MODULE OUTLINE
2013/2014
THE LAW AND THE MEDIA: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AS IT
JN TO
510
The
Reporter in Fiction 1900 –
RELATES
THE
MEDIA
present day
Module code: JN510
Number of Credits:
15
Length of Module: 12 weeks (Autumn Term). This includes two reading weeks
Weekly Contact Hours:
2 hours per week – combined lectures and seminars
Expected number of Student Study Hours: Students will spend at least 100
hours in private study. They will spend a further 54 hours in revision for
examinations.
Convenor:
Sarah Lonsdale
Email : S.J.Lonsdale@kent.ac.uk
Telephone: 01634 888871
This module outline tells you about:
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Module contacts and email addresses etc.
Content of the module
Aims and objectives
Teaching and learning methods
Assessment
Examinations
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
A. Contents Outline
This module is an academic elective module. It employs the study of literary texts,
films and TV to identify the image of the journalist as portrayed by influential opinion
formers. The module covers a more than 100-year time scale and students will be able
to identify fluctuations in the way writers and directors portray the profession of the
journalist over the period. Meshing the study of literature, history and culture, the
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module enables students to gain insights into how other actors in society present the
image of the reporter, from swashbuckling Edwardian heroes, burnt-out and alienated
post-WW2 hacks and two-dimensional tabloid stereotypes of the modern age.
As well as using recommended texts, students will also be provided with hand-outs
which they should keep safe in a dedicated folder.
B. Synopsis
A more comprehensive timetable will be available on the module notes section of the
centre’s website.
Summary Timetable:
Week 1: The Edwardian Period
Week 2: Kipling’s ‘The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat’
Week 3: World War One
Week 4: Interwar years and press barons
Week 5: Reading/Writing week (Essay 1 due 9.00 am 4/11/13)
Week 6: Women Journalists
Week 7: Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop
Week 8: Reading/Writing week (Essay 2 due 9.00 am 25/11/13)
Week 9: American Portrayals
Week 10: 1945 - 1990
Week 11: Newspaper portrayals after the last chance saloon
Week 12: Film and TV portrayals
During the term students will produce two coursework essays (see timetable for
deadlines); there is also a 10 per cent mark for in-class contributions to
discussions. There is a two-hour exam in the summer.
Aims and Objectives of the Module
a. Aims
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
To provide a sound grounding in the social, political, economic and
cultural forces that shaped the development of journalism through the
Twentieth and into the Twenty-first century.
To introduce students to largely forgotten literary texts which provide a
rich source of fictional depictions of journalists over a lengthy time
period; to introduce students to a wide range of British and US films
concerning journalists.
To introduce students to literary concepts such as ‘realism’, ‘modernism’
and ‘middlebrow’ and relate to cultural groups and movements with
specifically stated attitudes to journalism and the press.
To compare the depiction of journalists by British and American writers
and directors and to understand the reasons for the discrepancies.
To engage in a critical discussion of the perceived role of the journalist in
society. To account for periods when depictions of journalists were either
overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative.
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vi.
To encourage students to participate in lively debates based on reading
and interpreting a range of literary, historical and academic texts.
b. Objectives (Intended Learning Outcomes)
On successful completion of this module students will:
i.
Develop a systematic understanding of how historical literary texts
contribute to contemporary social and political debates about the role of
the journalist in society.
ii.
Critically evaluate the debate surrounding tensions that arise between the
opposing spheres of cultural production of literature and journalism.
iii.
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of how and when journalists
were perceived to have ‘failed’ in the idealised role ascribed to them over
a 100-year period.
iv.
Develop a critical awareness of how social actors such as writers, critics,
commentators, within a specific time period, viewed the role of the
journalist in society.
v.
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of how journalism developed
over a more than century.
vi.
Show a systematic understanding of the social, cultural and economic
forces that shape the development of journalism over the ages and use
original application of knowledge to interpret them.
Teaching and Learning methods
These will consist of a combination of lecture and seminar plus private study.
There will 2 teaching sessions per week throughout the module excluding Reading
and Writing weeks.
Students are expected to read widely in their own time, not just the core literary
texts but a range of literary and critical publications.
LECTURES are not recorded but lecture notes will be provided for each topic as a
guide. Students will be encouraged to contribute to class discussions and will need to
prepare for lectures beforehand.
The function of the lectures is to:
a) Provide an expository framework of the core texts and key historical
events covered by this module. Lectures are a foundation upon which
students build more detailed knowledge, particularly of other literary
texts and critical commentary, through private study.
b) Provide a fuller discussion of more difficult concepts.
c) Introduce students to a range of comments and critiques surrounding
the subject area.
