Issues and Challenges in Contemporary Media

Code

CULT4045

School

Cultural, Media and Visual Studies

Level

4

Credits

20

Semesters

Autumn UK

Summary

The focus of this module is on addressing the theoretical and practical, substantive and methodological challenges created by the fast-changing, multi-polar world of international media communication. It examines key issues and contemporary debates in the study of media, explores the implications of "de-Westernising" understandings of media communication, both in theory and in practice, and problematizes the nation state as the ethical and political horizon of media practices (in relation to regulation and control, information sharing, communication rights). There are four areas of enquiry on the module, each of which tackles a specific issue or challenge in the study of contemporary media communication:
 

• Histories of the Present: Media in an International Context
  
   
• Political-Economic Strategies and Communication Power
  
   
• Emergence of New Actors in Society and Culture
  
   
• Ethics and Politics of Communication in a World without Borders

  
  Whilst the module is inter-disciplinary in nature, the emphasis is placed on understanding international media communication in a socially and culturally contextualised way. Key fields of research addressed are media sociology, cultural studies, and the political economy of media. Students are encouraged to develop an historically situated approach to understanding media and to develop a reflexive consideration of how knowledge of communication practices is generated.

Target Students

Only available to students on MA International Media and Communications Studies

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for
• One 1-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks

The School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies operates an attendance policy. The details of this policy can be found in the student handbook on Workspace and in module handbooks.

Assessment

• 100% Coursework: Coursework - Portfolio of work including written work or equivalent not to exceed 4,000 words

Assessed by end of autumn semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:
A1. Knowledge and understanding of significant contemporary debates about the issues and challenges of media communication in a global context and how they emerge
 

A2. Specialised knowledge and understanding of the global dynamics of and challenges facing at least one area of contemporary communications practices
 

B2. Advanced interpretation and analysis of empirical materials
 

Intellectual skills:
B1. Ability to develop and sustain a coherent argument
 

A4. Ability to analyse and explain the ethical and political underpinnings of the knowledge practices operative in international media communications
 

A3. Ability independently and critically to explore complex empirical case study material
 

B3. Ability to work with and appreciate the limitations of conceptual abstractions
 

Professional/practical skills:
C1. Scholarly referencing and bibliographical skills
 

B5. Critical analysis of theoretical debates and the role of controversies therein
 

B4. Understanding and appraisal of relationships amongst empirical phenomena
 

C2. Selection, sifting and synthesis of knowledge from various sources

C3. Accurate and adroit presentation of knowledge
 

Transferable skills:
D1. Ability to express complex ideas clearly and coherently in writing and speech
 

D2. Word processing

D3. Collation and distillation of conceptual information

D4. Conceptual problem solving
 

D5. Independent, critical thinking

Conveners

• Professor George Ogola