Dr Linje Manyozo, STC. S119D

MSc Media, Communication and Development, MSc Media and Communications (Media and Communication Governance), MSc Media and Communications, MSc Media and Communications (Research), MSc Politics and Communication and MSc Global Media and Communications (with Fudan/USC). Also available as an outside option where regulations permit and with the permission of the course convenor.

This course challenges students to raise questions about the power and role of the media in shaping global discourses on, and about, international media, development and the global south. Building on empirical examples, the lectures aim to demonstrate that reporting issues of poverty, underdevelopment and development by international media organizations has implications, not only for the way the global south is imagined and represented, but also for the arena of international and national policy and politics. From different theoretical perspectives, the course critically investigates key questions concerning the role of media in development, including the failure of the dominant modernization paradigm to 'pass away'. The course offers insight into how to approach the study of media constructions, depictions and representations of, and about, the global south. The objectives are to:

(a) Introduce debates about how media power shapes international development discourses and political realities for citizens in the global south.
(b) Link dominant development theories to the paradigms of development reporting.
(c) Provide a postcolonial critique of the study of representations of poverty, development, participation and the global south.
(d) Critically assess aspects of the political economy of international media production within the contexts in which NGOs research, package and produce news on international development, especially in and about the global south
(e) Investigate whether and in what ways new technologies, and small and participatory media formats enable alternative voices from the global south to be heard.

The course is organized in three sections: 1) historical and theoretical overview of international media, development and the global south locating the debate(s) around development and communication within postcolonial and other critical frameworks; and with respect to UNESCO's International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (ICSCP); 2) Critical perspectives, drawn selectively from studies of development theory, political economy and cultural studies and pertaining to representation, regulatory frameworks, good governance and democracy and 3) practices in reporting poverty, inequality and humanitarian issues. Cross-cutting themes will include a consideration of gender, NGO communications, social media and ICTs in the context of international media and change in the global south.

Lecture (one hour) x 10 LT; seminar (one hour) x 10 LT.

All students are expected to complete advance reading, prepare seminar presentations, and submit one essay of 1,500 words.

Eisenstein, Z. (2004) Against Empire. London, New York: Zed Press; Hall, S (ed.) (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications; Haynes, J. (2001) Democracy and Political Change in the 'Third World', London: Routledge; Hemer, O. and Tufte, T. (eds) (2005) Media and Global Change: Rethinking Communication for Development, Clacso and NORDICOM;  Independent Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (ICSCP) (1980/2004) Many Voices, One World: Communication and Society, Today and Tomorrow; Towards a New More Just and More Efficient World Information and Communication Order. (MacBride Report) London, New York and Paris: Kogan Page and UNESCO. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Lerner, D., and Schramm, W. (1967) Communication and Change in the Developing Countries. Honolulu: East-West Center Press; Mansell, R. and Wehn, U. (eds) (1998) Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Melkote, S. R. and Steeves, H. L. (2001) Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and Practice for Empowerment, 2nd Edition. London: Sage; Mody, B. (ed) (2003) International and Development Communication: A 21st Century Perspective. 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Rodriguez, C. (2001) Fissures in the Mediascape: An International Study of Citizens' Media. Cresskill NJ: Hampton Press; Said, E. (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage;  Schramm, W. (1964). Mass Media in National Development. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; Servaes, J (ed.) (2008) Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage; Singhal, A. and Rogers, E. (1999) Entertainment-Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change. Malden, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

A written assignment of not more than 3,000 words.