The Function of the seminars is:
a) For students to learn through engaging in discussion based on their prior
reading/in-class reading.
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b) To provide an opportunity for students to raise points or clarify issues arising
from lectures or reading.
c) To develop a deeper critical and evaluative understanding of the subject
through engaging in discussion.
d) To identify learning difficulties in relation to particular topics so
that appropriate remedial steps may be taken.
ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS
Please read this carefully
Coursework essays (2): 45 per cent (22.5 per cent each)
In-class contribution: 10 per cent
Exam: 45 per cent
Notes on Assessments
1. Submission deadlines will be strictly adhered to. Work
submitted later than the due date will not count towards a
student’s assessment unless an extension has been granted
by the convenor prior to the hand-in date.
2. Assessments must be submitted electronically via the
Moodle page.
A note on plagiarism – Please read the appropriate section in the student handbook. If
you have any queries at all about referencing your written work please come to talk to
me.
EXAMINATION
The Examination counts for 45% of the overall final mark. It will take the form of a 2
hour unseen paper and will contain a range of questions across the syllabus. There
will be 6 essay questions on the paper and students will be expected to answer 2
questions.
Reading List
I will be discussing books in the first week of term so you may wish to delay any
purchase until then. We have a reasonable stock in the library but please do not rely
on the set texts always being available at the precise time you need them.
A Note on Books and Reading
a. Copies of the main texts and others are available in the Drill Hall Library
Medway so you do not necessarily have to buy everything.
b. We expect students to undertake the required reading each week. Try to read
some of the extra recommended works as well if you can. For the purposes
of assessment students are expected and encouraged to read widely and to go
beyond minimum requirements in undertaking their own research. Better
marks will be awarded to students whose essays demonstrate a wide range of
secondary, as well as primary source texts.
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c. Try to read a variety of texts and commentaries as this will help you to
absorb information and ideas more readily and will aid your understanding
of the concepts and the different arguments surrounding a topic.
IT
a. Email – All students registered for the module will be contacted via email
through the listings on the student data system. Students are encouraged to keep
up to date with their emails.
b. You will find this outline and lecture/seminar notes on the
Centre’s module notes page.
THE MODULE AND ITS PROGRAMME
This is an elective, academic module. The module contributes to the BA programme
as a whole by encouraging students to reflect critically on the role of the journalist in
society and to broaden their social, cultural and historical knowledge of the
development of their profession.
Other related texts – The books listed here cover a wide area and provide interesting
background/ more detail on specific topics. Many are in the library.
Primary fiction, poetry and drama:
Ambler, Eric, The Dark Frontier 1936 (London: Fontana, 1984)
Ambler, Eric, Uncommon Danger, 1937 (London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2009)
Auden, W H and Isherwood, Christopher, The Dog Beneath the Skin, London: Faber
and Faber 1935
Auden, W H and Isherwood, Christopher, The Ascent of F6, 1937 (London: Faber and
Faber 1958)
Auden, W H and Isherwood, Christopher, On the Frontier, 1938 (London: Faber and
Faber 1958)
Auden, WH, The English Auden London: Faber and Faber 1977
Banks, Iain, Complicity, 1993 (London: Abacus 1995)
Bennett, Arnold What the Public Wants, 1909 (Port Chester: Elibron Classics 2006)
Bennett, Arnold, Hilda Lessways, 1911 (Kelly Bray, Cornwall: House of Stratus
2003)
Bowen, Elizabeth, ‘Recent Photograph’ short story, 1926 (The Collected Stories of
Elizabeth Bowen, London: Penguin, 1980)
Courlander, Alphonse, Mightier than the Sword, London: T Fisher Unwin, 1912
Davidson, John, ‘Fleet Street’ and ‘Fleet Street: Song’, two poems from Fleet Street
