Posted: February 19th, 2015

Australian Television Industry

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

With declining audiences and increased competition from digital streaming services, the Australia Television Industry has embarked on an ambitious plan to grow locally produced content. But they need some advice about what would work in the current media climate. In short, they need a fully referenced pitch and proposal for a new program that (should) get lots of attention in the public sphere and capture an audience for them.

ASSESSMENT

MDA10001 Introduction to Media Studies

Major Assignment

Worth: 40%

Approx. 2500-3000 words

Due: Week 13 Sunday 1^st March, 2015

The Australian Television Industry needs you!

With declining audiences and increased competition from digital streaming services, the Australia Television Industry has embarked on an ambitious plan to grow locally produced content.  But they need some advice about what would work in the current media climate. In short, they need a fully referenced pitch and proposal for a new program that (should) get lots of attention in the public sphere and capture an audience for them.

You are a well-known media commentator and public intellectual. For this assignment you need to provide two things:

1. a) a pitch for a new television program (500 words at most) that should include details on: the format of the show (half-hour/hour/five minutes), frequency (once a week, daily), genre (factual / news / sitcom / drama), who will be in it/presenting it, what it is about and the network it is being pitched to (Seven, Nine, SBS, Go, ABC2, etc).

1. b)   a proposal outlining why you have made the decisions for the pitch that you             have included above (approximately 2500 words). This should include information     on audience, how it might function in the public sphere, celebrity, any relationship it        might have to ideas of media spectacle and/or postmodernity and any convergent             opportunities the pitch presents.

This proposal should take the form of an academic essay offering a detailed, researched and most of all persuasive argument.  It will necessarily draw on material presented in the lectures, tutorials and readings in Weeks 1-11 of this unit. How many and how much weight is given to each topic is up to you and depend on the type of pitch you present. Indeed, deciding how much information to use from each week is one of the skills that will be assessed in your final grade.

Remember: This assignment is in place of an EXAM. This is your opportunity to present the knowledge you have acquired from this unit in a systematic, cohesive and entertaining way. While we look forward to reading and assessing your pitch, it is the proposal that will carry the most weight in this assessment piece. Ensure you address each of the criteria below to ensure you receive as many of the 40 marks that are available for this assessment. 

What your proposal must demonstrate:

• An understanding of the content of Weeks 1-11 and how to use that content to produce a persuasive argument around media, text and audience (10%).
• Why and how you have developed this pitch (20% – 10% why, 10% how).
• An understanding of the form of an academic essay: fully researched, referenced and supported by academic theory and secondary evidence. Importantly, there should be no less than twenty references of which no fewer than five must be secondary academic references not previously presented in this unit (i.e. references you find, not references we have included on Blackboard or in this unit outline). No fewer than ten of the twenty-five references should be academic references (10%).
• Remember: This is a research essay in place of a final exam. Phrases like “I would try to…” or “I would like to… ” alone are not good enough; you cannot provide opinion, you need to provide evidence supporting your proposal, secondary references that make your proposal persuasive.

Some of the things you might like to consider:

• Use of subheadings, pictures and diagrams (the format your proposal takes) is entirely up to you. As long as you keep to the academic style (of referencing and writing) you can be as creative as you like
• Audience: Who are they? Where are they? Are they niche? Mass? How might they be measured? How important are demographics?
• Are there any elements of the pitch that are postmodern? What are they? How might they be developed or useful to the program?
• Advertising: How will you advertise this program? What connotes the program? A logo? A celebrity? The format? Feel free to present samples of advertisements with your proposal if you want to?
• How are you going to generate interest in the public sphere? Is it going to be a media spectacle? Be serious and hard hitting? Contribute to public debate?
• Which television network will run it? Think about demographics? Possible audiences? Complementary programming?
• What are the convergent opportunities of the program? How might these be developed and increase the longevity of the program.

As always, marks may be deducted for poor spelling or grammar. Please proofread your work before submitting it.