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2010/1 Module Catalogue
 Module Code: SOC2023 Module Title: MEDIA, WAR AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Module Provider: Sociology Short Name: SOC2023
Level: HE2 Module Co-ordinator: ORTEGA BRETON H Mr (Sociology)
Number of credits: 20 Number of ECTS credits: 10
 
Module Availability
Year
Assessment Pattern

2000 word portfolio (25%), 2000 word essay (25%), Exam (50%)

 

 
Module Overview

This module will critically investigate the mediatisation of war and the issue of human rights and humanitarianism. This will include a historical appraisal of western military intervention and its renewal in the post cold war, post colonial period. We will explore the fundamental ideas underlying human rights legislation and how these have historically developed; how military intervention has been both justified and contested in these terms; how human rights have been institutionalised on an international, regional and national level and the impact of the Human Rights Act on issues of media freedom.  We will explore debates on ethics in war reporting as well as the audience reception of images of suffering.  We will consider media representations of key social actors and how their representation reproduces debates on military intervention by western nations. We will explore different ways in which the issue of human rights is raised in western public discourse such as the issues of female circumcision, genocidal rape, sex-trafficking and child soldiers.

 
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
Module Aims

After this module students should have:

 

  • A broad understanding of the history and politics of human rights and its institutionalisation

     

  • A critical understanding of the relation between politics, war and human rights

     

  • A critical understanding of the ethical dilemmas raised by war and human rights violations

     

  • The ability to place human rights within the wider political context of claims making with respect to human vulnerability and victimhood

     

 
Learning Outcomes

 

After this module students should have:

 

  • A broad understanding of the history and politics of human rights and its institutionalisation

     

  • A critical understanding of the relation between politics, war and human rights

     

  • A critical understanding of the ethical dilemmas raised by war and human rights violations

     

  • The ability to place human rights within the wider political context of claims making with respect to human vulnerability and victimhood

     

 
Module Content
Methods of Teaching/Learning
Lectures and seminars
Selected Texts/Journals

Indicative Reading

 

Allen, T and Seaton, J (1999) The Media of Conflict: War Reporting And Representations of Ethnic Violence, London : Zed books

 

Bellamy, A J (2006) Just War: From Cicero to , Cambridge : Polity

 

Carruthers, S L (2000) The Media at War, Basingstoke : Palgrave

 

Cohen, Stanley (2001) States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering, Cambridge : Polity

 

Freeman, M (2002) Human Rights: Key Concepts, Cambridge : Polity

 

Goldstein, J S (2001) War and Gender, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

 

Salam Pax (2003) The Baghdad Blog, Guardian Books – 3 copies

 

Skelsbaek, I (2001) Gender, Peace and Conflict, London : Sage

 

Thompson, Allan (ed) Media and the Rwanda Genocide, London : Pluto Books

 

Thussu, D K (ed) (2003) War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7, London : Sage

 

Wessels, M (2007) Child Soldiers: from Violence to Protection, Harvard University Press

 

Fenwick, H and Philipson G (2006) Media Freedom under the Human Rights Act, Oxford: Oxford University Press

 

 
Last Updated
September 2010