YOUTH, CULTURE AND MEDIA - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module focuses upon the development, characteristics and contemporary significance of a range of different aspects of youth culture in the context of mediated societies. Topics covered include the construction and development of understandings of adolescence as a distinct life course period, the relationship between youth and both traditional and digital forms of media, questions of class, ethnicity and gender, the significance of on and offline spaces, and debates relating to youth communities and subcultures.

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

HODKINSON Paul (Sociology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The construction and development of ‘youth’ and ‘youth culture’


•  Media stigmatisation of youth and youth culture


• Social media use, particularly in relation to issues of identity and wellbeing


•  Youth, space and identity


• Understandings of distinct youth communities and subcultures


• The significance of class, gender and ethnicity in relation to youth culture


• Notions of individualisation and the apparent expansion/blurring of youth culture

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply core subject knowledge in contrasting ways and different styles of written communication.

 

Assessment one (article review blog) is designed to encourage critical engagement with reading from an early point in the module and assesses students’ ability to outline and critically reflect on articles or chapters that connect to topics covered in the first section of the module. It particularly pertains to l.o.5 and 7 but also incorporate the first four learning outcomes. The assignment particular encourages students to convey complex ideas in an accessible public-oriented style and format.

Assessment two (essay) focuses particularly on the final two learning outcomes but also assesses key knowledge and cognitive skills relating to l.o. 1-4 in inviting students to collect together, synthesis and evaluated a range of relevant literature, research and theory as part of development of more formal, academic piece of writing.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:
 

Article review blog (1500 words) (40%), requiring students to outline and critically reflect, in an engaging, accessible style, and with blog features, on readings related to the first part of the module.

 


Essay (2000 words) (60%) requiring students to select a question from a list related to the various topics covered on the module and to research, prepare and develop a written answer that displays subject knowledge, cognitive and critical skills and the development of a clear, academic style of written communication.

 

 

Formative assessment and Feedback

 

Students gain formative feedback throughout the semester via the interaction of their ideas with peers and the lecturer. All students are encouraged to ask questions and test ideas in relation to the assignments during the weeks preceding their submission. Assignment preparation will explicitly be included as part of certain classes at appropriate points in the module.

Students will be offered the opportunity to discuss their plans for both assignments with the module leader.

Module aims

• To provide an overview of the developing characteristics of youth culture in contemporary mediated societies
  
• To offer students a grounding in core debates and theories relating to the analysis of youth
  
• To identify and relate to one another a range of theoretical and empirical studies relating to particular topics in the study of youth culture
  

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

  The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:


Workshops integrate elements of lecture-style teaching with seminar and workshop exercises. Lectures components provide a core background, enthusing students about the significance and importance of the topics and arguments, and enabling the understanding of core concepts and examples. Seminar discussions enable students to develop greater depth of understanding through practical exercises and discussions centred on reading and connecting to key concepts from the lecture. In most sessions, an integrated approach is taken, with workshop/seminar exercises interspersed between sections of lecture so that particular themes, areas or arguments can be elaborated through interactive work, as they come up.

Weekly essential readings form a further key component of the approach to learning and teaching, with students invited to complete such reading, along with preliminary exercises, as preparation for class and then to discuss or complete reading-based exercises in relation to the broader topics raised as part of the class.

Classes also include guidance and discussion on assessment preparation at particular points in the module. Students are offered further support outside of class.
 

 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOC3080

Other information

The Department of Sociology is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in four of these areas. A summary of how this is achieved for each of these four key pillars is provided below:

Employability – The module encourages students to develop of different forms and formats of written communication (through formal essay writing and more informal, accessible blog-style for the article review assignment) as well as oral communication/presentation skills through ongoing class discussions, and critical and evaluation skills through ongoing assessment of theories, concepts, research and evidence on different facets of youth, culture and media throughout the module. Specific examination of youth and youth cultures, in relation to their interactions with media, is of value to those interested in careers that connect to PR and marketing related to young people, and those relating to public and charity-sector education and support for young people. 

Digital Capabilities – The significance of digital technologies and media for young people’s lives and identities forms a key thread across the module, with students developing a detailed appreciation of debates relating to challenges and opportunities digital technologies entail, and the ways in which policy makers and others can support young people in their navigation of digital and platform environments.

Global and Cultural Capabilities – Global dimensions to youth and youth culture form part of the focus for the module, as does a core strand relating to the significance of ethnicity as part of the development of youth cultures, and public/media reaction to them.

Resourcefulness and Resilience – The two assignments for the module invite students to carry out in-depth research and different forms/styles of writing relating to particular topics, demanding extensive commitment – and resilience – as part of a process that is supported by the opportunity to seek feedback on plans for both assignments along the way.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.