ZURn4101 Culture and Media

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2020
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Charles Michael Elavsky, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. et Mgr. Vojtěch Dvořák (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Charles Michael Elavsky, Ph.D.
Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Bc. Pavlína Brabcová
Supplier department: Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Thu 14:00–15:40 AVC
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course will introduce students to a variety of approaches for studying the media and the way they operate culturally. Engaging the readings and assignments and participating in the discussions is critical for students to leave this course with a greater understanding of how and why the media operate as they do, as well as how they are both shaped by and contribute to the social and cultural formation in which you live. Part of this process will involve enhancing the students interpretive abilities and critical thinking skills so as to consider alternatives to ‘common’ sense in an effort to think through the larger ethics and implications of media practices and beliefs and students’ individual relationships to them. It is important for students to ask themselves about their ‘location’ in this social and cultural configuration (their cultural ‘box’ so to speak), how they fit within it, and in turn, how it affects them and they affect it. Integral to understanding society and culture is gaining a better understanding of ourselves and the intersections of identity, experience, and representation that connect us beyond our personal ‘borders’ of definition.

The purpose of this course is to provide a space in which students analyze and discuss the role of the mass media in and between societies through the lens of cultural theory. The goal is to develop critical thinking (meaning to question that which is most obvious), so as to discern how ideas and experiences are produced and disseminated through the mass media within and across cultures, and how specific cultural, social, political, and economic forces influence and inform these processes.
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to:
- critique how and why media take the particular forms that they do
- critique culture as process, content and symbolic system
- analyse media content and how it is related to media forms
- explore how audiences relate to and interact with media and representations
- critique the media industry and practices behind the media macro- and micro-socially
- understand the mass media as an institution, operating in relation to other societal institutions such as the family, religion, science, etc.
- critique media content and its framing mechanisms/representations through an advanced cultural theoretical lens
Syllabus
  • 1. Culture as Communication/Communication as Culture
  • 2. Media Literacy: Parameters and Strategies
  • 3. The Culture and Civilization Tradition
  • 4. Marxism/Marxist Critiques of the Media and Culture
  • 5. The Public Sphere and the Culture of Journalism: Values, Ethics, and Democracy
  • 6. Structuralist Critiques of the Media and Culture
  • 7. Poststructuralist Critiques of the Media and Culture
  • 8. Postmodern Critiques of the Media and Culture
  • 9. Orientalism and Identity Politics
  • 10. Cultural Capital and the politics of social media
  • 11. Feminism
  • 12. Hegemony
  • 13. Semiotics
Literature
  • A rotating selection of contemporary academic manuscripts topically appropriate
  • A rotating selection of contemporary documentaries topically appropriate
  • POTTER, W. James. Media literacy. Eight edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2016, xxiii, 546. ISBN 9781483379326. info
  • STOREY, John. Cultural theory and popular culture : an introduction. Seventh edition. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015, xiv, 289. ISBN 9781138811034. info
  • STOREY, John. Cultural theory and popular culture : a reader. Fourth edition. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009, xxi, 671. ISBN 9781405874212. info
Teaching methods
Lecture,
Directed group discussion
Collaborative group projects/presentations
Assessment methods
Quizzes
Exams
Group projects
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2020, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/autumn2020/ZURn4101