6 ECTS credits
169 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 1020517BNR for all students in the 1st semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.
When the city of Brussels appears in the news, it is primarily with stories related to crime and insecurity. This is also the case in films. Already the titles of films set in Brussels, such as Black, Waste Land or Hellhole, suggest as much. On the covers of the weekly HUMO, women more often than men are depicted naked or scantily dressed. And Cowboy Henk is a socially critical comics hero. Since 2000, Belgian press coverage on Belgium's colonial past in Congo has become increasingly critical. Films and TV series on this topic are scarce.
These kinds of conclusions are reached applying content analysis. In this course you will learn to perform a content analysis yourself. More specifically, you will work with media content or media texts and discover how to analyze them in a quantitative and qualitative way. By media texts we mean the wide range of symbolic content created by the media and culture industry: TV programs, newspaper coverage, magazines, advertising, documentary, film, comics, etc.
Each year the course is centred around one overarching theme and explores this through two analytical approaches. In previous academic years, for example, we worked on the representation of Brussels in the media; on how the weekly HUMO reflects society and social change,; and on the representation of Belgian colonial history in Belgian media.
In the quantitative content analysis part, we perform a step by step quantitative content analysis. Various aspects of this method are explained:
The qualitative analysis of media texts focuses on narrative analysis.
As a methodology course, this course is aimed at learning to apply and execute all steps that entail a quantitative and qualitative analysis of media texts. In the lectures and tutorials, supported with slides and reader texts, you will become acquainted with the research phases, the underlying thinking frameworks, the principles, working methods and research instruments of the two types of content analysis. But you only really learn and understand a method if you implement it yourself. That is why there is no exam for this course, but an assignment in which you apply all this knowledge in practice.
This course is taught by two professors. Professor Bauwens is responsible for the introductory lectures and the quantitative content analysis, while Professor Geerts takes care of the narrative analysis.
For the assignments, students are assisted by one or more assistants.
After completing this course, students can:
This course contributes to the following general learning objectives of the bachelor communication sciences and the students:
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Practical Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Practical Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The assessment consists of a two-part exam assignment in which the students make an analysis of the way in which different media address one specific theme / case - determined annually by the education team. The students work together in duos. In the assignment, the two analysis methods, which are presented in the lectures and tutorials, must be correctly applied. The assignment therefore consists of 2 components: a quantitative content analysis and a narrative analysis. The same duos work together for both components.
The students are assessed as a duo on various aspects:
Students will find a concrete explanation of the exam assignment in the manual that is distributed via Canvas every academic year and which is discussed with the students in the first lecture.
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)
Bridging Programme Master of Science in Communication Studies: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in Communication Studies: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)