Entry requirements

15 credits in media and communication studies

Learning outcomes

After the course the student should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• describe and critically discuss the contemporary media landscape with a focus on the interaction between different media and their relations to cultural, organisational, political and economic processes of change,
• account for theories about contemporary media, with particular focus on digital and social media,
• briefly account for relevant legal and ethical frames of the contemporary media,
• describe current research on media practice and action in the areas participation, making and activism.

Competence and skills

• conduct critically reflective analyses of the role of media in relation to various current societal phenomena and social change,
• identify and formulate a problem as the basis for a media intervention as well as to plan and conduct such a project in a group,
• carry out a contextual and ethical analysis using relevant research sources,
• use various media in the media intervention project.

Judgement and approach

• critically reflect on the relationship between media theory and media practices and actions,
• critically reflect on ethical challenges in relation to media practices and action,
• reflect on the ethical and social implications of the implemented media project.

Content

The course contains three parts.

(I) Media theory and analysis of the contemporary media landscape: The first part deals with media theory and analysis of the contemporary media landscape, with particular focus on digital and social media. In the first part also the relationships between the media and cultural, organisational, political and economic change in society are discussed.

(II) Media Practice and action: The second part presents current research on how people use the media. Here the focus is on three areas of practice and action: participation, doing/making and activism. Ethical issues related to media practices and action are dealt with in this part.

(III) Project: The final part of the course consists of a social media project to deepen the understanding of the relationship between theory and practice in today's digital media world. The project is performed as a media intervention and has to contain a contextual and ethical analysis, and be related to current research within the frames of the project.

Instruction

Lectures, seminars and workshops are combined with individual and group work activities and assignments.

Assessment

The course is examined through active participation in compulsory activities, in individual and group-work assignments, and in written exam.

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 or a decision by the department's working group for study matters.