The course is structured around readings, short lectures, related in-class activities, discussions, occasional assignments (4) and the screening of film and/or video excerpts.
The following schedule provides a general overview of the topics and themes that we will cover throughout the course. Specific details and additional readings will be revealed/assigned on a weekly basis.
A Moodle Page will be used as support to share updates and news, to collect assignments, to archive readings and other course materials.
Please note that your papers may be submitted to Turnitin (plagiarism detection software).
WEEK 1
- Course introduction: Media, culture and society
Demarcating the field
Approaches to media
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 1
- Media technologies
Models of communication
Technological determinism vs social construction of media
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 2
Reading: Chronology of communications media and the rise of mass media
WEEK 2
- Society and Mass Communication
Mass society
Propaganda and Magic bullet theory
Assignment: Intellectual Autobiography
Screening: 'Why we fight' and 'War of the Worlds'
- Media effects
Limited effect paradigm
Uses and gratifications
Functionalism
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 5
Readings:
Katz Elihu & Lazarsfeld Paul F., (1955). “Between media and mass/the part played by people/the two-step flow of communication”, in Boyd-Barrett, O. & Newbold, C. (eds.) (1995), Approaches to Media: A Reader. New York: St. Martin's Pres, pp. 124-134.
Katz E., Blumler J. G. & Gurevich M., (1974). “Utilization of mass communications by the individuals”, in Boyd-Barrett & O. & Newbold, C. (eds.) (1995), Approaches to Media: A Reader. New York: St. Martin's Pres, pp. 164-173.
WEEK 3
- Media Industry
Media outlets, ownership and regulation
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 3
Reading: Edward Herman, (1995). “Media in U.S. Political Economy”, in J. Downing, A. Mohammadi, & A. Srebemy-Mohammadi (eds.), Questioning the Media, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 77-93.
- Information: Commodity or Public Resource?
Public and Commercial Mass Media Systems
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 8
WEEK 4
- Commercial media systems
Screening: The Prime Minister and the Press (2003)
- Media and the public Sphere
Globalization, Fragmentation, Commercialization
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 9
WEEK 5
- Media and the construction of reality.
- The agenda setting theory.
- Introducing news values
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 7
- The spiral of the silence.
Exercise: news values analysis.
Reading: available on Moodle.
WEEK 6
- Media as Forms of Manipulation?
Frankfurt School/ Critical theory
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 6
- Advertising and Global Economy
Screening: ‘Consuming kids’ (some extracts)
Reading: Arthur Asa Berger (2011) Advertising in the American Culture, Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture, pp.1-10.
WEEK 7
Exercise: Packard Eight Hidden needs model
-Review
- Midterm
-Exploring consumer culture: what is critical consumerism?
WEEK 8
- Introducing cultural studies
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 5
Reading: Hall, Stuart (1974) “The television discourse; encoding and decoding”, in (2002), McQuail's Reader in Mass Communication Theory. London: SAGE, pp. 303-308
-Session in the Library
WEEK 9
- Media in Everyday Life/ Audience research
Exercise: Media diary
- Analyzing media text
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 4
WEEK 10
- Analyzing media text
- Media communities: subcultures and fans
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 12
Readings: Jenkins, H. (2002). “Interactive audiences? The collective intelligence of media fans”.
WEEK 11
- Exploring fandom as a cultural process
- Media, Gender and Sexual Identity
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 11
WEEK 12
- Media, Gender and Sexual Identity/2
Screening: The codes of gender (2009).
- Media and Ethnicity
WEEK 13
- The role of stereotypes
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 10
- Introducing digital media
- The 'spectacularization' of the society
Media, Culture And Society, Chapter 13
WEEK 14
- Review
WEEK 15
Final exam