1) MODULE SUMMARY
Full Module Title: POLITICS AND MEDIA FREEDOM
Short Module Title: Politics and Media Freedom
Module Code: 1POL684
Module Level: 6
Academic Credit Weighting: 15
Length: 1 semester
Module Leader: Dr. Richard Barbrook
Extension: x2313
Email: R.Barbrook@westminster.ac.uk
Twitter: @richardbarbrook
Host Course: BA Politics
Status: BA Politics Optional Module
Subject Board: Politics and International Relations
Pre-requisites: None
Co-requisites: None
Assessment: 100% coursework
Website: http://www.politicsandmediafreedom.net
Hashtag: #mediafreedom
Summary of Module Content: This is a module which examines the principle theories of media freedom and their implementation in different historical moments from the 1642 English Revolution up to 2016’s information society.
Lecture: Thursday 14.00pm-15.00pm RS UGO4
Seminar 1: Thursday 15.00pm-17.00pm RS 354
Seminar 2: Thursday 17.00pm-19.00pm RS 354
Feedback and support hours: Monday 16.00pm-17.30pm WS 408
2) MODULE AIMS
This module seeks to:
* Examine and contrast the ideas of the leading theorists of media freedom;
* Explore and analyse the application and implementation of the principle theories of media freedom in different historical contexts;
* Debate how and why the historical evolution of media freedom has shaped contemporary media systems within the European Union and elsewhere;
* Provide an opportunity for the students to develop and apply a range of personal and transferable skills.
3) LEARNING OUTCOMES
On the successful completion of this module, the student will be able to:
* Discuss in an informed and critical way the historical development of the theories of media freedom;
* Relate these developments and theories to the societies in which they were produced;
* Account for the strengths and weaknesses of the various concepts of media freedom and how these can be illustrated by relevant historical examples;
* Assess the opportunities and threats to the exercise of media freedom with the contemporary media systems in the European Union and elsewhere;
* Apply the understanding they have gained to the production of their own work both academically and to any future professional work.
4) INDICATIVE SYLLABUS CONTENT
This module will consist of weekly lectures followed seminars in the following week. The subjects covered on the module will include:
* Liberal theories of media freedom and their application in the English, American and French revolutions.
* Fordist concepts of media freedom as evidenced in the 1920s and 1930s American radio industry;
* Totalitarian interpretations of media freedom as shown in the 1917 Russian Revolution and its imitators;
* Public Service concepts of media freedom and their origin in 1920s and 1930s France and Britain;
* New Left theories of media freedom and their implementation in 1960s and 1970s community media;
* Neoliberal visions of media freedom and their influence of the deregulation of broadcasting in 1980s and 1990s Europe and America;
* Information society concepts of media freedom from Marshall McLuhan and Guy Debord in the 1960s to the activists and entrepreneurs of today’s Net.
5) TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS
This is a coursework-based module and will comprise of a combination of lectures, seminar presentations and group discussions. The lectures give basic information, frame current debates and identify specific issues for further discussion in seminars and for students’ individual study. The seminar presentations will provide an opportunity for students not only to discuss the themes of the lectures, but also to learn the skills of multi-media presentations.
The seminars will employ a variety of teaching and learning methods. In the first week, we will discuss some key features of politics and media freedom. In subsequent sessions, seminars will discuss the topic of the previous week’s lecture. The essay questions provide a guide to the seminar discussion during the course of this module. Students will be expected to read different chapters or articles from the material on the reading list and contribute their findings to the seminar.
At some point during this module, you will be required to deliver a seminar presentation of no more than 20 minutes duration accompanied by a multi-media presentation which combines audio, visual and textual material.
There is one week of Learning Platform in this module which provides an opportunity for you to study the books and websites on the reading list and to fulfill your module assignments.
6) ASSESSMENT RATIONALE
The assessment regime is designed to support student learning and to evaluate student achievement within the module. An analytical essay is set during the course of the module to encourage students to work from the outset both with the theoretical and historical literatures in the field. The seminar presentation tests students on their ability to discuss the themes of the module in a public setting with the aid of multi-media tools. In both forms of assessment, students are required to gather, organise and analyse information and competing explanations from a variety of primary and secondary sources, exercise critical judgement, and conduct a reasoned argument.
7) ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
The assessment scheme consists of:
* Coursework essay of 3,000 words (50%);
* Multi-media seminar presentation (50%).
