Module Information

This module is designed to offer students a clear and comprehensive introduction to the key issues pertaining to the academic study of media and communication. The module will examine the social impact of media use, with particular emphasis on inter-personal communication, together with a critical overview the evolution of media institutions and technologies.
Focus will be placed on the 'source' of media texts, with careful consideration of media institutions and policy issues relating to regulation. Case studies will offer clear illustration of how the media manifest themselves both generally and in the specific context of Wales. Finally, issues of the interrelations and negotiations between audiences and texts within the sphere of converging media will be questioned.

Lectures will include the following topics:

1. Introduction: Problematising Models of Communication
2. Media & Society: Key Theories
3. Media Institutions 1: Structures of Power
4. Media Institutions 2: The Wales Context
5. Case Study 1: Mobile Phone Technologies
6. Case Study 2: Internet & On-line Communication
7. Case Study 3: Advertising
8. Case Study 4: The Press in Wales
9. Media Policy Issues: Use, Control & Censorship
10. Audience, Text & Media Convergence

Seminars will be based on the materials introduced in the lectures and will follow the list of topics above. They will involve in-depth discussion of key issues in a small-group setting. This will offer students the opportunity to spend time thinking about and debating the questions, theories and ideas that underpin this module, and there will also be a session dedicated to essay-writing skills.