to learn them the hard way... I only wish someone had written this book for me before I started my degree.

Everything in academia follows very specific patterns and forms, these are often the same across spoken and written forms and it is possible to learn these patterns, or at least to be aware of them, to enable you to produce better work within the templates of academia. This book is designed to help you do the best in your studies by helping you with the two elements highlighted by Thickett and Curran - writing and time management. And, unlike the patterns and templates it contains, this book can be read in any order, and you can skip and jump around between topics, but I do recommend starting with chapter 2 ... it will ensure you have time to read the rest of the book.

So, let’s get going ...

Brabazon, T. (2019) Is media studies about to go viral? (THE) Times Higher Education Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/ media-studies-about-go-viral? (last accessed October 2019).

Quin-Jarvis, E. (2014) Media Studies: It’s not a ‘mickey mouse’ degree. The Guardian [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/education/ mortarboard/2014/feb/03/why-study-media-studies-students

Chapter 2

You've arrived! You are back at university, now for a Masters in Media and Communications. It might have been some time since you last studied, or maybe you have followed directly on from an undergraduate degree, but the questions are the same, why are you here? Should you have come? And how will you survive? Have no fear! This chapter starts by exploring these very questions, before taking us on a whistle stop introduction to goal setting, time management and how to stave off procrastination.

Media and Communications is an exciting field, helping us to come to terms with many of the things that define what it is to be human. To understand how we communicate - from the earliest times, through to the internet and social media - is to understand the history of humanity. And as the world becomes ever more mediated, that is how it becomes increasingly defined and controlled through technology, the study of Media and Communications becomes ever more important. The world, too can sometimes seem overwhelming, with the politics of fear and fake news influencing the way we live. And with stories of the psychological damage caused by social media and the 24-hour news cycle invading our homes and pockets, it can push us to want to hide from the world, and to feel powerless. A Masters degree in Media Studies though is designed to question and challenge these thoughts, helping you to think about what we mean by ‘the media and to question how we might study it. There are lots of different ways we can approach this, we can examine Media as technology, as a way of making meaning, through theories of everyday life, or workplace, as something that brings pleasure, or even as a destructive force. During your studies you might examine media production and organisation, analysis of media output, consumption, or even to ask bigger questions about the issue of media in society. These are approaches that will also be explored through a wide range of long standing debates and theories including ‘political economy,

Specht, D. 2019. The Media And Communications Study Skills Student Guide. Pp. 5-19. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book42.b. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

‘critical race studies, ‘psychoanalysis, ‘feminist media theory, and these you will have to apply to all kinds of mediums, including radio, TV, cinema, internet, newspaper, advertising, and music). Throughout all of this, you will need to consider the way in which Media and Communications both reflect on, and shape and change the world around us. Given the range and complexity of (often) new ideas you will be exploring, it is worth considering near the beginning of the course what your inspiration is, as this will help you to keep a motivation and drive throughout your studies. For me, when I write, I have the works of Rosa Luxemburg (2004) or George Orwell (1946) swimming around my mind. Both inspire me as to why to write:

When I sit down to write, I do not say to myself, ‘Iam going to produce a work of art’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening l The most revolutionary thing

ROSA LUXEMBURG GEORGE ORWELL

When I was studying (a long time ago when I was young and handsome), and in my work now (where I am old and greyer) these words were, and remain a great inspiration. They don’t have to be your drive, and writing, as we will see later, isn’t the sole aim of your studies, but understanding the impetus for your work is essential. So, before we get too far into the book, have a think about what it is that brought you to do a degree in Media and Communications. It might be to challenge working practices, to question the way women or certain groups of people are treated in the media industry, or you wanted to know about how the way we communicate affects our lives. It might be to learn how to better run a company, or push into new fields and new markets. It might be that you want to explore ethics in AI or develop a deeper understanding of the philosphical underpinnings of Media and Communications. Or maybe another year of access to the cheap student bar. Take a moment to think about what brought you here, to these studies, and make some notes in the box below. Your motivation may change over the course of your degree, but it is good to have a starting point.