In marking essays, lecturers will consider:
* extent to which the remit of the assignment has been met;
* technical accuracy with which relevant theoretical arguments and concepts are met;
* degree to which theories and concepts discussed are integrated, contextualised and evaluated;
* range of source material used;
* coherence of the structure and argument;
* clarity (clear and grammatically correct use of English, including proper spelling and punctuation) with which ideas are expressed;
* the selection and correct attribution of sources in support of an argument.
In marking the multi-media presentation, lecturers will consider:
* understanding of the question and the subject matter;
* range and variety of found and original multi-media material used;
* effectiveness of use of textual, audio and visual media to answer the question;
* extent to which the source material has been analysed;
* clarity and coherence of the overall presentation;
* clarity of delivery (pace, audibility, etc.);
* observation of time limits;
* effectiveness of responses to oral questions and discussions.
8) ASSESSMENT METHODS AND WEIGHTINGS
The assessment for the module consists of an analytical essay of approximately 3,000 words (50%) and a multi-media seminar presentation (50%).
Coursework Essay 3,000 words (50%)
This takes the form of a written essay of approximately 3,000 words on one of the questions in the lecture outline where the student has the opportunity to explore an issue or topic in depth.
The essay for this module is submitted via the TurnItIn website only. See Appendix B on page 20 below for details on how to accomplish this task.
N.B. The essay must be on a different topic to the multi-media presentation.
Essay Final Submission Date: 12.00pm on Monday 9th January 2017.
Essay Feedback and Marks: 30th January 2017.
WORD LIMIT POLICY
Each assessment will have a specified word length range (i.e. a word count which includes the main text and notes but excludes the bibliography). The department does not permit a margin of 10% over the stated word limit: the word count is the absolute maximum. Students should be aware that the marker will not consider any work after the maximum word limit has been reached within the allocation of marks. Please note that the exclusion of concluding material in excess of the permitted maximum word count may substantively reduce the quality of the coursework submitted. It may also mean that the eligible part of the submission fails to include information needed to meet the stated learning outcomes for the assessment. In this way, students will be penalised for a failure to be concise and for failing to conclude their work within the word limit specified.
Multi-Media Seminar Presentation (50%)
This takes the form of an in-class presentation made by one or more students to the seminar group. The presentation should be approximately 15 minutes long and must employ a variety of textual, audio and visual media. The presentation will be related one of the questions in the lecture outline.
Please include the full names of all of the students involved in making this presentation in its opening title.
This coursework must be given to the module leader on a USB stick which will be uploaded on to the Politics & Media Freedom module’s Vimeo channel. You will be informed by email of its web address. You must then enter this web address with the appropriate title to submit the presentation on the TurnItIn website. Each student in a group presentation must submit this link separately.
N.B. The presentation must be on a different topic to the essay.
Multi-Media Seminar Presentation Final Submission Date: 12.00pm on Monday 9th January 2017.
Multi-Media Seminar Presentation Feedback and Marks: 30th January 2017.
Submission of Coursework
All coursework on this module is submitted via Blackboard only. It will automatically be scanned through the Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service software.
You DO NOT need to attach a copy of the CA1 form;
You DO need to include your name and student ID on the first page of your assignment.
To submit your assignment:
Log on to Blackboard at http://learning.westminster.ac.uk;
Go to the relevant module Blackboard site;
Click on the ‘Assessments’ link on the left-hand side;
Click on the link to the relevant assignment;
Follow the ‘upload’ and ‘submit’ instructions.
A two-minute video showing the submission process can be found by following this link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SSHLUniWestminster#p/u/0/I-ZQs4nSWL4
You will receive separate instructions about how and when you will receive feedback on your work.
IT IS A REQUIREMENT THAT YOU SUBMIT YOUR WORK IN THIS WAY. ALL COURSEWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 12.00pm ON THE DUE DATE.
IF YOU SUBMIT YOUR COURSEWORK LATE BUT WITHIN 24 HOURS OR ONE WORKING DAY OF THE SPECIFIED DEADLINE, 10% OF THE OVERALL MARKS AVAILABLE FOR THAT ELEMENT OF ASSESSMENT WILL BE DEDUCTED, AS A PENALTY FOR LATE SUBMISSION, EXCEPT FOR WORK WHICH OBTAINS A MARK IN THE RANGE 40 – 49%, IN WHICH CASE THE MARK WILL BE CAPPED AT THE PASS MARK (40%).