and Other Poems, 1909; (Sloan (ed) Selected Poems and Prose of John Davidson,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)
Day Lewis, Cecil, The Magnetic Mountain, London: Hogarth, 1933
Dickens, Monica, My Turn to Make the Tea, 1951 (London: Penguin 1962)
Dixon, Ella Hepworth The Story of a Modern Woman, 1894 (Memphis: General
Books 2011)
Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Lost World, 1912 (London: Puffin Books 1981)
Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Poison Belt, 1913 (Ware: Wordsworth Classics 1995)
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Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Land of Mist, 1926 (Ware: Wordsworth Classics 1995)
Fagan, James Bernard, The Earth (play) London: T Fisher Unwin, 1913
Ferber, Edna Dawn O’Hara New York: Grosset and Dunlap 1911
Ferguson, Rachel, The Brontes went to Woolworths, 1931 (London: Bloomsbury
2009)
Frankau, Gilbert Life – And Erica, 1925 (London: Macdonald and Co 1947)
Gerhardie, William, Doom, first published as Jazz and Jasper 1928 (London:
Macdonald and Co 1974)
Gibbs, Philip, The Street of Adventure, 1909 (London: Heinemann, 1923(i))
Gissing, George, New Grub Street 1891(Oxford: Oxford World Classics 1998)
Graves, Robert, ‘A dead Boche’ 1916 (Graves, Beryl and Ward, Dunstan (eds) Robert
Graves: The Complete Poems, Manchester, Carcanet, 1995)
Greene, Graham, Stamboul Train, 1932 (London: Vintage, 2001)
Greene, Graham, England Made Me, 1935 (London: Penguin 1976)
Greene, Graham, Brighton Rock, 1938 (London: Vintage, 2004)
Greene, Graham, The Quiet American, 1955 (London: Vintage, 2004)
Holtby, Winifred, South Riding, Collins, 1936 (London: Virago Modern Classics
1996)
Howard, Keble, Lord London, 1913 (New York: McBride Nast and Co 1914)
Isherwood, Christopher Mr Norris Changes Trains, 1935 (London: Triad Panther
1984)
Jameson, Storm, Company Parade, 1934 (London: Virago Modern Classics 1982)
Jameson, Storm, Love in Winter, 1935 (London: Capuchin Classics 2010)
Jameson, Storm, None Turn Back, 1936 (London: Virago Modern Classics 1984)
Jameson, Storm In the Second Year, 1936 (Nottingham: Trent Editions 2004)
Jerome, Jerome K Tommy and Co, 1904 (Rockville, Maryland: Serenity Publishers
2011)
Joyce, James, Ulysses, 1922 (Oxford: Oxford World Classics 2008)
Kipling, Rudyard, The Man who Would be King, 1888 (Oxford: Oxford University
Press 2008)
Kipling, Rudyard, ‘The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat’ and ‘The Press’ 1913,
in A Diversity of Creatures London: Macmillan and Co, 1917
Macaulay, Rose, Non-Combatants and Others, 1916 (London: Capuchin Classics
2010)
Macaulay, Rose, What Not, 1918 (John Long Ltd, 1924)
Macaulay, Rose, Potterism, 1920 (Milton Keynes: Tutis Digital Publishing 2008)
Macaulay, Rose, Mystery at Geneva, London: Collins 1922
Macaulay, Rose, Crewe Train, 1926 (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1986)
Macaulay, Rose, Keeping Up Appearances, 1928 (London: Methuen 1986)
Macaulay, Rose, Going Abroad London: Collins 1934
MacGill, Patrick, Children of the Dead End, 1914 (Dingle: Brandon Book Publishers
1982)
MacNeice, Louis, Autumn Journal, London: Faber, 1939
Meek, James, We Are Now Beginning Our Descent, Cannongate, 2008
‘M Z 4796’ ‘The Pressgoat’ in Adelphi 1/2 July 1923 pp 115 – 122
Owen, Wilfred, ‘Smile, Smile, Smile’, 1918 in The Poems of Wilfred Owen, London:
Chatto and Windus, 2006
Orwell, George, Coming up For Air, 1939 (London: Penguin 1979)
Pound, Ezra A Draft of XVI Cantos, 1924 (London: Faber 1998)
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Priestley, J B Wonder Hero, London: William Heinemann 1933
Rowling, JK, Books 3 – 7 of the Harry Potter series, London: Bloomsbury, 2003 –
2007
Sassoon, Siegfried, The Old Huntsman, London: Heinemann, 1917
Sassoon, Siegfried, The War Poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, London: Faber and Faber,
1983
Sayers, Dorothy L Murder Must Advertise1933 (London: Hodder and Stoughton
2003)
Sergeant, Adeline, The Work of Oliver Byrd, London: James Nisbet and Co 1902
Thomas, Edward, ‘This is no Petty Case of Right or Wrong’1916 (Thomas, R S (ed)
Selected Poems of Edward Thomas, London: Faber and Faber, 1964)
Thorne, Guy, When it Was Dark, 1903 (La Vergne: Kessinger Publishing 2009)
Wallace, Edgar, The Four Just Men, 1905 (Oxford: Oxford Popular Classics, 1995)
Wallace, Edgar, The Council of Justice, 1908 (Oxford: Oxford Popular Classics,
