General provisions

The course is part of the Master's Programme in Social Science, Digital Media and Society. The course is normally taken as the fourth semester of the programme.

Entry requirements

Admitted to the Master's Programme in Social Sciences, specialising in Digital Media and Society, with 37.5 credits at Master's level, of which 22.5 credits are in Media and Communication Studies, 7.5 credits cover qualitative methods and 7.5 credits cover quantitative methods/statistics.

Learning outcomes

The purpose of the course is to help students deepen their theoretical and broader academic knowledge within a specific area in Media and Communication Studies, as well as develop the skills and abilities required to independently plan, conduct, write and defend an extended academic research project, at the postgraduate level.

Upon completion of the course, students are expected to:

Knowledge and understanding

• demonstrate a comprehensive insight into, and good knowledge of, contemporary research within the area of studies pertinent to the thesis
• illustrate significant theoretical knowledge within the area of studies pertinent to the thesis
• illustrate significant methodological knowledge within the area of studies pertinent to the thesis;

Competence and skills

• independently design a feasible and clearly articulated research proposal
• independently locate and use relevant information/data as the basis for the study
• comprehensively analyse the empirical material via the use of relevant theories
• plan, and with appropriate methodology, conduct and write an academic research project, in the form of an extended thesis, within given requirements and set time frame
• present and discuss (in both written and oral form) the results, as well as the arguments that make up the basis of the study;

Judgement and approach

• make ethically informed decisions in planning and implementation of research projects;
• evaluate their own contribution in the specific research area and acknowledge the limitations of their research project.

Content

Each student undertakes an extended research project and, with the guidance of a supervisor, independently conducts the research tasks and writes the Master thesis. Finally, the student orally defends the Master thesis during a thesis defence seminar. Detailed guidelines on the procedure and the Master thesis requirements, are provided by the course coordinator at the beginning of the course.

Instruction

The course starts with a series of seminars on academic and research proposal writing, in which students are guided in writing their Master thesis proposals, through feedback and peer-review sessions. Students then submit a Master thesis proposal and find a supervisor themselves, with the guidance of the course coordinator. After the thesis proposal is approved, each student works independently, with the guidance of her/his supervisor, on her/his research project. Supervision is only offered during the semester that the student is registered (the first time) in the course.

Assessment

The course is evaluated with Fail (U), Pass (G) or Pass with Distinction (VG). In order to pass the course, students need to: i. successfully write and submit a Master thesis proposal, ii. successfully write, submit and orally defend a Master thesis in a specially organised seminar, iii. act as discussants to the Master thesis of another student.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.