Students will
This area of concentration teaches students that we cannot understand organisations, societies, and cultures without looking at how they come into being through complex processes of communication, information exchanges, and meaning construction. Our worlds are dominated by screens, media images and media practices; our lives are defined by media interactions. But how far do we understand the role of media and communication processes in our society, organisations, and everyday life? The Media area of concentration introduces students to key theories and approaches in the study of media, at the intersection of communication studies, cultural theory, and the social sciences. This area of concentration provides students with a critical perspective into the power of communication, and the affordances and challenges of different media technologies and processes.
The area includes both introductory and theoretical courses and more specialised and practical ones. The introductory courses will explore the relationship between media, communication, and society. They address key topics such as the rise of the ‘public sphere’ in the early days of industrial capitalism or the role different media played (e.g. satellite broadcasting, internet networks and social media) in the making of the global economy and society. More specialised courses will focus on different topics such as social media communication and viral contagion, organisational communication in changing media cultures, media persuasion and advertising, responsible communication or the power of film and visual cultures. Courses in this area of concentration will be critical and contextual in nature and consider communication and mediation as complex social and cultural processes rather than as a set of strategies that can be taught. Students will gain critical skills that will enable them to reflect on the power of communication, the relationship between representation and ideology, social psychology, and promotional cultures, and the impacts of fake news, echo chambers and algorithmically mediated forms of communication on organisations and society.
Bachelor: Students focus on introductory media theory and media history, and in-depth courses on specific formats and genres (storytelling, advertisements, film, social media, selfies and so on).
Master: The focus is on complex interdisciplinary issues related to the media and themes such as media economics, transculturality and globalisation of the media, representations of gender, the formation of the public sphere, algorithmic cultures as media and their impacts.
Key Topics:
Director
Professor of Chinese Culture and Society