6 ECTS credits
165 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1009367BNR for all students in the 1st semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester
1st semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
Students who want to enroll for this course, must have passed for ’Introduction to Communication Studies' and must have obtained at least 90 ECTS-credits on bachelor level (Social Sciences). Students in a master programme can follow this course.
Taught in
English
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Communication Sciences
Educational team
Benjamin De Cleen (course titular)
Nico Carpentier
Activities and contact hours

1 contact hours Lecture
30 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
134 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course aims to help students to acquire insight into the political dimension of popular media/culture, building on a reflections embedded within the field of social, cultural and political theory. Especially the culturalist and discursive approaches to media studies are used. The course covers the relation between popular media/culture and the field of politics as well as the broader political-ideological dimension of popular media/culture, focusing on categories such as class, ethnicity, gender, nation and war. The course looks at the different dimensions of the relation between politics and popular culture: popular fictional depictions of politics, popular culture as a political stage (how political actors appear on and use the stage of popular culture), and at popular culture as a political practice in itself (celebrity politics, the use of popular culture to political or ideological ends). Through a detailed analysis of a number of films, the political-ideological layers of these film is shown and their political potential and limitations are analysed.

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Politics and Popular Media, Reader, slides, student notes
Additional info

Will be communicated regularly via the e-learning platform Canvas.

Teaching Methods

  • Lecture: collective contact-dependent moments during which the lecturer engages with learning materials
  • Seminar, Exercises or Practicals (Practical): collective or individual contact-dependent moments during which the students are guided to actively engage with learning materials
  • Independent or External Form of Study (Self): independent study

This description of the teaching methods is indicative, in order to assess the expected study load.

Lecture: 1 hour

  • Introduction lecture

Seminar, Exercise or Practicals (Practical): 30 hours

  • Seminars with group discussion of academic articles 18 hours  (6 x 3 hours)
  • Film screenings and student presentations of film analysis based on academic literature 12 hours (4 x 3 hours)

Self: 134 hours

  • Preparatory reading for seminars 50 hours (10 x 5 hours)
  • Analysis of film using academic literature in group: 20 hours
  • Writing academic film review article in group: 16 hours
  • Preparing film analysis presentation in group: 8 hours
  • Preparation exam: 40 hours 
Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

At the end of this course, students will have:

  • enhanced theoretical and factual insights, the analytical capacity, and the ability to critically reflect on the political-societal meaning of popular media content;
  • enhanced ability to read and analyse academic texts
  • gained insights in diverse theoretical approaches of the media-politics relation and of the political-ideological meaning of popular media;
  • gained insights in the political-societal and cultural context in which these media forms develop; and by doing this
  • strengthened critical contextualizing attitude towards questions on popular media, politics and ideology;
  • enhanced capacity to analyse popular cultural products from a political-ideological perspective;
  • further developed aptitude to critical reflection;
  • strengthened capacity to communicate your analysis through written and oral presentation

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 75% of the final mark.
Practical Exam determines 25% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Oral Exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 75% of the final mark.

Within the Practical Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Film Analysis in group with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 25% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

First session

  1. Open book oral exam: two questions based on reader and seminars (75%)
  2. Film analysis in group: written film review + oral presentation (25%)

Active and prepared participation in seminars is taken into account when determining the score for film analysis part. Individual score can differ between members of the same group depending on input in film analysis and active participation in seminars.   

Second session

  1. Open book oral exam: two questions based on reader and seminars (75%)
  2. Students who did not participate in the group film analysis in the first session, will be given an individual film analysis assignment in the second session. Students who failed in the first session and scored under 50% for the FILM ANALYSIS part, will also need to make this alternative assignment in the second session.

If you need to participate in the second session, but scored minimum 10/20 for one of the two parts of the evaluation, the partial result of the part of the evaluation you scored minimum 10/20 for (the film analysis assignment or the oral exam) is transferred to the second session. If you wish to retake that part you scored minimum 10/20 for in the second session, you need to send an e-mail to bdecleen@vub.be within five days after the publication of the exam results. In case you retake that part in the second session, your first session result is cancelled and the second session result becomes the official result (even if it is lower than the first session result).

If you need to retake the course in the next year, the same rules apply. Partial results from 10/20 (for assignment or oral exam) are transferred to the next academic year. If you want to retake that part, you need to request this before the end of October by mail to bdecleen@vub.be.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Communication Studies: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor communicatiewetenschappen (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Adult Education: Profile Social Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Criminology: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Educational Sciences: Standaard traject