COURSE SYLLABUS
University of Zululand
Faculty of Arts
Department of Communication Science
ACOM 152: Media Studies 1B
(Media, Culture and Society)
Instructor: Mr. Thabo Mokgosi
Office: A2-44 (Academic Block)
Phone: 035-902-6033
Office Hours: By appointment
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course examines cultural, political, and economic processes and structures that affect the ways in which meaning is produced, transmitted, received, and stored by individuals and by society. A basic assumption is that there is no meaning outside of mediation, that message and medium are necessarily interdependent. Ultimately, the course lays a foundation for understanding the role of media in the social construction of reality.
......
ASSESSMENT
......
Test No: 1= 15%
Test No: 2= 20%
Assignment=15%
Final exam: 50%
...... 2
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students should be able to trace the rise of the mass media in society from a sociological perspective, articulate the fundamental concepts of the political economy of the mass media and their effects on media content and audience reception, investigate the role that mass media and popular culture play in shaping the public’s awareness of social and political issues, investigate the history and current development of corporate ownership of mass media outlets, evaluate critically the role of political propaganda in democratic societies, assess critically the extent of sexism, racism, heterosexism, and stereotyping in the mass media and define culture, ideology, and hegemony as they pertain to the social control of the media and their effects on individual subjectivity and collective identity, articulate an understanding of the role of mass media in the rise of a global imaginary and its effects on culture, politics, and economics
......
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
Croteau, David and William Hoynes (2003). Media/society: industries, images, and audiences 3rd. Ed. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge.
ADDITIONAL READING
Nick Couldry, Media Rituals: A Critical Approach
......
GROUND RULES ON ATTENDANCE
......
ATTENDANCE is compulsory. Any student not attending a class should provide a medical certificate or a written justification (signed by a parent or guardian). Should a student fail to do so, he / she will be considered truant. If a student’s attendance for a given subject is lower than 80%, he / she will AUTOMATICALLY FAIL.
PUNCTUALITY is equally important. The lecturer is entitled to refuse entry into the lecturer theatre to any student coming late for lectures.
COURSE OUTLINE
......
This is an outline of the topics you will cover for this subject.
MEDIA AND THE SOCIAL WORLD / WEAK 1The importance on media
Media and Society
Mass Media in socialization
Mass Media in Social Relations
Sociology of Media
WEAK2
The Importance of Social relations
Structural Constrains and Human Agency
Structure and Agency in the media
THE MEDIA INDUSTRY AND THE SOCIAL WORLD / WEAK3
Changing Patterns of Ownership
The Effects of Concentration
Media Control and Political Power
WEAK4
Media Ownership and Content Diversity
Mass Media and Profit
The Impact of Advertising
Advertising and the News Media
NEWS MEDIA AND THE JOURNALISTIC FIELDS / WEAK5
The Limits of Economic and Political Constraints
The Organization of Media Work
News Routines
The concept of Objectivity
Decision Making for profit: Imitation, Hits and Stars
SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION / WEAK6
Race and media content: inclusion, role and control
Gender and Media Content
Class and the Media Content
MEDIA AND IDEOLOGY / WEAK7
News Media and the Limits of Debate
Elites and Insiders
Economic news as an Ideological construct
WEAK8
Movies, the Military, and Masculinity
Action Adventure Films
Vietnam, Films
Television, Popularity, and Ideology
Television and reality
Television and the changing family
WEAK9
Rap music as an ideological critique
Advertising and the consumer culture
Women magazine as an advertisement
Advertising and the globalisation of culture
Media Influence and the political world / WEAK10
Media and Political Elite
Media and Individual Citizens
Media and Social Movements
WEAK11
Politics and Entertainment media
Political Communication systems and Democratic Values
Global Media, Global Politics
Active audience and the construction of meaning / WEAK12
The Active Audience
Meaning: Agency and Structure
Decoding Media and Social Position
WEAK13
The Social Context of Media Use
Active Audiences and Interpretative Resistance
The Pleasure of the media
REVISION