Current Media Challenges

Doel vak

Upon completion of this course, the student is able to:

• Identify, describe, and discuss current media challenges, their impact and implications at different levels (individual, social, organizational, cultural).
  
• Critically analyze and assess relevant communication-scientific theories relevant to understand these current media challenges.
  
• Compare, differentiate, and use relevant theoretical perspectives and argumentation in evaluating results of empirical studies related to relevant current media challenges.
• Apply communication-scientific theories to understand and advise how to tackle current media challenges.

Inhoud vak

Media are omnipresent in our society. While many digital media offer exciting new possibilities for interpersonal contact, customer service and democratization, they also have a dark side and can bring about negative effects (such as privacy violations, or fake news influencing elections).

A crucial question for any communication scientist is thus how to deal with these current challenges posed by media. Did recent developments in the media landscape fundamentally change society and do we need new theories to explain how media are used? Or can still we explain their use and effects through classic theories?

In this course, we will take a theory- and evidence-based approach to address these issues. That is, we will focus on a number of current media challenges such as trust vs. truth, power over information, well-being of media users, and information overload and bubbles. We will zoom in on each of these challenges by looking at
communication-scientific theory and recently published empirical studies. This approach will teach you how to approach and address such challenges from an academic perspective.

We will specifically focus on the challenges through the lens of the three spheres of communication: (1) the micro sphere which focuses on the individual, (2) the meso sphere which deals with organizations and their stakeholders, and (3) the macro sphere which concerns society at large. These three lenses help students to understand how different sub-fields of communication science (e.g. media psychology; organizational and marketing communication; public communication) deal with new media challenges.

This course can be useful to prepare for the bachelor thesis, and to get an overview of how current media challenges are approached from the perspectives of the different specialization tracks in the master’s program in communication science.

Aanvullende informatie onderwijsvormen

Toetsvorm

Written exam + Assignments

Literatuur

The mandatory literature will include published journal articles and relevant book chapters. Students will have to retrieve these themselves from the online databases of the VU library. The reading list will be announced in Canvas.

Aanvullende informatie doelgroep

Third-year bachelor students in communication science and premaster students in communication science. International exchange students are also very welcome to attend, and should note that this course is at the level of Bachelor 3.

Overige informatie

This course serves as a stepping stone for the bachelor thesis course in periods 5-6.
The course will be entirely in English, including all lectures, correspondence, assessments, and assignments.