Dr Bart Cammaerts, STC. S213

This is a compulsory course for students taking MSc Media and Communications and MSc Media and Communications (Research). It is an optional course for students taking the following programmes: MSc Media and Communications (Media and Communication Governance) MSc Gender, Media and Culture, MSc Culture and Society, MSc Global Media and Communications (with Fudan or USC), MSc Media, Communication and Development, MSc Politics and Communication, MSc Management and MSc Political Sociology. It is also open to other appropriately qualified students with the agreement of the teacher responsible.

This course examines the processes of communication that underpin social, economic and institutional relations across diverse spheres of modern life. It takes an interdisciplinary and theoretical perspective, comparing the claims and contribution of selected key theories of communication in order to understand and critique the symbolic and material power of communications media.

With a substantive focus on the shifts from mass to networked media and from national to globalised communication processes, the course is divided into two parts. First, it offers a critical discussion of selected key approaches to theorising communication. Second, it examines a series of contemporary problematics, drawing on current research debates in the field of media and communications and beyond.

The course is team taught by active researchers in the field of media and communication and aims to enable students to develop their critical understanding of the communication processes central to the contemporary media and communications environment.

MC418.1 Lecture (one hour) x 10 LT and x 1 ST (revision)

MC418.2 Seminar (1.5 hours) x 10 LT and x 1 ST (revision)

MC418.4 Non-compulsory MCLab sessions, taught by Graduate Teaching Assistants, are provided for students registered on MSc programmes in the Department of Media and Communications

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

A reading list will be provided for each topic. General works relevant to the course include:

Braman, S. (ed.) (2003), Communication Researchers and Policy-Making, MIT Press; Castells, M. (2009) Communication Power, Oxford University Press; Gill, R. (2007) Gender and the Media, Polity Press; Hall, S. (ed.). (1999) Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices, Sage; Jenkins, H. and Thorburn, D. (eds) (2003) Democracy & New Media, MIT Press; Mansell, R., et al. (eds) (2007) The Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies, Oxford University Press; McLuhan, M. (2001[1964]); Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Routledge; Meyrowitz, J. (1985) No Sense of Place, Oxford University Press;  Routledge; Silverstone, R. (2007) Media and Morality, Polity Press; van Dijk, J.A.G.M. (2006) The Network Society: Social Aspects of New Media, Sage.

A formal two-hour examination in the ST: two questions from a choice of five.