IF YOU SUBMIT YOUR COURSEWORK MORE THAN 24 HOURS OR MORE THAN ONE WORKING DAY AFTER THE SPECIFIED DEADLINE YOU WILL BE GIVEN A MARK OF ZERO FOR THE WORK IN QUESTION.
LATE WORK AND ANY CLAIM OF MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES RELATING TO COURSEWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED AT THE EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY TO ENSURE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE THAT THE WORK CAN STILL BE MARKED.
LATE WORK WILL NOT NORMALLY BE ACCEPTED IF IT IS RECEIVED MORE THAN FIVE WORKING DAYS AFTER THE ORIGINAL COURSEWORK DEADLINE.
ONCE THE WORK OF OTHER STUDENTS HAS BEEN MARKED AND RETURNED, LATE SUBMISSIONS OF THAT SAME PIECE OF WORK CANNOT BE ASSESSED.
9) SOURCES
Essential Reading
Richard Barbrook, Media Freedom: the contradictions of communications in the age of modernity, Pluto, London 1995.
Richard Barbrook, Imaginary Futures: from thinking machines to the global village, Pluto, London 2007.
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, Zone, New York 1995.
John Keane, The Media and Democracy, Polity, Cambridge 1991.
Further Reading
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, ‘The Culture Industry: enlightenment as mass deception’ in Dialectic of Enlightenment, Verso, London 1979, pages 120-167.
Eric Barnouw, A Tower in Babel: a history of broadcasting in the United States – volume 1, OUP, New York 1966.
Jean Baudrillard, Simulations, Semiotext(e), New York 1983.
Daniel Bell, The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society: a venture in social forecasting, Basic Books, New York 1973.
Len Bracken, Guy Debord: revolutionary, Feral, Venice CA 1997.
John Downing, Radical Media: the political experience of alternative communication, South End, New York 1984.
V.I. Lenin, What is to be Done?: burning questions of our movement, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing 1975.
Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet methods of mass mobilisation 1917-1929, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1975.
Karl Marx, ‘Debates on the Freedom of the Press’ in Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, Collected Works: Volume 1, Lawrence & Wishart, London 1975, pages 132-181.
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: the extensions of man, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1964.
Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: finding connection in a computerised world, Secker & Warburg, London 1994.
Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom: on free speech in the electronic age, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass 1983.
Frank Webster, Theories of the Information Society, Routledge, London 2002.
On-line References
Richard Barbrook, Digital Citizenship: from liberal privilege to democratic emancipation, http://www.cybersalon.org/digital-citizenship-from-liberal-privilege-to-democratic-emancipation
Richard Barbrook, Media Freedom, http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/11/media-freedom-from-gutenberg-to-cyberspace
As well as this pamphlet, drafts of Imaginary Futures, audiovisual material and other texts can also be downloaded from this website.
Cybersalon: http://www.cybersalon.org>
Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org.uk
Guy Debord: http://www.nothingness.org/SI/debord.html
Marshall McLuhan: http://www.marshallmcluhan.com
Nettime: http://www.nettime.org
Howard Rheingold: http://www.rheingold.com
Multi-Media Tutorials
Apple iMovie
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies
Adobe Premiere
http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-pro-cs5
http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-pro-cs6
Politics & Media Freedom Presentations
The Politics & Media Freedom website contains multi-media presentations from the last eight years of this module:
http://www.politicsandmediafreedom.net
Politics & Media Freedom Tweets
Your tweets discussing the topics of this module should always include both #mediafreedom and the bit.ly address for the relevant page on the Politics & Media Freedom website.
Amy Mollett, Danielle Moran and Patrick Dunleavy, Using Twitter in University Research, Teaching and Impact Activities
This document is available on Blackboard.
