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What do people think of the Lecturers' industrial action?

Do you think Lecturers industrial action is justified?  

79 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you think Lecturers industrial action is justified?

    • Yes
      39
    • No
      40


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Erm, english degree harder? i think not, I just don't think that the English literature (as taught by schools and up to A level) has any bearing on real life. The texts it chooses are dated and offered nothing I wished to study, not because it was hard but because they haven't kept contemporary.

 

Where is the gonzo journalism on the curriculum? Where are the works of William Gibson which become so much more relevant as time passes. THAT'S why I didn't pick english.

 

A second note is that I wanted something a bit more vocational than pure academia which english doesn't and couldn't offer me.

 

The truth about companies wanting english (because I have asked them) is that they are willing to take on anyone who is good enough, but when it comes to purely academic roles they want someone who has done a purely academic course often because thats what they are employing someone for,not someone who can do all the other stuff.

 

The reasons I picked Film and Media were not because it is seen as 'mickey mouse' or easy. I picked it because it is a field that gives me what I want. More so that any other subject, media studies is wholly relevant to real life, it gives you a set of tools to analyse every advert, every TV show, every film, every book, every internet site, every magazine and beyond. It gives you the ability to analyse newspapers, factual programs and most of all it merges with other subjects like philosophy, sociology and psychology to try and give a greater understanding of how humanity functions at a mass level.

 

As for it being easy. Would you care to explain Althusser's work on ideology, its context in the soviet revelution of the early 20th century and what films can be said to have metaphorical parallels with it?

 

No? Do you want to try Barthes ideas on semiotics and apply them to post modern advertising and see why the idea of signifier/signified breaks down?

 

How about how the Media maintain hegemony and the BBC's relationship with this and Rupert Murdoch, including an analysis of editorial content of the sun over the last twenty years?

 

Still no? Lets take a look at Laura Mulvey and her psycholoanalytical theories of film which derive from Freud's own theories and discuss whether it applies John Ford's westerns more so that say the musicals made at the time in the Hollywood studio System.

 

I can do all those and we've barely scratched the surface of Media. Buzzwords, new terminology, soundbites, disinformation, the global village and the rest of McLuhan (a genius at work) can be trown into the mix. Can I continue onto then adding new media technology into the place of all this? What are the direct implications, what about the long term sociological ones, does it destabilise government by making a true democracy more likely? What about its impact on our children, does growing up with a new technology actually change the way they think?

 

Need I go on? Media is a massive subject with everything being so relevant. Perhaps that is the reason it isn't seen as academic; a word that has connotation is being fusty, old and contained within huge leater bound journals or neat numbers on a page.

 

If academic means having to take a critical eye to something, take it apart to see why it acts the way it does, then putting it back together to see why it makes a gestalt entity, then Media is academic, but it also gives you the necessary tools to be able to construct things yourself with an expert eye, I can write scripts, make films, set up an advertising claim, build a news broadcast or whatever. Proof of this is in the fact I'm head of programming at Student Radio in my Uni.

 

Remember, media is all pervasive. Massspeak is youspeak. Youspeak is allspeak!

 

Wilf, STILL a proud Film and Media with production student!

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These figures don't match those supplied by UCEA- The offer is 12.6% over 3 years- nothing extra (except for lowest paid staff-e.g. cleaners- who are to receive about 15% for the 3 years): http://www.ucea.ac.uk/documents/3_news/figures240506.pdf

 

Just to make clear, the lowest paid staff haven't been offered a different pay deal. They will effectively receive a higher percentage because of the lower amount of tax they will pay on it.

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Oh you've ruined it, now no-one is gonna see my rant about media studies!

 

It was the academic version of breaking the end of the bottle off with the table and shouting 'you want some!'

 

Wilf

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Oh you've ruined it, now no-one is gonna see my rant about media studies!

 

It was the academic version of breaking the end of the bottle off with the table and shouting 'you want some!'

 

Wilf

 

Sorry! It was a very good rant! :D

 

Here you go: Everybody check 3 posts up for BrainThrust's rant on why Media degrees aren't worthless!

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Erm, english degree harder? i think not, I just don't think that the English literature (as taught by schools and up to A level) has any bearing on real life. The texts it chooses are dated and offered nothing I wished to study, not because it was hard but because they haven't kept contemporary.

 

A second note is that I wanted something a bit more vocational than pure academia which english doesn't and couldn't offer me.

 

As for it being easy. Would you care to explain Althusser's work on ideology, its context in the soviet revelution of the early 20th century and what films can be said to have metaphorical parallels with it?

 

No? Do you want to try Barthes ideas on semiotics and apply them to post modern advertising and see why the idea of signifier/signified breaks down?

 

How about how the Media maintain hegemony and the BBC's relationship with this and Rupert Murdoch, including an analysis of editorial content of the sun over the last twenty years?

 

Still no? Lets take a look at Laura Mulvey and her psycholoanalytical theories of film which derive from Freud's own theories and discuss whether it applies John Ford's westerns more so that say the musicals made at the time in the Hollywood studio System.

