6 ECTS credits
151 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021567CER for all students in the 1st semester at a (C) Bachelor - specialised level.

Semester
1st semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
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
Dutch
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Communication Sciences
Educational team
Jo Renate Bauwens (course titular)
Activities and contact hours

9 contact hours Lecture
4 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
63 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course’s subject is cultural industries. It addresses the question how media and cultural production are shaped. Media and cultural products are defined as symbolic goods or nonmaterial goods directed at a public of consumers, for whom they generally serve an esthetic or expressive, rather than a clearly utilitarian function. We like to watch TV-series because their stories struck a chord. We love music because it helps us to express our identity. We are blown away by films because they resonate with what we expect from life. We buy photo-posters because we find them beautiful. Although publics, fans and audiences are important, the point of departure in this course is the production and producers of media and culture.

In a series of lectures and classroom discussions we study from different theoretical perspectives the following issues:

  • The characteristics of media and cultural production
  • How structures shape media and cultural production
  • How control and freedom relate to each other
  • In what working conditions media and cultural workers create products
  • What creativity means
  • How creative work is managed and organized
  • …

By using concrete examples and by means of classroom discussions theoretical ideas and concepts are brightened up.

 

 

 

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Slides die de hoor- en discussiecolleges ondersteunen
Handbook (Required) : The Cultural Industries, David Hesmondhalgh, 4de, Sage, 9781526424105, 2018
Additional info

This course uses two handbooks:

1/ David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries (4th edition), published in 2019 by Sage.

2/ Mark Deuze & Mirjam Prenger (eds.), Making Media: Production, Practices, and Professions, published in 2019 by Amsterdam University Press.

Learning Outcomes

General Competences

After having taken this course students are able to:

  • reflect in an academic way about the role, position and work of media professionals in contemporary social, cultural and economic contexts;
  • explain the guiding theoretical ideas, concepts and schools for the purpose of understanding and explaining the concrete production processes of media and the concrete organization of media work;
  • explain the differences between the different academic theories on media production and organization;
  • to collect on their own topical and relevant studies in media work which are in agreement with the perspectives presented in the course;
  • to apply the subject matter independently in a case-study of their own choice;
  • to test the theoretical knowledge in an original case-study;
  • to develop a relevant research question in the field of media production and organization studies;
  • to critically reflect and discuss on the strengths and weaknesses of the theory.

On a more generic level this course aims to contribute to a set of official learning outcomes of the bachelor of science in Media and Communication Studies: see course information in Dutch for more information.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

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

  • Oral Exam with a relative weight of 70 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

    Note: De studenten leggen een mondeling examen af over de leerstof. Er wordt gepeild naar kennis en inzicht.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The exam is oral.

Through active participation during the lessons the study material is partially processed.

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 Adult Education: Profile Cultural Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Adult Education: Abridged Profile Cultural Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Communication Studies: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Political Science and Sociology: - afstudeerrichting sociologie, minor samenleving en cultuur (only offered in Dutch)