A Media Studies Essay in 5 Steps
Thursday, November 11th, 2010Keys for successful media studies essay
A media studies essay shouldn’t be so difficult. In fact, it can be fun to prepare! Because the mass media are all around us, this is a quite common essay topic today. If you think for a second about how much we depend on telephones, mobile phones, the press (newspapers and magazines), the Internet, the radio, the television, the cinema…. it’s no big news that our teacher asks us to hand in not one, but several media studies essays!
An advantage of an essay on media is that each student has at least some experience on the field. So don’t freak out, because you already know a lot! Anyway, here we will provide you some instructions on how to write a great media essay. You can achieve it if you follow five simple steps.
Step #1: Choose the topic
You can discuss one specific media and its evolution in time, the role of mass media in a certain situation, the influence of media in some social group (such as children)… there are many interesting topics you can pick. The influence of media in our society makes them irreplaceable… as well as criticized because the influence they have on so many people around the world. Make sure you choose a topic you enjoy writing about.
Step #2: Research
Don’t think that you are an expert on press just because you spend every morning doing the crossword puzzle in your local newspaper. Doing some research is a basic step of writing your media studies essay. There is plenty of bibliography on media, and you should visit your library and read what others have written before you, in order to give your opinions by basing your arguments in authorities. The good news is that watching TV or surfing the Web when you are writing a media studies essay is the fun part of it.
Step #3: Organize your work
An essay on media, as any other essay, should be properly organized. Do some previous sketch, an essay plan which will help you meet your deadlines and link your ideas the right way. Start with an essay introduction, then some body paragraphs and finally, a conclusion of your work.
Step #4: Mention other media
A good idea is to add to your analysis some paragraphs for comparing certain media with another. For example, if you are writing the essay on TV, compare it to the radio: have they git the same amount of audience? How much stronger is the influence of television because of the image? Do they have the same target audience?
Step #5: Add some multimedia
When writing a media studies essay, think about including some extra material besides written pages. For example, you could record a radio show when writing about this media, or you could hand in a DVD with selected film scenes, or a photocopy of articles in magazines. That way, the presentation of the essay will be directly related to its contents.