1995)
Waugh, Evelyn, Vile Bodies 1930 (London: Penguin 1981)
Waugh, Evelyn, Scoop, 1938 (London: Penguin 2000)
Wells, H G Mr Britling Sees it Through, London: Macmillan, 1916
West, Rebecca, Sunflower, written 1925-28 (London: Virago 1990)
Wilkinson, Ellen The Division Bell Mystery, London: Harrap and Co 1932
Wilson, A N, My Name is Legion, London: Arrow Books, 2004
Wodehouse, P G, Psmith Journalist, originally serialised in The Captain Magazine,
1909/1910 (London: Penguin 1983)
Wyllarde, Dolf, The Pathway of the Pioneer, 1906 (London: Methuen and Co 1914)
Memoirs, diaries, letters, contemporary commentaries etc
Bennett, Arnold Journalism for Women: A Practical Guide, 1897 (Quedgeley: Dodo
Press 2011)
Brittain, Vera, Testament of Youth, 1933 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2009)
Falk, Bernard, He Laughed in Fleet Street, London: Hutchinson and Co 1931
Ford, Ford Madox Return to Yesterday 1931 (Manchester: Carcanet 1999)
Fyfe, Hamilton, Press Parade, London: C A Watts, 1936
Fyfe, Hamilton, Northcliffe: An Intimate Biography, London: Macmillan and Co 1930
Gibbs, Philip, Adventures in Journalism, 1923 (New York: Harper and Brothers 1923
(ii))
Graves, Robert, Goodbye to All That, 1929 (London: Penguin Modern Classics 1969)
Herd, Harold, The Making of Modern Journalism, London: George Allen and Unwin,
1927
Grant Duff, Shiela, The Parting of Ways, London: Peter Owen, 1982
Greene, Graham, A Sort of Life, London: Penguin, 1972
James, Colonel Lionel High Pressure: being some record of activities in the service of
the Times newspaper 1929 (London: John Murray 1932)
Kipling, Rudyard, Something of Myself, London: Macmillan and Co, 1937
Leavis, QD Fiction and the Reading Public, 1932 (London: Pimlico 2000)
Lippmann, Walter Public Opinion, 1922 (New York: Free Press, 1997)Macaulay,
Rose (ed Smith) Dearest Jean: Rose Macaulay’s letters to a cousin Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2011
Macdonagh, M, The Reporter’s Gallery, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1913
Muggeridge, Malcolm, Chronicles of Wasted Time, Volume One, London: Collins
1972
Nicolson, Harold, Diaries 1930 – 1939 London: Collins, 1967
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Peacocke, E Writing for Women, London: A and C Black 1936
Peel, Mrs Charles Life’s Enchanted Cup, John Lane the Bodley Head 1933
Political and Economic Planning (PEP), Report on the British Press, London:
PEP1938
Ponsonby, Arthur, Falsehood in Wartime, 1928 (Institute for Historical Review,
California 1991)
Sassoon, Siegfried, Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man, 1928 and Memoirs of an Infantry
Officer, 1930 (London: Faber and Faber 1999 and 1989)
Stannard, Russell, With the Dictators of Fleet Street, the Autobiography of an
Ignorant Journalist, London: Hutchinson and Co, 1934
Steed, Henry Wickham The Press, London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1938
Steevens, G W From Capetown to Ladysmith, Edinburgh: Blackwood’s, 1900
Stott, Mary Before I go, London: Virago, 1985
Waugh, Evelyn, Waugh in Abyssina, 1936 (London: Methuen, 1984)
Waugh, Evelyn, Robbery Under Law London: Chapman and Hall, 1939
Waugh, Evelyn (ed) Davie, Michael The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh London: Penguin
1979
Waugh, Evelyn (ed) Amory, Mark The Letters of Evelyn Waugh London: Weidenfeld
and Nicholson, 1980
Waugh, Evelyn (ed) Gallagher, D The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh,
London: Methuen, 1983
Select Criticism
Books
Beckett, Charlie, Supermedia: Saving Journalism so it can Save the World, Oxford:
Blackwell 2008
Beddoe, Deirdre Back to Home and Duty: Women Between the Wars 1918-1939
Pandora, 1989
Bernstein, George L, Liberalism and Liberal Politics in Edwardian England, Boston
Allen and Unwin 1986
Bingham, Adrian Gender, Modernity and the Popular Press in Inter-War Britain
Oxford: Clarendon, 2004
Bingham, Adrian, Family Newspapers? Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007
Birkett, Jennifer, Storm Jameson, a Life Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009
Bourdieu, Pierre, On Television and Journalism, London: Pluto Press, 1998
Boyce, George, Curran, James, Wingate, Pauline (eds) Newspaper History: from the
17th Century to the Present Day, London: Constable, 1978
Brendon, Piers The Life and Death of the Press Barons, London: Secker and
Warburg, 1982
