No specific prerequisites required.

1. You refresh your knowledge of the most important contemporary and international strands of communication research and media studies. For each school of thought you are introduced to the main theoretical assumptions and concepts, methodology and empirical analyses.

2. You acquire insight in these schools of thought: you are able to critically compare their concepts, methods and forms of analysis. by distinguishing their underlying visions regarding the politico-societal role of media and communication practices in democratic societies. You learn to position theories in their cultural-historical context and you understand how different authors conduct their analyses starting from divergent theoretical perspectives. You are able to understand canonical texts in communication research and media studies, and you know how to situate them within the developing field as handled throughout this course module.

3. You are able to apply the different theories, concepts and methods on a self-selected social problem/topic/genre/format/etc.

4. You are able to take a position based on arguments from academic texts, to formulate and present it, and engage in a debate about it. 

With as a central question the social role of media and communication practices in democratic societies, this course module handles a wide variety of theory and research within contemporary schools of communication research and media studies. We start with a broad perspective on media: the primary focus is on media and communication texts, but we also tackle other aspects like production, distribution, context, reception and the different theories and research methods that can be used to analyze these aspects. In this way, we try to fit in with recent trends in communication research and media studies.

By differentiating between the pluralist consensus and critical conflict models, this course module enables students to situate contemporary theories within the broader field of communication research and media studies, and to understand how theory influences concrete analyses. We discuss theoretical assumptions, methodology and concrete case analyses. Students obtain the competences to apply these concepts and methods. The approaches we handle are political economy, cultural media studies, reception studies, critical theory, effect studies, etc. The themes we focus on are pluralism, national identity, public sphere, inequality, social change, advertising, ideology, democratic debate and citizenship, alternative media, science and technology, political satire, fandom and virtual fan communities, culinary television, etc., with a specific focus on cases such as the construction of social problems such as union strikes, climate change or GM food, and the role of charity shows, Indymedia, The Daily Show and The Wire. 

The course module combines formal lectures with discussion seminars. Ex cathedra instruction is alternated with active student participation. You prepare each course by reading an article or book chapter in advance. Each time you can find guiding questions on Blackboard.  Each course follows a similar structure. First, we situate the school of thought and we clarify the main concepts and methods. Second, we discuss the text you all have read in advance by confronting it with the content handled in the first part of each course. Finally, we debate the central theme of the course.

At the end of this course module, you write a short paper in which you analyze a specific topic or theme from the perspective of one of the research strands dealt with.

·   A selection of communication research articles drawn from recent scientific journals and readers (Universitas)

·   Powerpoint presentations (Blackboard)

After class, by appointment, or via email