Code 18508
Level of study Second Year
Credit value 20
Semester 1 and 2
Pre-requisite modules 18505 Media, Culture and Communication
This module assesses how the media work in different major European countries and the impact of different media systems on mass mediated content. The course is divided into the following ‘blocks’: 1. MEDIA SYSTEMS, introducing concepts of national and global identities and cultures and discussing the characteristics of different media systems in Europe. This section focuses on questions such as ‘who owns/controls the media in Europe’, how are the media organised and what are the consequences of concentration on some Western European nations (i.e. their cultures, as well as the quality of democratic debate)? 2. NEWS, CONTROL, OBJECTIVITY, which considers how a specific ‘genre’ (the news) is created, as well as discussing issues of censorship and control 3. MEDIA MATTERS, which focuses on the extent to which identities are shaped by national media, i.e. the power of the media to influence their consumers.
This module will consider a range of theories and concepts drawn from media and Cultural Studies as applied to 'European Media and Culture', understood as the media and cultural industries of a range of selected European Countries and, where appropriate, of the EU as a whole. Issues covered will be drawn from: structure, economics, ownership and control, policy, and regulation; audiences, their construction, and their relationships with the meaning of 'texts' (in the widest sense); representations; nationalisms; identities (national, ethnic, regional, European, gender, sexual etc.); news; politics; advertising; 'entertainment'; new technologies; globalisation/glocalisation. Theories and concepts used will be drawn from among Marxist, feminist, structuralist, post-marxist, post-structuralist, and post-modernist approaches to the analysis of media and culture.