Checking date: 05/07/2021


Course: 2022/2023

Mass Media Theory
(18362)
Bachelor in Cultural Studies (Plan: 435 - Estudio: 364)


Coordinating teacher: CARRERA ALVAREZ, MARIA PILAR

Department assigned to the subject: Communication and Media Studies Department

Type: Basic Core
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:

Branch of knowledge: Social Sciences and Law



Objectives
Students will Identify different mass media theories and their related conceptual frameworks. Be able to apply these concepts and theoretical frameworks to the critical analysis and interpretation of current phenomena.
Skills and learning outcomes
Description of contents: programme
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the main theories and basic concepts related to mass media, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. The perspective is not historical, but genealogical: it is assumed that the current media system can only be understood from an structural and dialectical perspective of mass media. Program: 1. Technologically mediated communication as object of science. 2. Media and mass culture 3. Propaganda and war 4. Persuasion and the media 5. Opinion leaders and the nature of influence 6. The functionalist approach 7. The Frankfurt School and the "cultural industry" 8. Structuralism, semiotics and mass communication 9. The medium as a message 10. Cultural studies and media 11. Mass media and social construction of reality 12. Internet and the digital environment 13. Towards a society without spectacle? 14. Post-truth, fake news and the reinvention of the mediated past.
Learning activities and methodology
Lectures Seminars Case studies Online resources (Open Course Ware, MOOCs etc.) Readings / Screenings Textual / Audiovisual analysis Teamwork Discussion Elaboration of reports Classroom presentations Forums
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination 60
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 40
Calendar of Continuous assessment
Basic Bibliography
  • Baudrillard, Jean. Fatal Strategies. The MIT Press. 1990
  • Bernays, E.. Propaganda. Desert. 2018
  • Carrera, P.. Basado en hechos reales. Mitologías mediáticas e imaginario digital. Cátedra. 2020
  • Carrera, Pilar. Nosotros y los medios. Prolegómenos para una teoría de la comunicación. Biblioteca Nueva. 2016
  • McLuhan, M.. The Medium is the Massage. Penguin. 2008
  • Wolf, Mauro. La investigación de la comunicación de masas. Paidos. 1987

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.