10) LECTURE READING LISTS
Week 1: The People’s Charter of Digital Liberties
29th September
Jeremy4Leader, Digital Democracy Manifesto, http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/digital_democracy_manifesto
Richard Barbrook, Digital Citizenship: from liberal privilege to democratic emancipation, http://www.cybersalon.org/digital-citizenship-from-liberal-privilege-to-democratic-emancipation
Tim Berners-Lee, A Magna Carta for the Web, http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_a_magna_carta_for_the_web
Vincent Cerf, The Internet is for Everyone, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3271.txt
1647 Agreement of the People, http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/second-civil-war/agreement-of-the-people
1689 English Bill of Rights, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689
1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen
1791 USA Bill of Rights, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
1936 USSR Fundamental Rights & Duties of Citizens, http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html#chap 10
1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr
1950 European Convention on Human Rights, http://www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html
Mashable, Behold: A Digital Bill of Rights for the Internet, by the Internet, http://mashable.com/2013/08/12/digital-bill-of-rights-crowdsource
Jemina Kiss, An Online Magna Carta: Berners-Lee calls for bill of rights for web, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/online- magna-carta-berners-lee-web
Week 2: The Liberal Model of Media Freedom
6th October
Richard Barbrook, Digital Citizenship: from liberal privilege to democratic emancipation, http://www.cybersalon.org/digital-citizenship-from-liberal-privilege-to-democratic-emancipation
John Milton, Areopagitica
Christopher Hill, The Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution
Tom Paine, The Rights of the Man
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Raymond Williams, The Long Revolution
F.S. Siebert, Freedom of the Press in England 1476-1776
John Keane, Media and Democracy
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Roy Porter, Enlightenment
Karl Marx, ‘Debates on the Freedom of the Press’ in Collected Works, vol.1
Domenico Losurdo, Liberalism: a counter-history
Week 3: The Corporate Model of Media Freedom
13th October
Eric Barnouw, A Tower in Babel
Eric Barnouw, The Golden Web
Philip Rosen, The Modern Stentors
Sydney Head and Christopher Sterling, Broadcasting in America
Lawrence Lichty and Malachi Topping, American Broadcasting
Christopher Sterling and John Kittross, Stay Tuned
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment
Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the UK, vols 1-3
Ronald Coase, British Broadcasting
John Reith, The Reith Diaries
Paddy Scannell and David Cardiff, A Social History of British Broadcasting
John Curran and Jean Seaton, Power without Responsibility
Keith Middlemas, Politics in Industrial Society
Week 4: The Totalitarian Model of Media Freedom
20th October
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
Norman Hampson, The Life and Opinions of Maximilien Robespierre
Albert Soboul, The Sans-Culottes
V.I. Lenin, What is to be Done?
V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution
V.I. Lenin, ‘Party Organisation and Party Literature’ in M. Solomon, Marxism and Art
Peter Kenez, The Birth of the Propaganda State
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Leon Trotsky, Art and Revolution
Susan Buck-Morss, Dreamworld and Catastrophe
Week 5: The Situationist Model of Media Freedom
27th October
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle
Guy Debord, Comments on Society of the Spectacle
Ken Knabb, Situationist Anthology
Jean Barrot, What is Situationism?
Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture
Arthur Hirsh, The French Left
Andrew Hussey, The Game of War
Len Bracken, Guy Debord – Revolutionary
McKenzie Wark, The Beach Beneath the Streets
Week 6: Class Visit
3rd November
Details to be confirmed
Week 7: The McLuhanist Model of Media Freedom
10th November
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message
Richard Barbrook, Imaginary Futures
Tom Wolfe, ‘What If He’s Right?’ in The Pump House Gang
Daniel Bell, The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages – America’s Role in the Technetronic Age
Simon Nora and Alain Minc, The Computerisation of Society
Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave
Boris Frankel, The Post-Industrial Utopians
Frank Webster, Theories of the Information Society
Christopher May, The Information Society
Week 8: The New Left Model of Media Freedom
17th November
Jean Baudrillard, The Mirror of Production
John Downing, Radical Media
Gary Genosko, The Guattari Reader
Nigel Fountain, Underground
David Armstrong, Trumpet to Arms
Peter Lewis and Jerry Booth, The Invisible Medium
George Katsiaficas, The Imagination of the New Left
Week 9: The Neoliberal Model of Media Freedom
24th November
John Tunstall, Communications Deregulation
George Gilder, Life After Television
Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies of Freedom
Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
Stewart Brand, The Media Lab
Alan Peacock, The Peacock Report on Broadcasting
Hugo Young, One of Us
Tom Frank, One Market Under God
John Gray, False Dawn
Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques, New Times
Week 10: The Post-Modernist Model of Media Freedom
1st December
Jean Baudrillard, Simulations
Jean Baudrillard, The Evil Demon of Images
Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communications
Jean Baudrillard, Fatal Strategies
Jean Baudrillard, America
David Kellner, Baudrillard
Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Jean-François Lyotard, The Post-modern Condition
Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture
Alberto Melucci, Nomads of the Present
Gary Genosko, McLuhan and Baudrillard
Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques, New Times
Week 11: The Net Model of Media Freedom
8th December
Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community
Christopher May, The Information Society
Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, The Californian Ideology, http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/the-californian-ideology-2
Richard Barbrook, Cyber-communism, http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/2007/04/17/cyber-communism-how-the-americans-are-superseding-capitalism-in-cyberspace
Richard Barbrook, The Class of the New, http://www.theclassofthenew.net
Pierre Lévy, Collective Intelligence
Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks
Esther Dyson, Release 2.0: a design for living in the digital age
Lance Strate, Ron Jacobson and Stephanie Gibson, Communications and Cyberspace: social interaction in an electronic environment
Pauline Borsook, Cyberselfish
Peter Leyden, Peter Schwartz and Joel Hyatt, The Long Boom
Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy
Tom Frank, One Market Under God
Heather Brookes, The Revolution Will Be Televised
David Leigh and Luke Harding, Wikileaks: inside Julian Assange’s war on secrecy
Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion
Eric Schmidt, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business
Engin Isin and Evelyn Ruppert, Being Digital Citizens
Stephen Coleman, and Peter M. Shane, Connecting Democracy: online consultation and the flow of political communication
Andrew Chadwick, The Hybrid Media System: politics and power
Robert Scheer, They Know Everything About You: how data-collecting corporations and snooping government agencies are destroying democracy
Jeremy4Leader, Digital Democracy Manifesto, http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/digital_democracy_manifesto
Week 12: Media Freedom in 2015, Net Model Presentations and Essay tutorials
15th December
11) LECTURE TIMETABLE
29th September: The People’s Charter of Digital Liberties
6th October: The Liberal Model of Media Freedom
13th October: The Corporate Model of Media Freedom
20th October: The Totalitarian Model of Media Freedom
27th October: The Situationist Model of Media Freedom
3rd November: Class Visit
10th November: The McLuhanist Model of Media Freedom
17th November: The New Left Model of Media Freedom
24th November: The Neoliberal Model of Media Freedom
1st December: The Post-Modernist Model of Media Freedom
8th December: The Net Model of Media Freedom
15th December: Media Freedom in 2016, Net Model Presentations and Essay tutorials
9th January: Essay & Multi-Media Presentation Final Submission Date
30th January: Essay & Multi-Media Presentation Feedback and Marks.
12) ESSAY QUESTIONS AND PRESENTATION TOPICS
1: The Liberal Model of Media Freedom
Why was the liberal model of media freedom celebrated as the “free trade in ideas” in the 18th and 19th centuries?
2: The Corporate Model of Media Freedom
Why did both the Left and the Right in the 1920s and 1930s believe that the corporate model of media freedom was the best method of organising radio broadcasting?
3: The Totalitarian Model of Media Freedom
Why did the Bolsheviks believe that the totalitarian model of media freedom would liberate the minds of the masses from ignorance and superstition?
4: The Situationist Model of Media Freedom
How was the Situationist model of media freedom going to overthrow the society of the spectacle in the 1960s?
5: The McLuhanist Model of Media Freedom
Why did the 1960s and 1970s gurus of the McLuhanist model of media freedom claim that the Net was already remaking society in its own image when only a small group of computer scientists had access to this technology in these decades?
6: The New Left Model of Media Freedom
Why were the 1960s and 1970s revolutionaries convinced that the New Left model of media freedom was prefiguring the emerging post-capitalist society?
7: The Neoliberal Model of Media Freedom
Why did the 1980s and 1990s proponents of the Neoliberal model of media freedom believe that new information technologies would enable everyone to become a media entrepreneur?
8: The Post-Modernist Model of Media Freedom
Why did Baudrillard argue that the Post-Modernist model of media freedom required people to free themselves from hyper-reality by switching off their televisions, radios, record players and computers?
9: The Net Model of Media Freedom
Can big business and big government prevent the Net model of media freedom from creating free speech for everyone?
13) ESSAY GRADING SCHEME
Essay assessment is a complex process that cannot be reduced to a simple formula. However, it is possible to articulate some of the features that your lecturers will expect to find in each of the marking categories.
First class essays (70-100%) will: address the question or title; follow a structured and signposted sequence; demonstrate familiarity with the relevant literature; present an analysis and evaluation of the ideas and theories discussed; reveal internal integration and coherence; use references and examples to support the claims and arguments made; provide detailed references and sources in the bibliography or reference section; be written in good and grammatically correct English. Differences within the range are usually attributable to differences in the quality of analysis and evaluation and internal integration and coherence.
Upper second class essays (60-69%) will: address the title; follow a structured sequence; demonstrate familiarity with relevant literature; use references and examples. The difference between essays in this class and a first class pieced of work is often the quality of the analysis and evaluation presented and the degree to which it is integrated around its central theme.
