Media and Culture

Overview and timeline - Communication, Culture and Media Analysis (15 credits)

This course introduces understandings of communication and communication strategies in the area of Communication for Development to students, and provides an opportunity for the in-depth analysis of the discourse and practice of 'ComDev '. It is divided into two modules; ‘Communication and Development Cooperation’ (7.5 credits) and ‘Culture and Media Analysis’ (7.5 credits). The modules are connected in the sense that the first module focuses on the organizational and strategic level (focus on a range of communication for development organizational setups and discourses and how they are linked) while the second entails an in-depth analysis of selected media texts and/or practices. The aim of the first module is to investigate how communication strategies as applied by organizations operating in different scales relate to the wider landscape of development cooperation. The students will be examining communication strategies in organisations, networks or/and partnerships working with development/social change. The second module focuses on analytical approaches to media/texts as practices and examples of communication for development/social change. The module combines questions of identity and representation into an in-depth analysis of selected media texts in their cultural and historical environment and in a context of social change and development processes First half of the semester:

Communication and Development Cooperation (7.5 credits)
Staff

teachers •Oscar Hemer (OH, responsible for the module, online guidance and examination) •Anders Høg Hansen (AHH, online guidance, examination) •Florencia Enghel (FE, examination) •Bojana Romic (BR, online guidance, examination) •Hugo Boothby (HB, online guidance, group work coordination, examination) •Mikael Rundberg (MR, web assistance)

Time line •21 January, 12 AM GMT Online Course Introduction (Live Lecture) •8 - 9 February:

References: Adequate acknowledgement of sources should be applied in both assignments. Choose one scientif ic reference system, and use it consistently – either referring to your sources in footnotes or in brackets in the text, and a complete list of references at the end of the text. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden! Everything in the text that is not referenced, is interpreted as your own thoughts and conclusions. To copy or to just briefly re-formulate someone’s text is regarded as plagiarism. All quotes have to be quote marked and clearly referenced. Assessment and grading In our assessment of your exam (both parts), five main criteria will be used: 1. The content – referring partly to how you handle the theories and theoretical discussions from the relevant course literature and how relevant the discussions are, and partly to the organization you choose to analyse, how well you describe that and how well you connect it to the required questions. 2. Application of concepts – is about how relevant theoretical concepts you are using in your discussion, and how you make use of them. Did you select the most relevant concepts for your discussion? Did you define the concepts well? Do you show an understanding of the concepts? Do you put different concepts in relation to each other? 3. Clarity – this refers to your writing capability in terms of clear argumentation and definition of the concepts you are using. In addition to this, the text of course should be proof read and polished. 4. Analytical skills – has to do with your ability to get under the surface of both your selected organizations and their work, and the theoretical discussions, to see trends and tendencies, signs and structures that you can relate to realities outside the object of analysis, outside the books, as well as to the theoretical discussions and debates. 5. Independence – considers how well you manage to create a discussion of your own, in your own words, without just repeating what has been said in class or what is written in the literature. Are you synthesizing discussions and concepts from different sources?