MC423      Half Unit
Global Media Industries

This information is for the 2022/23 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Jungmo Youn

Availability

This course is available on the MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and Fudan), MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and UCT), MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and USC), MSc in Media and Communications, MSc in Media and Communications (Media and Communications Governance), MSc in Media and Communications (Research), MSc in Media, Communication and Development and MSc in Politics and Communication. This course is not available as an outside option.

In order to accommodate academic staff research leave and sabbaticals, and in order to maintain smaller seminar group sizes, this course is controlled access, meaning that there is a limit to the number of students who can be accepted.

Course content

This course helps you understand the operation of global media industries at the intersection of politics, business and culture. The course presents an overview of the changing mechanisms of media production, distribution and consumption in the age of digital networks and global interconnection. We will examine how media industries work, why they work as they do, and their broader social and cultural implications. We will take a comparative perspective to compare and contrast the arrangement of media and communication industries in different countries/regions. We will also highlight the changes that digital technologies have brought to different types of media industries, including news industry, entertainment industry, and marketing and advertising. Questions to be explored include “How modes of media production have changed in different contexts and periods?” “What are the key issues facing media industries?” “What role do advertising and market research play in the life and design of media products?” “How do technological and legislative developments influence the way that the products of media industries are produced, distributed and consumed?” In order to address these questions, we will utilize key concepts such as convergence, commodification, flexible accumulation, and creative labour. We draw upon theoretical insights offered by political economy, cultural studies, sociology and feminism to analyze cases of media industries across the globe. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the industrial dynamics of media production as well as their own engagement with cultural industries.

Course objectives:

This course aims to help you:

  • Understand different approaches to the study of media industries.
  • Examine the transformation of media industries in the context of globalization.
  • Critically analyse the relationship between institutional arrangements of media industries and the content being produced and disseminated.
  • Critically evaluate global regulatory attempts to establish a new communication order and the dynamics of alternative media.

Teaching

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Lent Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of term.

Formative coursework

All students are expected to complete advance reading, prepare seminar presentations, and submit one essay of 1500 words.

Indicative reading

  • Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Hesmondhalgh, D. (2012) The Cultural Industries (3nd Edition). London: Sage.
  • Maxwell, R. (2016) The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media. London: Routledge.
  • Miller, T. et al. (2005) Global Hollywood 2. London: British Film Institute.
  • Mosco, V. (2014) To the Cloud. Boulder: Paradigm.
  • Turow, J. (2011) The Daily You. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Assessment

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the ST.
 

Teachers' comment

This course examines the transformation of media industries in relation to the recent political economic, cultural and technological changes at the global scale. We will also explore how such transformation impact the content circulating across media platforms.

Students' comments

"It is a very stimulating course with good readings and diverse topics, very relevant to current issues."

Key facts

Department: Media and Communications

Total students 2021/22: 50

Average class size 2021/22: 16

Controlled access 2021/22: Yes

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course selection videos

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.

Personal development skills

  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Communication
  • Specialist skills