 

I can do all those and we've barely scratched the surface of Media. Buzzwords, new terminology, soundbites, disinformation, the global village and the rest of McLuhan (a genius at work) can be trown into the mix. Can I continue onto then adding new media technology into the place of all this? What are the direct implications, what about the long term sociological ones, does it destabilise government by making a true democracy more likely? What about its impact on our children, does growing up with a new technology actually change the way they think?

 

 

Remember, media is all pervasive. Massspeak is youspeak. Youspeak is allspeak!

 

Wilf, STILL a proud Film and Media with production student!

 

We can all give out meaningless references from our own fiedl of expertise, that doesn't make it difficult it just means its an area you have learned. Any proffesion has it's own reference material. I'm sure given a push someone at McDonald could come up with some work related phrases you would understand. Big titles and People no ones heard of don't make it central to all out live as you seem to think. Remember before Media Mickeys Degree world class film where being made, World class music was performed and written, World class newspapers where changing the worlds view. So really the only thing left on your list that we need MS degree students for is Advertising. Hmmmm that would be a loss to the world wouldn't it. No adverts that the general publicdon't get but Media people all pat each other on the back for. For someone in touch with the zeitgeist (I used that work because your bound to have studied it :thumbsup: ) You don't seem to have justified the study area and it's lecturers high pay claims very well. And don't seem to be in touch with the general feeling toward the mass rush to study for the sake of putting off the decision of what to do with the rest of there lives.

 

Thats my rant over and it's nearly as good without 3 years studying the effects of the web and web posts on global thinking.

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Perhaps if the lecturers on this thread spent a little less office time posting on SF, I'd be more convinced of their heavy workload and their deserve of said pay rise...

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Perhaps if the lecturers on this thread spent a little less office time posting on SF, I'd be more convinced of their heavy workload and their deserve of said pay rise...

 

Or perhaps it isn't office time and most of us are taking some of our annual leave now the students have gone....

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Degrees' degrees', have any of you tried to obtain the services of a plumber, joiner, electrician or general builder lately? If the job isn't big enough they quote themselves out of it. This is because we don't teach these skills anymore and there is a huge shortage of tradespeople.

 

I notice a snob factor on this Forum when it comes to discussing qualifications, what was wrong with HND's and City & Guilds awards? There will be a degree course in North Sea Underwater Juggling before long.

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Degrees' degrees', have any of you tried to obtain the services of a plumber, joiner, electrician or general builder lately? If the job isn't big enough thet quote themselves out of it. This is because we don't teach these skills anymore and there is a huge shortage of tradespeople.

 

I notice a snob factor on this Forum when it comes to discussing qualifications, what was wrong with HND's and City & Guilds awards? There will be a degree course in North Sea Underwater Juggling before long.

 

Well you could always do circus skills instead:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/880616.stm

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They get fairly well paid for what is essentially part time work (if that). I don't understand what they're moaning about, but that's the teaching profession all over. Months and months of holidays, part time hours, full time pay, and they're still not happy.

 

Are you NUTS! I'll tell you how much part-time lecturers are paid: I'm getting paid £6,000 a year! Yes, per YEAR!!!!! And this with a PhD, several years experience and lots of publications. I have to write articles and books in my own time (unpaid) and fund my own conferences, etc. Do you want lecturers that know their stuff and learn about new developments in their subjects, or do you want morons who will just recycle old material?

 

Also, what most students don't realise is that teaching is only a small fraction of the work of permanent lecturers do. What abour all the administration: someone has to look through admission forms, organise courses, find new books and order them for the library, etc., plus all the "world-class research" that is expected from us. We might be teaching a few hours a week, but preparation time is 3 times as much as contact time, as well.... let alone chasing lazy students up who don't turn up to class, or taking care of the ones who've got into trouble or are having a rotten time for some reason. Actually, I usually do that without extra pay even though it takes more hours than those stipulated in my contract... should I not do it then?

 

Most lecturers are decent people who find themselves in a really hard situation. They do not want to upset students but there's no other way to make universities honour their promises. When someone is on strike, someone has to bear the consequences of it (otherwise striking would not be effective). Sorry that this time it's students' turn, it's been underground users or people who use the postal service in the past. Get real!

 

Honest, perhaps you should look hard at yourselves and the type of hereducation you want. I'm seriously considering giving up and getting a better paid job! How many of you would want to do a lecturer's job? People with around 10 years higher education training (BAs, MAs or MScs, PhD...), experience, etc. are getting the same a trainee lawyer gets in his first year after a meagre 3-4 years. Plus there is a gap of around 2-3 years from completing a PhD to getting a permanent job (that is, three years of **** earning below the poverty line and being exploited).

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It was people having different opinions. Sometimes incorrect and uninformed opinions but opinions nevertheless. I was just disappointed that people throw in the word "ignorant" at the first hurdle in an attempt to belittle other folk rather than trying to educate them.

 

I'm afraid to say, Outraged, that the word IGNORANT means precisely lacking in awareness or knowledge. So an ignorant opinion is the same as an uninformed opinion. Also, one should accept the responsibility to get the facts straight before accusing people of laziness, etc. There is far too much uninformed/ignorant opinion around and not enough effort to understand the whole situation.

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