MC500     
Research Seminar for Media, Communications & Culture

This information is for the 2016/17 session.

Teacher responsible

Prof Syragoula Chouliaraki TW2.7.01D and Prof Sonia Livingstone TW2.7.01L

Availability

This course is compulsory on the MPhil/PhD in New Media Innovation and Literacy and MPhil/Phd in Media and Communications. This course is not available as an outside option.

For Research Students. The course is compulsory for students in the first and second years of the Doctoral Programmes in Media and Communications and in New Media, Innovation and Literacy. All Research Students in the Department are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Course content

The aim of the course is to raise awareness of theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues in the interdisciplinary field of media and communications research and to develop students skills with respect to theory building, research design and implementation. The course focuses, in particular, on the key conceptual issues and analytical strategies required in media and communication research, with special reference to the study of the changing environment of media production, dissemination and consumption, under conditions of globalization and digitization of information

Teaching

20 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of seminars in the LT.

Compulsory for first and second year students and open to others. There may be additional seminars or workshops in ST.

Indicative reading

Manuel Castells, Communication Power, OUP, 2009;

Lilie Chouliaraki (ed), Self-mediation: New media, citizenship and civil selves, Routledge, 2012;

Lilie Chouliaraki, The Spectatorship of Suffering, Sage, 2006;

Peter Dahlgren, Media and civic engagement: citizens, political communication, and democracy Cambridge 2008;

Klaus B. Jensen (ed), A Handbook of Media and Communication Research, Routledge, 2002;

Leah A Lievrow and Sonia Livingstone (eds.) The Handbook of New Media (updated edition), Sage, 2006;

Robin Mansell, Imagining the Internet, OUP, 2012;

Robin Mansell, Chrisanthi Avgerou, Danny Quah and Roger Silverstone (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Information and Communication Technologies, Oxford, 2007;

Roger Silverstone, Media and Morality: The Rise of the Mediapolis, Polity, 2006.

 

Other reading will be given as appropriate during the course.

Assessment

This course is based predominantly on student presentations on their work in progress. Students are expected to use MC500 seminars as a key resource towards their Upgrade document at the end of their 1st year of study and towards the submission of their formative assessment document at the end of their 2nd year of study.

Key facts

Department: Media & Communications

Total students 2015/16: 12

Average class size 2015/16: 12

Value: Non-assessed

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Personal development skills

  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Application of information skills
  • Communication
  • Specialist skills