Whatever you have written above, a Masters degree is designed to give you a chance to find, and then explore your passions in depth, with the guidance of your lecturers and tutors. To do this effectively though, it is essential to know how you will manage your time, to look after yourself and plan your studies to ensure you have the space to read, write, think, experiment and take joy from your university experience.

Managing your time

There have been many embarrassing moments in my life, but one that I am willing to share with you, here in these pages, is about the time I downloaded an audio book about how to manage time better. It was a free download (the best things in life are free to download), and I was eager to find out how I was going to reorganize my life to ensure I met my deadlines, attended parties, slept and kept my sanity. That podcast sat on the desktop of my laptop for months. A note to listen to it appeared on my to-do list. The podcast got transferred to a new laptop, and then to another new laptop. Eventually, it was deleted, unheard, advice unheeded, and leaving a rather strange sense of failure.

Clearly the podcast was too long, the daunting task of sitting down to listen to it for a whole 20 minutes(!) was just too much to bear and so it never happened. Throughout your studies there are going to be many of these kinds of moments, moments when you think, I haven't got time for that now, so I will save it for later. You may even be thinking that about this book. A Masters degree is a huge undertaking, and so it is worth thinking carefully about how to carve out some space for both reading and writing as well as other aspects of studying - and while we are here, let’s carve out some space for parties, socializing, networking and enjoying the place in which you are studying - after all, you have already read a handful of pages of this book, so you deserve it.

As with all aspects of academic work, the first job is to identify the problem, only then can we seek a solution. So, take a few minutes to think about the biggest time management issues you have. Perhaps there is a specific time when things didn't work, perhaps there is something that is always a distraction? Write some of your ideas down in the space below - don’t worry, you have time.

SK My time management issues are:

There are lots of reasons that we might struggle to manage our time well, and you may have identified slightly different ones to those which I will mention here, but many of our time management issues come from the same kind of place, the place where podcasts about time management go to die. That is, that we worry that we don't have time to finish something, and so we don’t start it. And then, after many weeks have passed we find the deadline has appeared and we still have to do the work, but now, WE DON’T HAVE TIME!

The best way around this is to think of your degree as a job (sorry that sounds boring). Not a real job of course, but a job where you get to read and discuss ideas all day, a job where you get to make suggestions and put forward ideas and a job that often comes with lots of great social benefits (sounds better). It is though nonetheless a job (sorry).

How do we get ourselves into that state of mind? Well, we could get up each morning and put on a tie (or not) and fancy shoes and walk to the library for a 9am start and then leave again at 5:30pm, but that isnt really how people work best. People all work a little differently and at different times of the day. Furthermore, you have classes, your sports club, your band plays on Thursdays, and your mum comes to visit every Friday. Whatever it is, things get in the way of a 9-5 approach to a degree. Instead we need to build a custom weekly plan that will help us to keep on top of our work.

Following is a weekly planner to help you with this, and we are going to fill it in step by step using a template to create our own 9-5.

1. The first step is to add your classes onto the timetable. Block these out in one colour.

2. Now add any paid job that you might have (studying is an expensive business).

3. If you have a club or something that you just can’t give up, then block this out too.

By now you might have something that looks like that in figure 2.1. We have added all the things that just can’t be moved, and that we need to place our independent study around.

Here comes the hard part, now we are going to add in study time. But wait! It is not as simple as just saying all the other parts are study time; that is where things often go wrong. We can't study 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and without some careful consideration we might be wasting our best working moments. Instead, we need to think carefully about a few things:

e What time of day do you work best? e Can you get up in the morning?

Tues | Wed | Thure | Fri Sun

Figure 2.1: Unmoveable events.

e Can you work after class, or are you too tired? e Can you work late at night? e Ifyou can work at night, are you likely to get distracted by more exciting plans?

For me, I like to work in the mornings and I know I can’t work well after I have given a class as my brain is too tired, so I block out periods of working time that are in the mornings, and so my weekly plan looks more that in figure 2.2.