Buitenhuis, Peter The Great War of Words: Literature as Propaganda 1914-18 and
after, London: B T Batsford, 1989
Carter, Cynthia, Branston, Gill and Allan, Stuart, (eds) News, Gender and Power,
London: Routledge, 1998
Catterall, Peter, Seymour-Ure, Colin, Smith, Adrian, Northcliffe’s Legacy: Aspects of
the British Popular Press 1896 – 1996, Macmillan, 2000
Cockett, Richard Twilight of Truth: Chamberlain, Appeasement and the manipulation
of
the Press Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1989
Collier, Patrick, Modernism on Fleet Street, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006
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Connelly, Mark and Welch, David (eds) War and the Media: Reportage and
Propaganda 1900 – 2003, London: I B Tauris, 2005
Curran, James and Seaton, Jean, Power Without Responsibility, London: Methuen
1985
Gannon, Franklin Reid The British Press and Germany 1936 – 1939, Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1971
Griffiths, Dennis: Fleet Street: Five Hundred Years of the Press, London: British
Library Publications, 2006
Hampton, Mark, Visions of the Press in Britain 1850 - 1950, Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 2004
Knightley, Phillip, The First Casualty, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004
Koss, Stephen, Fleet Street Radical, London: Allen Lane, 1973
Lee, Alan The Origins of the Popular Press in England, 1855-1914 London: Croom
Helm, 1976
LeMahieu, D L A Culture for Democracy: Mass Communication and the Cultivated
Mind in Britain Between the Wars Oxford: Clarendon, 1988
Liddle, Dallas The Dynamics of Genre: Journalism and the practice of Literature in
Mid-Victorian Britain, University of Virginia Press, 2009
Lutes, Jean Marie, Front Page Girls, women journalists in American Culture and
Fiction, 1880 – 1930 Cornell University Press, 2006
Onslow, Barbara, Women of the Press in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Basingstoke:
Macmillan, 2000
Rubery, Matthew The Novelty of Newspapers: Victorian Fiction after the invention of
News, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009
Seymour-Ure, Colin Prime Ministers and the Media, Blackwell Publishing, 2003
Shannon, Richard, A Press Free and Responsible, John Murray, 2001
Journal articles, essays, book chapters etc
Adamthwaite, Anthony ‘The British Government and the Media 1937-1938 in
Journal of Contemporary History, 18/2 (April 1983) pp 281 - 297
Badsey, Stephen, ‘The Missing Western Front’ in Connelly, Mark and Welch, David
(eds) War and the Media: Reportage and Propaganda, 1900-2003, I B Tauris, 2005
Beaumont, Jacqueline ‘The British Press during the South African War in Connelly,
Mark and Welch, David (eds) War and the Media: Reportage and Propaganda, 19002003, I B Tauris, 2005
Boyce, George ‘The Fourth Estate; The Reappraisal of a Concept’ in Boyce, George,
Curran, James, Wingate, Pauline (eds) Newspaper History: from the 17th Century to
the Present Day, London: Constable, 1978; pp 19 - 40
Chalaby, Jean, ‘Northcliffe as Proprietor and Journalist’ in Catterall, Seymour-Ure
and Smith (eds) Northcliffe’s Legacy: Aspects of the British Popular Press 18961996, Macmillan, 2000Hiley ‘Lord Kitchener Resigns: The suppression of The Globe
in 1915’ in Journal of Newspaper and Periodical History, 1992 pp 28 – 41
Lonsdale, Sarah ‘A Golden Interlude’ Parliamentary Affairs April 2011
Lonsdale, Sarah ‘We Agreed that Women Were a Nuisance In the Office Anyway’
Journalism Studies August 2013
Lonsdale, Sarah ‘The Emergence of the Press Baron as ‘literary villain’ in English
Letters 1909-1939’ Literature and History 22/2 Autumn 2013
Uglow, Jenny ‘Fielding, Grub Street and Canary Wharf’ in Treglown and Bennett
(eds) Grub Street and the Ivory Tower: Literary journalism and literary scholarship
from Fielding to the Internet, Oxford University Press 1998; pp 1 - 21
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Wichert, Sabine ‘The British Left and Appeasement: Political Tactics or Alternative
Policies?’ in Mommsen and Kettenacker (eds) The Fascist Challenge and the Policy
of Appeasement, George Allen and Unwin, 1983
Williams, R ‘The Press and Popular Culture’ in Boyce, George, Curran, James,
Wingate, Pauline (eds) Newspaper History: from the 17th Century to the Present Day,
London, Constable, 1978; pp 41 - 50
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