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2010/1 Module Catalogue
 Module Code: SOC2011 Module Title: MEDIA, POWER AND CULTURE
Module Provider: Sociology Short Name: SCNM201
Level: HE2 Module Co-ordinator: HODKINSON PE Dr (Sociology)
Number of credits: 20 Number of ECTS credits: 10
 
Module Availability

Year
Assessment Pattern

Seminar and ULearn participation mark (10%)

 

 

Short assignment (10%)

 

 

2000-2500 word assignment (30%)

 

 

One examination (50%)

 

 
Module Overview

The aim of this module is to develop a sociological understanding of the workings and impacts of different forms of communication within society. Specifically, the module will focus upon issues of power, politics and control and upon the ways in which different media forms affect identities and cultures.

 
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
Module Aims

The aim of this module is to develop a sociological understanding of the workings and impacts of different forms of communication within society. Specifically, the module will focus upon issues of power, politics and control and upon the ways in which different media forms affect identities and cultures.

 

 
Learning Outcomes

At the end of the module, the student will:

 

 

·        Be familiar with both ‘new’ and ‘traditional’ modes of communication and the theories that have been used to understand their relationship with society.

 

 

·        Recognise and distinguish between different theoretical and policy approaches to issues of media and power.

 

 

·        Understand the relationships between forms of communication and the development of cultural identities.

 

 
Module Content

·        Public service broadcasting and notions of the public sphere

 

 

·           Questions of media regulation and censorship

 

 

·        Commercial power, control and competition

 

 

·          Media and the facilitation/construction of different forms of cultural identity  -  ethnicity, gender, national identity, youth cultural identities and so on.

 

 

·          Implications of digital and online technologies – for questions of power and of culture and identity

 

 
Methods of Teaching/Learning
Lectures and classes
Selected Texts/Journals

Billig, M. (1995), Banal Nationalism, London : Sage.

 

Curran, J. & Seaton, J. (2002), Power Without Responsibility, London : Routledge

 

Dahlgren, P. (1996), Television and the Public Sphere, London : Sage.

 

Dines, G. and Humez, J. (eds.) (1995), Gender, Race and Class in Media, London : Sage. (chapters 27-34)

 

Gillespie, M. (1995), Television, Ethnicity and Cultural Change, London : Routledge.

 

Mackay, H. & O’Sullivan, T. (eds) (1999), The Media Reader, London : Sage.

 

McQuail, D. (ed) (2002) McQuail's Reader in Mass Communication Theory, London : Sage.

 

Osgerby, B. (2004), Youth Media, London : Routledge.

 

Tracey, M.  (1998), The  Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Stevenson, N. (2002), Understanding Media Cultures – 2nd Edition, London : Sage.

 

Turkle, S. (1995), Life on the Screen, London: Phoenix .

 

Turner, G. (2004), Understanding Celebrity, London : Sage.

 

Webster (ed.), Culture and Politics in the Information Age, London : Routledge.

 

 
Last Updated

September 2010