Note that I still have a good 20 hours of study time in this picture, along with 15 hours of lectures. This makes for a 35 hour week; not even quite a

Time | Mon | Tueg 6-7

Wed | Thure | Fri

Sat | Sun

Lecture b

O

J

Lecture Lectu

Training a Lecture

|S gaj =] =i YN

S| S| s

23 - 00

Figure 2.2: Adding in study time.

full time job. And furthermore, I am always finished my independent study by 6pm, when my brain starts to slow down and often insists I stop writing. Understanding that something that takes me three hours to do of an evening will only take one hour with a fresh brain in the morning really helps me to manage my time. For you it might be different, you might work best at night and need a long time to wake up. The important thing is to take this into consideration in your planning. So, think carefully about when you work best and add this to your chart.

Weekly work planner

Building a custom weekly plan that will help us to keep on top of our work. Add your classes, work commitments and clubs first, then block out space every week to complete assignments and reading - then stick to this, don't try more, and don't do less.

Time Mon Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat Sun e7 ft

Figure 2.3: Planner.

This is a great start. We have a solid frame work from which to begin. Sticking to this routine will not only help you keep on target, it will also stop you from burning out. The secret is to work at the times you said you would, even in a week with less assignments, and not work when you said you won't. However, we all know that that is easier said than done. There is still always the creeping issue of procrastination. That constant risk of getting nothing done at all. What is to be done about this?

Treat your studies as a day job. That really helped me plan how to read, and save some time for family engagements and part-time work. STUDENT mes Alfonse - MA Media and Development

Procrastination

A degree involves a huge amount of self-discipline, and thus the spectre of procrastination is never far away, but what is it really? And how can you avoid it? Or at the very least keep it at bay for the time you are undertaking your studies? Having a good timetable like that above is a good start, but there are a few other things we can do too, and that is what this section is going to be all about. So, stop watching Netflix, no need to pair up all your socks, your kitchen doesn't need cleaning right this minute, instead lets work on some tactics together, because unlike Mozart, most of us aren't capable of writing the overture to Don Giovanni the morning of the premiere (he really did).

First, it is important to know the issue isn’t unique to you. All students, lecturers and writers suffer this to some extent. Even famous writers such as Franz Kafka agonized over their writing and how it didn’t always come easily, as we can see from these extracts from his diary in 1915.

FEBRUARY 7, 1915: Complete

JANUARY 20, 1915: The end of standstill. Unending torments.

writing. When will it take me up in?

ene MARCH 11, 1915: How time flies;

another ten days and 1 have achieved

nothing. It doesn’t come off. A page now

and then is successful, but 1 can’t keep

it up, the next day Jam powerless.

JANUARY 29, 1915: Again tried to write, virtually useless.

JANUARY 30, 1915: The old ae Interrupted my MARCH 13, 1915: Lack of appetite, 0 writing for barely ten days and ear of getting back late in the evening; o cast S AA fer dhe ies thought that 1 anes d A TE nothing yesterday, that 1 keep getting prodi ious efforts stan

You ae to dive down, as tt were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.

Figure 2.4: Kafka's diary.

farther and fart er from ít, and am ín danger of losing eve thing 1 have laboriously ae these past Six months.

So then, what do we do to stave off procrastination, to keep to our study plan and to ensure that we are able to meet all our deadlines and are able to enjoy our time studying without slipping into Kafkas desperation. We all start our studies, as well as New Years, and most new projects, with very high expectations. “This time’ we tell ourselves, ‘is the time we will work perfectly. This plan though, can actually get in the way of our work. Giving so much importance to the work you are about to do can make it much harder to get into the flow, or to stay there. You can become over self-critical and this can stop you from working. One way to try and overcome this is to use the two-goal approach. When our expectations are too high we dont feel comfortable setting realistic goals, we might feel we are not pushing ourselves hard enough. To solve this, we should set ourselves two sets of goals. One is a realistic one, the other is what we might call a stretch goal.