Lower second class work (50-59%) may show weaknesses with regard to a number of the features mentioned above. Generally, the analysis and evaluation may be poor, so that the work fails to convey an unified consideration of the topic under discussion. Often, for example, ideas and theories will be presented but not related to each other, so that the reader is left to draw his / her own conclusions. This may also mean that the material presented is not used to address the question but is simply included as vaguely relevant. Finally the sequential structure of essays in this category could usually be improved.
Third class essays (40-49%) tend to have weaknesses with regard to most of the features mentioned above. They tend not to address the question in a precise way, to be poorly structured and show little by way of analysis or evaluation of the ideas presented. This, of course, means that they are not well integrated. Finally, the grasp of the literature demonstrated in such an essay may not be good, though it will be adequate in the sense that there are no major misconceptions or obvious omissions.
Failed essays (30-39%) are, at best, manifestly failing with regard to a number of the features mentioned above. In particular, their demonstration of familiarity with the literature is usually poor and their structure difficult to discern.
Essays which are of extremely poor quality will receive marks that are under 30%. We use the full spectrum of marks.
14) PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC HONESTY
If carried out knowingly, cheating and plagiarism have the objectives of deceiving examiners and gaining an unfair advantage over other students. This is unethical. It also threatens the integrity of the assessment procedures and the value of the University’s academic awards.
While you are studying here your academic performance will be assessed on the basis of your own work. Anyone caught cheating in exams/in-class tests or through coursework assignments will be subject to formal investigation in accordance with Section 10 of the University Academic Regulations.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you are not vulnerable to any allegation that you have breached the assessment regulations. Serious penalties are imposed on those who cheat. These may include failure in a module or an element of a module, suspension or exclusion from your course and withdrawal of academic credits awarded previously for modules which have been passed.
Plagiarism
When you submit work for individual assessment, the work must be your own. If you have included sections of text from other sources without referencing them correctly, then you may be accused of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is defined as submission for assessment of material (written, visual or oral) originally produced by another person or persons, without acknowledgement, in such a way that the work could be assumed to be the student’s own.
Plagiarism may involve the unattributed use of another person’s work, including: ideas, opinions, theory, facts, statistics, graphs, models, paintings, performance, computer code, drawings, quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words, or paraphrases of another person’s spoken or written words.
Plagiarism covers both direct copying and copying or paraphrasing with only minor adjustments. You must keep a careful record of all the sources you use, including all internet material. It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand correct referencing practices.
If you use text or data or drawings or designs or artefacts without properly acknowledging who produced the material, then you are likely to be accused of plagiarism.
Here are some simple dos and don’ts, to help you avoid plagiarism:
Do
Include references to all sources at the point where they appear in your text, either via a direct reference or foot note
Always use quotation marks to indicate someone else’s ideas
Reference diagrams, tables and other forms of data
Ensure the work you submit for the module has not been previously submitted for other modules or assessments on your course.
Include full website references which make clear exactly which page you referenced and the date you accessed the website.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/18/university-life-academic-cheating Date accessed: 23/12/13
Do not!
Rely on citing sources in your bibliography without making clear where they appear in your text
Take parts of other people’s sentences and incorporate them into your own writing without making clear that they are not your own words
Assume that plagiarism only refers to written words in prose narrative
Recycle assessments or text from previous assessments. This will also count as plagiarism and may result in you being referred for an academic offence.
Simply cite the top-level page and expect your tutors to search for your source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Students are also not permitted to re-present any assessment already submitted for one module as if for the first time assessment in another module. Double counting of assessed work is not normally allowed. If submitting work previously included in another assessment the student should attribute the section of text from the earlier work. This may be taken into account by the markers.
Always check with your Module Leader or Course Leader if you are unsure about subject-specific conventions concerning referencing and attribution (eg in design-based and creative subjects where there may be particular expectations about referencing and/or copyright).
You can access a helpful tutorial about plagiarism in Blackboard. After signing in the tutorial can be accessed from any page in Blackboard by clicking on the ‘Skills Resources’ tab.
Please consult the relevant Module Leader or your Course Leader if you need any further advice.
For information about Academic Conduct, Plagiarism and Referencing; Late Coursework; and Mitigating Circumstances: see the DPIR BA Course Handbook (pp. 51—52)
For information about Academic Progression; Condoned Credits; and Referral Opportunities: see the Handbook of Academic Regulations (section 17).