College of Social Sciences

School of Social and Political Sciences

MSc Media, Culture and Society

Transformations in Media, Culture and Society 1: Theoretical, Conceptual and Empirical Approaches

SPS5068

2024-25

Semester 1

Course Overview

This course will introduce you to key conceptual, theoretical and empirical work from the sociology of culture, media and cultural studies providing the foundation for a critical interrogation of contemporary trends in media and culture. By learning with ‘classic’ and ‘contemporary’ theorists students you be able to draw on, understand and critically interrogate a range of differing approaches to understanding media and culture. There will be a specific focus on how utilising these approaches can:

1.   Enable us to untangle and understand the role of media and culture in constituting, mediating and circulating values which legitimate and reproduce a range of intersecting structural inequalities relating to class, gender, race, sexuality and other forms of identity.

2.   Allow a critical insight into understanding the changing infrastructures and structures of media and culture, and how these enable and constrain social practice in relation to inequalities, politics, economy and culture.

Taken together, the course will provide student with the theoretical and critical knowledge to be able to understand the dynamic relations between economy and culture, the role of  the media within this dynamic and how a range of approaches can enable insights into transformations in media and culture more broadly.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1.   Demonstrate the ability to articulate, compare, and contrast various theoretical, conceptual, and empirical approaches within media and cultural studies, drawing from a diverse range of social and cultural theories.

2.   Critically analyse trends within media, culture, and society, applying relevant social and cultural theories

3.   Critically apply theoretical and empirical work from social and cultural theory to  investigate and evaluate how media and culture contribute to the formation and mediation of intersecting social inequalities.

Course Structure

The lectures will be pre-recorded and be available to watch at the beginning of each teaching week on a Monday. These will last roughly for 40 minutes to an hour.

Seminars will be weekly and your attendance at these is expected. These will be two-hour sessions led by two members of staff. These will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays and you will be able to sign up to one slot on Moodle.

See below for aweek-by-week breakdown of the course.

Assessment

For this course, there will be one 4000-word essay (excluding references, inclusive of in-text citations) which will count for 100% of the mark. You will also have 10% leeway either side of the 4000 words.

However, you will have the chance for formative feedback from the teaching team as you will have the chance to submit an essay plan. The deadline for this will be communicated in week 1 of the course via Moodle.

The submission date for the 4000-word essay is Wednesday 05 December 2024 at 14.00. See below for the essay questions:

1.   Critically assess the claim that ‘culture is ordinary’ (Williams, 1958[1989]). Use conceptual and empirical examples to make your arguments.

2.   ‘The digitalis the world of ‘me-dia’: a world which revolves around ourselves, around our technological organisation and management, and around our lives, our relationships, and our opinions and meanings’ (Merrin 2014: 77-92).

Discuss in relation to claims that this (digital or ‘post-broadcast’) era is a complete transformation compared with the media, experiences and perceptions of the ‘broadcastera’ .

3.   Assess the evidence for and against the existence of ‘filter bubbles’ .

4.   How useful is conjunctural analysis for making sense of the relationship between culture, politics and economy? Use relevant examples to make your argument.

5.   Are ideology and hegemony useful concepts for analysing media and cultural forms? Refer to historical and contemporary examples when answering the question.

6.   Using examples from contemporary media cultures critically explore representations of class, gender, race, sexuality or nationality and how these can reinforce or challenge dominant discourses around these elements of culture and society.

7.   Assess possible advantages and disadvantages of taking an intersectional approach when analysing contemporary media and cultural forms.

8.   Use a relevant notion of feminism to analyse a social phenomenon that takes place in the new media environment and embodies the current gender culture and gender power relations.

9.   Are the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI’s) reformable? Draw on research from a sector of the CCI’s to make your argument.

10. Arepublic and academic concerns over the impact of misinformation on people’s beliefs and activities justified or the product of a ‘technology panic’?