For example, the realistic goal might be to read five articles (or write 1000 words, or edit five minutes of video). The stretch goal might be to read eight articles (or write 1500 words, or edit eight minutes of video). So, if you manage to read five articles, you get that great feeling of achieving your goal, and can rest easy. If, however, you manage more, that is a bonus (Whoop!) This little psychological trick you play on yourself can help you manage the balance between high expectations and achievable goals.

This is a bonus

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Figure 2.5: Number of articles to read.

Not managing this balance can lead to your passion waning, because not meeting your own high expectations leads to disappointment. To deal with this we succumb to other ideas and start doing things we know we can achieve - like watching a whole boxset in one sitting. This is something that can then become a habit. To avoid this, it is important to remember why the topic interested you when you started it, and even when the topic isnt so interesting to you, it is important to keep going, to push though the desire to stop the project. Look back at your thoughts on your motivations to help you regain that focus. Pushing through the desire to stop, and instead keeping on track with your work (and here comes the science part) actually changes the neurological pathways in your brain, and repeatedly finishing projects rather than dropping them builds up good neural habits that will mean it gets easier and easier to stave off procrastination (Duhigg, 2012). Using your timetable from the previous pages will help with this.

Make your tech a little more humane

Smartphones are great, but they can become a bit of a distraction, but just suggesting you turn if off for a year isn’t too helpful. Luckily the Centre for Humane Technology provides us with some great tips about how to take control of our smartphones in a way that means we can still use them, but they won't be competing for our attention. They suggest, turning off notifications that arent from people, and changing your icons to grey scale, to stop them leaping out at you when you are just checking the time. Try making only the essential apps appear on your home screen, even going as far as making some apps only launchable by typing their whole name. They have loads of other great tips, and also provide a range of apps to help you take control of your smartphone. Go check them out!

humanetech.com/take-control

Despite this, at least once in your studies you are likely to experience burn-out. This isnt writers block, this isnt procrastination, this is that you are totally exhausted. You can limit the chances of this happening by following the advice above, but should it occur there is only one way to solve this, and that is to give yourself a few days rest. This is a tricky one though. Yes, you need to rest, to go for dinner with friends, take long walks, or watch some films. This, though, only works if you truly take a break. You need to not work at all in this time. Do not stare at the screen - trying to work builds up a cycle of guilt, followed by not fully resting, which is again followed by being unable to work. The only way to break this cycle is to stop totally. Decide how long you will need, a few days perhaps, and then step away from all your studies, totally and fully. You will come back with a new passion, and be able to work faster and harder.

The final issue faced by Masters students is just being too distracted. And of course you are. A new city, new friends, new ideas and thousands of adventures to be had, inside and outside your mind. You may also be distracted by being sick, having to take a job, looking after children, or many other aspects of life. However, unless you are taking a total break to recover from burn-out, you should try and keep some sort of work going. Continue to read books related to the subject you are studying and keep a notebook to jot down ideas, even if you dont have time to work on them right now, you will later, and this will keep your mind working on the issues you are studying. It is also good to adjust your writing schedule to consider unavoidable distractions as they occur. Learning your best way of learning is an ongoing process and will evolve during the year, so keep your working schedule current to help you find the right times to grow into being a fantastic scholar and researcher. Novelist Chinua Achebe says:

I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Types of assessment

Before we get too far into the book, it is probably worth a short note on the types of assessment you might be asked to undertake. Generally assessments fall into two types, those for formative, and summative. You will probably hear your lecturers talk about these, and they will likely have these names in module and course handbooks. But what are they and what does it mean for you? Well, in simple terms one goes towards your grade, and the other doesn’t. Why would you do an assessment that doesn't add to your grade? Well the formative assessments, without a mark, are designed to help you and your tutor discover how your learning is going, what things might need improving, and where you could seek help. It also helps tutors to change the direction of a class if there is something that lots of people do not understand. Summative assessments on the other hand, are designed to test your skills and knowledge and to give you marks. Both are really important, and both should be taken seriously. Formative work really helps with reflection, too (see chapter 6).